Naomi Klein: Bailout = Bush's Final Pillage

[babylonsister]

Naomi Klein: Bailout = Bush's Final Pillage

By Naomi Klein, The Nation. Posted October 31, 2008.

The bailout has been designed to keep stealing from the Treasury for years to come.


In the final days of the election, many Republicans seem to have given up the fight for power. But that doesn't mean they are relaxing. If you want to see real Republican elbow grease, check out the energy going into chucking great chunks of the $700 billion bailout out the door. At a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, Republican Senator Bob Corker was fixated on this task, and with a clear deadline in mind: inauguration. "How much of it do you think may be actually spent by January 20 or so?" Corker asked Neel Kashkari, the 35-year-old former banker in charge of the bailout.

When European colonialists realized that they had no choice but to hand over power to the indigenous citizens, they would often turn their attention to stripping the local treasury of its gold and grabbing valuable livestock. If they were really nasty, like the Portuguese in Mozambique in the mid-1970s, they poured concrete down the elevator shafts.

The Bush gang prefers bureaucratic instruments: "distressed asset" auctions and the "equity purchase program." But make no mistake: the goal is the same as it was for the defeated Portuguese -- a final frantic looting of the public wealth before they hand over the keys to the safe.

How else to make sense of the bizarre decisions that have governed the allocation of the bailout money? When the Bush administration announced it would be injecting $250 billion into America's banks in exchange for equity, the plan was widely referred to as "partial nationalization" -- a radical measure required to get the banks lending again. In fact, there has been no nationalization, partial or otherwise. Taxpayers have gained no meaningful control, which is why the banks can spend their windfall as they wish (on bonuses, mergers, savings...) and the government is reduced to pleading that they use a portion of it for loans.

What, then, is the real purpose of the bailout? I fear it is something much more ambitious than a one-off gift to big business -- that this bailout has been designed to keep pillaging the Treasury for years to come. Remember, the main concern among big market players, particularly banks, is not the lack of credit but their battered share prices. Investors have lost confidence in the banks' honesty, and with good reason. This is where Treasury's equity pays off big time.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/105452/naomi_klein%3A_bailout_%3D_bush%27s_final_pillage/?page=entire

[liberal N proud]

1. We hope!

Remember he still have a little under 3 months left that he could still screw up things.

[Locrian]

3. yeah

I dont think we have seen even the start of the worst that they will do. It's pretty easy to wreck everything.

[snappyturtle]

4. You're right that the administration is trying to wreck everything.

Earlier this week it was the endangered species and this morning MSNBC is reporting relaxing of emission standards for mines and industry that ol' Mika said would be difficult for the n ew president to undo! They are very hateful. * is leaving office shrouded in the destruction of foreign policy, environmental issues and the treasury SO-O what does he do? He gets even worse.

[Locrian]

2. thanks for the link

Naomi is amazing. I certainly hope Obama and his staff has read her book.

It's amazing how this is NOT new stuff. It has happened all over the world, it's standard operating procedure for the right wing.

[tomp]

5. if you believe naomi klein, you have to wonder....

....democratic judgment in voting for it.

[Th1onein]

6. The Dems had no choice but to vote for it....

Think about it: You know that the crash is going to come anyway. It's an election year. If you don't vote for the bailout, and the crash comes, you will be blamed. Get it?

[tomp]

7. you'll notice i said, "if you believe naomi klein"...

...so do you or don't you?

is this bailout another case of bush redistributing the wealth upwards or is it something else? if the former, there is no justification i can see for voting for it. the crash may come anyway (i expect it will) and the people will be asking, "what about our $700 billion?" the dems won't look too good then either.

I know, but the dems and the repubs will look equally bad, so no political harm done, right? this is quite a cynical game, which leaves us out $700 billion and leaves THEM (note the plural) in power.

or, you just might want to consider that the dems actually WANT to redistribute wealth upwards, despite all their protestations to the contrary. however you want to look at it,it's always best to proceed on principle. but who's principles, is the question?

[formercia]

8. The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

http://books.google.com/books?id=SI3F8wEuT24C&dq=the+best+way+to+rob+a+bank+is+to+own+one&pg=PP1&ots=UjI01n9Pwg&source=bn&sig=LkMwaEKJ8a_uAH97thr6_sj9B1s&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

[glitch]

9. I hope it's the final looting. I look at it as a brbe to get them to leave

without salting the earth.

However, I don't trust them to keep that "deal". I would have prefered indictments.

[bvar22]

10. Phew. Good thing the Democrats put in all those "protections & oversight"!

Bwahahahahahaha!
Now we got your children's money too!


Once again Dennis Kucinich was right, and leading the opposition to the corporate crooks.



The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[Cronopio]

11. The problem with Naomi's theory is that the Bush admin isn't the only ones involved in the bailout.

Britain also passed similar bailout legislation but had the intelligence/integrity to attach directives on how the money should be spent. Dodd and Frank were negotiating for those provisions on the first bill that got voted down.

What still needs to be done is to open the books on the financial institutions. Capital injection was just the first step in that process, and by itself is only half the solution.

If this was intended to be a looting situation, the Bush admin are not succeeding in doing much of it. Nearly all currencies have deflated, and both commodities and equities across the board have lost value. It's a given that the Bush crowd has lost money in the meltdown.

If anyone is getting anything close to a sweetheart deal it's Goldman Sachs, but they've paid dearly in their business (at least in the short term) too.