A Second Look at the Administration's Banner Week

Well what a week for the establishment! Gaddafi….dead! Iraqi war effort….over! Underwater mortgage holders…..saved! A real consensus building, nice couple of days for the Obama Administration; the war-hawks (which include everyone but independents these days) got another big kill, the peace keeping critics adamant about those promises to leave Iraq were silenced, and the “99%” got their bone tossed to them in changes to that sweet, divinely named HARP program. Thanks Prez, we really appreciate it! Please excuse me while I take some time to re evaluate the blockbuster week. I know Chris Matthews already told me how great all this is so I shouldn’t really worry about it, but while we’re on the subject….I take some issue with the Gaddafi situation-mostly the fact that we were involved in anyway, I could care less if he’s dead or alive, in power or in a sewer pipe (which supposedly he was). Who are we backing here, some organization that came up with a cute statement about representative government? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Gaddafi was a bad man and had it coming to him. Even without knowing about his sordid past (which by most accounts, it indeed was), anyone controlling a government for that long has enjoyed a life of unfettered power. I was and am rooting for the revolt personally. But regardless of my empathy for a people to promote a more free life, I don’t think we have to sponsor the affair. It doesn’t seem logical for the US to throw money and drones at some unknown rebel force to fight a diminished, foolish looking despot. The so called “Arab Spring” involved a lot of rebellion against what might be considered oppressive regimes so what made this one so important? I actually heard a quasi justification using the Pan Am bombing in ‘88. If that’s the crux of the argument we have gone batshit. Even if you disagree with me, I think it’s hardly fair that the media’s left is calling this “another Obama Administration success.” Where did all the liberals go, by the way? They now applaud militarism? I can’t believe most self identified liberals even put up with the Dems anymore. We need to heed our involvement in foreign conflicts so we don’t end up billions in the hole with a new generation of enemies in some tiny North African country that most of us cannot locate on a map. VP Smilin’ Joe Biden was quoted as saying:“In this case, America spent $2 billion and didn't lose a single life. This is more the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has in the past." I sure hope not. This prescription has been written by far too many administrations, even those claiming the peaceful constituency as their own. The prescription is stepping away from this interventionist policy and playing a neutral role. It should be learning from the mistakes of our past meddling efforts and not repeating them. But that will not happen with a Republicrat establishment administration. This is now what passes for a peaceful resolution. The last decade of quagmire warfare has made short, little $2 Billion dollar investments in bombings of a foreign people seem like the peaceful alternative. So I don’t blame the gaffemaster for applauding this effort. When Iraq and Afghanistan are your basis for comparison, drone bombings for a few months in a small country doesn’t seem so bad. But secret drone attacks launched at the whims of the executive branch do not constitute a peaceful or safe alternative. They are yet further over extensions of executive power with alarming implications.Speaking of the Iraqi situation, I also have some serious gripes with it being lauded as an Obama administration achievement. For starters there’s a significant fact that can’t be overlooked; this end was negotiated by another President (not to give him any credit either), a point the White House has made itself in a press conference this week. All signs actually point to the Administration attempting to extend the withdrawal deadline passed the 2011 date until the conditions of immunity for US soldiers was rejected by the Iraqis. And really, how many times are we going to announce the end to this war? We have been hearing this for almost a decade from 2 different Presidents. Now we are told, for reals this time, it’s over. Call me a cynic if you will (and you’d be very justified in doing so), but I have some serious doubts to this thing “ending.” With its lack of media attention and diminishing imprint on the American conscience this thing may as well have ended 3 years ago. Obama could have claimed this at his inauguration speech and we’d have been none the wiser, just like last August with the announcement of the withdrawal of “combat troops”. I have little confidence that this is, in anything but name, and end to our involvement there. We will maintain some version of a presence both militarily and politically, spending as much money and effort as our deficit spending scam will allow. So what will that look like? The State department will swap soldiers for security contractors that don’t come quite as cheap, a couple thousand troops will be stationed there in perpetuity much like our situations in other countries where we once fought some vague military engagement, and sometime in the near future the government we helped empower will probably be our enemy. It’s hard to determine the end of a war that had no real beginning. Just because someone says it’s over and people stop referring to it as a “war” doesn’t mean the foolishness has ended.Last but not least, the latest Domestic win for the Administration were the changes to the HARP program. HARP first surfacing in 2009, was passed in an attempt to help underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages. It promised to help 5 million needy people keep their homes and of course somehow fix everything. Well 2 years later, it didn’t. The number of refinances processed through HARP came in just over 800,000. Instead of ending in June of 2011 as originally planned, it was modified and extended through 2013. This time it’s sure to reverse the housing slump! Aunt Fannie and Uncle Freddie will take care of it. They have been helping inflate the cost of homes beyond reasonable market pricing for years and between asset bubbles, inflation, and yet further manipulation of the market prices the cost of homeownership may return to unreasonable and distorted levels once again. Of course there’s the possibility that it will be an abject failure as was its first go round, but only time will tell. But like most government actions these are minor details. Programs like HARP are manifestations of a larger moral issue than just helping the middle class maintain the “American Dream.” What this program does at the very basic level is use taxpayer money to buy risky loans on what eventually will amount to a loss. Is it morally correct for Washington to steal resources from the already strapped private sector to buy bad investments? The market is rejecting the rates that this program will offer because they are too low for such risky loans. An Interest rate, as mentioned in my recent post about Monetary Policy (Read Here)is the price of money. One of the many factors that determines how much you might sell this money to someone is their ability to pay you back. The seller requires some sort of higher return for his investment if your history and/or financial situation deem you a risk. Underwater homeowners are indeed such a risk. This is not because they are bad speculative people that got in over their heads, or because they were stupid and bought houses that were too expensive, but simply because they are bad investments. The asset backing these loans, the home, doesn’t cover the loan amount in the event of default. This makes them a risky market choice which unfortunately for some means a higher selling price for the money. But under the auspices of the Nanny state we are once again saved from the necessary corrections of mal investment. HARP, you’re too good to us.The truth is that housing prices need to fall, some people need to default. A far more potent stimulus than these feeble, meddling attempts would be allowing the adjustment to occur to return housing prices to an affordable level rather than policies that attempt to prop up false prices. It’s a shame for those “underwater” homeowners, but home values are not a guaranteed rising return on investment. What we witnessed before the crash was an unsustainable bubble fueled by government tinkering and inflation. This bubble priced most people out of the market and as painful as the adjustment can be for some, it needs to occur if people want back in. Price adjustment is not a bad thing, it’s an economic necessity so that supplies can meet demand optimally, i.e. put the most people in homes. Programs like HARP may turn out well for around 3 million people, (that is if it actually works this time), but add to the problems of 300 million others and their posterity. Guess what percentage of Americans that turns out to be? Quite a week indeed.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!