No argument here, I agree. There is one caveat...President Obama represents real change. He has called out the corporate fat cats. He fired the CEO of General Motors. He means business (pardon the pun). It is about time. The American worker and middle class has suffered enough.

The most interesting point in this article, to me, is the fact that the corporations sell consumer products and yet the law/s which govern this in the US: Consumer protection | rights, is being obfuscated. NOT ONE HOMEOWNER SHOULD LOSE THEIR HOME under the law/s of consumer protection | rights, and yet this is happening since the corporations are in charge of the information stream and all the politicians, too! The National Consumer Law Center, http://www.consumerlaw.org/ has 18 Titles to protect the consumer and the set for attorneys is not difficult to comprehend. Many homeowners are suing in court and winning, via the NCLC and the work product by these most brilliant attorneys at law.

I think union membership at 8% in the USA is a good thing. It is all about freedom and liberty something the person who wrote this article obviously knows nothing about. It was not capitalism that brought the US economy to it's knees, but the greedy power hungry people in GOVERNMENT. The writer is quick to blame the causes on deregulation. But know one looks at how much the government steals from working men and women each day under the guise of improving our lives.If we rid ourselves of capitalism, and people with money, i ask the writer where will the jobs come from? Make the governments small, let the people keep more of what they make and the problem will be solved. And get rid of the bad apples in the corporations at the same time. Many Americans in case you have not heard know now that Obama is not the answer. I don't know if he ever ran a KOOL AID stand. How could a right headed thinking American ever believe he could run the US economy.

Mister Bridge's comments are excellent, but completly miss one point that I shall try to explain. Recently,I have written on the same subject to different RTTV forums. Surprisingly my mails had great difficulties going thru; once, it took me twelve try before succeeding. We seem to have forgotten that, right after 1945 US business leaders and their europeen prostitutes friends, realized that investing in the military and police industries were the safest and most profitable stocks men could find. Many huge fortunes were made, an insane climat of insecurity was created, first by blaming communism, then terrorism and now, since fear of Iran or North-Korea are jokes, to keep on building that useless anti-missiles'shield, we, soon will hear about a possible extra-terrestre invasion. That last gadget, only serve to corrupt politicians, incercle Russia to be ready to grab her immense natural ressources; even to black-mail her to obtain her cooperation in that project. Since the Federation of Russia has become a free enterprises system; the globalisation's masters will not mind having a few corrupted russian oligarchs on their side. Peoples from all over the World should remember what President Eisenhower said on January 21st1961. In the last 60 years, mankind has wasted 1000 billions € a year for her auto-destruction (65% made in USA who represent 5% of Humanity). Those 60 trillions € of well earned tax-payers money from all over the World, had to be replaced for nations elementary needs and to soustain the fortunes of other CEO, not involved in MIC (Military Industrial Complex). To confirm that argument; there is an unquestionable fact: America was and still is the initiator of all WMD (Weapons of Mass-Destruction) that mankind possess actually. Consequently, to compensate those pharaoïnic military expenditures,virtual money had to be made and an uncontroled access to credit was developped. What is explained by Mr Bridge is correct but I am convinced that those 60 trillions (15 times the actual crisis'cost) were the starting point of the financial melt-down. My second argument about what we are living now is the appearance of that new "messie" Obama. It look to good to be truth ! Considering that the London G-20 was an other planetary diplomatic furbery show which solved nothing; it seems to me that the whole affair was well premeditated and carefully set-up, using two coïncidential events. Everybody has witnessed, has I did that for the past few decades tremendeous technical innovations were made in all industries. Consequently, millions of jobs and salaries are then needless. At the same time the emerging countries make avialable to the same globalisation's masters, millions of very low paid employees capable to replace the more expensive ones. When you have a cash-register instead of a brain; it become easer to dream of the money to be made and others' bad luck. To succeed in such a shame a scenario equivalent to an hollywoodian super-production had to be found; preferably where the whole mess started: in America ! Thus, came the idea of a docile, nice looking, well educated "puppet" president, coming from the US minorities. The american electorat was fooled, kept sleeping and the whole World applauded, in total admiration of that "black Moïse". Like every other human on Earth, I dream of a better mankind gouvernance, of a new spirit, more justice and most of all an end to our enslavery toward money. We will have a first answer in July ! Let us cross our fingers and hope for the best; some kind of a miracle where Mr Obama will wake-up and decide, with the full support of russian leaders to fool those who in America have used him. Then, everybody, all over the World will really applaud; including in the USA where the citizen are the inconscient victimes of the insanity of a few of their greedy decisions'makers. Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

I don't know where the author of this tripe gets off calling the big business the culprits of our financial woes. The culprits start back with Jimmy Carter and the Democrats in our House and Senate not giving a hoot if Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac administrators are raping the citizens of the United States. Come on people, wise up, start investigating the real causes and don't give in to what our so-called media are trying to pull over on you. Our big businesses are leaving, have you noticed???? Our government is shutting down big businesses, or taking them over; have you noticed???? Ask yourselves why and start researching the people in our government. They call themselves progressives ( another name for socialists and communists). They have been waiting for this day to come for years and now it's here and there isn't anything we can do about it. Because of the dumbing down of our citizens and educating them into thinking that government can cure all ills we have put the most liberal, most socialist person at the head of this country. Now we have to live with it.

Obamas friends are the same as Shrubyas friends. How does a black from Chicago go to a prestigious university? Good friends. He is a fraud like Jimmy Carter. A real liberal that raises military spending, while knocking the workers. The west is as corrupt, as other countries are, and requires true reform.

It is not hard to believe our pro business leadership is causing an economic crisis at all.As politicians get away from representing the common man less and represent powerful business leaders more ,the gap between the haves and the have nots increases.When we can take no more because the rich and powerful have us in deep debt and just can not keep up with the cost of living some of the rich and powerful start losing money.Then rather than let the same poorly managed business fail or become leaner and eliminating waste they simply turn to the government for a bailout,increasing our debt and keeping the economy in a downward spiral the whole time.The people on the bottom of the economic ladder have to make sacrifices as the rich and powerful maintain the lifestyle they are accustomed to.The people on the bottom have no money to spend because so much of the wealth has been concentrated at the top and prices keep going up,so businesses have to lay off workers,which causes less spending,and fewer jobs,which leads to even more workers losing their jobs.The downward spiral continues because of the greed and concentration of wealth and power with a small number of people.The cost of housing went up on speculation.When housing got too expensive for us and the market crashed rather than just letting poorly managed financial institutions fail that were run by greedy business men close down,and let prices come back down again,the government opted to bail them out. How long will it be before the rest of the country is like California,where they want to stop giving any aid to the poor?Our only viable option was to elect Ron Paul so we are doomed.I would not be surprised to see the United States abandon its form of government and turn communist in ten or twenty years because of the greed that is destroying us and our standard of living.

alot of truth in this article. the problems are mostly caused by corrupt government and the lobbys that bribe them. yes, the u.s. government, america, and it's people are being sold to the highest bidders. seems like every 20 yrs or so a financial scandle emerges just like the saveings and loan in the 80's. george bush sr's son neil bush ceo of silverado saveings and loan in denver co. was in trouble. makeing huge loans to bussiness partners (conflict of interest) that were defaulting. basically they were stealing the money. george bush somehow got reagan and congress to relax the saveing's and loan regulations. neil bush was looking at 20 years in prison when he was brought up on criminal charges. i saw his trial on c span (government tv) and neil was found guilty of some minor charges, fined $250,000, and banned from the banking industry for life. but the deregulation is what gave alot of other ceo's the green light to legally steal. it cost taxpayers an estimated 365 billion. to fix the problems, the banking industry MUST BE TIGHTLY REGULATED AND PEOPLE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT ALLOW BANKS OR INDUSTRIES TO BECOME TOO BIG THRU MERGERS (MONOPOLYS) AND THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT BAIL THEM OUT. THE U.S GOVERNMENT MUST OUTLAW ALL POLITICAL PARTIES. ALL LOBBYING AND INFLUENCE PEDDLING MUST BE DECLARED ILLEGAL. ALL MONEY FOR ELECTIONS MUST COME FROM THE GOVERNMENT ( ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ILLEGAL ) AND BE EQUAL WITH DEBATES AND ALL AGENDA BROADCAST ONLY ON FREE GOVERNMENT TV STATIONS. LASTLY, ANY OFFICIAL FOUND QUILTY OF CORRUPTION SHOULD BE DEALT WITH HARSHLY AND MADE AN EXAMPLE WITH A LONG PRISON TERM. BUT GOOD LUCK, NONE OF THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN.

The US Civil war was another illusion of a corporate power grab. The 14 th amendment to the constitution which was sold to the public as giving blacks the right to vote actually gave more power to corporations. In fact, since 1900 the 14th amendment has been before the supreme court 1000 times. 996 were to assert corporation rights. Only 4 were to protect voting rights. The military and the corporation sold the war to Lincoln and the public only to make themselves richer. Lincoln knew that this happened and stated that he was afraid that he had given the country over to the corporations. Here is the sobering quote by Abe Lincoln: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY) Unless Obama gets rid of corporate rights, and limits executive compensation, the US is doomed to continue as an oligopolistic plutocracy with only rich people having all the money and workers continually exploited.

The present cyclical demise of Capitalism indeed has been assisted by Capitalists of all shades and in all countries. Such include [sic.] "Legislators" and elected Parliamentarians who in my country receive a stipend 20 times the average wage of a highly skilled Worker. All Capitalists exist with self-interest in mind. All with greed as a yardstick. The welbeing of Humanity is the furthest from their thoughts until such affects them too. Case in Point - The impending "Nuclear Holocaust" or "Global Warming". However their greed supercedes these fears and they continue along the path that has provided them with a [sic] "better" life than the other 6 billions of us - most existing on or below the "breadline". Ultimately when the "subjective" force of the "rest-of-us" supercede the [sic] machinery-of-state that bolsters Capitalism - which as Karl Marx proved more than 150 years ago is in its death throes - such greed will become a figment of the imagination. Humanity is indebted to the millions of Workers in the USA that refused to continue to pay [sic] "Mortgages" on homes "made of ticky-tacky". ///snowyone..

@Gene Hopkins I have lived in communism but the EXTENT to which people in USA are BRAIN WASHED is mystery to me ! HOW can you be so BLIND Mr Gene Hopkins !!?! There is no difference between Bush and Obama , they are just different puppets of same puppeteer ! They just ripped off and handed over the TRILLIONS of public money to the super rich bankers and you talk about advantage of "American worker and middle class" with Obama !?! Excuse me sir, are you out of your mind?!!!?