JOE STACK WILL PROBABLY BE FORGOTTEN

On Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, 53-year-old,

financially strapped software engineer Joseph Stack
crashed a Piper Saratoga into an IRS officed
building in Austin, Texas.

"In my lifetime I can say with a great degree of

certainty that there has never been a politician
cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or
my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they
the least bit interested in me or anything I have to
say." ~ Joe Stack

Whereas we cannot glorify his suicide nor the

damage he caused, we can use this as an example
of the utter frustration and growing rage sweeping
across America

Joe Stacks gesture will be demeaned by our

media.starting with the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street
Journal, and will rapidly be dismissed as the act of
a fringe lunatic.

Is it a populist lesson, as Stack states in his suicide

note, "that there are two ‘interpretations’ for every
law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of
us"? Is it a reality check that we "live in a country
with an ideology that is based on a total and
complete lie"? Is it a social commentary on the
"incredible stupidity of the American public; that
they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about
their ‘freedom’… and that they continue to do so
with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming
evidence and all that keeps happening in front of
them"?

". . . I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder

at ‘big brother’ while he strips my carcass, I choose
not to ignore what is going on all around me, I
choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t
continue; I have just had enough."

Referring to an article by Paul Craig Roberts " A

Country of Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs" 2/21/10:

The problems of the American economy are too great

to be reached by traditional policies. Large numbers
of middle class American jobs have been moved
offshore: manufacturing, industrial and professional
service jobs. When the jobs are moved offshore,
consumer incomes and U.S. GDP go with them. So
many jobs have been moved abroad that there has
been no growth in U.S. real incomes in the 21st
century, except for the incomes of the super rich who
collect multi-million dollar bonuses for moving U.S.
jobs offshore.

Without growth in consumer incomes, the economy

can go nowhere. Washington policymakers
substituted debt growth for income growth. Instead of
growing richer, consumers grew more indebted.
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan
accomplished this with his low interest rate policy,
which drove up housing prices, producing home
equity that consumers could tap and spend by
refinancing their homes.

Unable to maintain their accustomed living standards

with income alone, Americans spent their equity in
their homes and ran up credit card debts, maxing out
credit cards in anticipation that rising asset prices
would cover the debts. When the bubble burst, the
debts strangled consumer demand, and the economy
died.

There is a whole lot of suffering and misery out

there and more to come Mordecai. In part,
there is a sense of disconnect with our
government, media, big Labor Unions, big Wall
Street, Federal Reserve, Tax collectors and Tax
Spenders. They talk , but it doesn't give any
relief to Main Street.

A letter contained in Mr. Roberts article:

". . My husband and I could be it's poster children.
[new economy] Nine years ago when we married, we
were both working good paying, secure jobs in the
semiconductor manufacturing sector. Our combined
income topped $100,000 a year. We were living the
dream. Then the nightmare began. I lost my job in the
great tech bubble of 2003, and decided to leave the
labor force to care for our infant son. Fine, we
tightened the belt. Then we started getting squeezed.
Expenses rose, we downsized, yet my husband's job
stagnated. After several years of no pay raises, he
finally lost his job a year and a half ago. But he didn't
just lose a job, he lost a career. The semiconductor
industry is virtually gone here in Arizona. Three
months later, my husband, with a technical degree
and 20-plus years of solid work experience, received
one job offer for an entry level corrections officer. He
had to take it, at an almost 40 percent reduction in
pay. Bankruptcy followed when our savings were
depleted. We lost our house, a car, and any assets we
had left. His salary last year, less than $40,000, to
support a family of four. A year and a half later, we
are still struggling to get by. I can't find a job that
would cover the cost of daycare. We are stuck. Every
jump in gas and food prices hits us hard. Without help
from my family, we wouldn't have made it. So, I could
tell you just how that 'New Economy' has worked for
us, but I'd really rather not use that kind of language."

The situation described above is unfortunately

typical of so many today. The high flying days of
the 80's and 90's are gone and no amount of
"stimlus" is going to make them come back.
Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, you are not
heroes, but dopes, duped by those who would
profit by the suffering of others and those
college ignorsamises who think Keynesisan and
Marxism is
holy grail.
Since 1913, when the Federal Reserve was
created we have boom and bust
times. This time, paralleling the Great
Depression,we are on a course leading to the
Greater Depression, caused by spending and
debt from which there will be no recovery.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN