Well, I’m a little late to the party, but that should be OK.
It seems as if Wall Street is going to get much of what they want in this upcoming bailout bill, but they’re not going to get all of it.
From Handout to Bailout
It looks like our elected officials showed a bit of spine and common sense in taking this from ‘handout’ to bailout and have placed some checks and balances on the handing over of $700 large to the extortionists on Wall Street.
But the key aspect of this situation is that it was still extortion.
Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist
Let’s all say that again:
If it’s too big to fail, it’s too big to exist.
That’s still going to be a problem, and given that this crisis is going to destroy many of the banking firms that do business here in the US and abroad, that means that these entities are only going to get bigger.
There should be a followup to this bailout action by responsible lawmakers and that follow up should be a little old fashioned Teddy Roosevelt Trust Busting.
3 Features of the Bailout
This bailout is going to do 3 things, and 2 of them run against the American people’s interests:
- Keep the economy moving –
Supply chains will remain intact, goods and services can still be bought, and hopefully some boomers will retain some of their retirement savings. We’ll get to continue to buy things. The corporations that the American people depend on for food, energy and other vital goods and services will remain in operation (hopefully) in the short term. That’s a good thing for Americans.
- Outsource Regulatory and Policy Development Powers to White Collar Criminals –
The Treasury wants to pay outsource the responsibility for cleaning up this mess to the very people who created it.To steal a metaphor from a respected diarist,”The Chickens are going to pay top dollar to the Foxes to clean up the blood in the henhouse.”
This is not in Americans best interests.
- Help White Collar Criminals Gain More Leverage for Future Extortion –
This is my greatest fear. I think back to the economic destruction of the fledgling Russian Democracy by a handful of powerful Oligarchs that sold their Rubles for dollars and bankrupted the country, amassing tremendous wealth in the process.What is to stop these White Collar Criminals from selling shaky dollars for strong Euros? Has anybody in Congress thought of that? Do we have any protections from being robbed again?
I have not heard of any.
Done Deal
Word is that this is a done deal. The only question is the details. Getting sensible protections and much needed transparency in matters of high finance is pretty much a non-starter in this era of Corporate Sponsored Public Policy. There simply are not enough independent representatives, media outlets and thinkers to stand up to their corporate sponsors on such a dire situation as this.
Bernie Sanders, love him to death, is not going to get a fair airing of his plan in this climate of fear and doom. It’s a done deal.
Stabilize the Situation Then Resurrect Sherman
As I mentioned above, the bailout might help us tread water and stave off an immediate Depression, but it also gives too much power and leverage to the White Collar Extortionists that caused this whole mess.
So, once the situation is stabilized we need to make a move to ensure that we are protected in the future.
Democrats need to Resurrect Sherman and lay the full weight of the United States government against these White Collar Extortionists and bust up these financial trusts.
Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist
If we are done forking over our hard earned cash to whims and ‘needs’ of greedy fat cats; if we are tired of being held hostage by White Collar Extortionists; if we are tired of the growing disparity of wealth in this country; if we are tired of feeling powerless over our lot in life and want to return to our self governing republic of yore, we must resurrrect Sherman and bust these trusts.
Let them take our money. Let them shore up their balance books. Let them play around with the figures to make themselves look pretty. Let them buy up quality assets at firesale prices. Let them do what Bankers do.
Then let’s break them up.
Lets split them into bite sized chunks so that when they fail again, and rest assured, they will fail again, we don’t choke on their excess, largess and failure.
Let’s take the Masters of the Universe and whittle them down to Masters of their Neighborhood, Masters of their State. Let’s get a handle on them so we can ensure that this kind of global extortion doesn’t happen again.