An Economic 9/11

[Griff]

I'm getting this real instinctive, lizard brain feeling that the party of fear is at it again. Just give up your economic freedom and then you'll be safe.

[glatt]

The rush to pass legislation after 9/11 resulted in some pretty bad legislation. And now they are rushing it again. I understand the need to move quick, but rushing trillion dollar legislation is not smart.

[HungLikeJesus]

I got this in an e-mail from a friend (who is actually a Bush supporter) today:

Demand that the Bailout Legislation be Rejected
We are witnessing a bankers' coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage.

“Give us your money and tear up what’s left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy,” is the message from Wall Street and the Bush administration. “Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression."

Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit.

Congress is poised to vote to give the Executive Branch of government, and specifically the White House’s political appointees in the Treasury Department, the absolute right to take our money and give it to domestic and foreign banks and corporations without any oversight of elected officials, from the courts, or from the people.

The new legislation states: “Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] 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.” The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars.

We will not stand by and let the Bush Administration formalize its vision of a “government of, by and for the richest bankers."

The new system institutionalizes theft on a grand scale. Lehman Brothers bankers will receive $2.5 billion in bonuses after their company went bankrupt last week, but the new dictatorial authority under the White House and Treasury Department has ruled out any relief for the millions of working families who are being foreclosed.

We live in a $15 trillion annual economy. Instead of taking our tax dollars and giving it to the already rich and powerful, these funds should be used to provide decent paying jobs, affordable housing and a good education for our children. There is another way!

Now we are being herded like sheep to give the White House and Wall Street dictatorial control over the people’s money.

I have not checked to see how much of this is true.

[tw]

The Republican party propaganda machine has told their followers to oppose the bailout.

There is no way to judge what will and will not work. Once it became routine to pervert the spread sheets and to let the greedy make money on 30+ to 1 debt to equity ratios, then disaster was a forgone conclusion. Once is became acceptable for massive government welfare to home building (that causes a 40% increase in house prices), then disaster was inevitable. Massive sums money have dissappeared among those who do so little while reaping profits - stock brokers, bean counters, financial experts, etc who were (as I can tesitfy to) were not very smart in school.

Bankruptcy (or threat of same) is why these same problems did not destroy the American economy in the late 1970s. We said to NYC "Drop Dead". Only then did NYC go after their problem - top management - and then address their problem. We told Chrysler to go get bankrupt. Therefore Townsend and Richardo were disposed as being the only problem. Lee Iaccoca then replaced bean counters with car guys as the designers of cars. We stopped destroying American jobs by not buying Fords. Therefore the only problem in Ford - Henry Ford - was removed. Only then were the engineers permitted to design their first product since the 1964 Mustang. That new product saved Ford because it was the first car designed by Ford innovators in 22 years.

One factor we do know about the bailout if it is to work: it must remove top management and deny them bonuses. Only then do we tell top management in all companies who they must work for. A responsible solution would say either top management gives back those bonuses from years previously (because they want to save the company) or no government assistance will be provided. IOW management must admit either that it works for the company or only worked for themselves. We need the problem to commit to their real agenda so that all future management fears greed.

This mess is directly traceable to top management. Any solution that does not address that problem is nothing more than corporate welfare - wasted money. We know what was necessary to save corporate America back in 1979 - eliminate the problem - top management. That is what bankruptcy does to save the company, employee jobs, and stockholder value. Any plan that does not address this number one problem risks failure.

[classicman]

I don't know how much of that is true either HLJ, but leaders from both parties immediately got their soundbites out last night opposing the legislation. The Dem seemed to be doing it to show backbone more than anything else and a Rep guy said something about being careful and not wanting to rush into anything.

There is plenty of blame to go around here on both sides of the fence. The Dems have been getting a free ride for too long. Their fiscal irresponsibility is, and should be, as culpable as the idiotic Reps.