It was a bad week for men wearing silly capes.
This week it was revealed that Superman announces his intention to renounce his U.S. citizenship before the UN and become a citizen of the world in episode #900 of the DC Comics classic.
Things have just gotten too complicated for him to be the front man for U.S policy, the citizen of steel explains. Plus, he’s a naturalized and pastel-ized U.S. citizen, being born in Kenya… er, on Krypton.
The episode is proof positive that the founders knew what they were doing when they required you to be born in the U.S.A.
I blame Obama’s Libyan debacle for this storyline, with the economy a close second.
I mean, the big “S” stuck through the Iraq war. That war was a lot less complicated.
George Bush was a lot less complicated too, whether you spelled it with an H or a W.
Even so, I’ll be trashing my plastic tri-fold Superman wallet distributed by DC Comics and made in- you guessed it- China.
You don’t grow up in Kansas, as Clark Kent did, and then dis the U.S of A. They teach that there.
Instead, I’ll be shopping for a Mighty Mouse wallet as a replacement.
But the bad news for our president, doesn’t end there.
Weiss Ratings downgraded U.S. debt this week.
Yes, the superman of all debts, public and private, got it some kryptonite.
“We believe that the AAA/Aaa assigned to U.S. sovereign debt by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch is unfair to investors and savers, who are undercompensated for the risks they are taking," Weiss Ratings President Martin D. Weiss said according to the South Florida Business Journal.
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Weiss rated the U.S. a “C” credit risk, behind even Mexico.
The U.S. isn’t just a banana republic under Obama, it’s close to a failed state; at least in its ability to pay the bills.
To make matters worse, Weiss made the announcement after Federal Reserve “superman” Ben Bernanke admitted in a press conference that his policy of printing money has resulted in higher inflation and no jobs.
The announcement by Weiss may not be unrelated to the Bernanke press conference.
As Forbes observed this week, the Fed under Bernanke may not have the ability to judge anything anymore.
Just last month, the web site reminded us, the Fed assured everyone that “The economic recovery is on firmer footing, and overall conditions in the labor market appear to be improving gradually.”
On Wednesday the Fed told us “The economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace and overall conditions in the labor market are improving gradually.”
On cue, right after the Bernanke press conference, the estimates for GDP by the Fed were then slashed to 1.8 percent after posting 3.7 percent in the first quarter. Think that Ben didn't know about those new numbers at his all-is-well press conference?
The revised estimates confirmed what we already knew; that the Fed policy was igniting inflation that would eventually hurt economic growth by spiking prices for things like gas, food, common stocks.
1.8 percent growth is hardly enough growth to ensure that jobless claims don’t start going up again.
Then on Friday, the Fed chief told an audience that he wants more sub-prime lending.
We're getting into the area where we just can't make this stuff up.
Yes, Ben Bernanke is calling on lenders to give more money to people who can't afford mortgages.
Really.
"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday called for more lending to people and small businesses in lower-income neighborhoods," reports the AP "saying they've been disproportionately hurt by the recession."
Does Bernanke think he’s running for re-election? What’s worse is that our chief banking officer doesn’t seem to understand how the country got where we are fiscally.
And things have just become too complicated- and political- and dangerous for Bernanke to remain the front man for U.S. economic policy.
Instead Ben should do the decent thing:
Take off that silly cape.
It looks ridlculous.
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