The reason for my sudden change of heart, my glorious enlightenment, my divine epiphany if you will, is that I have just been officially notified via an email from the Nigerian Ministry of Culture and Genealogy, that I have inherited 10 Trillion Euros (that’s “trillion”, with a “T”). This official email also notified me that extensive research funded by the Nigerian Government has revealed that I, Vinny Gold, am blood-related to Napoleon I, Queen Elizabeth II, as well as the “Artist Formerly Known as Prince”.

Given the well-researched information in the previous paragraph, I now consider myself to be a wealthy, Western European blue-blooded aristocrat, a superior Arian being, cultured, beautiful, and erudite as well. Did I mention blue-blooded aristocrat?

Therefore, I heretofore shall be referred to as “Vinny de Chicago” (accent on the last syllable, to sound more French, the language of the great Napoleon I, my ancestor and near-conqueror of mujics of peasanty Russia).

Nonetheless, given I am now a true Western European aristocrat, I have also instantly become a racist, chauvinist, anti-Semite, and all-round Euro SOB. Therefore, please note that as Vinny de Chicago, my land dominion does not extend over the entire city of Chicago, rather only over the north side. This for obvious reasons.

I now expect to be addressed as “Vinny de Chicago”. However, for historical reasons, “Yassa Euro Massa” is acceptable on the Deep South side…

Vinny de Chicago

PS – I was just told that Napoleon was actually Italian, but that’s obviously an lie perpetrated by the American CIA and the Jewish Mossad…

What follows is relevant to this posting because the Peterson book, his attempt at creating a new persona -casual Friday, smile and humble beginnings -marks the start of his campaign to go after and attempt to destroy the administration's agenda for the American people on health care reform. Therefore, a little more information is humbly offered to interested Naked Capitalism readers from "Irresponsible, Thy Name Is Peterson" February 20, 2009

Link to Bill Scher's article at Blog for Our Future

In advance of Monday's "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" at the White House, summit participant Pete Peterson and his foundation launched a $1 million ad campaign, irresponsibly peddling false information about the nation's budget.

The ad begins: "Everyone's focused on the obstacles now facing our economy. But there's a much larger threat: 56 trillion dollars in unfunded retirement and health care obligations."

But that is not a larger threat than the current economic crisis. In fact, it's not really a threat at all.

The Nation's William Greider exposes Peterson's baseless alarmism:

Peterson describes a "$53 trillion hole" [the number keeps going up apparently -- ed.] in America's fiscal condition–but the claim assumes numerous artful fallacies. His most blatant distortion is lumping Social Security, which is self-funded and sound, with other entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. Those programs do face financial crisis–not because the elderly and poor are greedily gaming the system but because the medical-industrial complex has the profit incentive to drive healthcare costs higher and higher. Healthcare reform can solve the financing problem only if it imposes cost controls on private players like the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

And on yesterday's media conference call hosted by Campaign for America's Future — listen to the audio here — economist Dean Baker further illustrated the point:

…we don't have an entitlement crisis. we have a health care crisis … the horror stories that the
Peterson foundation and others have put out there, talking about $54 trillion unfunded liability — this is a health care story…

…if we could zero out Medicare and Medicaid, we could just go "OK Mr. Peterson, you win, we're getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid tomorrow," our economy would still be devastated because we haven't fixed health care.

(UPDATE: Baker's Center for Economic and Policy Research offers graphical proof, showing what our long-term budget would look like if we had the per capital health care costs of most other nations.)

What's more irresponsible than using one's massive wealth to misinform the public and pressure politicians to make life worse for senior critizens? Maybe doing it in the name of "responsibility."

Hopefully Monday's summit will be a responsible discussion about our long-term fiscal health, based on facts and not hysterical propaganda.

You are kidding right, about the Peterson Foundation and Social Security? Any org that tosses up a $56 trillion PV number as a scare tactic to gain the support of people to "whack" the only remaining sure thing to retire upon when 401ks went south with W$'s cliff-diving certainly is not concerned with me or my kid's future. In the short term, there is nothing wrong with SS or OASI. In the long term and if SS Witholding Taxes are not increased, the General Fund will have to start to repay the SS TF around 2017 (SS orojects) if the economy does not improve. The movement back and forth is nothing new Leo and that date could move back out again and well beyond 2020 (CBO says farther anyway). The 2017 date comes from IC projections and costs are somewhere between LC and IC, so indeed the date will be later. And what is the first year payments? ~#20 billion.

The problem is not SS or OASI, it is healthcare and DI and Medicare/Medicaid. Each administration has chosen to ignore healthcare and the millions of people without it. He would be better off working towards healthcare for the millions who have been denied it to prop-up private healthcare and the business associated with it.

Leo, God-bless your father and you; but leave Peterson to his own ilk and manner in which to atone for himself and find a way into heaven now that he is old.

Thanks Skippy for making it possible for me to do a little more Euro bashing today. Bashing follows:

Indeed, I disdain the Europeans. Not the ones from the east, though. But the British, French, German, and Spanish arrogance is pretty hard to accept, especially when you see the hypocrisy of what “Old Europe” stands for. I hate to agree with Bush on this, but he was right about them. Despite the carefully crafted speeches (usually spewing out in no-longer-relevant languages such as French or German), the hypocrisy and superficiality of these people usually causes me a sort of mental allergic reaction.

Let me illustrate this. People like Dominique de Villepin are so representative of the European bullsh*t that I've grown weary of in recent years. And, by the way, Mr. Villepin's full name is: "Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin"… Wow! Isn't that the name of a true nobleman, now! Yep, “His blood is bluer than the Danube is, or ever was”, isn’t it? To which, a poor American immigrant such as myself can only reply with: "screw you, and your nobility BS, Mr. Villepin, or Vile-Pimp, or whatever your name is today.” We, these inferior American immigrants, a nation of mutts, as you often refer to us, have put a few men on the Moon, have the best universities in the world, have invented the computer, it was an American, Al Gore, who “invented” the Internet, and I think we also invented the automobile, didn’t we? Plus, we saved your soft French asses from all that humiliating anal sex you were enjoying from Hitler under your Vichy regime.

Wow! I’ve covered a lot of topics here…

Vinny G.
PS — Note to our European readers: the automobile remark above was a joke. As such, you do not need to vilify me and call me “uneducated” for that… Get it? Joke? Sense of humor? Laughter? Try it sometimes… without lots of wine in your bloodstream, if possible…

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. Your life journey is truly remarkable and a worthy model for others to follow. Congratulations on a life well lived!

Also, it was inspiring to read about your father’s immigrant background. I too immigrated to the US, albeit at an early age, and made this country my home. America, despite its problems has not let me down yet (although it nearly spooked me a few times

I too was faced with dilemma similar to your back in the early 90s, after I made a splash in the software industry, having achieved my career/business goals. In my own journey I decided to change careers entirely, went back to school, and became a doctor. A radical change, from an engineering background. Now, besides having the great satisfaction of actually helping real people who are facing difficulties and illness, I also teach graduate students. The beauty of teaching is that it brings two generations together. I have learned at least as much from my students as I hope they have learned from me. Although today I am not nearly as affluent financially as when I was in the software industry, I can say that I am a lot richer in spirit, and I have a much greater sense of self-actualization than when I used to sell shrink-wrapped software boxes by the truckload.

I must say that I held a pessimistic view of the future of this nation as well. However, interacting with my students has taught me that we, as a nation, need not put our trust in our corrupt middle-aged politicians, bankers, or our failed system, simply because on the scale of human evolution and human lifespan development, many of these “pillars of our community” are fairly primitive human beings, still stuck in the selfish “me, me, me” modus operandi.

Fortunately, it is the energy, creativity, idealism, and optimism of capable young people such as my students that will get us through the day. And if their generation will get hijacked by their more “primitive” peers, fortunately there will be another generation coming after them to rebuild and to keep the flame of hope burning. The cycle continues.

As far as the crumbling American empire, the “dead horse” as you put it, that’s OK if it’s dead. Other empires have come and gone, but nations remained. Few can argue with the fact that most European imperial powers (and Japan) have become better places to live after their respective empires collapsed. America has that potential also.

Finally, I have to say a word about Greeks and Greece. Great people, great traditions, great family values! There are many in my circle of friends here in Chicago as well as Europe. Best yet, in four short weeks I will take the family to Greece for a week of fun in the sun. Few things in life come close to a plate of souvlaki, a properly made frappe, and a comfortable chair at my favorite waterfront Taverna in Patra, watching the sun go down, as the ferries pass by.

Vinny GOLD

"Wall Street investment banker Peter Peterson has been on a long quest to gut Social Security and Medicare, the core social insurance programs on which the country’s workers depend. He recently endowed a new foundation with a billion dollars to pursue this end."

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/peter-petersons-bad-economics/

Basically, Peterson wants to do away with the indexing of increasing wages to increased benefits. This would mean that as your wages increased your benefits would not. This would result in a cut in benefits from current levels.

Peterson has also suggested a variation of privatized Social Security: mandatory saving accoounts which would be managed and invested in you guessed it in index funds of stocks and bonds.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1078

That would have worked out so well in the current collapse.

cheers,

Leo

China Investment Rewards Failed Blackstone Investment with More Cash
by: Vincent Fernando June 22, 2009 |

"After watching their US$3bn investment in the Blackstone (BX) IPO shrink by nearly two-thirds (from $29.605 to $12), China Investment Corp is reported to be investing $500mn in Blackstone funds (not directly in the stock this time) in an attempt to get into markets while prices are cheap. Fair enough on the market call, but I guess there aren't any hard feelings regarding the overvalued price CIC was given previously for Blackstone shares ($29.605).

Let's just say that Blackstone wasn't lying on their roadshows when they said they were the smart money… unfortunately CIC and later Blackstone IPO buyers probably didn't realize the implications this has when it's the smart money you are buying shares from.

But hey, that was two years ago, …"

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO403B.html