Technically, the Fed is an independent body, but soon a majority of the seven Federal Reserve Board members will be democratic appointees.The Federal Reserve , whose responsibilities include monetary policy, financial regulation, and consumer protection, is run by the seven members of the Board of Governors. The members are appointed by the President, subject to Senate confirmation. The following lists the current status of Board members:

Federal Reserve Board Members Term Expires

Bernanke Chairman 2020
Term as Chairman expires January 2010
Kohn Vice-Chairman 2016
Term as Vice-Chair expires June 2010
Duke 2011
Tarullo Democratic appointee 2022
Warsh 2018
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However, it did not take him long to learn from greenspan to do just what the financial mafia tells you to do.

And don’t forget the lady before whom Paulson reportedly got down on one knee and begged for her support to push TARP through, in *her* office.

Some of those large pension funds might regret they did not lend their billions to Muhammad Yunis (10% interest 1% default rate) rather than entrust their savings with zombies in the shadow banking system.

Paradigm shift?

Back on topic, though. Our economy is not sustainable as it is because it is based on debt. I’m not talking about government debt, but individual debt. Specifically, the debt incurred by the middle class as they try to keep their standard of living while losing purchasing power to inflation, taxes and salary stagnation (look at the records indicating the shrinking amount of household savings over the past 25 years, until this crisis hit, anyway.) As the middle class is by far the largest segment of our population, we count on it to keep our economy going. When well paying manufacturing jobs were being lost and replaced by less well paying service industry jobs, credit became even more important to the economy, thus the financial sector grew. The problem was that eventually people came to the point of not being able to pay their credit bills and loans became riskier. The financial services had to find a way to spread that risk around to keep the economy going. One result was derivatives, which not only spread the risk, but proved so difficult to track and understand that few in the financial industry itself knew what was going on. Another result was adustable rate mortgages and interest only loans, both created to allow an increasingly debt ridden middle class to keep buying houses and thus keeping the housing bubble going.

Unfortunately, we have the champions of the financial industry now tasked with cleaning up the mess while keeping very lucrative (to a vew, anyway) financial sector intact.

Thanks for the link to the factcheck website: ¨Now, on to the tough question: Is the 45,000 figure accurate? We can’t say for sure, but scores of other studies also conclude that persons without health insurance have a higher chance of dying prematurely than those with health insurance.¨

Indeed, the 45,000 number is by far the highest of the numbers mentioned from other studies, but what remains it that involuntary uninsurance is a cause of death, and other studies conclude 13,000 premature deaths per year (ages 55-64) or 18,000 (ages 25-64).

How do you weigh these comments by the co-lead Harvard researcher,Dr. Steffie Woodlander : “The data from the National Center for Health Statistics assessed health insurance at a single point in time and did not validate self-reported insurance status.” “We were unable to measure the effect of gaining or losing coverage after the interview.” Pay special attention to the time line.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/dying-from-lack-of-insurance/
Two of the lead researchers are members of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) which is a research and educational organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance.

However, I stand by my statement that it is the Republican economic strategy that they are following.

Unfortunately, President Obama seems to have fallen into the pro-financial industry camp and isn’t moving to do anything to solve the root cause of the problem.

the Republican economic strategy

but isn’t it more appropriate to write:

the ruling elite economic strategy

After all, both parties have been part of the same system since the mid-1970s at least, when the policy decisions to financialize the economy seem to have been taken.