'Hurricane' Paulson blows away 500 years of jurisprudence for bankers' club

[inanna]

BEFORE we even think about the inevitable passing of a banking licence to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — previously they held only gaming licences — let us learn by rote the following: "Decisions by the Secretary (Henry Paulson) pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

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And when "the Act" is authorised, does the authority above "any court of law of administrative agency" include international law?

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Is the US, in a dominant position as a military power, where it spends more than the rest of the world combined and acts unilaterally and in defiance of international law and convention, extending this authority to itself as the nation that once controlled 59% of the world's gross domestic product but now is an absolute irredeemable basket case?

Let us accept that Paulson sold this pig in a poke and did so as the financial markets were coming to a screeching halt, that Armageddon was upon us, that without this massive and historic intervention, the Dow would have collapsed completely, money would have dried up, businesses would close around the country and the whole house of cards would have collapsed.

Does any of that make these moves any less reprehensible?


More: http://business.theage.com.au/business/hurricane-paulson-blows-away-500-years-of-jurisprudence-for-bankers-club-20080922-4ltt.html