American Conspiracies: on Budget & Economy


Jesse Ventura: Balance American Dream with unfairness of capitalism

Let's face it, capitalism isn't always fair. So if you're looking to bring fairness to life, you have to take steps more toward socialism. Which then causes a conflict of interest, because socialism means you're going to be even more controlled in your decision-making by the Establishment. Then again, is that what's required to keep an equal balance? What I really see leaving is the American Dream. The destruction of the middle class means you're no longer going to have that dream, which is that a youn person can achieve anything if you put your mind to it because the opportunities are there. Now are they still? Yes. But are they more difficult? Yes. I see many more obstacles in the way of the American Dream today, and a great deal of it is caused by greed. It's understood that a certain amount of wealthy people are going to control the majority of the money, but when it's moving so drastically that you've got 5 percent of the people having 90 percent of the money, that can't be healthy.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.165 Mar 8, 2010

Jesse Ventura: Keep savings banks separate from speculative investments

The new era of deregulation resulted in a boom time for the rich getting richer. Reagan opened wide the door for companies to gamble with taxpayers' money. In 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, and a real free-for-all began. It was passed in 1993 to keep separate the low-risk commercial banks where we put our deposits, and the brokerage banks that engage in high-risk speculative investments. This worked just fine for more than 50 years. During the Reagan years, the lobbyists for the finance, insurance, and real estate outfits started pushing to dump the law; then the rules of the game changed totally. Mergers and commercial/investment partnerships skyrocketed. Now banks could start taking multiple home mortgage loans and turning them into securities to trade on Wall Street. They could all gamble like crazy, and with very little regulation.

How insane was it to destroy one of the main protection devices created out of the pain of the Great Depression.

Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.169 Mar 8, 2010

Jesse Ventura: Return to staid banking: low-risk highly-regulated loans

    Is it naive to think about banking returning to the austere, staid practice of simply taking deposits & making conservative loans at low interest rates to qualified borrowers, under rigid regulations administered by moderately paid federal employees? Here's what some smart economists think we need to do:
  1. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act and wall off commercial banking from investment bank gambling, and require strict leverage limits
  2. Insulate the federally insured depositors from reckless investment schemes with no social utility whatsoever like there "credit default swaps" that are entered into by entities that don't own the underlying bonds
  3. Withdraw the massive handouts and taxpayer-backed guarantees given to prop up specific banks and financial institutions, and use these funds to instead support the struggling homeowners and defaulting borrowers who form the root of this crisis
  4. Let the already-insolvent bank go bankrupt and begin removing the bad debt from the system.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.180-181 Mar 8, 2010

Ronald Reagan: OpEd: Initiated bankers' free-for-all, at bankers' request

The new era of deregulation resulted in a boom time for the rich getting richer. Reagan opened wide the door for companies to gamble with taxpayers' money. In 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, and a real free-for-all began. It was passed in 1993 to keep separate the low-risk commercial banks where we put our deposits, and the brokerage banks that engage in high-risk speculative investments. This worked just fine for more than 50 years. During the Reagan years, the lobbyists for the finance, insurance, and real estate outfits started pushing to dump the law; then the rules of the game changed totally. Mergers and commercial/investment partnerships skyrocketed. Now banks could start taking multiple home mortgage loans and turning them into securities to trade on Wall Street. They could all gamble like crazy, and with very little regulation.

How insane was it to destroy one of the main protection devices created out of the pain of the Great Depression.

Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.169 Mar 8, 2010

  • The above quotations are from American Conspiracies:
    Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us    , by Gov. Jesse Ventura.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Budget & Economy.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Jesse Ventura on Budget & Economy.
  • Click here for more quotes by George W. Bush on Budget & Economy.
2016 Presidential contenders on Budget & Economy:
  Republicans:
Gov.Jeb Bush(FL)
Dr.Ben Carson(MD)
Gov.Chris Christie(NJ)
Sen.Ted Cruz(TX)
Carly Fiorina(CA)
Gov.Jim Gilmore(VA)
Sen.Lindsey Graham(SC)
Gov.Mike Huckabee(AR)
Gov.Bobby Jindal(LA)
Gov.John Kasich(OH)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Gov.George Pataki(NY)
Sen.Rand Paul(KY)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Sen.Rob Portman(OH)
Sen.Marco Rubio(FL)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA)
Donald Trump(NY)
Gov.Scott Walker(WI) 		Democrats:
Gov.Lincoln Chafee(RI)
Secy.Hillary Clinton(NY)
V.P.Joe Biden(DE)
Gov.Martin O`Malley(MD)
Sen.Bernie Sanders(VT)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren(MA)
Sen.Jim Webb(VA)

2016 Third Party Candidates:
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Roseanne Barr(PF-HI)
Robert Steele(L-NY)
Dr.Jill Stein(G,MA)
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org!
Click for details -- or send donations to:
1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140
E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org
(We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018