CONGRESS MEMBERS INDIFFERENT TO THE PUBLIC VOTED FOR THE BAILOUT; SENATE RACES TO VOTE AHEAD OF PUBLIC OUTRAGE

AS OF THIS WRITING, THERE IS BAD NEWS: THE SENATE HAS COME UP WITH A WAY TO MOVE FASTER THAN THE PUBLIC. FACED WITH ALERTS OF PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS ON THIS COMING THURSDAY, REPORTEDLY SENATORS ARE CONTEMPLATING ATTACHING A VERSION OF THE BAILOUT BILL TO OTHER LEGISLATION ALREADY VOTED ON BY THE HOUSE—WHICH WOULD SUPPOSEDLY ...   more »

THEY ARE TRYING TO WATER THE DOLLAR WHILE PRETENDING THE SKY IS FALLING

 --One by-product of the bailout bill, as independent journalist Dave Lindorff has pointed out, is the enormous effect it would have on the U.S. dollar. As traditional and iconoclastic economists both know, a net effect of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy all at once, when that money has to be borrowed from abroad, is inflation.

Not the kind of 'inflation' hawked as a bogeyman in connection with wages--CNBC just aired an interesting stat that the median salary of white men in their thirties ...   more »

CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS ALMOST GOT SNOOKERED. –It is deeply, intensely fortunate for the Democrats that 95 Dems in Congress rejected the fiscal and political unwisdom of its leadership in Congress. Good thing. Had the bailout passed—with mainly Democrat support (see below)—Democratic candidates across the country would face a daunting prospect between now and the election: In this scenario, personnel chosen by the administration would even now be picking which financial entities—banks, savings and loans companies, even insurance companies—in which states to help, and which to close or to leave floundering.    more »

HOT NEWS!
BAILOUT BILL GOES DOWN TO DEFEAT: HALLELUJAH!


SAVING THE SENATE THE NECESSITY TO DESTROY THIS BILL BY FILIBUSTER, THE U.S. HOUSE CAME TO ENOUGH OF ITS SENSES TO DEFEAT THE BAILOUT BILL.


Next steps: 1) To find out where the pressure came from to pass this abomination. 2) To step in to protect mortgage holders, mortgages, small debtors and 401Ks from the rapacity and lust for vengeance that will surely target them.
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"EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE": BAILOUT LOOPHOLE #4 --This loophole, or flabbiness, in the bailout bill has also been written about elsewhere, incl the Sirota column cited in the previous post (see below).

In spite of a lot of stern public statements about excessive rewards for crummy CEOs, there is virtually nothing in the bill to prevent the worst abuses from continuing:

(page 31): " . . . the Secretary shall require that the financial institution [acquired] meet appropriate standards for executive compensation and corporate governmance." WHAT ARE 'APPROPRIATE STANDARDS'? WHY CAN'T WE HAVE SPECIFIC DOLLAR AMOUNTS HERE?

"(2) ...   more »

"FORECLOSURE MITIGATION EFFFORTS": BAILOUT LOOPHOLE # 3 --This one has already been pointed out by David Sirota.

After all the ballyhoo about how Dems in Congress compelled the powers that be to protect homeowners from foreclosure, nothing in this bailout bill actually does that. The Secretary of the Treasury "shall implement a plan that seeks to maximize assistance for homeowners," etc etc (page 25).

And "the Secretary [of Treasury] may use loan guarantees and credit enhancements to facilitate loan modifications to prevent avoidable foreclosures."

As always, every form of financial assistance goes to the lender, not to the ...   more »

2nd in quick series of what appear to be glaring loopholes in oversight etc, as provided for in the bailout bill. Apparent loophole, as before, highlighted:

From page 20, under Sec. 105, "REPORTS" (by the Secretary of the Treasury to Congress):

"(2) TIMING.--The report required by this subsection shall be submitted not later than 7 days after the date on which commitments to purchase troubled assets under the authorities provided in this Act first reach an aggregate of $50,000,000,000 and not later than 7 days after each $50,000,000,000 interval of such commitments is reached thereafter."

So, no report required ...   more »

BAILOUT LOOPHOLE 1: Re “PREVENTING UNJUST ENRICHMENT”

 

 

This post is the first in a series--a quick index of some exceptions, or loopholes, found in the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.”

The loopholes are color-highlighted and italicized. Comment kept to a minimum:

 

·         “PREVENTING UNJUST ENRICHMENT.  .  . the Secretary shall take such steps as may ...   more »

Among provisions of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008," better characterized as the bailout bill, is Sec.105. REPORTS, stating that the Secretary [of Treasury] will report periodically about his big stabilization moves "to the appropriate committees of Congress." (p. 18)

Some future question may well arise about the adequacy of the reports. For now, it is interesting that the legislation specifically defines that term "appropriate committees"--limiting it to four committtees in the Senate and four in the House, NOT INCLUDING EITHER THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (http://sbc.senate.gov) OR THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS (http://www.house.gov/smbiz).

Doesn't ...   more »

FUNNY HOW THIS SEEMS TO HAVE OCCURRED TO NO ONE IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION--

but the waves of foreclosures that are said to have begun the current financial crisis, if it is one, could have been held back from the get-go. How? Simple: Through government intervention. If Uncle Sam was going to jump into the housing market with fistfuls of billions, he could have paid off selected mortgages.

Here is what A. Maslow wd call the hierarchy of needs in the current situation, as broad-brushed by this morning's Washington Post:

"In a practical sense, the government is trying to ...   more »

THE TEXT OF THE MASSIVE BAILOUT, ALL 100+ PAGES, IS NOW POSTED ONLINE. IT WENT UP APPROXIMATELY WHEN SPEAKER PELOSI COULD ANNOUNCE ON TELEVISION THAT IT WAS POSTED, AND NOT A MINUTE SOONER.

THEY DID NOT GO SO FAR AS TO ALLOW IT TO BE POSTED BEFORE THE NEWS CONFERENCE, ON AIR, FEATURING THE TOP MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE AND THE HOUSE BANKING COMMITTEE.

IT IS NOW POSTED. GOOD LUCK GETTING TO IT. IT IS LINKED AT https://financialservices.house.gov/ AND ON SPEAKER PELOSI'S WEB SITE.

SO FAR, I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO ACCESS THE BILL, SAID BY PELOSI TO ...   more »

Here is the pdf draft discussion version of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008":

http://wesawthat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/bail_out_bill_house_firstdraft.pdf

President Richard Nixon signed a previous Economic Stabilization Act in 1971. That was about the time the U.S. economy, which had been steadily and strongly expanding since World War II, began its gradual and steady decline.
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FIRST WORD OUT ABOUT THE BAILOUT BILL, NAMED THE "EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008," IS THAT ITS OVERSIGHT BOARD IS LESS THAN BIPARTISAN OR INCLUSIVE:

"The oversight board will consist of the Federal Reserve Chairman, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, the Federal Home Finance Agency director and the Housing and Urban Development secretary."

BE IT NOTED, THESE PERSONNEL ARE NOT EXACTLY DETACHED FROM THE PROCESSES THAT RAMRODDED THIS PROPOSAL THROUGH IN THE FIRST PLACE.

THE BILL REPORTEDLY RUNS 106 PAGES.

CONTRARY TO REP. PELOSI'S EXPRESSED WISHES, IT IS NOT POSTED ONLINE AT THIS TIME.


   more »

From the web site of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who as usual hits the nail on the head: "Protecting the public interest in any economic "bailout"

The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a ...   more »

WHY ARE THEY LISTENING TO WARREN BUFFETT? Why is Congress inviting in a major investor--who stands to recoup more billions of $ in the wake of the bailout proposal, if enacted--to weigh in on legislation?

Buffett has made billions through--if I read his own words correctly--buying when other people are selling, and selling when other people are buying.

Admittedly this simple principle, following the so-called law of supply & demand to its logical application, has not occurred to everyone else, especially everyone else on Wall Street--people who have instead fomented and pursued one Ponzi scheme after another.

But it hardly ...   more »

DEMS AND DUMBER

 

The news is all bad this morning. Today’s Washington Post, paralleling or copying the New York Times, reports that legislators in Congress have reached some kind of tentative 'compromise' on some kind of bailout bill.

 

The WP is spinning this bailout legislation as having the Democrats’ footprint all over it, in an article subheaded “Vote is Imminent on $700 Billion Bailout Plan”:

“Yesterday's talks, ...   more »

For those who have not seen this message elsewhere, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduling two days of hearing--adjournment or no adjournment--"to examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers and the government bailout of AIG," according to the Committee's public statement.

Chairman Henry A. Waxman announced the hearings Sept. 17:

“Lax oversight and reckless investments on Wall Street are causing massive disruption throughout our economy,” said Chairman Waxman.  “Our hearings will examine what went wrong and who should be held to account.”

 The hearing with Richard Fuld, ...   more »

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to Lehman Brothers:    "It is difficult to understand how Lehman Brothers is unable to produce a single internal document that went to or from the CEO’s office over the past six months.  It is also difficult to understand why there is no log, file, or other record documenting where these internal documents went."

Shades of Enron, the Office of the Vice President, and those White House emails. No wonder the administration has thrust three of its most august officials into an unwanted limelight to rush a trillion-dollar bailout through an adjourning Congress! Yesterday, Henry ...   more »

The history of human civilization since at least the Golden Age of Greece--Athenian dominance at its apex represented by names like Pericles--has taught us one key lesson in geopolitics: Empire does not work.

This luminously simple message has been conveyed by every practitioner of empire that we remember from our history books--the Greeks, the Romans, the "Holy Roman Empire." The Mongol hordes moving on Europe from the East, the Ottoman Turks from the Middle East, the Spanish and the Portuguese moving in on the New World--all learned the limits of empire. And when their bloodthirsty drive for conquest for its ...   more »

Somehow, John McCain's abruptly canceling out of the first presidential debate, scheduled for this Friday, and 'suspending' his campaign to return to Washington reminds me of then-Sen. Phil Gramm's abruptly announcing that he wd be retiring from the Senate, back in 2001. Nobody had thought of Gramm as anything but one of the top GOP movers & shakers in the Senate--well, people thought him plenty of other things, but none that cd affect his party standing--and the news came as something of a jolt inside the Beltway. Seeing signs that Gramm's wife, Wendy, had been crying, someone even speculated that she had health issues, perhaps breast cancer.   more »

Bailout Extortion

 

Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Director Bernanke issued only generalized warnings, if dire, in testifying at the Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday. One question left unanswered was a big one--‘What exactly is the harm in not authorizing the smashing sum of $700 billion+ to bail out some entities in the financial industry?’

 

(Another big question not ...   more »

Generally I do not read the comment posts up (allowed up) at MSM web sites. But this particular letter is priceless, one reading of the administration bailout proposal in a format familiar to everyone who has email.

Credit to www.abc.com:

"Dear American:I am need to ask you to supporting an urgent secret legal businessrelationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.I am Ministery of the Treasury of the Republic of America. Mycountry has had crisis that has caused the need for large transferof funds of 700 billion dollars US. If you would assisting me in thistransfer, it would ...   more »

From the good people at ImpeachBush.org and the Vote No Bailout web site: More than 100,000 letters opposing the gargantuan, open-ended 'bailout' legislation have already been sent:

"** Please forward as widely as possible: to friends, co-workers, classmates and neighbors**

A country held hostage - Resistance Grows to Banker's Coup D'etat
More than 100,000 letters sent through VoteNoBailout.org to Congress
New Free Web Button Available for VoteNoBailout

A VoteNoBailout To-Do List: 1) Send a letter to Congress 2) Tell a friend about VoteNoBailout 3) Put this button on your site or blog

A grassroots movement of resistance is sweeping ...   more »

They’re nuts if they pass this ‘bailout’ bill.

 

A few relatively quick points, here, about the gigantic minimum-$700 billion ‘bailout’ bill now being debated in Congress and analyzed everywhere:

 

1)      I attended the Senate Banking Committee hearing today, and the audience for this was the biggest audience that I personally have ever seen at any hearing. The large room (Dirksen G50) was filled with ordinary citizens—not just staffers, lobbyists, and ...   more »