Geithner's Folly: The Bank Rescue Plan Is a Disaster in the Making

"Two plausible explanations" = two more reasons for not trusting the powers that be to do what is right, but rather what is expedient for themselves and their own supporters!More pork?

Until politicians come clean we have no hope!

And there is no way they will ever come clean!

Tough on everyone I guess! - specially on the deceivers who think they will never be found out!

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Insolvent banks are taken over and the creditors, the shareholders and the bond holders are given the "assets" to put in a holding company to dispose of said assets.

The "working bank" is taken over by the FDIC re-capitalized and sold after it earns the tax payers money back.

Very simple really. Why should tax payers buy toxic assets? Just give them to their owners in a holding company. The bank goes on with new owners, we, the tax payers, the Good Bank.

It is called the "Good Bank" solution but there is one BIG problem .... Politics ... You see the powers that be want save the share holders and bond holders even if it takes tax payer money to do it.

The question I and millions of others have is : Why should tax payers bail out the very people that caused this mess? Share holders and bond holders profited all those years when the getting was good, yet now that their investments have turned sour, the tax payer, who never profited should come to their rescue?

They just passed the $350 billion TARP II Plan ( tax payer money! ) yet yesterday the figure for saving the banks according to Obama was $1.5 Trillion and then today that figure was increased to $3 Trillion! The truth is they know that bailing out these banks will cost north of $5 Trillion when all is said and done.

Already over $2 Trillion has been foisted onto the tax payer through the purchase of dodgy assets. The Federal Home Loan Board is on the hook for several hundred billion dollars, Fannie and Freddie over $500 billion and the Fed itself for over $1 Trillion. These are supposed to recover once the economy and the housing market recover, yeah sure! Altogether the tax payer is already taking responsibility for $25 TRILLION in guarantees and aid, $25 TRILLION!

Not to worry. Medicare and Social Security are already targeted for cuts to save the banks from their own fraud and greed.

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I've said it before: Fuck the bankers!
Use FDR's solution, temporarily nationalize the banks. Fuck the shareholders, too.
The TARP and the "new plan" are pure bullshit.

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If you check the results of the market, the announcement was followed, not only with gloom and doom and whining and bitching, but the vast majority of "gainers" were financials. I venture to pose that, had Obama been one of the WORMs (White Old Republican Men), and if he had not capped the largess of same, the package would have been met with glee. The Old Boys' Club lives on and you--among others--continue to let them get away with it.

We are in crisis here!! Try to focus.

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This whole stimulus plan is getting on my last nerve, and this latest plan is the last straw.

I may be simple, but I think any stimulus should go to people who are taxed to support the Federal government and to states to actually create jobs and fix their infrastructures. Why on earth would I want to spend my tax dollars on Wall Street fat cats and bankers who think only in terms of their own wallets and profits. This is just deja vu with the old savings and loan scandals of yesteryear. Since when do we reward malfeasance and fiscal irresponsibility with our tax dollars for toxic debt. I'm still seething about the TARP money that has been misspent, hoarded, or contributed to the banking ponzi schemes. To hell with these investors. We all know the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance industry, the Federal Reserve are all about their own personal profits. None of these groups give a rat's ass about the people of this country.

As an Obama supporter in the election (so I got scammed - I admit it), I am in total disagreement with him and his Treasury secretary. He can hold all the townhall meetings he likes and pontificate with his silver tongue, but this is not selling me. This stimulus is not going to benefit us in almost any way and yet Obama won't listen to economists like Krugman or Zelglist (sp.?) or anyone but one of the banking insiders. It's oh so tempting for people to refuse to pay income taxes this year based on this kind of ridiculous financial tomfoolery.

I know this sounds insane, but if the Federal gov can't help its own people, I would just as soon skip paying fed income tax altogether and just pay a higher state tax. Lobbyists control Congress and they are not acting in our best interests. I support social security payments, medicare, retirement deductions, and single payer health insurance, but I'm fed up with supporting the military and their weapons, stockbrokers, banks, and other shady groups, etc.

I'm also sick of calling aid to states 'pork.' That sounds like a media and McCain name for giving states' money to make them better places to live. States should also have to submit to the people for a vote what they are spending the people's money on so it doesn't end up being misspent.

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RUN the Government! Check out these "toxic" assets! They are like "banking" on an overdose of something much worse than LSD! And do NOT forget the "Cap" on Pay WILL be DROPPED because CONgress & the SeNILE says it costs too much! Like ONE BILLION DOLLARS TOO MUCH! So much for "Change We can Believe in!"

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And the situation was desperate. We already know that this was the case in the UK, but it's the first I've heard that the situation was just as dire in the US.

So it seems last October in a single day - both the US and UK - nearly went bust - with the rest of the World expected to follow shortly afterwards.

So what happens if this scenario actually happens - and banks stop issuing money

How does anyone get paid for any work - police, army, essential services like people who deliver food to supermarkets? How do people buy it?

How does anything work?

When people get hungry, they get angry. Where are the forces to keep order and distribute the essentials to a starving population?

Fighting stupid wars thousands of miles away?

Politicians seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land. Have they actually produced any contingency plans to deal with what could be the greatest emergency ever to occur?

"At 2 minutes, 20 seconds into this C-Span video clip, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania explains how the Federal Reserve told Congress members about a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars. According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occured over the period of an hour or two"

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The Bailout and the printing of trillions of dollars by the Federal Reserve Bank is just one of the last steps in the fascist takeover of every aspect on this country and the implementation of a one world government and monetary system by the military-industrial oil central private banking complex.

Anyone who is analyzing the situation and espousing there own opinion as to how bad the economic turndown will get and does not espouse the immediate change in the monetary system by eliminating the Federal Reserve Bank is being disingenuous. They cannot be trusted because the underlying core problem is that the monetary system in this country is completely controlled by a for-profit private cartel of banks.

Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy and many more politicians and private citizens throughout the course of the history of this country knew that a private central bank controlling the supply of money in this country and creating debt every time money is printed will only enrich the bankers and enslave the people of this country.

This current monetary system must be replaced with a resource based system. Please go to my website, www.911insidejob.net and watch the Zeitgeist Addendum movie which is on my homepage.

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It's only fitting that the government take over these banks, reorganize them then sell them back to investors - it was the government that rammed these high risk mortgages down the throats of the banks. Low income people with little income verification getting loans?

At some point someone will have to pay the price and that someone is the American people!

We have a unique way of slipping into socialism!

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I am beyond hope and beyond help. I am 75, retired forever because of a physical malady not one person in our wonderful medical field of know nothing has any ideas for diagnosis or treatment. Now my mind is going, going .... I can't turn on the news, I can't think, I can't understand. And now this. Even good news is shot down because it is so much fun for the hunters. First it's adore Obama, now it's lets lynch him. This is blood sport, and it is sick and making the rest of us sick. I'm going out of my home for an hour this morning, and then it's back to the hole. At least, I don't have many years left, like the rest of the bad and uglies do.

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Just look at the blatant double standards. Barry HUSSEIN O-Bomb-UH and his gang rush Geithner through and even go out of their way to get him confirmed despite his major controversies on his blatant support of Wall $treet. But when it comes to nominating an honest appointee such as Solis whose support of the labor class and her fighting for Main Street over Wall $treet despite the odds in the house, all of a sudden the Blue Dogs and DLCers join the Republicans to force her nomination to be kept on hold and make a big deal about her husband's minor tax issues on his small business. And what does Barry Hussein O-Bomb-UH do? NOTHING. He does nothing to tell those rascals to stop stalling her nomination ! Just like Saddam Hussein getting rewarded by the neocons for crushing his working class civilians back in the 1990s, it seems that this HUSSEIN is getting rewarded for moving towards more rewards and bailouts for Wall $treet all the while gutting the labor class. I hope GOD fails him in this evil plot of his !!

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This stimulus bill is a big mistake. If the government wants to help the economy along it should modify or eliminate some government regulations hampering or hindering growth potential in the private sector. It can also do away with the DEA and the Fed Reserve, for starters. Lots of wasted can be done away. It'll take some time for the favorable results to appear, but it's a better way!

When u get sick u need to take time and stay in bed a couple of days. No pharm medicine replaces that.

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As I've said before, "sellout" would also describe most of the Washington-MSM toady Circus including Obama bought and brought to the White House by Organized Corporate Crime (i.e. Fascism).

Absolute power may corrupt absolutely but there are those who will betray themselves and their fellow human beings for far less than "absolute power". Surface power and cushy money careers are usually enough to buy most of what a freeloading overclass needs of its human tools.

Until recently the cozy and very well-connected Geithner worked as "president" of the New York branch private Ponzi trap "Federal Reserve" Corp (again, NOT federal and with ZERO reserves). Of course, the "FED" is responsible under "Bubbles" Greenspan and Ben Bernanke for a derivatives financial looting and theft operation that has gutted the nation for its parasite overclass.

I will reprise investor Sinclair's 9 points on Geithner's Wall Street decoy cook and gut operation....



1. nothing whatsoever has been done about the basic problem which is the failure of the OTC derivatives. As long as the basic problem is not addressed by true valuation and bankruptcy of the friends of Washington all attempts to whitewash the disaster will in a short time wash away.

2. The problem is how to value the failed OTC derivative properly because we can't use the "zero" word.

3. Because of #2, the US Treasury will guarantee a false value. Since the majority of SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) will never perform due to bankruptcy in the asset chain, the US government will have to guarantee these at 100% of whatever value they intend to raise money on.

4. Next, the US treasury will have to guarantee and/or provide 100% of the funds borrowed or raised to make this worthless unless guaranteed investment in a pile of miss-valued worthless SIV paper.

5. Yielding the plan as it is now conceived is a useless camouflage of bankruptcy to be paid in via guarantee by the US taxpayer.

6. We need no Bad Bank as we already have a really BAD one called the Federal Reserve. It is stuffed to its own bankruptcy level with all its financial pal's OTC derivatives - also called toxic paper.

7. The majority of dopes and all the financial media will praise this outstanding job of window dressing and whitewash painting as solid accomplishment at last.

8. The media will have done a solid job instructing you that Toxic Paper is the villain, not those that manufactured the toxic paper OTC derivatives and distributed them, now having been bailed out 100% at your personal expense.

9. This is all a devil's financial brew being moiled and boiled daily in hopes of keeping you all firmly intoxicated.

Jim Sinclair

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If the government buys toxic assets from the banks this action will provide a floor price for these assets. It seems the true value of these assets will only be realized after the government, tax payers, own the assets.
I don't think this is right. I've been thinking more about the unenforced anti-trust laws of the 1920's.
Obama needs to look at this trust busting legislation. I think we're seeing some results of not paying attention to anti-trust.
If anything is "too big to fail", it's too big.
As a tax payer I'm unwilling to foot the bill to preserve the status quo. I will help pay for a complete rebuild of the system based upon historical lessons we seem to have forgotten.

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From many of the posts and columns I've been reading, the line is being drawn - Geithner's continued accommodation for the banks that does not solve the problem or nationalization by whatever name which does solve the problem.

quote----A week earlier, Geithner was even clearer about the administration's priorities when he said: "We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."----unqte

That says it all. The problem is the klept-plut-ocracy wants to not feel any fiancial discomfort. It's better to keep a tight rein on the system to avoid it in the future.

Obama approved this, ostensibly. Has he drunk the kool-aid, or is he paying back his financial banksters cynically, or what? I wouldn't ask that of anyone I didn't admire.

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Fixing something that is broken is not the same as changing something that needs radical, transformational change.

Fixing broken bits and pieces -- which is all anyone is proposing, Obama and the economic pundits and critics all over the blogosphere and MSM -- is NOT CHANGE. Nationalizing the banks a la FDR is not change either. It's a FIX.

CHANGE requires changing what we want our economic system to DO. Do we want our economic system to be an engine of profits for the few who are clever enough to manipulate the system? Or do we want our economic system "re-gamed" for BENEFIT for ALL?

There is a revolution going on in economic theory that Obama -- sadly -- appears to know nothing about. This economic revolution is best described as the emerging "economies of well-being," theories that replace the core economic driver "for profit" with a new economic core value "for benefit."

They are also known as "real wealth" and "true cost" economies, positioned as the antidote to our current "hallucinatory" economy of "phantom wealth," [i.e., 'exotic credit instruments' - making money from no-money, turning a profit from debt, and the "voodoo economics" of tax cuts, as none other than Bush Senior put it].

I believe that Obama wants a for benefit, true cost, real wealth economic system. But- smart as he is --he seems not to know how many economists there are whose theories and new measurement systems better serve his core values. David Korten, Herman Daly, John Gund, Richard Layard, are all good places to start, especially Korten's latest book, AGENDA FOR A NEW ECONOMY.

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I wasn't taking a lot of notice - but I think they were being grilled by The House of Commons

I think it was something like

Oh sorry - for completely fucking up the UK Economy By Buying Nicely Gift Wrapped Presents From America

We just bought the pretty boxes

They just looked so beautiful and valuable. They looked the most lovely presents from our Girlfriends on Wall Street that it took awhile before we looked inside

And Found

HUMAN SHIT

Tony

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It's all about supply and demand. You have to have both supply and demand to keep the economy moving and growing. Supply = jobs for people to earn money creating the supply thus giving people money to purchase more supply. Demand = people with money to buy the supply which creates more demand for more supply. You can't sustain one without the other. It is just that simple!!

Giving billions of dollars to businesses to prop themselves up for another year? two years? whatever does nothing to fix the underlying problem of the economy. It simply pro-longs the ultimate "death" of the business. Giving billions of dollars to consumers in terms of tax breaks, forgiving exisitng debt (why not? the debt is never gonna get paid under the current plan anyway it is just being wrapped up in a different piece of wrapping paper). Bailing out the consumer would directly and immediately jump start the economy because it would allow people to have money to start buying supply which would create demand and the economic engine would start rolling along once again!!! It seems so very simple?

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How did nationalizing the banks work for you during your crisis in the 90s? I've visited Sweden each summer for the past several years and it looks like a pretty damn happy country. The people do not seem stressed and they look like they are generally doing well in life. Very unlike the America of today. Geithner's plan has a familiar stink to it. Is Paulson still lurking somewhere around the White House?

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Obama is sticking to the philosophy that America is built on the freedom to make unabashed profits. "This is America", he states,"and no one shall be penalized for being successful" (not an exact quote). "The lifeblood of the US economy is credit" (that IS an exact quote). The concern of this administration, just like all those before since Kennedy, is to serve the master. The American people are not the masters.
The bailout is designed to insure bad investments made in unstable, unsecured financial derivatives so that these money creators will continue to do business with America. We are insuring the financial sector in hopes that they don't abandon us.
These elites put Obama into office and have given him strict orders to preserve the system. As far as I can tell there will be no serious financial reform.
Instead we will get pep talks about how resilient we are as a nation and how we are going to have to pull together to take care of ourselves.
Meanwhile the top 1% will be just fine. In fact they might even profit as a result, just as they did during the Great Depression.
These cycles of boom and bust, inflation and deflation are fabricated and unnecessary.
Our money is created out of debt and we will never be free as long as this system exists.
Change the way our currency is created and you will kill the debt that starves us as a nation.
Obama will do many good things but he will not do what he must. He will not do what we need.

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James A. Swanson, Los Altos, CA
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire $25.95 book]

Timothy Geithner and “Government Goldman Sachs"—I fear that a skulk of fox is still in charge of the chicken coop.

We recently poured several hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money into the cesspool known as America’s financial system.

What did we get in return? No stimulus. No accounting. Nothing.

We are truly nuts.

But I see an instructive parallel here.

Dumping that money into that Fat Cat cesspool was like Bush and the GOP giving hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the Super Rich.

In both cases, we got nothing in return. No stimulus. No accounting. Nothing.

Nothing, that is, other than a multitude of moral and financial deficits.

Welcome to the GOP Great Depression II.

We are truly out of our gourds.

James A. Swanson, Los Altos, CA
"The Bush League of Nations"
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire $25.95 book]

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Forget the banks. it's clear that they're too rotten to the core to pump any more taxpayer dollars into them. They should be forced to undergo the bankruptcy process.

Frankly, why do we need these giant behemoths to begin with? if the obama administration isn't willing to nationalize the banks -- and frankly the GOP would go for Obama's scalp if he did (Plus the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution would require the government to compensate bank shareholders) -- it's clear to me that Americans have but one option: to pull their money out of the big commercial banks and put them into credit unions.

Why credit unions?

First of all, credit unions, under federal law, are not-for-profit, depositor-owned cooperatives. As such, they are legally barred from engaging in the kind of shady financial dealings that got the big banks in trouble.

Also, as depositor-owned institutions, credit unions' management must answer directly to the depositors.

This is why the lobbying group representing ther big commercial banks were so adamant in their unsuccessful effort in the 1990s -- in the wake of the collapse of the savings & loans -- to stop Congress from approving legislation enabling credit unions to more directly compete with them by offering financial services that previously were available only at the commercial banks and by loosening restrictions on who can join credit unions.

Plus, credit unions, because of their non-profit status, impose fewer and much-lower fees on their services -- and offer much-lower interest rates on credit cards. Your accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), the federal government agency that is to credit unions what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is to the commercial banks.

I, therefore, strong suggest doing what I did years ago: dump the commercial banks and put your money in a credit union.

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"A key part of the plan he unveiled is to have the government create a public-private investment fund that will use government dollars to insure private investors against losses they could suffer from purchasing those bad assets if the economy keeps heading south."

95% of money was put in circulation by private banks and 5% of money was put in circulation by the Government. The bailout represents chaining tax-payers to the banks labor pool, or more succinctly endenturing tax-payers to work for the banks until the terms of their endenture is met to the satisfaction of the banks.

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Many years ago, we had to disect a frog. Our teacher showed us how to stimulate the frog's legs and make it kick using electricity. But even though he "stimulated" its legs and made it twitch, it was still dead. Could our great God Barack learn something here?

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Read David Cay Johnston's books "Perfectly Legal" and "Free Lunch". The fact that we Americans are putting up with this absurd nonsense shows what a bunch of pussies we've become.

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Einstein said, you cannot solve a problem using the same thinking that gave you the problem in the first place. Geithner's solution could have been anticipated. And many like me wrote Obama over and over telling him to reach outside that box. Perhaps he didn't realize he'd be so busy fighting the Republicans to bail out the people that he wouldn't have time to guide Geithner et al as they stole more money from the tax payers amnd jeopardized the recovery. Mr. President - a fox is a fox is a fox no matter which hen house you put him in.

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Let's be a little clearer:

Geithner's a crook, protecting his buddies, and Obama's contributors, from their richly deserved fates.

To solve a crisis this deep, you don't want reruns of the same crew (Clintonites) that started the process. You need something new:

www.gp.org.

The Icelanders get it; why don't we?

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Congress is not only beholding to the banking system,, but each congress person is most likely individually vested in the stock market/banks..to a much greater extent then the average middle class worker. Thus they, like most citizens are blinded by greed and they are simply concerned about their retirement thus will take what ever steps necessary to preserve their own capital...they are not concerned with the impact on those who are not heavily invested in the market/banks and who would do much better if the banks were allowed to fail and simply take their 250K (if they have such cash laying around in the bank) and go next door. No this is a vote of them versus us. Certanly explains why they have done so much to make the average citizen beleive that the "bail out" is the only game in town.

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STILL stinks to high heaven. Reward the thugs who stole us blind with OUR money? Screw that. While we're at it, the pouring of ten billion a month into the ratholes of Iraq and Afghanistan continues as if it has no adverse impact on our economy, and the crooks profiting from it are getting richer as more of us slide into poverty, homelessness, and dispair every day. Amazing how this issue has disappeared from the MSM. One may just think that the omission was DELIBERATE.

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Now.

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When our corrupt politicians in collusion with the banksters created Washington DC and relabeled our constitution, we then became a corporation as Jim Traficant announced before Congress prior to his being railroaded into prison.

Go here for more on that: http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/us_corporation.htm


The Founders thought they safeguarded the people by making it Constitutional Law that our monetary system was NEVER to be put into private hands, but they failed to reason it out that our leaders would simply ignore the law of the land and in 1913 the Banksters took over control of our monetary system through the Federal Reserve Act. It is 100% illegal and unconstitutional as much as is the slave tax or "income" tax.

Our leaders in Congress were to meet two times a year but soon voted themselves cushy jobs where they could spin out laws like a slot machine and get the finest coverage for themselves that OUR money could buy.

Our government is run by the Banksters that hold control over our Presidents and can be clearly seen by anyone paying attention. Obamas plan is no different than Bush's because their plans are not their own but rather the Feds.

Your government is out of control and we are in serious danger.

For anyone that thinks I am wrong here I bring you the fact that 3000 dollars could buy a house prior to the creation of the Fed. Our money is deflating due to inflation. Inflation is nothing but taxation without representation.

If you wnat to understand how the Fed works and how they create money out of thin air,or know someone who may be losing their home and you'd like to help them keep possession, go to this link. They can beat forclosure by paying attantion to this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912,

END THE FED! BACK TO THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION!

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"I'm Mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore". Screw the whining sources, nationalize the banks, I'd rather have taxpayer control, as private control caused this mess. I don't trust the bevy of economic advisers Obama hastily assembled. All from Clintonian era, all from the private sector. The trait of our species to not do anything until cornered with no place to turn will (hopefully)drive society in a progressive direction. The only change I've seen is the performance of "At Last" by Beyonce, instead of by Etta James, who sings the original. Change you can believe in? What a sham.

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http://www.warchild.org.uk

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A Vote of Confidence Amendment will give American voters the power to dismiss any elected official, and their appointees, who fail to respond to the public will.

VOCA, Now !!

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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Look we didn't realise

It was in a very Rural Part of India - over 4 hours in a taxi from the airport

And we finally arrived

They welcomed us to reception and said Sir Paul McCartney and his wife stayed here a few years ago

But we didn't know if it was just bullshit

And we had been staying there for a few days

And this bloke on the beach said do you want to see the local Temples in my Tuk-Tuk

So we said O.K.

And later that day

Another little Indian Person said

O.K. - come - I will show you

So we got into his Tuk-Tuk and he didn't take us to the local Temples instead he took my wife and I to his home and showed us his Koi carpet making machine and his wife and his brother and his home and made us very welcome

And Julie was just completely lovely with his beautiful children

So instead of taking us to the Local Temples

After his home

He took in his Tuk-Tuk for about 10 miles

And we arrived in the middle of this Hindhu Festival

It was massive - Well Over 10,000 people there

And we were the only White People there

I mean it was completely AMAZING

They put flower chains round my Wife

And of course we had to take off our shoes

And there were certain places that were very holy and it was completely inappropriate for me to do any photography

And we completely respected all their culture

And we were followed everywhere by an extremely large number of Children and Mother's passing their Babies to us to Bless

I Reckon McCartney had been there before

My Wife has TWO Legs

And is Far More Beautiful

It was Totally AMAZING

Tony

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The attempt by Congress to “bail-out” Wall Street is like trying to bail out the sinking Titanic. A REAL bail-out for the short term should be geared to those in financial need, not to those who already have far more than they need and who have created the current problem. We need a stimulus package that will work.

Here's my formula for the kind of “bail-out” that would provide the economic stimulus we need in the short term: The federal government gives $1 million dollars to every U.S. registered voter whose income is less than $100,000 per year. Tax free. No strings attached. I’ve seen estimates that there are about 170 million registered voters in the U.S. Not all have incomes under $100,000 per year. So the total cost should, be under $200 million. That’s far less than the hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars the present bail-outs of the banks and corporations will cost. And it would help those who need it most. What would they do with the money? It’s a safe bet that they would spend most of it, which would give the economy the boost economists [and Pres. Obama] tell us is needed.

A large amount of the money would be spent and most of it would be spent in this country rather than overseas. It would be spent on paying off mortgages, purchasing homes and automobiles, paying off medical and other bills, for example. Most economists tell us that the stimulus needed most to solve the country’s economic crisis is to get money circulating. In other words, to increase spending by the American people. Spending IS stimulus as President Obama told us recently. This grant of 1 million tax-free dollars to low and middle income Americans would be an economical way to achieve the financial stimulus that economists tell us we need most.

Of course, it would not solve the long term problem. That will require legislation imposing stringent regulation of Wall Street and the whole banking, financial, military and corporate-industrial system. It would also require legislation to bring about a greater financial equality of the population, including higher taxes on wealthy corporations and individuals, leveling of the inequalities of compensation, limits on corporate bonuses and retirement packages, and implementation of surcharges on incomes (individual and corporate) of over, say $1 or $2 million per year. In other words, a truly progressive tax system.

Finally, we need to call a halt to our country's political and military adventurism and attempts to impose a pax Americana on the rest of the world, and to implement a national, universal, comprehensive, not-for-profit, single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. It should also involve massive New Deal-type programs to fix and upgrade our crumbling infrastructure. Federally funded programs like the WPA and CCC programs of the 1930s, as well as Peace Corps and Job Corps type programs could help

Those steps would give us a START at reducing the national debt and assisting those among our population who NEED help. It would also cost far less than the programs to bail-out the corporations and banks that have been the subject of recent Congressional debate. Unfortunately, the addiction of the American population to long outdated ideological positions and notions regarding economic and political issues make those goals ALMOST as difficult as bailing out the Titanic. They would, however, offer a HOPE of success which, in our present efforts, is totally lacking.

In the 2008 elections Americans voted overwhelmingly for change. I think there is reason to believe that we are ready for the kind of change that the foregoing plan envisions. I believe that the country is finally ready to look beyond false, antiquated and timeworn ideology and perception, and embrace the kind of change that is required for the 21st Century. It’s not too late, though the sands of time are not endless.

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From an unrepentant(until he got his posting)tax cheat?

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"So if I'm telling you to lay off the ideological smelling salts (not that you will) and that your ideas on policy are probably not contributing very much to the discussion (don't worry -- neither are mine) then what, exactly, do I want you to do?

What I'm asking you to do is to clear the playing field. This is neither the time nor the place for mass movements -- this is the time for expert opinion. Once the experts (and I'm not one of them) have reached some kind of a consensus about what the best course of action is (and they haven't yet), then figure out who is impeding that action for political or other disingenuous reasons and tackle them -- do whatever you can to remove them from the playing field. But we're not at that stage yet."

Patience People.

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It seems to me that you ought to be able to take these banks and split them into a healthy bank and put all the bad "assets" into a separate corporation and declare it bankrupt or have the government take it over. Or make the companies that sold them to the banks take them back. And the guys who sold them to the banks ought to be in jail.

This is more than "Let the buyer beware". It's got to be illegal. It's like selling someone the shell of a tv with no innards. But then I'm a simple person and probably can't understand such complex problems.

Thinking about this takes me back to the old grifter days. Lennie O. (who taught me everything about business)used to tell me that his father was one of the originals, a real carny. During the depression he used to sell mystery boxes off the back of a truck. He's gather a crowd, then auction off the boxes. As each one was opened the people would ooh and aah over what was inside (things like jewelry and irons) with each one being a bigger item.

So they would bid more and more til the ultimate box, and the truck would be pulling away as the last one was opened and it would be a rock. These smartass banks bought a lot of rocks.
Then you've got all those guys in the middle who opened up the box, saw what was in it, resealed it, gave it a cute name, and passed it on.

One of my bibles was the book "Coping with Difficult People". A few of the many things I learned from this book was when someone says "Trust me.", don't. When they say "I'm telling the truth.", they're lying. When the Smartasses say, "This is a wonderful box of 'derivatives' ", it's a rock.

Trust me, I'm telling the truth. Suzy

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We are focused on the problem with banks. We all know what the problem is ... but what is the solution? Pouring money down a rat hole doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Neither does the inverse relationship of gas prices and the cost of a barrel of oil. The paper today says that a barrel of oil is at its lowest price yet the refineries are raising their prices to compensate for the decreased demand for gasoline. Reminds me of a dog chasing its tail. We are all going around in circles. Americans, we must take matters into our own hands. We must begin to form a united cooperative to solve the problems that we have in our economy. We can, for example, invest in the oil business ourselves ... we can all invest in the future by forming our own company. We can drill for oil, refine it, and sell it AT COST (with no artificial gouging or price inflation) to the coop members. Coops do work. The farmers have used them for years to reduce costs. We can do the same, not only in the oil industry, but also in any other industry that would be beneficial to us to maintain price controls. The politicians are too involved in the profit-motivated corporation business and support they receive from same to be more than the puppets they already are. We don't need the politicians. We can do it ourselves. Anyone for a massive public rally to grab the ball for our own game? We already have the power to do this, all we need now is the resolve.

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Well, certainly Sweden was possibly on the right side of the law back in July 2008 but Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi did not like the arrest of his son Hannibal in Geneva, according to the Swiss Foreign Ministry, resulting in Libya taking $7bn of assets out of Swiss banks and to stop supplying oil to the country, Libya had already retaliated by recalling some of its diplomats from Switzerland, reduced flights between the countries, stopped processing visa requests from Swiss citizens, demanded the closure of Swiss firms in Libya and detained two Swiss citizens. Libya also reduced Swiss International Air Lines flights between Zurich and Tripoli from three per week to one. Also Libya closed the Libyan embassy in Switzerland. After posting bail of 500,000 Swiss Francs Hannibal was released. The charges resulted from Hannibal, 32, and his wife Aline assaulting two of the staff, a Moroccan man and a Tunisian woman, with a belt & coat hanger, at the five-star hotel in Geneva. Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi is now head of the African leadership which he has proclaimed to make all of Africa a single nation with states not countries. This could save Africans lots of money in coping with the United Nations programs one-on-one as has been the issue where funds to participate must be put in a fund first then those nations may participate and benefit but not until then, some or most of that funding was coming from World Charity esp. within the US.

Basically a financial model can only work as good as it has a trust base, when that trust base is violatednot even a nationalized banking solution will work and it gets progressively worse the more partisan it is. I see the fault in nationalizing banks as a failure in serving other countries with withdrawals which have no monetary value backing the funds they are representing, you may see it as terrorist control of banking either by wire or at the location, whichever the failure only depletes American banks of money which is ending up in other banks not where they are supposedly backer and the backers are not honestly representing the American funds either so now we see two scenarios that can attack a nationalized system plus the failure in Mortgages making least expensive Mortgages brings back the once problem of insergents in the United States to regain a living situation on money that has been cleared as actual but is misrepresented by Al Qaeda everywhere. Now you see the long term problem.

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Comment of In 9th grade: Posted by: sre on Feb 11, 2009 9:07 AM
Many years ago, we had to disect a frog. Our teacher showed us how to stimulate the frog's legs and make it kick using electricity. But even though he "stimulated" its legs and made it twitch, it was still dead. Could our great God Barack learn something here?

You can't believe in a temporary God it is not logical that a temporary God serve the American Government nor any religion you might be faking to exist, but that is a non-denominational monetary understanding and to do that your committed to fraud or just fraudulent stupidity and in either case as lunitic as that reality is your frog has no relation to how to cope or how to coordinate with financial monetary standards so the lesson learned was your erronous teachings of which I hope your intentions is not to ask taxpayers pay for it.

Comment of edgar_michel: Feb 11, 2009 8:52 AM
to have the government create a public-private investment fund that will use government dollars to insure private investors against losses.

Reminds me of the public having bought bonds many times from states which when the depression hit those bonds became worthless and all investment was lost not being insured. The idea is close to a 'Energy Bond' which serves as U.S. Savings Bonds where investors in specific categories will earn interest after a length of time of being sold 'maturity date' but instead of paying a National Debt the specific category is served so it then contributes to energy programs and energy projects that help America, and that's all good math. The entire plan is on The Pickens Plan. So look for 'Energy Bond' to find its author.

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