Mel Brooks in “History of the World Part II” played Louis the 13th….and Harvey Korman said: “My King, the people say you are not in touch with their needs!” “That’s ridiculous………pull!” replied Mel’s character!
Paulson and Bernanke have been “hawking their wears” up on Capitol Hill… The concept seems to be: “We have 24 hours or else!” Answering the unaccepting Senators and Congress people…..seems like a real imposition to these guys! Bernanke seemed to think that whatever Ron Paul had to say was really quite humorous. It seems that the same attitudes used right here in our town for local politics….seems to be used overtime on the big stage. Marginalize first, consider the question stupid, talk in tongues and in the end…..just stick to your guns!
In essence, the game is simply this..”Give us a $Trillion dollars and when we have spent that frivilously…we will be back!” “We are going to buy ‘troubled toxic assets’ at a value we or the market or the seller will decide!” “We will sell or dispose of these things….whenever!” “They could be Leveraged Buy Out Bonds, discounted old credit card debt, Hedge or Derivative Bonds that have been highly leveraged, Sub-Prime Mortgages of people that have gone bankrupt or have been foreclosed upon, stocks of companies out of business, Pension and 401k Money Market Certificates at an unpayable interest rates or Bank Certificates of banks that have gone out of business.
Paulson & Bernanke say that unless we re-liquify the credit markets….that things could get a lot worse. No more auto, home or student loans. No more expanding credit card balances. No more small business loans. Hmmm. What about the fine folks that will be getting this cash and quickly moving it into Oil and Natural Gas and better yet….to buy back all there own worthless stock…..and even better than that…buying stock of companies that are not involved in the global banking world?
Telling was…..a statement by Paulson….suggesting that it would take months or years to figure out what went wrong and establishing new regulations and rules to ensure that we would have no repeat of this crisis. Nothing was said about establishing “Par Values” for Real Estate or Debt buys! Nothing was said about incremental fixes. Nothing was said….except do it….or forget it. Plenty was said about sending money to International Bankers however. Plenty was said about “restoring liquidity to the markets”! Plenty was said that was worrisome!
As they say in the trade: “There are no guarantees!” In fact, we already have a preliminary new number for the National Debt: $11-12 Trillion dollars – just to say hello! That means what we have already done is going to cost the American people roughly $3 Trillion dollars. There is talk in some quarters that the true number before the wave breaks will be closer to $18 Trillion dollars in bad debt. How all this will affect the price of a gallon of gas or how much it may cost for a loaf of bread is still unclear.
The good news is that the Congress….at least some..are getting the message from the people on Main Street asking for accountability. Barack Obama has called for oversight…..along with John McCain. Everyone wants to know how much these Wall Street moguls are going to be making on this deal.
Everyone wants some of this cash to re-energize failing loans and those disposed to unoptioned foreclosure…of their homes. Paulson and Bernanke are calling for implementation by Friday…..that is the day after tomorrow. We suggest taking a little more time and getting it right……if that is even possible – the First Time! Right now, every man, woman and child owes $38,000 dollars. After this bail out – $258,000!
While we are beginning to make sense of this I hope that congress will not act in haste leaving us to repent at leisure. I do like the idea of America buying the mortgages of primary residences that have or have not gone upside down. I dislike the idea of buying a surprise package of financial vehicles. There needs to be some selectivity that Paulson is trying to avoid.
Hmmmm, a Goldman-Sachs millionaire trying to make the biggest sale in history…. He must have a raging …. just thinking about it. Somebody please make him put that thing away and quit trying to use it on the American people!
From Paulson’s original 3 page bailout plan:
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency”
Not only does he want a check for nearly 1 billion dollars but he wants ultimate authority which cannot be questioned. Fortunately our representatives put a stop to this. It is nevertheless frightening that our government could very quickly turn into a Fascist government. The fear-mongering goes on as the Bush Administration tries to pull a fast one on the public.