Risk-taking without any risk for the risk-takers is not market economics; it is the cronyism practiced by Obama and his Goldman Sacks friends. Having vilified “obscene” bonuses for the last two years, Obama said of recent bonuses to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon who took a $17 million bonus, and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein who received a $9 million bonus, the bonuses are ok, "I know both those guys."

It is a case of Obama representing his friends, not the inner-city poor, not the middle class, and not the educational needs of the nation. Employees from Goldman Sachs gave more to the Obama campaign than any other organization except the University of California. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase followed in sixth and seventh place.

The problem with Republicans is they are now embracing Wall Street welfare recipients and potentially losing Tea Party and Independent voters forever. Showing themselves as dumb as a box of rocks, Republicans are being outwitted at nearly every turn.

Democrats' crony capitalism is out to destroy the free market believing in the efficacy of the welfare state. The Democrats have been bailing out investment banks from bad bets since the Clinton administration. The bankers got all the profits from risky investments that went bad, then gave massive donations to their Democratic benefactors. But once the bets went bad, it was the taxpayers' problem.

Goldman Sachs and others leveraged the securities packages that killed the American economy knowing the government would bail them when their scheme collapsed.

Republicans should hold hearings to determine who benefited from the Democrats' crony capitalism, and call loud and clear to get all the bailout money back. American taxpayers and businesses are being forced to foot the bill for the Obama’s support of left-wing multimillionaires by bailing them out every time they fleece bowers and investors.

Republicans should defend only investment houses that never benefited from a government bailout.

Obama’s lack of leadership and knowledge of international relations has placed the world on a potentially dangerous path. The president’s open hand extended to the Islamic Republic of Iran was slapped away by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he announced a nuclear Iran. The United States has been forced into a position of having to protect China’s dependence on Iran’s oil as a result of the extreme US debt held by the Chicoms. Sanctions might interrupt the flow of oil to China forcing them to take action against any US or world sanctions.

 

In effect, Obama has weakened the US position to a point that Iran’s rebuke of the West will result in a war that could include China and Israel over nuclear weapons and oil. US energy policy is so weak, the strategic power of the US would be severely restricted with any interruption of foreign oil to the US from its failure to develop oil and coal natural resources in North America.

Extensive sanctions against Iran have been in place for years and have shown scant impact. It is likely that cracking down on Iran's power brokers might not bring Iran to agreement.

What can the US or world do in response? The most radical answer is learning to live with a nuclear Iran. An American defense analyst writing in The New York Times recently argued that a Shiite Iran would serve as a counterforce to Sunni Arab al-Qaida. The U.S. would take the Arab Middle East under its protective umbrella, enlisting those states in an alliance against Iran, much feared throughout the region, especially as a nuclear power. The U.S. already has moved to install Patriot antiballistic missiles in four Gulf states, along with sophisticated radars, among other measures. But the Arab states are not ready to join the American and European gang up on Iran.

This will only work if Israel agrees to hold its fire, as Iran's has announced Israel is targeted for elimination; Israel has vowed not to accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Israel has shown it is ready to act when confronted by what it deems existential threats. It bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and struck Syria's nuclear site in 2007.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Persian Gulf to pressure Iran to rein in its nuclear program and persuade Islamic states to back a swift return to Mideast peace talks. This effort will fail with Iran slapping the weak US president’s foreign policy once again.

Clinton will visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia to pressure Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Western nations and several Mideast states are concerned Iran may be using its nuclear energy program as a cover to build an atomic bomb, a charge the government in Tehran confirms it may do.

 

Clinton will confer with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, on the role it can play in reassuring China it would offset any disruption in oil supplies that might result from new international sanctions on Iran, U.S. officials said. China, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, has resisted pressure from the U.S. and other members to back new penalties aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program.