The People vs The Banksters: 50 percent "No" and 50 percent "Hell ,No."

[chill_wind]

The bailout has galvanized grassroots movements which have flooded congressional FAXs and phone lines. Callers are overwhelmingly opposed to any bailout for banks that are buckling under their own toxic mortgage-backed assets. One analyst said that the calls to Congress are 50 per cent "No" and 50 percent "Hell, No". There is virtually no popular support for the bill.".

500 Trades Away from Armageddon
The People vs. the Banksters

By MIKE WHITNEY

The financial system is blowing up. Don't listen to the experts; just look at the numbers. Last week, according to Reuters, "U.S. banks borrowed a record amount from the Federal Reserve nearly $188 billion a day on average, showing the central bank went to extremes to keep the banking system afloat amid the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression." The Fed opened the various "auction facilities" to create the appearance that insolvent banks were thriving businesses, but they are not. They're dead; their liabilities exceed their assets. Now the Fed is desperate because the hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the banks vaults have bankrupted the entire system and the Fed's balance sheet is ballooning by the day. The market for MBS will not bounce back in the foreseeable future and the banks are unable to roll-over their short term debt.

The Federal Reserve itself is in danger. So, it's on to Plan B; which is to dump all the toxic sludge on the taxpayers before they realize that the whole system is cratering. It's called the Paulson Plan, a $700 billion outrage which has already been disparaged by every economist of merit in the country.

From Reuters: "Borrowings by primary dealers via the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, and through another facility created on Sunday for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, and their London-based subsidiaries, totaled $105.66 billion as of Wednesday, the Fed said."

See what I mean; they're all broke. The Fed's rotating loans are just a way to perpetuate the myth that the banks aren't flat-lining already. Bernanke has tied strings to the various body parts and jerks them every so often to make it look like they're alive. But the Wall Street model is broken and the bailout is pointless.


(...)

The country's economic predicament is steadily deteriorating. Orders for manufactured durable goods were off 4.5 percent last month while inventories continued to rise. Unemployment is soaring and the housing crash continues to accelerate. Credit Suisse now expects 10.3 million foreclosures (total) in the next few years. Numbers like that are not accidental, but part of a larger scheme to use monetary policy as a way to shift wealth from one class to another while degrading the nation's overall economic well-being. More alarming, the country's primary creditors are now staging a rebellion that is likely to cut off the flow of capital to US markets sending the dollar plummeting and triggering a deflationary credit collapse. This is from Reuters:

"Chinese regulators have asked domestic banks to stop lending to U.S. financial institutions in the interbank money markets to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday. The China Banking Regulatory Commission's ban on interbank lending of all currencies applied to U.S. banks, but not to lenders from other countries, the report added."

what a read - http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09272008.html

[kirby]

1. Calls to Congress != Public opinion

I've seen 1/3 for, 1/3 unknown mentioned on the news.

[chill_wind]

2. Corp Whore TeeVee News lies to us. AP yesterday:

Aides to lawmakers in both parties say telephone calls from constituents are running heavily against the bailout — in some cases nearly 100-1 against, making the vote a potentially tricky one for a candidate in a competitive race.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown



(edit for link)

[kirby]

6. You are missing my point...

The number of people who call Congress is not the same as a national Poll. It is like when some Gun issue arises. The NRA mobilizes and there might be 75-1 on the issue yet the nation is split.

Here is one recent poll:
http://people-press.org/report/452/public-favors-bailout

[chill_wind]

7. I'm sorry. I thought you might be referencing an ABC news poll that was being tossed around a

couple days ago. Your point otherwise is well taken, although that's from some days ago- conducted September 19-22.
In the days since, I think a quite bit more has emerged about Bush's bailout and the whole bailout debate since that was taken.

[depakid]

3. What an IDIOT

This is one reason why I don't read counterpunch.

It's not a credible publication- preferring instead hystrionics and spreading false rumors.

[chill_wind]

4. Oh for Christ's sakes.

Many DUers here read and share diverse selections from Counterpunch. Stick to your carefully mentally sanitized MacDU approved reading list if you need to. Read or don't read it.

[depakid]

5. False statements of fact and assinine analysis

are just that- regardless of whether they come from freeper publications or whacked out people on the left.