Bush Honchos Nationalize Private Mortgage Businesses

The US State Department and its surrogates go around the world monitoring the economies and policies of governments in order to see to it that industries are privatized and opened up to "free trade" mandates dictated by multinational corporations. However, in a move designed to get a handle on the slumping housing market, the US government has taken over the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Bush administration has been careful not to use the word, but its takeover amounts to “nationalizing” the two privately held businesses.

AFL-CIO chief economist Ron Blackwell says [watch video, below], "Housing prices are falling faster presently than during the Great Depression. This is very serious."



Don't expect US government funded groups like the International Crisis Group (ICG) (a "bevy of detached "intellectuals" that seems to think that they need to hold forth on all world issues") to report on the Bush administration's hypocrisy on the issue of privatization. Their report's "findings" are geared towards coinciding with the goals of the US State Department. And privatization (i.e. "making the world safe for American corporations") is a goal that is often at the bottom of US interventions into the sovereign politics of nations like Venezuela and Haiti.

VENEZUELA

"Large social service programs, termed “missions”, have been launched in poor neighbourhoods and helped gain popular support for the government. State control of the economy, not just the vital oil sector, has increased, as has pressure on opposition media and NGOs".

The report concludes:
...increase efforts to improve the medium to long-term sustainability of social and infrastructure programs by attacking inflation and fiscal deficits and avoiding excessive state control of the economy...

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez’s Revolution
ICG Report: Latin America Report N°19 (02.22.08)

HAITI

"He [Aristide] offered an explanation rarely heard in discussions of Haitian politics--actually, he offered three: "privatization, privatization and privatization."

"...Washington's negotiators made one demand that Aristide could not accept: the immediate sell-off of Haiti's state-owned enterprises, including phones and electricity. Aristide argued that unregulated privatization would transform state monopolies into private oligarchies, increasing the riches of Haiti's elite and stripping the poor of their national wealth.."

Aristide in Exile by Naomi Klein
The Nation (07.14.2005)

At the risk of sounding sanctimonious; the US must avoid "excessive state control," If allowed to "nationalize" industries, the US faces an increased risk of conflict. We must all work to "PREVENT CONFLICT WORLDWIDE." Even if we first have to see to it that preferred "opposition groups" are well-funded, represented and ready to step in and achieve "freedom" and "democracy."