http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=LEN20081203&articleId=11273
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Global Research, December 3, 2008

Dream on if you believe it, and something must be up if Karl Rove says it. In a November 28 Wall Street Journal op-ed, he called it "a first-rate economic team" while at the same time objecting to possible (not yet announced) stimulus package elements not entirely to be the kinds "conservatives" prefer like tax cuts for the rich. He nonetheless called Obama's team "reassuring" and hopes it will leave a "market-oriented imprint."

Not to worry, as that's what it's there for - the privileged elite and not the other 90% or more who at best will be very stingerly aided, and as economist Michael Hudson points out to let them repay their bank debts.

On November 24, Obama made his long-awaited announcement - his economic team to lead the nation out of its worst ever economic crisis, a task perhaps more than even Houdini could handle according to economist and author F. William Engdahl.

Nonetheless and with fanfare, the major media highlighted them with commentaries ranging from cautious to enthusiastic. The Wall Street Journal for example as follows:

"The advisors Mr. Obama named on Monday hail from the centrist part of the Democratic Party. During the Clinton years they played an important role in turning a budget deficit into a surplus. Now they argue the worsening economy requires steep deficit spending."

The New York Times stressed the ailing economy, prospective measures to help jump-start it, and efforts to "inject confidence into the trembling financial markets" that for the moment at least were reassured, or so it seemed.

Not for long according to Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg in a recent commentary. In January, he was the first Wall Street economist to predict recession, called it an "epic event," and said it will be long and painful as a result of at least three major shocks - credit, housing and oil.

He now sees the S & P 500 bottoming at around 660 or a 61.8% reversal from its high. Others see it even lower given a policy response "to get people to (spend more,) add to their debt burdens," and exacerbate the very problem that created the crisis. Rosenberg says it's "like giving an alcoholic another drink for his cure. We have a situation where Congress (and the Obama administration) want more credit created, even though it was excess (debt and) leverage that got us into this mess." In other words, the cure may be worse than the disease if the Obama team continues the same failed Bush administration policies, and it looks like they will.

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This says Volcker is a member of the Trilateral Commission which makes him just another agent of Wealthy Rule.
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http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/6838

By Judi McLeod Tuesday, December 9, 2008

imagePresident-elect Barack Obama is dreaming in technicolour in thinking former federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker can pull the U.S. economy out of recession.

Mainstream media comment was all but non-existent when Obama appointed big-name Volcker to his economic recovery team.

The last time Volcker was appointed to a high profile investigation into economic malaise, he blew it. Handpicked by then UN secretary general Kofi Annan to clean up UN corruption, Volcker, gave a free ride to the robber barons who had lined their pockets in what has been called the biggest scandal in world history.

Promising an “independent inquiry”, and one that would be “thorough”, Volcker walked into the portfolio with undisclosed conflicts of interests before his job even began.

Volcker’s membership in David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, identified by LizMichael.com as “a super-elite cabal of 300 international power brokers, who practically rule the world”, but does not publish its membership list on the Internet is well known.” (www.canadafreepress, Dec. 6, 2004). “Lesser known is that Volcker has held a seat on Power Corporation’s international advisory board. Wealthy Canadian businessman and Power Corporation founder, Paul Desmarais Sr. is a major shareholder and director in TotalFinaElf, the largest oil corporation in France, which has held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.”

For the record, France was identified as one of the chief partners-in-corruption in the scandal. The Times of London calculated that French and Russian companies cashed in on $11-billion worth of business from oil-for-food between 1996 and 2003.

On the payroll as an attorney with Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee was Miranda Duncan. Duncan, who worked for UNICEF, is David Rockefeller’s granddaughter. It was Rockefeller’s money that built the UN’s Manhattan headquarters.

Volcker arrives on Obama’s new Economic Recovery Advisory board, which draws members from academia and business as well as from government, when statistics show that business investment in durable goods has fallen sharply; the housing market continues to fail and when consumer spending has contracted at its fastest rate for seven years.

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