The Great Bail-Out Scam

 

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The Growing American Debt
The Great Bail-Out Fraud 


An open letter to Congress on the bail-out...

The Great Bail-Out Scam
NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 031009

For those not thinking properly on these large bail-outs…. “we the people” want some accountability. Congress is bankrupting us to save the poor business dealings of others. So in essence, let’s bankrupt our once great sovereign nation in order to save a smaller not so great for-profit corporation. There is no other way to parse that statement. It is undeniably happening.

The original Bush bail-out was NOT intended for the following… 

1)    For corporations and bankers to sit on as a nest egg in case of bad times.

2)    To pay dividends to shareholders so they do not lose in a risk-based market.

3)    To take over smaller banks and companies so that they themselves can become stronger. 

When we read about the unbridled temerity of financial institutions such as AIG, who spend lavishly on golf retreats and exorbitant conferences, while sucking up our children’s future with excessive free bail-out money, we get angry. Why should we and generations afterwards pay for the egregious conduct and perverse moral character lapses of those asking us for a government hand-out? 

“We the people” are sick of GOP members and their lackey TV pundits who constantly tirade a false claim of Obama socialism, when in reality it is the financial institutions, a great many run by ultra-wealthy Republicans, that are asking for the socialized hand-out. This of course is not helping our current financial meltdown. It indeed is exacerbating it. 

Someone needs to fire a CEO and an accountant or two. It is clear that the big three auto makers have resisted government efforts to force them into making cars that exceed 40+ miles per gallon (even though they’ve already been proven to be quite capable of better for many years now.) They resist the push away from oil reliant vehicles so as not to upset the power base of the ultra wealthy who control our antiquated oil based infrastructure.

My suggestions… those that have already abused the bail-out should be prosecuted, period. If I have to embarrass this Congress with a list of all the welfare families and single moms who have been indicted for welfare fraud, then so be it, but to turn a blind eye to a far worse corruption by the uber-rich of this nation is tantamount to being an accessory to the crime. Again, no other way to parse that statement either. Facts are what they are. 

Any group that gets a bail-out should be restricted from awarding any bonuses or kickbacks of any kind whatsoever. These rich capitalists are lucky enough to be receiving their overpaid salaries, let alone a bonus for poor work. Bonuses are something you get for going above and beyond the call of duty and normal work production, not simply for showing up and doing the job they were hired for.  

There should be no rewards, perks or bonuses for failing companies that accept a bail-out!  

When times are tough, “we the people” are forced to tighten our belts and make tough concessions. We expect no less from the rich fat-cats who have made their extreme perverse wealth off of all of us. 

I would also add one caveat that is greatly disturbing… they should also not be allowed to spend on extremely expensive advertising budgets for their respective companies. To see ads still running for AIG, large banks and countless Wall Street companies is quite insulting. The same goes for the big three automakers. They may wrongly claim that they need to do that in order to keep business going, but I strongly disagree.

Two valid points to consider…

1)    It didn’t seem to help them before.

2)    They are not unknown entities or start-ups in the market. These are names of already  established brand recognition.

People do know where to go if those services are needed. If you ask for a bail-out, you do what the common man is forced to do, you make appropriate cuts and work out of it

And while we’re at it, who among Congress can justify hundreds of billions by the oil industry, in just one quarter alone, when they have been gouging us at the pumps for so long? This has been quarter after quarter for some time now. It would seem readily apparent that their cost and overhead are clearly not what they claim and does not substantiate the huge price that they charge us for our gas.

My suggestion… arrest and prosecute the CEOs of these companies for blatant avarice and for threatening the financial well being of our country. I would be in favor of our government taking over and nationalizing these oil companies, bringing the cost down, and stimulating our economy. All profits could then be applied to our ever burgeoning national debt. 

Regarding this economic mess that we are in, it would appear the “we the people” have not sent our best and brightest to Washington. Any that do not see the precarious tipping point that we have been manipulated into, need to read Naomi Klein’s breakthrough work, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” A great many of us are getting the point and are not so clueless as to what is really going on. It would appear to many that we are being steered toward the cliff.

For those in Congress that regard the New World Order claims as conspiracy, they are either tragically very naïve, uniformed, and/or ignorant to the countless comments from a great many of our elected officials over the years, including the arguably crooked Bush clan. (And why is it that no one wants to talk about Prescott’s history, or that of George Herbert walker?) 

Many like John F. Kennedy, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader have had it square on the barrel head for some time now; we need to do away with the Federal Reserve, or at least take it over for the people’s sake, thus restoring our ability to print our own money, without debt to the Fed and therefore restoring our national sovereignty that was foolishly given away by President Wilson, an act he later deeply regretted. 

The takeover of the Federal Reserve is obvious to many and should be job one in wrestling with this manipulated financial crisis. The central banks hold the true power.

Please take into account "we the people" as these bail-outs are pushed for your consideration.

More on the dangerous Federal Reserve

For those complaining about the Obama stimulus package:
Remember the Bush's Bailouts: $1.8-TRILLION and Counting

 
I.O.U.S.A.
AIG Caught Again Spending On Secret Lavish Conference
Local ABC TV 15 On Secret Lavish AIG Conference
GM Asks For Bail-Out (Flies Corp Jets To DC)
Bill Moyers - Where Does The Money Go?
Naomi Klein - Bailout Is Criminal  Pt 1
Naomi Klein - Bailout Is Criminal  Pt 2
Naomi Klein - Bailout Is Criminal  Pt 1
Lou Dobbs - National Debt Much Higher Than You Think
National Debt To Reach $10-Trillion
The United States of Debt
Rachel Maddow: Banking Industry Bailout Rip-Off
 


$29 billion for Bear Stearns

$143.8 billion for AIG (thus far, it keeps growing)

$100 billion for Fannie Mae

$100 billion for Freddie Mac

$25 billion for The Big Three in Detroit

$8 billion for IndyMac

$150 billion stimulus package (from January)

$50 billion for money market funds

$138 billion for Lehman Bros. (post bankruptcy) through JP Morgan

$620 billion for general currency swaps from the Fed

$700 billion for Wall Street, including Bank of America (Merrill Lynch), Citigroup, JP Morgan (WaMu), Wells Fargo (Wachovia), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and a lot more

Rough total: $2,063,800,000,000

  That’s a little over $6,800 for every man, woman, and child, or just  under $15,000 for 
   each of America’s 140 million taxpayers.
 


 

Bailout Price Tag: $3.5T So Far, But 'Real' Cost May Be Higher

Posted Nov 12, 2008 10:16am EST by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Recession, Banking

While the government is clearly spending a lot of taxpayers' money to bail out financial firms, the tally is even bigger than most Americans (economists and pundits included) are probably aware or willing to admit.

The bailout bonanza has gotten so big and happened so fast it's the true cost often gets lost in the discussion. Maybe Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke prefer it that way because the tally so far is nearly $3.5 trillion, and that's before a likely handout for the auto industry.

Yes, $3.45 trillion has already been spent, as Bailoutsleuth.com details:

  • $2T Emergency Fed Loans (the ones the Fed won't discuss, as detailed here)
  • $700B TARP (designed to buy bad debt, the fund is rapidly transforming as we'll discuss in an upcoming segment)
  • $300B Hope Now (the government's year-old attempt at mortgage workouts)
  • $200B Fannie/Freddie
  • $140B Tax Breaks for Banks (WaPo has the details)
  • $110B: AIG (with it's new deal this week, the big insurer got $40B of TARP money, plus $110B in other relief)

Read More Here.
 


 

Financial Crisis (From Forbes.com)
Washington's $5 Trillion Tab
Elizabeth Moyer, 11.12.08, 5:15 PM ET

For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis.

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.

The estimate includes many of the various solutions cooked up by Paulson and his counterparts Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and Sheila Bair at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as the credit crisis continues to plague banks and the broader markets.

The Fed has taken on much of that total, including lending a cumulative $1 trillion in overnight or short-term loans since March to primary dealers through its emergency discount window and making a cumulative $1.8 trillion available through its term auction facility, a series of short-term transactions it began making available twice a month in January. It should be noted that a portion of the funds lent in these programs has been repaid and that the totals represent what has been made available.

The Fed also took on tens of billions in debt, including $29 billion in debt of Bear Stearns, and made $60 billion of credit available to American International Group. It is committing $22.5 billion to set up a special purpose vehicle to manage some of AIG's residential mortgage-backed securities, and it is financing $30 billion of a second fund to hold $70 billion of multi-sector collaterized debt obligations on which AIG wrote credit default swaps.

The Treasury, in addition to the $700 billion raised in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, agreed to guarantee money market funds against losses up to $50 billion, will inject $40 billion of capital into AIG and is backing the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to the tune of $200 billion.

The FDIC, meanwhile, is guaranteeing $1.5 trillion of senior unsecured bank debt.

Not included in the total are the Fed's long-existing discount window lending to commercial banks, the mortgage modification plan announced by regulators on Tuesday, support for the Federal Home Loan Banks and a myriad of other programs.

Paulson and Bernanke have tried any number of ways to stop the free fall in housing prices and unfreeze the credit markets, with limited success. Rates that banks charge each other for three-month loans have dropped to 2.1% over the corresponding Treasury security, from their high of 4.8% in October. But lending is contracting as banks brace for rising credit costs and corporate borrowers hunker down.

The Treasury has turned its focus from attempting to buy troubled assets from banks, which was the original intent of the October Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, to injecting capital in the form of preferred equity stakes.

It started out with $125 billion worth of investments in eight major U.S. banks and has since expanded the program to an increasingly broad range of financial and nonfinancial companies. And with just $60 billion left of its initial $350 billion authorization under the emergency act, the Treasury faces a growing number of companies--including Detroit's automakers--begging for assistance.

David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights, says it looks as if government is left holding the bag, and of course that translates into everyone.

"The losses have to be taken, but no one wants to take them," Hendler said at a conference Wednesday, speaking about the banks and their handling of troubled assets. "It seems like the taxpayers are going to be taking a good portion of that."
 

 

   
 

Copyright © 2009 News Focus
Last modified: September 11, 2009