US Taxpayers are Violated - the Looting Operation Continues
I am trying to maintain a very level-headed approach to the changes that we are seeing. However, from time to time the looting operation becomes just a bit too obvious, a bit too overt, and I find my level of cool slipping.
This is one of those times.
Here are the dots that I am connecting that have me concerned, if not angry.
Remember, even prior to its passage, I called the bailout the greatest looting operation of our time. I did so because the language of the Bailout Act, as originally proposed by the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, er, I mean the Treasury Secretary, requested three things: unitary power, no review, and no limits.
Frankly, it was the most plainly-worded document of theft that I had ever seen, and probably ever will see, in my life (because it was too blatant and such mistakes are rarely made again).
After that draft was defeated in the House, the Senate immediately attached a much denser 300+ page version of the bailout bill to an existing piece of legislation and passed it. The house caved after an intense week of lobbying by both banks and the people of the land, who were diametrically opposed on the issue. Naturally, they caved to the banking interests.
But We The People won some symbolic victories in that battle, including the explicit promise of complete transparency in the use of that money.
Now it turns out that We The Payers won nothing at all, and that we are not even being afforded the most basic right of being able to view how that money is being spent.
Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
This is a complete outrage. Here we have been told that we cannot see how our money is being spent, and that we cannot have insight into whether this money is being used to enrich cronies of the system.
So far, the data is not encouraging. Failed institutions have been spared (at great expense), lies and prevarications have been our signposts along the way, and each new "program" has been an affront to common sense and decency.
The common element has always been 'telling the public the least amount possible.'
I wish there were a second currency in operation in this country, so that I could vote on this plan by dishoarding every single Federal Reserve Note and piling into a better-run currency.
And here’s your second lesson in “why larger bills with more pages are better for looting than small bills.” It turns out that the Treasury quietly slipped in a bit of language that handed a massive, unprecedented $140 billion tax give-away to major banks.
A quiet windfall for U.S. banks
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.
I just want you to think of this when Congress agonizes over and finally determines that the nation “cannot afford” to undo the $85 billion in middle class AMT tax hikes later this year.
I want you to also think of the amount of time that Congress agonized over $14 billion in alternative energy tax credits before grudgingly passing them. Ten times that amount was handed to big banks without, to my knowledge, even a single open-floor comment or objection from a single congressperson.
Simply outrageous. We’ve been looted.
Next, as this article in The Nation makes clear, the “deals” that the Treasury department has been making on your behalf under the mandate to “protect the taxpayer” have been running roughly 100% over fair market value. In other words, a gigantic handout to the biggest banks at the worst possible price (for taxpayers), with practically no strings attached.
The swindle of American taxpayers is proceeding more or less in broad daylight, as the unwitting voters are preoccupied with the national election. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson agreed to invest $125 billion in the nine largest banks, including $10 billion for Goldman Sachs, his old firm.
But, if you look more closely at Paulson's transaction, the taxpayers were taken for a ride--a very expensive ride. They paid $125 billion for bank stock that a private investor could purchase for $62.5 billion. That means half of the public's money was a straight-out gift to Wall Street, for which taxpayers got nothing in return.
But that’s okay – there’s a big G20 meeting coming up. Perhaps the world’s leaders will come up with a sensible plan for returning some of the power back to We The People?
UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society
LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.
In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.
"The alliance between Britain and the U.S. -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.
According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.
These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.
Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.
Whoa. Hold on there! Lots of warning signals are flashing for me here. First, rather than a new world order, I think we need to understand how we can return to the old world order – you know, where international trade is balanced, and people save, and debt growth matches economic growth. .
I definitely think it's way too early to be proclaiming that now is the right time to set off on a big building project.
From my vantage point, it rather looks like our McMansion has fallen to the ground in a jumble, and now the same architect is trying to sell us on a bigger design.
Second, I am deeply uncomfortable with the language and intent expressed by “the need to reassert faith in democracy.” What in the heck does that mean? Seriously. What exactly is he trying to imply?
I was not aware that democracy was in need of additional faith. I rather thought it ran on such things as laws, fairness, and its own merits.
This line smacks of demagoguery, and I am deeply cautious of the messenger who hails from the country with the most security cameras and intrusive domestic government spying policies of any “democracy” out there. If Gordon Brown is selling democracy, I am suddenly no longer buying.
Worse, it is the financial crisis that is being used to peddle this tripe. A crisis that has been used to advance the power and reach of the banks, using the most overt looting and legalized theft ever seen or envisaged.
Now I am more than a little concerned about what is coming next. The decisions emanating from this G20 meeting deserve more than a little scrutiny.
Oddly, Obama is not attending, only Bush (and by extension Cheney). All the more curious.
But one thing is for dead certain - if a new world order is being planned, I don't want Brown or Bush or Cheney anywhere near it.
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If Gordon Brown is selling democracy, I am suddenly no longer buying.
Glad to hear it Chris coming my way are you? Small groups of a hundred or so, concensus and no more leaders.
Don
__________________________________________________________
You can domesticate some animals just by feeding them, same with most humans
Store fed, store owned
As you say, it is looting, and the numbers are really astonishing. I feel exactly the same way you do. Spending for a better energy regime - like pulling teeth. Spending to keep your friends in their bonuses and houses in the Hamptons - worth hundreds of billions, without any discussion or oversight. One might almost say "priceless." Big surprise - the Fed works for the banks, so of course the banks get the largesse.
At some point, I don't know when, the Fed will go too far, do too much, and this whole system will explode - either through hyperinflation or a debt default. If we don't lose our form of government in the process, in the aftermath we will figure out who was to blame and we will restructure.
But that day is not yet here. There is still too much residual faith in the central bank and the government's ability to rescue the economy and "make everything better." Its how we are conditioned; in spite of Katrina, we still feel the government will be there to take care of us when things go poorly.
Thanks for all your work Chris.
Americans should stop payments on ALL mortgages, car loans, credit cards. Forthwith.
Bring the banks to their knees, and renegotiate all debts.
I'd insist on cancelation myself....
Glad I don't live in the US. I feel for you guys.
Mike in Australia.
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!
This is NUTS!
I voted for Nader. I was very concerned that a financial "crisis" would postpome the election. Now, I really worry about the inoguration being "delayed" by a financial "crisis."
I posed this on some other thread, and I will post it here: I read ONeil's book, in it he said that this admin's guiding principle was that reality lagged perception. ONeil as you recall got sacked for opposing debt/deficits. Suskind who wrote the book got called on the carpet (presumed by many by Rove):
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
In a recent article Peter Schiff said this place will look like south America from there to Canada and that we should consider emegrating. I emailed him and asked him where? I hope he doesn't say Russia, my grandfather could have saved me a trip.
There is likely less than 1% that have a clue as to what is happening. Even we are slow here to figure this out. I doubt there is time to emegrate, recall elected officials or anything else. Now I am even more curious over the Rex84 "camps" built by a Haliburton sub sid.
A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks
With Attention on Bailout Debate, Treasury Made Change to Tax Policy
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal.
"Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no," said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. "They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
I said this elsewhere, but if ever there was a time for revolution in the US, this is that time.
Unfortunately, most Americans are stuck in a consumer trance and don't have any clue what is really happening in front of their eyes. The media is partially to blame, of course, but I also happen to believe that citizens of democracy have an obligation to stay informed, monitor the decisions made by their elected government, and act when their interests are not being represented.
There is no doubt in my mind that if we (as Americans) simply wait around for our leaders to bring us the change we want to see, we'll never see it. We have to get on the phone, write letters and emails and take to the streets to demand that change. If enough of us actually woke up and exercised our rights, those in power would be forced to bend to our will or be replaced by someone who will.
Of course the power elite is well aware of this, so it has always been in their interest to encourage ignorance and apathy in the electorate. What with Brittany Spears, TV sitcoms, MySpace, professional sports and endless opportunities to buy and consume, we're doing their work for them.
I also believe that Americans are capable of great things once they are mobilized. But what will it take for us to wake up, break the chains of materialism and distraction and take the power into our own hands? If recent events haevn't done it, what will? And will it happen soon enough to avet total disintegration?
Formerly known as "switters"
OBs first executive order.................destroy the second amendment....then the NWO is clear for take off.
My daily dose of disgust was the rewriting of the AIG deal. Apparently, the original one had the horrible flaw of being far too kind to the tax payers.
This kind of bullshit, is unfortunately going to get much worse in the next two months. Bush and Co are going to busy making all their last minute hand outs using, abusing, and twisting to the max every last bit of power given to them. Basically everything they've done in the last eight years but now even more extravagant that they have even less political incentive to hold back.
(Don't be in the least surprised if many of these recent deals are rewritten to make them as hard as possible to legally undo by the next president.)
All we can do now is grit our teeth and cross our fingers. If we are lucky the Obama administration will spend its first three months unwinding as much of the damage as is possible at that point. Here's to hope for a better next four years, because now that's all we have.
(Oh, and did you hear? American Express is going to be a bank holding company. The stealth bailout gravy train -- guarenteeing of senior debt of banks/bankholding companies -- is still busy loading itself up.)
--
Steve
Folks:
Let's step back a bit and ask is the reason for these actions...
a.) The financial impacts are much bigger than advertized
b.) The key decision makers are clueless/incompetent and reacting trying to plug the dam with their fingers.
c.) The key decision makers are desperate and running around with their heads in their hands in a vain attempt to keep an even larger problem/catastrophy from happening.
d.) All Of The Above.
I vote for d.
BTW...After 30+ working for the federal governement...that should say something.
"Lord, give me the STRENGTH and WISDOM to see things as they are...not the way I believe they are" -- Leonardo Da Vinci
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." --Albert Einstein
Oddly, Obama is not attending, only Bush (and by extension Cheney). All the more curious.
Obviously, good cop bad cop happening.
Yeah right. Only the small fish are clueless. The guys at the top know exactly what they're doing. Read the Article on Washington Post about the stealthy change in tax law by the Treasury.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
That's what they want you to believe.
Nichoman:
I've had plenty of interaction -20 years of dealing with the FAA. No doubt D.
Having said that: To fix it
a.) re-denominate (globally, i.e. everyone), do a gold standard baked currency
b.) well if really big govt screws things up, hmmm, okay a new world order really big govt.
Sorry, but "b" doesn't let me just step back.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2008/11/liberry.html
Ha ha ha ha ha!
If any president could just repeal the second amendment like that, it would have been dead and gone for two centuries now.
Since the second amendment is still here, you should already know just how absurd any such claim is. Just like anyone who voted for a Republican thinking that Roe vs Wade would somehow be overturned is equally dumb. Liberals can't get rid of the guns, conservatives can't get rid of abortion. Those are the facts. Thousands and thousands of failed attempts make this abundantly clear.
As for Obama and the 'New World Order' is just pure stupidity. If you think a president whose claim to fame and unseating of Clinton was organizing the largest group of (mostly young) people under the notion that they can bring change to America and whose first speech talks about how their work isn't done is going turn around and outright defy his own base of power is just silly. Young people are fickle and prone to revolutionary thought, and would be quick to use their new found organizational skills to obliterate Obama's presidency if they feel particularly miffed.
Obama doesn't strike me as that stupid. A far more likely story would be him dithering and make half hearted ineffectual gestures while, in fact, maintaining the status quo.
--
Steve
Rex 84 is for nonviolent citizens.
Oddly, Obama is not attending, only Bush (and by extension Cheney). All the more curious.
If Obama isn't going, what CAN the G20 do?
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!
How about this for disgusting: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/10... AIG exec go on yet another resort junket.
I said this elsewhere, but if ever there was a time for revolution in the US, this is that time.
YEP.
And like I keep saying, if the majority of Americans stopped servicing their debts, you'd have a bloodless revolution in less than a week.....
I'm surprised no one, absolutely no one, has even contradicted me on this.
Discuss.
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!
I said this elsewhere, but if ever there was a time for revolution in the US, this is that time.
I'm surprised no one, absolutely no one, has even contradicted me on this.
Discuss.
If I had any debts to not pay, I would not pay them!
Perhaps I should make some for that purpose.
Formerly known as "switters"
I agree...I just called GMAC to ask what happens to my payments when they go out of business. The reply was "we are not going out of business"...from the information released today about GM, the difference in opinion is very disturbing.
I fully support an economic tea party against the financial mafia.
Oh..... to get rid of the second amendment would be very easy now with the Patriot act, and take yer gold at the same time.
srbarbour.....you obviously work for Pelosi....like any board monitor......you shall see.
Dambthematrix:
Ugh, I read that and thought that would work. Then I thought about it and now think: Isn't that what got us in this mess (foreclosures bring the market and tax base and job base down and we the fools pay the bill.)
No, sorry, I think this idea would grant us only a bigger tax bill.
I think this bears reading...
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/conrad/2008/1110.html
dear prof barbour
i would like to have some of what it is you are smoking or drinking or shooting.
obama is not going to unwind anything bush does(paulson and bernanke)
he is going to wind even more on. if you are living in hope you
have my sympathy.
bo got 4x the dough from wall street that mac got he is in on it \
check out his speech on the floor of the senate in favor of the bailout.
none of those crooks even read the bill. it was written last year by paulson and bernanke.
you cant even type a 450 page bill in two days. does the patriot act ring a bell ?
undo the bills by the next pres? WE ARE DOOMED.HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Get used to thinking of government as a criminal syndicate, then the things they do won't be surprising. Get used to thinking of government as your enemy, because that is what it is.
The tax system itself is a massive looting operation. The Federal Reserve is a private counterfeiting operation. The military takes your children and sends them to get killed for no good reason. They lie about practically everything they do. One in a hundred are in prison, half for non-violent drug offenses. With a few exceptions, most everything government does has parallels with private gangs and warlords.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4A92FM20081110?sp=true
AIG gets $150 billion government bailout; posts huge loss
The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department announced the new plan on Monday as AIG reported a record third-quarter loss of $24.47 billion, largely from write-downs of investments.
The new package, at least $27 billion more than was previously extended, will leave the government exposed to billions of dollars of potential losses.
<MORE>
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!
Dambthematrix:
Ugh, I read that and thought that would work. Then I thought about it and now think: Isn't that what got us in this mess (foreclosures bring the market and tax base and job base down and we the fools pay the bill.)
No, sorry, I think this idea would grant us only a bigger tax bill.
I can't follow that reasoning...... afer all, they can't foreclose the whole country.
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!
DamntheMatrix: no one's contradicted you because you're probably quite right. The problem is that nothing approaching a majority would ever do it, at least not for now, so it's just not really useful information. Mostly we're too busy sniping at each other and at the "greedy" people who "bought more house than they could afford" because clearly, you're only going to lose your house if you deserve to, so why should people who keep up their obligations feel sorry for you? Seriously, it's like that. Apparently job losses and utility hikes and medical bills and plain, innocent poor planning only happen to losers. So maybe a few of us stop paying our debt off in a noble attempt to beat the system...congratulations to us, we're now homeless and even more powerless. Maybe once we reach the point where everyone at least knows someone who lost their house, and realizes that "them" is "us", then...maaaaaybe...something like this could work. God knows I feel more hopeless every day that anything less drastic will have much effect, but for the moment, frankly, I knew it was a scam when I signed the papers, and I did it anyway cuz it was the only way to get a house, and I'm keeping that house if I d@mn well can.
I think this bears reading...
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/conrad/2008/1110.html
Indeed, Davos. I've said time and again, its not the expansion of the Fed's balance sheet that should concern us. Rather, it is what the balance sheet is being expanded with.
Now, even more disturbing is apparently the quality of what the Fed has accepted is so bad they are unwilling to disclose it, even if threatened with legal measures... even after the election...
Admittedly, they are saying that this is to prevent a potential run on some banks, which is a slightly more nobel cause, but just as much a cause for alarm in its own right. Do these banks really need more help hiding their losses?
(The Freedom of Information Act requires they reveal this information... if requested)
--
Steve
YAWN
i have posted on this site for a long time and i have said it many times(i get no joy of being right btw)
if you want to know what is happening stop thinking from the bottom up. think as if you had a vision of a new world order and you had 500 trillion dollars . and this new world order was based on neo fuedalism.
what would you do. you would have all the knights in your service. therefore any attempt by the serfs to get any freedom could very easily crushed. the magna carta did not give george 6 pack any freedom it gave it to the aristocracy because a bunch of them were knights or controlled the knights.
at the time the king had most of the gold but the knights were getting a pretty good share via crusades. (templars)after a few hundred years a merchant class developed because hey we got all these neat things we can ripoff and trade for from the east.(oil sheik, indian weavers and chinese noodles)
so we have a currency in coin (gold) well boy howdy we need a place to keep the gold ...voila bankers.
smart guys those bankers they knew one thing "he who has the gold makes the rules" the uh golden rule.
kings were in shock to find out they needed to borrow money and borrow they did .........from the goldsmith bankers. now this little thing called the enlightenment came along and some kings and lords and ladies lost their heads along the way and a thing called democracy kinda got a start. but hey democrats need gold too.
fast forward "some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the u.s. , characterizing my family and me as internationalists and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure- ONE WORLD if you will. if that's the charge, i stand GUILTY AND I AM PROUD OF IT"
david rockefeller
george herbert bush said the virtual same thing. now we have brown saying it. i dont know about you folks but i am beginning to think they are telling the truth (for the first time)
you want to know what comes next? you want to know what this is going to look like? read the shock doctrine by naomi klein.
you have a choice you can be a willing serf or an unwilling serf ...........but you will be a serf nonetheless.
you will till the bankers fields, you will mine his mines, you will write his software and provide his amusements. and in return you get a little food, a little dirty water, a TARP over your head, and if you are a good serf the banker may turn his head once in a while so you can have one of the bankers deer.
and if you are a bad serf well....... then you get a vacation.................a gitmo vacation. and if you make it back you will be a very good serf.
so now we are regressed to stage 2 --anger. not too long ago we were in 6 --acceptance.
i think i will dip into depression for a while myself and contemplate whether i want to be a good serf or a bad serf. (where's my soma?) your loyal info serf from the serf info network (SIN)
om shanti
joe
The way I see things developing in a revolution is that you would get to keep your house even if you default. ALL debts must be forgiven.
Why pretend they can ever be repaid when it is clearly not the case?
I would have more confidence in optimism if the optimists lived wisely!