Obama Gives Trillions for Wall Street, Not a Dime to Stop Murder in Black Chicago Neighborhoods

Townhall.com ^ | July 21, 2014 | John Ransom

[Kaslin]

When president Obama was lifted to the presidency promising hope and change, no community was more hopeful than the black community. And inside the black community, no city was prouder than Chicago.

But not anymore.

Today blacks are disenchanted with an administration—both Obama’s and the current one in Chicago—that has played them.The politicians, who have been so ready to write trillion dollar checks to Wall Street, auto companies and cronies haven’t spent a dime on addressing issues decimating the black community.

Instead they have fostered more dependence, using money that rightly belongs in black pockets, to keep blacks servile and voting Democrat.

So in poverty, unemployment, mortality and education blacks continue to lag behind the rest of the country.No discussion of reform can begin without taking into account this absolute fact: There are two countries in America today, the black United States and everywhere else.

And the murder rate in Chicago is making that point in a way that even politicians can’t ignore.

A recent vigil for an 11 year-old black girl, Shamiya Adams, who was killed by stray bullet while at a friend’s sleepover has folks in the Windy City angry.

“Though well attended by ministers and local residents,” reports the Chicago Tribune, “some were bothered that few politicians turned out to pay their respects. A speaker at the vigil listed off the names of elected officials who didn’t attend, and a woman singled out Mayor Rahm Emanuel before the vigil for not doing more.”

So, however much one or two blacks may have thrived, no city demonstrates how disappointed blacks feel in the so-called progress that has not been made for ordinary African-American citizens.

Three decades ago, race issues polarized the city, with some blacks claiming that there was no more segregated northern city than Chicago. The result was a breakup of Chicago’s old Daley Machine, replaced by a coalition of blacks and Hispanics under the city’s first black Mayor Harold Washington.

Obama’s election, first to the United States Senate and then the White House, wasn’t just progress, but a promise of more to come, even with another Daley in the White House.

But one need only look at the crime statistics to get an idea why blacks are disaffected after six years of Obama and 30 years of so-called progress.

Chicago is a city gripped by a massive murder wave, affecting mostly black communities. In response the city, now run by former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has come up with a variety of policing options, the most effective of which has been cooking the books to make it appear that crime is getting under control under new policies.

“The city’s crime numbers seem too good to be true,” reported Chicago Mag in a June series looking at number fixing by the Chicago Police Department. “One former lieutenant has a name for the system: the washing machine. ‘They wash and rinse the numbers,’ the lieutenant says.”

As if on cue, the numbers of shootings have suddenly gotten so completely out of control that no amount of laundering can cover the stink.

Over the July 4^th weekend, over 80 shootings occurred with 16 deaths. This past weekend 40 shootings occurred including the death of Shamiya Adams.

The woman who criticized the mayor for not attending the vigil, “Venice Bickham, said Shamiya’s death was a symptom of Chicago leaders prioritizing improvements to Grant Park and Navy Pier over investments in the city’s neighborhoods,” says the Chicago Tribune.

The fact that the city’s union-protected employees get lifetime constitutional guarantees to employment benefits, while Chicago blacks are denied their right under the constitution to not just own a firearm, but to enjoy life, liberty and happiness, would be ironic if it weren’t so tragic.

And this is the true civil rights issue in America.

If Shamiya Adams were a blonde-haired, blue eyed 6^th grader from Lincoln Park the National Guard would be called out to fix the problem. But she’s black, so she’s disposable.

As a conservative, I’m not OK with this. I’m not OK standing by while a holocaust grips the black community and the nation does nothing.

I’m not OK with a Republican Party that does nothing either.

Conservatives are smarter than that.

It’s time we demonstrated that we care about the real problems facing black America.

We just need a touch of imagination-- and leadership.

Standing by.

[I want the USA back]

“Not a Dime to Stop Murder in Black Chicago Neighborhoods”
Spending money won’t solve the problem. It’s years of liberalism that have to be reversed.

[pallis]

Why would anyone be foolish enough to think Obama, or any Democrat would want to solve the problems of urban blacks? Urban masses of social and political turmoil are the bread and butter of Democrats.

[ilovesarah2012]

A lot of those people voted for Obama.

[Stosh]

Ransom is one the most reliably conservative writers out there, and few understand math or finance better than him.

The “trillion dollar checks” he talks about refer to the “quantitative easing” approach under Obama’s fed - the reserve, for all intents and purposes, with QE1, QE2, QE3 and QE ad inifinitum is essentially printing money electronically, which serves mostly to provide free money to the big banks and prop up the stock market. Far from being an Occupy butthead, Ransom recognizes that Obama’s policy simply steals from *everybody* in the middle class and lower class (for example, through inflation, which officially is disguised by not including food and fuel costs in the official indicators) so that Obama’s (and the DNC’s) high roller donors don’t get upset with his abysmal economic policies.

Whether Ransom thinks throwing money at the inner city is good policy is another question, but I kind of doubt that’s what he’d propose, given what he’s written in the past - although I’m sure he’d concede beefing up police coverage in the ghetto is going to cost some serious bucks.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Obama’s going to pass out free guns and ammo in Chicago?

[Stosh]

Absolutely spot-on - there are loads of problems that lead to the disastrous murder rate in Chicago - fatherlessness, gun control that only weakens the law-abiding, poverty and joblessness, abysmal schools, a caustic rap culture and the like - but none of those is the main problem.

The main problem is too many folks in the black community are more worried about the cops disrespecting them and their kids than they are worried about the chances their kids will get ventilated by a stray bullet. And consequently there’s not only a hostility to the police, but with too many of those folks, an unofficial policy of “omerta” (the mafia code of silence) that shields the worst of these thugs. The picture in reply 32 says it all.

Until the community and church leaders in the ghetto convince their followers that even though the cops will inevitably make some mistakes (and yes, some may even be racist), if they’re not given community support, their communities will continue to be killing fields.

[caww]

[MrB]

Had to go back to my post and look, and I made no chromatographic references...

[ilovesarah2012]

I am saying it’s more than sex outside of marriage. It is the entire culture.

[MrB]

Unfortunately, that “culture” is “leaking”.

I sincerely believe that that “culture” was created and intended as a “foil”, or as an anti-culture, to destroy Western (Christian based) Civilization.

[Eva]

The problem in the Black community is moral equivalency and cultural relativity.

[ilovesarah2012]

I thought islam was created to destroy western culture. And rap.

[tacticalogic]

That, and the fact that it's a function of the drug trade, which they absolutely, definitely want to encourage. After all, how did the Rev. Wright's "church" get so opulently endowed, including state of the art AV equipment, by a community that consists mostly of poor people? Indeed, how do the black Chicago politicians manage to prosper in so poor a community???

A lot of the money is siphoned off from government grants.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-04/news/chi-rev-wrights-daughter-stands-trial-on-state-grant-scam-allegations-20140304_1_wright-trial-regina-evans-money-laundering

[wideawake]

The “trillion dollar checks” he talks about refer to the “quantitative easing”

I guess only one of those was written, since there was maybe $1T net of QE before tapering.

When the government pays you $101.25 for a liquidly traded bond that you can sell anywhere else for $101.21, are they giving you $101.25, or are they giving you $0.04, remembering that they are just buying back their own debt?

Ransom recognizes that Obama’s policy simply steals from *everybody* in the middle class and lower class (for example, through inflation

So refinancing government debt at lower rates increases inflation? How does that work, exactly?

BTW, the policy predates this administration.

although I’m sure he’d concede beefing up police coverage in the ghetto is going to cost some serious bucks

Why would you need to? Chicago already has about one officer for ever 200 residents. NYC has lower crime rates, and only has one officer per 250 residents.

[MrB]

All working together from a common coordinator.

[Old Yeller]

All working together from a common coordinator.

Yeah, Satan. Ephesians 6:12

[MrB]

Those who reject that truth/reality will be forever confused as to why this is all happening. They won’t see the commonality of all these seemingly disparate and contradictory agendas.

[NorthMountain]

Today blacks are disenchanted with an administration—both Obama’s and the current one in Chicago—that has played them.The politicians, who have been so ready to write trillion dollar checks to Wall Street, auto companies and cronies haven’t spent a dime on addressing issues decimating the black community.

The Gibsmedats are 'frustrated' because they didn't get goodies from the gubmint. The problem with 0bama is that he isn't sufficiently socialist to satisfy them.

[Gritty]

Maybe we can dig up LBJ’s corpse and hang him for most of this?

[Stosh]

I do science, not economics, so I’ll defer to your background on those questions.

But here’s what “The Economist” says on QE:

“To carry out QE central banks create money by buying securities, such as government bonds, from banks, with electronic cash that did not exist before. The new money swells the size of bank reserves in the economy by the quantity of assets purchased—hence “quantitative” easing. Like lowering interest rates, QE is supposed to stimulate the economy by encouraging banks to make more loans. The idea is that banks take the new money and buy assets to replace the ones they have sold to the central bank. That raises stock prices and lowers interest rates, which in turn boosts investment. Today, interest rates on everything from government bonds to mortgages to corporate debt are probably lower than they would have been without QE. If QE convinces markets that the central bank is serious about fighting deflation or high unemployment, then it can also boost economic activity by raising confidence. Several rounds of QE in America have increased the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet—the value of the assets it holds—from less than $1 trillion in 2007 to more than $4 trillion now.” - See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/01/economist-explains-7#sthash.q5JfQ708.dpuf

Assuming what they’ve stated above is truth, I’d conclude:

QE does in fact have the effect of creating money

The change in the Reserve’s holdings under Obama is $3 trillion (how that corresponds to the amount of money created is not something I’m qualified to say)

Money creation historically has led to inflation, which can be readily manifested in commodity prices

Inflation and interest rates are separate concerns (although ultimately they tie together).

Correction of any misconceptions above will be appreciated.

As regards New York vs. Chicago crime/murder rates, as with any sociological metric, teasing out the role of specific factors is difficult. I’d contend *with current policies* Chicago’s police force is under-staffed. Up until deBlasio’s election, New York police could use a “stop-and-frisk” approach to inner city mayhem - Chicago cops can’t, and hence more cops would be needed to get similar results.

If I’m right, now that New York coppers don’t have stop-and-frisk in their tool chest, NY crime and murder rates should start to approach those of Chicago. It won’t happen overnight, but it is a test of the hypothesis.