We Can't Handle the Truth?

Paul Volcker was providing testimony to Congress this morning, and it was being covered by Bloomberg television.

Volcker started to 'tell it like it is' and basically laid out the US economic situation in plain and simple terms. We wish we had recorded it. It was 'scathing' to say the least.

To paraphrase, the mathematicians took over with opaque and complex models. The regulators failed. No one likes regulators when times are good, and when times go bad they get all the blame. We had a system fueled by outrageously high compensation, and so the Wall Street firms did not care what they created as long as they could sell it to someone else.

It was starting to get interesting, and then... Bloomberg television cut away so that Betty Liu could tell us how well the stock market was doing, and they never came back.

CNBC was not covering Volcker's testimony. Neither were the C-Spans. CNN? Forget about it.

A friend who was traveling in Europe the past two weeks emailed with the news that 'things are much worse over there and talk of the financial crisis is all over the front pages and people are talking about it." We are in much better shape because no one is talking about it here.

If we had a financial crash and everyone pretended not to notice would it still have happened? We think there are some central planners in the States that would give a resounding 'No.'

So now that Volcker has spoken out, expect the corporate shills and stooges to make snide remarks, and attempt to smear him. This is what they do.

The Consumer Price Index number this morning was a complete fabrication, a farce.

Its time to start noticing, time to stop going with the flow. The flow is heading into madness.

Bloomberg TV cut away just before minute 6 of this excerpt so a clearly disapproving Betty Liu could tell us that the stock market was rallying Mr. Volcker and thank you very much. They never came back or mentioned it again.

Someone sent us a copy of the formal speech which Volcker leafs through on the video. It reads like it was written by staffers and carefully vetted. Very politically correct.

Do yourself a favor and watch the video excerpt. Its only eight minutes long or thereabouts, and its a classic.