Why the Bailout Stinks

[Crewleader]

Not One Dime!
October 2, 2008

By MIKE WHITNEY

For nearly a year, we have been asking ourselves why the investors and foreign banks that bought up hundreds of billions of dollars of worthless mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from US investment banks have not taken legal action against these same banks or initiated a boycott of US financial products to prevent more people from getting ripped off?

Now we know the answer. It's because, behind the scenes, Henry Paulson and Co. were working out a deal to dump the whole trillion dollar mess on the US taxpayer. That's what this whole $700 billion boondoggle is all about; wiping out the massive debts that were generated in the biggest incident of fraud in history. Rep Brad Sherman explained it Wednesday night to Larry Kudlow:

"It (The bill) provides hundreds of billions of dollars of bailouts to foreign investors. It provides no real control of Paulson's power. There is a critique board but not really a board that can step in and change what he does. It's a $700 billion program run by a part-time temporary employee and there is no limit on million dollar a month salaries....... It's very clear. The Bank of Shanghai can transfer all of its toxic assets to the Bank of Shanghai of Los Angeles which can then sell them the next day to the Treasury. I had a provision to say if it wasn't owned by an American entity even a subsidiary, but at least an entity in the US, the Treasury can't buy it. It was rejected.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney10022008.html

[GetTheRightVote]

1. This is all very crazy, why are we taking this knife in the back

People call your reps and tell them not to past this bill.
They are robbing from us the tax payer, they are a bunch of theives.

:grr::grr:

[Crewleader]

2. I e-mailed Senator Bill Nelson

thanking him for his courage and integrity on voting No on this bailout. :-)

[GetTheRightVote]

3. I called him and left a thank you message with his customer service

:-)

[Crewleader]

4. GetTheRightVote

:hug:

[grahamhgreen]

5. We need to use the money to prosecute these people, sieze their assets and build a new economy

A new economy of:

Sustainable, unlimited energy.

Ending WTO and NAFTA - bringing jobs back home.

Rebuilding America's infrastructure in a new way to support new energy.

etc.

[groovedaddy]

6. Come November 4th, there will be a reckoning...it can't come too soon! n.t

[anigbrowl]

7. blog spam is spam.

[lostnotforgotten]

8. Has Anyone Else Noticed That The DU Bailout Spamtroopers Have All But Disappeared

eom

[Warpy]

10. They disappeared because they got what they wanted

and are back to cranking about Palin.

[Warpy]

9. It stinks mostly because it won't work

and is exactly like paying off a compulsive gambler's debts. You know he's just going to do it all over again. All you've done is buy him a few weeks before his legs get broken.

The very best we can hope for is that the bailout has bought us enough time to start fixing the underlying problems, but we all know that's probably not the case. It has to fail utterly before Congress will be shocked into abandoning supply side GOPonomics.

Congress is reactive, not proactive. This is the last trick in the supply sider's bag, bailing out institutions while ignoring the people who make them up. It never works but Congress will need to see that it never works before it wakes up and acts appropriately.

[CountAllVotes]

11. you are quite right Warpy, it will not work

the problem is really quite simple in my own mind as to why this will not work. It absolutely FAILS to identify what/where these "toxic mortgages" are located. They cannot assess the value of them being they are an unknown amount.

And to think, $700 billion dollars was thrown at an "unknown amount". This really bothers me a lot.

Many things in life are unknown. Do we throw money at them in hopes of fixing them? If we do, chances are very high that it won't fix the problem being the problem cannot be identified.

You need to start at step one: Identify first (and then proceed if you must).

A temporary fix perhaps. Then again it could very well backfire on these idiots only to make the problem even worse. In the end, they still won't know exactly what they $700 billion was used for. It seems we've heard this story before. :mad:

:dem:

[Karenina]

12. They're already whining for more...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3525474