Wednesday, March 15, 2023

News without Compromise.

 

The financial crisis continues. Whether this crisis can be averted or not, time and history will tell. This feels like 2007 when I was in my 20s and stories existed about banks failing. Many didn't take it seriously until 2008 when the recession grew all over America. American and UK authorities are trying policies to avert a wider financial crisis. President Joe Biden said that the American banking system is safe and promoted his policies to address issues. The FDIC was made to protect the savings of many banks. President Biden guaranteed SVB customers will have access to all of their money. U.S. regulators shut down Signature Bank. HBSC brought SVB UK to secure the deposits of British tech companies. This crisis is caused by many factors like the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates. The higher interest rates developing in such a rapid fashion will cause a burden on workers and banks to pay down loans and to organize economic stability. 

In 1999, Clinton signed a law to end Glass-Steagall, which caused massive financial banking deregulation. The Glass Stegall laws separated commercial from investment banking. Dodd-Frank helped some people, but it didn't go far enough. Trump passed legislation that weakened Dodd-Frank. Now, we have this issue. Silicon Valley Bank is being reviewed by the FED too. The deal is that when the FED increased interest rates, banks like SVB had their bond portfolio being eroded of their value (because the newer bonds paid more interest causing money to fund new tech company start-ups to slow down. The SVB didn't have enough money to handle the debt, expenses, payrolls, and other needs causing it to shut down). This caused start-up tech institutions to struggle to get the cash to repay the debt. The stocks of First Republic Bank, PacWest, Bancorp, and Charles Schwab went down.


Mike Pence gave some of his most overtly critical statements about Donald Trump's response to the January 6th terrorist insurrection. Pence said Trump put his family's life at risk. He also made an offensive statement about women and Peter Buttigieg that he has refused to apologize for. This is typical of Mike Pence. Pence is so afraid of Trump that he refuses to criticize Trump in any fashion until years after the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Mike Pence might run for President, and we know that Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are running for President on the Republican side. Trump is feeling the pressure of possible indictment. That is why he is criticizing DeSantis (the reactionary Governor of Florida) and Mike Pence (he falsely blames Pence for the January 6th violence). Trump has historically glorified violence and agitated violence for years. The 2024 Presidential election is starting to rapidly develop with stirring events. We shall see what history will entail. There is more than enough evidence to indict Trump on various offenses.


Many haters on Twitter and other places on social media criticized Angela Bassett's reaction to Jamie Lee Curtis winning Best Supporting Actress in a movie series (during the 95th Oscars). Frankly, Angela Bassett has the right to show her emotions. Showing her emotion has nothing to do with her hatred of Jamie Lee Curtis. It is just the feeling of disappointment. Angela didn't curse at anyone, she didn't threaten anyone, and she didn't act inappropriately. Many of the critics of Bassett want to criticize a black woman's body language when that type of policing is the essence of misogynoir.  We don't complain when people cheer after winning something, and we shouldn't criticize a human being who shows disappointment (and isn't violence towards anyone). The haters of Angela Bassett revealed their faces to be notorious hypocrites when Angela showed great professionalism and class during the 2023 Oscars period. Angela Bassett is one of the greatest actresses of all time. Her earning the NAACP Image Award as Entertainer of the Year is one out of many acknowledgments of her greatness.


Many House Republicans want to further cut federal spending on nutrition programs for low-income Americans. Rep. Dusty Johnson (a Republican from South Dakota) has introduced a bill to expand current restrictions on who qualifies for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP. It was once called food stamps). SNAP now already has restrictions in it. These further restriction proposals represent cruelty to the poor. That is one reason out of many why I'm not a Republican because their views on economics are completely opposite of my views on economics. I believe in a strong social safety net and that the role of the federal government is to provide for the general welfare of the people (without austerity). SNAP is the country's largest food assistance program. It grew significantly during the pandemic because the pandemic caused a massive recession in America by 2020. This comes as many Republicans want draconian spending cuts as it relates to the federal budget. Johnson wants to expand the age bracket for able-bodied SNAP recipients without dependents, who have to meet complicated work requirements. Rick Scott wants to increase the age for food assistance work requirements to 59 years old. We have to continue to advance our commitment to human democracy and justice for all. 



By Timothy




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