The Baumgarten Report

Former New York City Councilman and retired Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, who runs a civic watchdog group, has posted on his site, www.nycivic.org, 24 questions that should have been asked, and answered, before the critical wounding of the financial system in the United States.

“Some people were asking the questions,” Stern said during his appearance on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com. “But not enough people were listening.”

All of this could have been averted, he believes, with good government regulating. But, since the government is trillions of dollars in debt, it certainly didn’t provide much of a role model. The banking and financial investment community, Stern agrees, was just following the U.S. government’s lead.

The crisis shouldn’t be such a big surprise to Wall Street executives and Washington regulators. “This is not like the Titantic,” Stern says. They certainly should have seen it coming.

Yet the Federal Reserve and regulatory agencies were slow to react. Ironically leading to more federal intervention now than would have been required to avert the crisis.

Stern believes things will get better no matter who is elected president of the United States. But, in this area, he feels John McCain, who he sees as a maverick who is not obligated to anyone, is better positioned to help resolve the problem.

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The president of the United States today addressed the American people, promising to find solutions ot the financial crisis facing the nation.

The president says that, now that we know what the problem is, it’s time to do something about it. A little like closing the barn door after the animals get out. But, at least the government is doing something.

Bush says this is an issue that transcends party politics, though you’d not quite know that listening to the presidential candidates on the stump.

The president believes the economy should rest on the free enterprise system. That the government should limit its interference except when absolutely necessary. This, he says, is one of those times.

“In recent weeks, the federal government has taken a series of measures to help promote stability in the overall economy. To avoid severe disruptions in the financial markets and to support home financing, we took action to address the situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Federal Reserve also acted to prevent the disorderly liquidation of the insurance company AIG. And in coordination with central banks around the world, the Fed has injected much-needed liquidity into our financial system,” he said.

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Munshi

I was listening to the conversation in a Muslim room on Paltalk last night and heard a guy in the UK predict that Sharia law was on the way. He advised non-Muslims in Britain that, pretty soon, they’ll either have to convert to his religion or pay Muslims for the privilege of living in “their” country.

While this may be a bit overly optimistic from a pan-Islamist’s point of view, he was correct that the demographics of the UK are changing. And that there is a growing Muslim influence. Unfortunately, in some cases, there’s also an increase in Islamic militancy.

We’ve already seen homegrown terrorist attacks in Britain. And reports of open defiance of the police by young, militant, Muslims. Something that our Paltalk friend also, proudly, commented on.

“The police are afraid to make arrests in some neighborhoods now,” he boasted.

This undoubtedly is distressing to people whose British ancestry stretches back centuries and who have strong nationalistic feelings. Perhaps this is part of the problem. Here, in the United States, Muslims seem to assimilate more naturally than in the UK. We, of course, have a tradition of pluralism and acceptance, though sometimes reluctantly, of new waves of immigrants. As we like to say, we are, mostly, a nation of immigrants.

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Chavez

Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez comes under fire in a new report issued by Human Rights Watch which details scores of human rights violations in his country.

The report outlines government repression of political opponents, in the courts, of the media and of organized labor.

It notes that 10 years ago, when Chavez took power, the new constitution could have been used to increase human rights. Instead, it says, things went in the opposite direction as he sought to counter political opposition and consolidate power.

The crackdown, the report suggests, began in 2002, when there was a short-lived coup against Chavez. This includes restrictions on journalists ability to express themselves, regulations limiting workers’ ability to associate and blockades hampering the work of human rights activists.

The government has gotten away with this, Human Rights Watch says, because there’s been no credible judicial oversight.

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernandolugoapc/2766731570/

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