Without nationalization the tax payer gets a "pig in a poke", that is, we don't know what our money is being used to prop up. They haven't even released the information on how the first $350 billion of TARP was spent. We don't how underwater these banks are. We could be bailing these banks out for years. One thing is for sure, the worse the economy gets the worse the balance sheets of the banks get. They have trillions in bets out, they call them derivatives and tell us they only have a far smaller "notional" value but that value was bet on having a good economy not the wreck we are having now.

Why haven't we nationalized yet?

It is called the Federal Reserve. The federal Reserve is NOT Federal. The Federal Reserve is a private corporation that is run for its share holders, the Member Banks, the very banks that caused this catastrophe! It is the Federal Reserve's fiduciary duty, by law, to put its shareholders first and foremost in any consideration, in front of we tax payers, the very people who underwrite the credit and currency and shoulder the risk.

The Federal Reserve has put our economy, indeed our country at risk trying to prop up its shareholders, the Member Banks. They have, with the help of the "captured" Treasury put at risk $25 Trillion of tax payers money to try and save the very banks that brought this crisis on.

Indeed Nationalize! But don't stop with the banks. We need to nationalize the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve as well, to regain our sovereign right to profit from the creation of currency and credit underwritten by our work and the work of our forefathers for the Common Good.

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When the Banks Get Nationalized:
1- Open all the books for public inspection so we can see just how much money and effort has went into offshore tax evasion, union busting, lobbying, etc. I mean on the internet for all to see.
2- Fire all senior executives and directors with no golden parachutes. The price of admission includes showing them the door...
3- The setting of a NATIONAL usury cap of no more than 7% for loans of terms longer than 10 years, 10% for loans of 1-9 years and 12% for credit cards or other unsecured loans of less than 365 days.
4- A requirement that all loans contracts issued be written in plain vernacular english- otherwise no LATIN legalese. The description of interest calculation, penalties and fees will be plainly listed at the top.
5- All nationalized banks will fall under Davis-Bacon type rules requiring all labor and contractors to be paid at prevailing union wages.
6- The Banks will be forbidden to purchase the services of any lobbying firm, union busting firm, PR firm or contribute to any political candidate or campaign.
7- All offshore outsourced customer service contracts will be nullified and the jobs brought back home.
8- All current and future loan contract will allow customers to present any dispute affecting their credit rating to independent third-party arbitration at their choice and at no cost to them.
9- All banks will be required to adopt a policy of non-discrimination based upon sexual orientation for credit, contracted services or employment. Same sex partner benefits will be offered to employees. Minority set asides for contracts will be mandated and are binding after re-privatization.
10- All banks will be forbidden to join any association or organization that engages directly or indirectly in lobbying any Federal, State, Commonwealth, County, Parish, Township, or City executive or legislative body.

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to suddenly get honest and show its hand.

The same Ugly cabal that asked Moodys/S&P to take a protracted vacation from time-honored due diligence will corrupt this correct nationalized gesture.

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Limited insight on what's really happening is one of the failures of the media--so called 'liberal' and otherwise.

The banks represent 20% of the market--so for a real idea of what's in store times the number by 5.

Nothing will change until we hit bottom and that means home prices, stock valuations, et al must come down from their over inflated highs.

For some great blogging and websites:

Truthin08.org -- if alternet was serious about the 'truth' it would put a counter on its site

http://optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com/

www.nakedcapitalism.com

www.iousathemovie.com

We're headed for a long period of grave trouble. This is just the very tip of the iceberg.

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The only thing I would add is that once the banks were taken over by the government and the appropriate chips have fallen where they may, we could break up these behemoths (fuck this whole idea of "too big to fail!") and create many small regional banks that take in deposits and savings -- the way banks used to be. And then re-instate Glass-Steagal to keep investment separate from deposit banks from insurance from .... put those fire walls back up.

The entire financial system has been allowed to run amok. This is the result. We are going to have to realize that the gangrene is spreading and we will need to amputate something we have become dependent on, but it will stop the infection so maybe we can continue on.

Washington is still thinking in a 20th-century mindset. We need a new paradigm. Don't be surprised if we are all called upon to help create a new way. I have a feeling that the Powers that Be in Washington aren't going to want to tackle something this scary. We may need to take to the street with our pitchforks and torches, pots and pans and wooden spoons. Lafayette Park may turn into a big tent city. They are going to need to be pushed. It's either that, I'm afraid, or we're through. Seriously.

Thanks, Joshua, for another great article.

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The financial market is a tick. It`s been growing to humonguos proportions. The host has been sucked dry. Let`s pop it and have the finance sector drown in stale blood.

And let`s nationalize the Fed at the same time.

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The interest earned on monies loaned to commercial banks by the National Reserve Bank of the United States (the new national central bank to replace the private bank known as the Federal Reserve) would pay for government and eliminate the need for any personal income tax.

That is how it should be done. The Federal Reserve is a private bank that creates fiat money out of debt and loans it to us at full face value plus interest. Total ripoff. The income tax pays the vigorish on the fiat-money debt.

The very bankers who own the Federal Reserve are the very same bankers who have taken the bailout money and put it into their pockets. It's time we cut them off.

And put any bailout money into the hands of consumers so they can spend it and create demand, which is what stimulates an economy. Money injected at the top benefits only those at the top. Money flows uphill. Put it in at the bottom so everyone can benefit from it.

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Money rules the world because the world cannot rule money. and the world cannot rule money because politics is part of money's property. Simple.

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Not that I know anything really about finance except for what I read and hear. but doesn't the Netherlands have a nationalized bank called the " Netherlandsche bank"? one big bank that is well-regulated by the government of the netherlands? to me, reading others in here plus the news about these huge shareholders and bigger bank gobbling up bigger bank in mergers [Wells Fargo and Wachovia- my bank], plus knowing that the three big USA credit reporting bueraus are all owned by private corporations; this seems to reveal what the problem is with our system!

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The Bank of Canada used to make loans and control the economy, but its power was taken away about the same time as deregulation took over in the States. Private banks under it got power to make the loans and create their own interest rates...and results in Canada have been similar to what's happened in the U.S. Progressives in Canada have been pushing to move back to the "Bank of Canada" mode" -basically a move closer to the socialist way.
Americans especially (many Canadians too) have a fear of the word socialism; they've all been brainwashed by anti-Communist fanatics over the years. They fail to realize that under trickle-down economics (the market control system), you have socialism too - corporate socialism for the rich.

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Joshua Holland makes sense to a run of the mill citizen like me. Keeping it simple is the way to go. However the problem here is that these louts in power have always tried ( and succeeded ) to make everything so complicated so as to confuse us run of the mill morons into believing that their amazing ability and incredible knowledge is beyond question. We are too stupid to understand! Well guess what? They have got so >>>>>>> clever that they now do not know what they are doing: they are too scared to acknowledge their stupidity and too fat and comfortable to accept their wrongdoings and are simply running around like headless chickens without any answers. They also are ripping us off again and they do not even care.

Promises are not going to be kept my friends - they are seeking more ways to manipulate us into believing that they know the way forward.

We are moron's to listen to their idiotic plans anymore. I say they should all go to Hell and enjoy the ride - there are honest people on this planet - let us empower them and get rid of the riff raff!

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the elites take in all the profits...

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Makes sense to me. If a bank can't make it on its own, the government should step in and take it over. It makes no sense to pump money into a failed institution with failed leaders, especially since there is a large element of corruption that played a large part in the meltdown. To give these failed institutions more money is indeed thowing good money after bad.

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To continue to pump money into these failed banks is just a continuation of yet another failed policy of George W. Bush. These are the same policies that brought us to this verge of economic collapse. The evidence suggests that the money is just going into the corruption that became rampant during the George W. Bush years.

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I fully agree with the idea of temporarily taking over distressed banks and ending the foreclosure crisis. But it will not happen if all we do is post comments on blogs.

As I've said in the past, we all need to continuously bombard our elected officials with emails and phone calls. Eventually they will realize their jobs are on the line and start listening to you.

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. . . and we have only five banks. Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Five. All are pretty much nationalized banks (Except, we call them "chartered" banks).

We have some of the safest banks in the world.

There's credit unions, sure, like the Desjardins agglomeration, and much much smaller institutions like the National Bank and HSBC and ING. But these are very small and run under a different paradigm.

Almost every Canadian has their money with one of the above mentioned five banks. I never understood how Americans could operate under the false sense of security of having thousands of small banks. How is money insured against catastrophes like the current crisis?

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And it sure as hell ain't you, or me...

N A T I O N A L I Z E ! ! !

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Gigantic companies cannot be 'allowed to fail', due to the ripple effects. Who 'allows'? If it were a true market system, there would be no 'daddy' to disallow. Sudden socialism for the banks?

It follows then that the SIZE of such companies must be limited by law! - so they bloody well fail by their own devices... without ripples!

It's simple.

Meanwhile, don't forget to charge the crooks!

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Agreed, as long as banks are in it for PROFIT, the sheeple will always get the short end of the stick!

RT
Privacy Center

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...from having to read a column with this much content, sense, and relevance. Bring back the good stuff, Alternet - more columns on jet contrail conspiracies, please!

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I took five semesters of economics in college back in the '60's, including graduate level. Nothing I learned then is applicable now, it seems. Here are some suggestions I would like addressed:
1. Go back on the gold standard. Right now, the American dollar is just paper currency supported by nothing but faith in it. When the faith evaporates, so does the system.
2. Apply the Biblical principle of the year of the Jubilee. Every seven years, all debts are cancelled. We pay lip service to this principle by having credit reports cleaned up every seven years. If no one loans beyond seven years, if no one borrows beyond seven years, solvency would be maintained.
3. Are the banks being nationalized by the government or is the government treasury being privatized by the banks? Fraud by any other name is still fraud. Prosecute offenders, beginning with lifelong ban from banking in any form.
4. The US Constitution forbids involuntary servitude. Why is the public being compelled to work for years to pay off the debts of others?
5. Too big to fail is nonsense. Let all the big corporations collapse, we'll take our chances. This country wasn't founded by big banks, but rather by the sweat and blood of working Americans. We'll dust ourselves off and start over. Buy guns and learn to hunt. Plant gardens. Barter. Form coops. Heat with wood. Light with candles. Restore sanity.

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Irresponsible choices made by senior executives of Financial Institutions now in disarray are possible/likely to be repeated. How can anyone believe that these same management teams will definately use precious taxpayer's funds wisely and contribute to the restoration of the economic confidence neccessary to wind our economy upwards and bring relief to our citizens. The government needs to swiftly nationalize or purchase at current market values those financial institutions now needing a huge injection of funds to survive and ensure that exceptionally capable and experienced managers drive the value of these new public assets upwards and create a new sense of belief and confidence in the American way.

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I would have supported the idea of nationalizing the banks but I have strong doubts that government would use our money any more wisely than they are right now. At this point, nationalizing the banks would only make it easier to dole out our taxpayer money to more wars and bailing out elites all the while keeping our critical infrastructure defunded and decaying as if the last 30 years wasn't enough !

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So it needs to be called something else.

Much the same effect could be achieved by a CRAM DOWN
as explained by Karl Denninger

This could maintain "face" which is all important to the US political elite of maintaining the illusion of the supremacy of the US Capitalist system.

The carcass is rotting and unless it is buried quickly it will infect everyone with cholera.

Whatever name it is called doesn't really matter, but the action needs to be taken urgently to bury the festering stench.

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Imagine if the regulations defining and separating savings and commercial banks were still in place. We could just let the whole bunch of them sink or swim.

No more money without re-instating regulations.

And think about some kind of legislation regarding usury. If a bank can't get by on a 15% credit card rate, they're not really a bank are they?

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What the banksters are saying is "If we go down, we're taking the rest of the US with us". Unfortunately, they are BROKE....flat broke. If (and more likely, when) they are forced to show their cards, the world will see that the CDO, MBS, etc. mess they made is in negative numbers. They are bankrupt many times over any way you slice or dice it. We simply don't have the money to back up their gambling debts. If Japan, China and Russia (who have their own domestic problems) stop buying our debt (which they will once the securities are exposed and shown to be worthless) it is.....GAME....OVER.

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We've all read about the $300 toilet seats and $5 screws, but I just read an article this week that revealed that there are $4.1 Billion in spare parts collecting dust that the military can't use. $12 Billion in hard cash went "missing" in Iraq, along with millions of dollars in guns and ammo. Hank Paulson loaned trillions of dollars to financial institutions (beyond the so-called bailout) with no accountability or records. So it goes. Is the government the solution?

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The latest round of massive corporate layoffs reminds of the financial crisis the Roman Empire suffered in 33 A.D.
It all began when Emperor Tiberius enforced a ceiling on interest rates, which caused a severe credit crunch, Tacitus relates in The Annals (book VI, 16-17). "Hence followed a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit, the current coin too." This was of course followed by deflation of the sort we are seeing now in housing -- "a fall of prices, and the deeper a man was in debt, the more reluctantly did he part with his property, and many were utterly ruined." This is what business nowadays terms "distressed sales."
The Roman equivalent of the Fed then pumped tons of money into the financial system, and also cut interest rates to zero, which is about where we are now in our own mess. As Tacitus puts it:
The destruction of private wealth precipitated the fall of rank and reputation, till at last the emperor interposed his aid by distributing throughout the banks a hundred million sesterces, and allowing freedom to borrow without interest for three years, provided the borrower gave security to the State in land to double the amount. Credit was thus restored, and gradually private lenders were found."
Tiberius also raised funds by accusing Sextus Marius, the richest man in Spain, of incest -- almost certainly a trumped-up charge -- and then having him thrown headlong from the Tarpeian Rock ... a cliff at the edge of Rome's Capitoline Hill. "Tiberius kept his gold mines for himself," Tacitus notes. It makes me think that Wall Street is getting off easy.
Should Barnabas Francus hold the next hearing of his House banking committee atop this cliff?

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empty out your accounts and take them over to your local credit union... while the banks burn through your money, credit unions are paying member dividends from this past year!!! we got cold hard cash deposited into our accounts because profit was 'excessive' last year... our credit union also carries mortgages, cards, business and auto loans, and still turned a profit...

if all the normal depositors dumped them, maybe the banks would get the message... then they could only toss $$ around between themselves and not hurt anyone else...

yeah, know there is fdic insurance on personal accounts but know quite a few folks who's banks closed up shop or were 'absorbed' and either their funds are 'frozen due to merger' or are still waiting for fdic insurance to pay up...

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While we are nationalizing, can we really open the books for all to see? Can we show these executives the door? Can we set pay caps for the new executives? Can we separate banks and investment houses? Can we finally get the corporate elite to pay their fair share of taxes? Can we bring the USURY caps down from 30% say to 15%? Can we stop the foreclosures and allow the people to renegotiate their terms and thereby, to stay in their homes?

Do we the people have the national will to force both Congress and this Administration to do what must be done to nationalize the banks and bring some sanity/reality back to banking?!?!? I'm asking ARE YOU MAD AS HELL, AND FINALLY WILLING TO STAND UP TO "OUR REPRESENTATIVES"!?!?!

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...in the last half-century in charge of banking for everyone.

What's next? Doctor visits?

Just how much faith do you folks have in a body with an approval rating that hovers around 15%? That's even worse than your partner in ignorance, GWB!

I say let the banks who made such terrible decisions that they can't meet their obligations fail, just like your average Joe who must file bankruptcy and start over. I do not want my local bank run like your Glorious Shining Saviors have decided to run the IRS.

If you want better governance, pick better politicians. If you want better banking, pick a better bank. Geezie, Louisie, this is like explaining evolution to a creationist. I blame the failure of mass-education in this country, I suppose. You're ill-prepared and unaccepting of data, and choose instead your own belief structure. No doubt desperation plays a large part in your pleas for Dick Durbin & Bone...Boehner to come save you. No doubt, they've impressed you with their careful and thoughtful handling of...

bridges

levees

wars

addition and subtraction skills (to return to the budget)

...so much that you want to give them more authority over your life. Oh, you CongressGawd adherents.

No freaking thanks. Congress is indeed fallible and have sunk to the level of woeful ineptitude with their punting of their responsibilities these past forty or fifty some-odd years. And yet, you religionists would put yourself and the rest of the unwashed masses in a position where we are--literally--waiting on an Act of Congress for ATM withdrawals.

Devout putzes; would that we could only banish the willfully ignorant from dominion over our lives. As it is now, our only weapon against you is education, and just look where that has gotten us...sigh...

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So now that lending/deposit banks are intertwined with investment banks, what would be nationalized exactly? Are they forced to divest first and then the gov't takes just the deposit institutions leaving the investment banks private or do they take the whole entity? In the latter case, would the gov't actually run the investment bank or just mothball it? If mothballed, what institutions are going to deal with the large dollar transactions to keep large firms liquid

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...did I say YES?? Nationalization is NOT a dirty word. The greedy bastards on Wall Street, bankers, CEOs, auto manufacturers, credit card companies, are just BEGGING for it. At this point, I think their overt greed is a CRY FOR HELP, in the same manner that many crimes committed are cries for help by the criminals who commit them! Let's have some REAL progress in this country, and nationalize already, throw the guilty bastards in jail, and show 'em we mean business! They're doing this on purpose now to see how far they can go & how much they can get away with before the government has the balls to stop them! They don't care about America or its citizens, they only care about how much filthy lucre they can bilk the world out of. It's just a game to them. Time to shout GAME OVER!

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When the Medici bank failed, the Florentine government took it over centuries before the word socialism was coined. Many nations in Marx's day operated nationalized banks and insurance companies although Marx never considered any of these institutions to be “socialist,” whatever than means. For too long the public discussion has catered to conservative name-calling. Calling conservatives red-necks, or race baiters, or schizophrenics, or fascists is deemed beyond the pale, while any name-calling conservatives dish out becomes the pseudo-intellectual argument du jour.

The best plan would be to nationalize both retail and residential mortgage banking, protecting the currency and homeowners. When the government sells the residential mortgage assets back to the private sector, it should do so under a law that prohibits the sale of mortgages, singly or collectively, as assets by an institution. This would restore the foundation of trust in the mortgage banking industry; only those who can carry the paper for the specified period will be motivated to make the loans. This would have the effect of creating a gulf between a local S&L-type mortgage industry for homeowners and the globe-spanning speculation of international merchant banking.

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Been reading Asian, esp. Chinese papers much? They don't mind subsidizing the US a little bit more for trade purposes and true government spending on obligations and existing usual government spending until the economic health returns. But they have no intention of subsidizing debit spending into banks. They are clear in all editorials that if the american banks and american consumers continue deficit spending, and don't produce anything that they (they Chinese) are throwing good money after bad.

They won't do it. They talk about economic tough love Chinese style. Basically, they are in the "debt is a drug" category. China will give us money for food, or rent, but not if we keep spending it on "economic drugs".

Me, I wouldn't buy any financial stocks for my IRA in the last 5 years. Of course my IRA is tiny, and getting smaller. If I can't understand a bank's investments, I wouldn't buy their stock. I have banked in a credit union since I graduated form college decades ago. I got my first car loan from the same.

Now, we have no credit card debt, no auto loans, and the mortgage we have refinanced twice, making the payment term shorter each time. We are paying for the first child in college, and she works too. No loans for college. But she has no car, we can't afford it without a loan. Our standard of living looks at odds with people in our income bracket. We are paying off loans, not getting more. That's all.

Everyone else that works with us, or lives here has nicer cars, and has redone their houses, but they have no equity in their house. We aren't redoing the kitchen, even though the flooring is bubbled up and warped, until we can pay for it in cash, not with a loan. That may be 10 years from now. We don't make cosmetic repairs anymore. All the other families' kids have nice cars thanks to mom and dad, but some have 6 digits in college loans. Yet, no job.

Two generations that are in debt to 6 and 7 figures. We're dry. Its done. Cooked. Over.

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From the Dailymail.co.UK...

"Gordon Brown has insisted that the recession was just the 'difficult birth pangs of a new global order'.

As a poll showed more voters are turning against him, the Prime Minister warned that countries must see the financial crisis as the chance to forge a new financial system.

Setting the scene for April's G20 talks in London, Mr Brown said: 'If what happens to a bank in one country can within minutes have devastating effects for banks on a different continent, then only a truly international response of policy and governance can be effective.'

He said current 'threats and challenges' to the world economy should be seen as 'the difficult birth pangs of a new global order'.

'Our task now is nothing less than making the transition to a new internationalism with the benefits of an expanding global economy, not muddling through as pessimists, but making the necessary adjustment to a better future and setting new rules for this new global order', he said.

Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling are aware the G20 summit of developing countries and business leaders on April 4, could decide further stimulus measures that could alter the of this year's Budget. The Prime Minister is pinning his hopes on other countries, in particular the U.S., following Britain's lead by pumping cash into their economies."

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Great article. It's about time. Nationalize the Fed and eliminate it as the US central bank because it's the key player as to why this country is in such bad shape. Go to www.beyondrealtime.com and type in The Fed in the search panel. The info, fully vetted, will astound anyone as to just how corrupt a financial system we have in this country. Also check out what Putin has to say regarding the need to establish currency based on value, not on debt or vapor, which the way central banking works all over the world. Terrific piece really well done!

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Nationalizing is the only way for the taxpayer to hope to ever get anything back! It's also the only way to really clear the smoke and know what's going on and what we have to work with. If the financial institutions just keep getting bailout money without having to account for its use, they will just keep using it to buy toys and goodies and reward their own incompetence with fat bonuses.

I'm not sure that operating on lines of credit all the time is the best model, but the banksters are clearly not using their corporate welfare to get credit streams flowing again, besides which even responsible buyers with good credit are finding it difficult to get home loans and car loans.

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Jesus began his 3 1/2 year ministry in Jerusalem by driving the corrupt moneychangers from the Temple. He also ended His ministry by attacking the same thieves. It was the only time that the Lord used force during his earthly life.

"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise" (John 2:13-16).

Maybe there is some use for the religious right after all.

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From "Hand Over Our Loot, No. 2"

In the United States, the issuing of money is controlled by the Federal Reserve Board. This is not a government department but a board of private bankers.Most of us would believe that the Federal Reserve is a federal arm of the national government….This is not true…In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson signed the document that created the Federal Reserve, and committed the American people to debt slavery until such time as they awake from their slumber and overthrow this vicious tyranny."…

"The understanding of this issue of money into the community can be best illustrated by equating money in the economy with tickets in a railway system. The tickets are printed by a printer who is paid for his work. The printer never claims the ownership of the tickets … And we can never imagine a railway company refusing to give passengers seats on a train because it is out of tickets. By this same token, a government should never refuse people the access to normal commerce and trade by claiming it is out of money."

Suppose the government borrows $10 million. It only costs the bankers a few hundred dollars to actually produce the funds, and a little more to do the book-keeping. Do you think it is fair that our citizens should struggle to keep their homes and families together, while the bankers grow fat on these profits?

Credit created by a Government-owned bank is better than credit created by private banks, because there is no need to recover the money from people by way of taxes, and there is no interest attached to inflate the cost. The public work completed with the credit by the Government bank is the asset that replaces the money created when the work is finished.

None of our problems will disappear until we correct the creation, supply and circulation of money. Once the money problem is solved, everything else will fall into place.
http://www.relfe.com/plus_5_.html

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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th Edition - "Banks create credit. It is a mistake to suppose that bank credit is created to any extent by the payment of money into the banks. A loan made by a bank is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community."

Lord Acton, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1875 - "The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the People v. The Banks."

Mr Reginald McKenna, when Chairman of the Midland Bank in London - "I am afraid that ordinary citizens will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.

Mr Phillip A. Benson, President of the American Bankers' Association, June 8 1939 - "There is no more direct way to capture control of a nation than through its credit (money) system."

USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924 - "Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.

This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world.

By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished."

Sir Denison Miller - During an interview in 1921, when he was asked if he, through the Commonwealth Bank, had financed Australia during the First World War for $700 million, he replied; "Such was the case, and I could have financed the country for a further like sum had the war continued." Asked if that amount was available for productive purposes in this time of peace, he answered "Yes".
http://www.relfe.com/plus_5_.html

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Seriously, now: are you SURE that's a bad idea?

There's another word for "the entire global financial system:" Globalization.

Last I heard, we agreed that it was a bad idea. Disastrous, in fact.

So what's wrong with bringing it down?

I asked the credit union I bank at: they're doing fine. I see on Alternet stories that local banks are mostly healthy, lending, etc.

Realistically, we don't NEED those giant banks; they, themselves, are the "toxin."

Let 'em crash.

Of course, how much was it their officials donated to Obama's campaign? $24 million comes to mind, somehow, and that's besides their contributions to Congressional campaigns.

Good investment, don't you think?

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Nationalizing the banks is a good idea but as other posters here on Alternet have stated, unless the Federal Reserve is abolished it will not help. Even though the Fed has a 0% interest rate right now (officially making the dollar worthless) the taxpayers still have a balance with which to contend. The principle is monstrous and will never be paid off so even at 0% we are still permanently indebted to banks (and thus foreign investors).
How is it that so many people seem to understand this financial crisis better than the "professionals" whom we have placed in charge of dealing with it.
Does anyone really believe that there was no discussion of the possibility of a world wide economic meltdown when the world's leading economic and political powerhouses met at the Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia in June? Obama was there, so was Hillary as was Ben Bernanke and Zbigniew Brzeziński, one of Obama's top advisers and the man who I believe chose Obama to run for president.

Professor Prabhu Guptara is Executive Director, Organisational Development, Wolfsberg (a subsidiary of UBS - one of the largest banks in the world). He states, "All the problems produced by the current global crisis were caused initially by the WTO´s deliberately avoiding a level playing field - though it is true that these problems were compounded by debased money and by legalizing the possibility of gambling with money meant for other purposes and, further, without requiring anyone even to keep track of who was betting how much and indeed whether they even had the money with which to bet."

One of thousands of rational voices who feel that globalization is the objective of all the major political/economic/industrialist groups (World Bank, WTO, Bilderberg, IMF, and yes Obama, too).
Many of these people believe that war and poverty can be eliminated by one world government. Unfortunately a massive war must occur first before this can be achieved, a war that will reduce all sovereign nations (and their currencies) to rubble.
Though many readers will feel that I am a paranoid conspiracy theorist, it is hard to be hopeful considering all that has happened in the past 40 years (but particularly since 2001).

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Because the uber-wealthy in this country already have their lifeboat ready and waiting. They'll just pile into it and sail off in it while waving goodbye to the poor luckless souls who still stuck on the tipping deck.

Or if that doesn't work, they'll just put into action Plan B: throw overboard the deadweight (middle class and working class people) to try and lighten the load.

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Holland has done his homework, as is usually the case. The eventual solution to this and many of our other national problems lies with reform of election finance. With the power they have been able and willing to wield over politics since the early 1970s, we have seen radical regressive legislation enacted at the federal level by the wealthy. There’s no serious argument about that, only whether it has been good or bad. Don’t we know yet? How much more pain do we need to realize that wealth as self-justifying is only interested in its own continuation without regard to others?

Global capitalism is alive and well. Consequently, we can expect to see massive suffering and dislocation around the world as well as at home. If you want historical precedents, recall how nations supported domestic tyranny before WWII. Internationally, we can soon expect to see growing conflict (ala Ukraine/Russia) to cover-up declines in prosperity.

The immediate domestic problems of spreading poverty and unemployment are more than business as usual can handle. Even nationalizing the banks will not return us to bubble levels. But denying the consequences of 30 years of economic mismanagement will be even more disastrous. The proverbial “s**t has hit the fan.” The stench will be around for a long time.

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On the current economic crisis, Chomsky made the following comment:

"It is a worldwide crisis and it is very serious. It is striking that the ways that Western countries are approaching the crisis [entirely contradict] the model that they enforce on the Third World when there is a crisis. So when Indonesia has a crisis, [or] Argentina and everyone else, they are supposed to raise interest rates very high and privatize the economy, and cut down on public spending, measures like that. In the West, it is the exact opposite: lower interest rates to zero, move towards nationalization if necessary, pour money into the economy, have huge debts. That is exactly the opposite of how the Third World is supposed to pay off its debts. That this seems to pass without comment is remarkable."

In deed! We can get away with using WMD and screwing the entire world's economy, but Cuba must be kept under economic embargo!

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"an important piece of tough love that might dissuade people from following the herd into the next speculation-fueled bubble."

Uh-huh.

And I've got a really nice bridge for you, going cheap.

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Either we have a truly free enterprise in which the winners take all and the losers suck hind tit, or we have government (of the people, by the people and for the people) control. The fact is, the federal government legislated laws and policies that made this fiasco possible. It should now legislate laws and policies that correct and prevent it. We already have corporate socialism. Let's try egalitarian socialism for the masses for a change. Some nations that are more homogeneous in demographics and enjoy populist democracies choose how they want to live and dictate to their government to secure those ends for their benefit. We have a democratic republic, which means we elect our dictators. The society and the US Constitution are evolving toward true equality. Perhaps we should speed up the process.

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When it was discovered how badly the American people were ripped off by banks and insurance companies, and the fact that lives were ruined by the pathological greed of those institutions, arrests followed by prosecutions should've taken place, but noooooo! The bushies rewarded the crooks with 700 billion dollars WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. This is no surprise coming from a zero like bush who never got a goddam thing right in his entire misbegotten life. We now have a President with a brain and a conscience. We need to tell him to go back to square one and begin the arrests, confiscation of assets, and prosecution of the crooks responsible for the mess they created.

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a car full of drunk and reckless passengers going over a cliff and listening to the passengers discussing in mid-air what "we" should do.

That's about the right way to view America and Americans.

No matter what the sober ones say or suggest, the car will crash and burn.

The American imperial warship is sinking in the middle of some vast ocean. Its conquistador-leaders have helicoptered away to private islands and fortresses from which to continue to collect interest from every last sucker in the world, and there is little left on that sinking ship but rats. Some rats are managing to squeak out the first rational suggestions ever made by an American-born rat, but when the water level gets a bit higher, they will attack and shred each other like the selfish rats that they are.

In the end, they will tear themselves apart, each destroying the other to take what he or she has, and I am speaking literally now, not figuratively.

Yeah, "we" should do this. . .and "we" should do that. . .

It ain't gonna happen that way.

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Every last nickel or dime transaction goes online where we can all see for ourselves what's going on. All mistakes will be noted. At the end of the year the bank with the fewest errors and/or complaints will be allowed to give bonuses to ALL employees. Amounts to be determined by the shareholders (us). Thanks, ANNA

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Not even investing in making machines for making machines...for making machines today, can replace the former casino flight forward.

There is no need, anymore, for so many labors and there is a big need for many consumers, to reach a little profit -the only justification for a capitalist regime-.

I don't know how strong is Marx-SovietUnion confusion today, but he's the only one who predicted it long time ago.

The little problem is that he sliped with a little "one" page solution.

Public banks, as many countries have done in the past to solve crisis, all right. What then?

Invest, ideally, the best way and close your eyes, to the next hit?

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There will only be more of the same at ruling class owned Washington and its sellout court jester the MSM.

"Sometimes, the market works. Wall Street's titans lobbied like hell to get regulators off their backs..."

Wall Street's "titans" were Washington Ponzi felons such as Robert Rubin and "Sir" Allan Greenspan knighted at the insistence of the City of London's financial district run by the old Rothschild bloc.

"The market" is a blood money extortion racket. The system we live under is not a free ""market" anything. And certainly NOT so-called "capitalism". It is monopoly Organized Corporate Crime rigged by a private FASCIST bank better known as the "Federal Reserve" Corp (never federal and with less than zero for reserves).

For that reason this Alternet writers ideas for"nationalization" of banks (even if it happens) is doomed to endless rounds of more public extortion and de facto corporate crime.

"It appears that the idea of nationalization is gaining steam in policy circles, but the Obama administration has been hesitant to use the word, perhaps wary of the reaction the proposal might get from conservatives."

This is possibly the worst bloody joke in the story. Obama was run, bought, and brought into office as a puppet of the ruling class will do what he is told to do and read from the script handed him.

There are no such thing as real "conservatives" at Washington or virtually anywhere else. That battle was fought when post Colonial "anti-Federalists" under Thomas Jefferson opposed the "Federalists" which were essentially Tory instruments of Europe's oligarchy under puppet King George III for what Benjamin Franklin named as "the international bankers.”

Jefferson's fight was lost when the "Federal Reserve" Corp was cooked by the ruling class to dominate money and its virtually unlimited power to corrupt human thought and action.

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency … the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered… The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of [private] lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
President Thomas Jefferson - (In a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, 1802)

“The inability of the colonists to get the power to issue their own money, permanently, out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the revolutionary war.”
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (on cartel money monopoly power. 1706-1790)

"If the government is to tell big business men how to run their business, then don't you see that big business men have to get closer to the government even than they are now? Don't you see that they must capture the government, in order not to be restrained too much by it? Must capture the government? They have already captured it."
President Woodrow Wilson (Wilson rubberstamped the "Federal Reserve" Act into law. quote 1913)

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president.”
President FDR (on de facto Fascist rule in a letter to corporate monopoly charlatan “Colonel” Edward M. House, co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations and political fixer for the ruling class. House also handled President Wilson. 11/21/ l933)

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...oh yeah, now I remember:

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism" Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867


Nationalizing the banks is ALREADY the plan, and once again the fool public plays right into the hands of power. No matter WHAT happens, the SAME PEOPLE will be in charge.

dboy

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Excellent article, many excellent posts. But don't just stop here at Alternet. Over the weekend, I am going to take some talking points from this article. Monday morning, I am calling my Reps and Senators and demand this be done!

LET'S ALL DO IT!!!!! There is strength in numbers. Let's all bombard Capitol Hill Monday with phone calls and demand the banks be nationalized. It's time for Wall Street to stop screwing us over - and to "crash and burn" as Joshua says. They SO deserve it.

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I confess that I'm not an expert on this issue, but does the following quote help?

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

- Thomas Jefferson

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That’s what we get on the page above and no doubt from all the pages to come.

So here’s reality by the same "Titanic" analogy…

Obama was hired captain of the Titanic by the 1st class passengers that pulled his willing strings all the way to his cushy wheelhouse (White House).

As a smooth double-talk stooge of the elite overclass that bought him, Obama will act out his part and make flimflam speeches to the confused 2nd class and steerage crowd. No more no less. Ditto for Congress including phony Washington “conservatives” named by this Alternet writer.

And guess what? If they “nationalize” banks, the same old robber baron families will pull all the strings behind Washington and the media (the Titanic crew).

Finally: WE KNOW HOW THIS TITANIC STORY ENDS…

Too big to fail and too small to save. That’s the leech overclass police state for you.

Most 1st class passengers on Titanic were given life preservers and lifeboats. 2nd class and steerage passengers got to drown in icy water.

Go figure.

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If we are going to put hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenues into saving financial institutions, we need to make sure the money isn't being spend on golden parachutes.

Whether it's temporary nationalization, a "bad" bank to buy up risky assets, or simply putting federal employees in positions of power at banks that receive federal money, serious oversight and control is required.

I tend to like the idea of a "bad" bank the best. It frees the banks of their biggest liabilities and also puts the government in a position to recoup some of the money. It also avoids the obvious problems of working out a constitutional arrangement and finding qualified government personnel to actually manage banks.

Nationalization is my second choice and it should be temporary. After institutions return to profitability, the government should skim some of the profits to recoup some of the billions it invests.

In any case, the government should make sure it gets back some of the money it pays out to avoid even more ridiculous amounts of federal debt.

I really can't believe the gall of the Republicans who are screaming about mortgaging our children's future, when they are largely responsible for putting us in this mess. Voodoo economics is not a strong enough term for the "trickle-down" corporate welfare of the last 25 years.

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Totally Blows Friends Away

On Channel4 and E4 in the UK and possibly available in the US over the Internet - but probably not in High Definition unless you really know to hack it

The new series of SKINS out last week just completely Blows LOST Away

In SKINS They are not going to go backwards and forwards in time

And I vote

GREEN

The Green ones are even bigger than the Red Ones

Tony

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Nationalization of the banks is obviously the only solution which has a prayer of working. (Unless, of course, by "working," you mean continuing to fork over gargantuan piles of taxpayer money into the pockets of the crooks who started this mess.) The longer we wait to take the necessary steps, the worse it's going to be for all of us. If Americans continue to be scared by words like "nationalization" and "socialism," then we'll all soon find ourselves well up the proverbial creek with nary a paddle in sight.

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Considering the amount of economic treason that has been committed by the financial sector and their Deregulating Political whores, they deserve to have their catastrophes seized. It will be THEIR fault that 'Socialism' came to America. Same goes for Socialized Medicine, what other option do we really have? They have sucked the marrow out of the Free market ideology, Ran it right into the grave. Don't blame Dems or Progressive for this, we consistently demanded some Stop gaps before they ran US over the cliff.
Repugs and the 'Free Marketeers' have no one to blame but themselves. 'Every action has a equal or greater reaction'..so trying to create a Fuedalistic caste system will result in a reaction of Socialism when the shit hits the fan.
When Exxon brings in 45.2 BILLION in profits in a year of $4.00 Gas prices, Economic meltdown, skyrocketing Unemployement, toppling Companies and world wide famine, Who is to blame if we Seize their shit for the Common good?
What is most laughable is the constant faned concern about 'Taxpayers' by the Repugs...We can't be tax payers if we don't have Jobs, or homes. Then we become welfare Recipients, thus increasing the Deficit with nothing to show but yesterdays lunch in the toilet.What is obvious is the Repugs have no concept of repercussion and 'Backlash'.It has been their actions that will result in their downfall..Nobody elses.
Most obvious is the fact that if you bring down labor costs, you bring down consumer spending. you increase Interst rates, You bring down customer spending.You ship jobs to other 3rd world countries, you bring down consumer spending here.Repugs and their Corp masters have killed the American 'conspicuous Consumption'- they've let their 'Bread & Butter' get moldly and stale. And Now they have no choice but to eat it!

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Since when is letting a bank go out of business a bad thing? We have set a bad trend, so now every failing business model has a right to ask for money.

So if the NRA comes and says we need a bailout what are the liberals going to say then, we don't bail out companies?
Already Larry Flynt, and Heffner are asking for a porn bailout.

Hard times for the porn industry i guess.

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45 BILLION in profits and they still had the huevos to whine about losses in the last quarter. That should tell you how badly we were being gouged during the rest of the year.

If oil production is so important to our national security that our children have to die in far-off sands to keep the damn stuff flowing then nationalize the dang industry.

Further:

Legislate the requirement that the federal government, one of the world's biggest consumers, can only buy from American companies who do NOT outsource. Instant jobs.

Further:

Create a national mortgage institution staffed by people from outside the banking world and with full review of the American people. Institute fixed rate mortgages of four percent or less. TARP THAT.

This stuff ain't all that hard, folks. If they won't do any of those three ideas, then let the whole dang thing trash and burn. It'll make rebuilding easier.

Bastidges.

Menopausal Mick

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We're obviously in deep doo doo, as a friend wrote in his recent economic commentary:

In a very interesting article, Naufal Sanaullah, identified a number of pieces of data that may shed light on some of what is happening behind the scenes.

On September 17, the Treasury announced the creation of the "Supplementary Financing Account" in the Federal Reserve. This is a capital reserve in Fed financed by the Treasury selling new debt and it greatly expands the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, albeit stealthily. The excess capital is trapped in this Fed account and does not reach currency in circulation. As of January 2, $259 billion is in this Treasury-financed cash pool and counting the Treasury's "General Account" with the Fed, there is a total of $365 billion sitting at the Fed.

In addition, Sanaullah argues, as we have suggested above, that there is evidence of banks preferring to keep cash with the Fed resulting in the absurdity that they are arbitraging the rate at which the Fed is lending them money and the rates it is paying them on the same money lent back to the Fed. Less than $40 billion a year ago, the excess reserve deposits held by the Federal Reserve [have] ballooned to $860 billion. Both the reserve and non-reserve deposits comprise another huge pool of excess liquidity on the Fed's balance sheet that doesn't immediately affect circulated currency. He also points to reverse repurchase agreements (a common means for the Fed to manage liquidity in the markets by buying assets from banks in exchange for cash) being "up to $88 billion", although the magnitude of the use of such agreements is shrouded in some mystery since they are part of M3 Money and therefore no longer published by the Fed. His point being that he sees the Fed sucking liquidity from the system in direct contradiction to its stated policy.

We don't have the data access, resources or tools to prove what is happening but if our hunch is right then we have an extraordinary situation. The Fed is having the US government borrow vast sums through the issuance of Treasury Securities issued to the Fed by the government in exchange not for cash but for a data entry in the government's accounts with the Fed, the Fed then takes this non-cash money, this data entry, from the government's account and credit's it to the accounts of it's crony banks who immediately give it back to the Fed in exchange for the Treasury Securities issued by the government to "fund" the injection into the banks. So the US government runs up vast debts, the banks get to rebuild their balance sheets and, to the extent this is fully mirrored at all levels, absolutely no money goes into the economy whatsoever. America is being scammed and, ironically, Obama's "tough restrictions" may only exacerbate the scam.

Pretty sick stuff if you ask me.

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I suspect many understand that part of the reluctance to really tackle the economic meltdown and its root causes has to do with the fear that if as a society we really face the music in its entirety, we will expose our modern capitalist economy and its excesses as a sham, with the effect of plummeting confidence, greater near term damage, and desperation. What with some estimates being that financial institutions have upwards of 70-100 TRILLION in worthless paper assets, based on derivatives, credit default swaps, etc., and dwarfing the entire economy, it's no wonder that no one wants to point out the emperor has no clothes. No one wants to know how low the real bottom is that must be reached in order to begin to rebuild, if possible.

Thus, the initial efforts are to tinker, patch over, transfusions, etc. even though the doctors don't know how much internal hemorraghing is really there. Also politically, even if drastic measures are needed, the political risk of being tagged with some "failure" at this stage due to taking some drastic measures is too great, except for the greatest, most courageous leaders.

We want to believe our Titanic economy is unsinkable. Belief and confidence are at the heart of all economies. Few feel strongly they know what can right this damaged, leaking, listing vessel, if it can be. Perhaps nationalizing banks is part of the solution. Moratoriums on foreclosures are needed. Write-downs on loan balances for the typical homeowner are needed. Re-regulation is needed. Jobs are needed. The big problem is being so over-leveraged that even the world's great creditor nations won't forever play along.

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What we need is to get rid of the New World Order's 'Federal' Reserve & go back to the Constitution regarding US currency. Unless you actually LIKE inflation, that is. It would be a good idea to return to the Constitution period!

Ron Paul is the best of all the candidates who knows what to do. Dr. Paul knows a lot about what ails this country $ wise. Read some of his writings before you sound off on me.

http://tinyurl.com/bmwqav

This is not about lib Dem or phony R conservatives. The real 'us v them' is us against the New World Order who own most of media & banks. It's about fixing our mess, not "my party is best".

Having those who helped make the mess try to fix it is insane. Doing the same old things over & over has gotten US nowhere. Same results every time, that is why we are, after decades of Capitol Hill machinations, STILL having this discussion. The Titanic is still sinking!!

One of the biggest 'gashes' in the side of the 'Titanic' happened in 1913 when Dem Prez Woodrow Wilson signed the 'Federal' Reserve Act & rammed the US into the 'Federal' Reserve 'iceberg'. He gave power over US $ to those who would destroy the US & have us willingly capitulate to a one world gov. as the solution to the very problems THEY CREATED using our own gov against US.

We need an old approach to be revived. RE-establishing the Constitution as the law of the land would go a long way to solving many problems in the USA.

If 'nationalizing' means a return to Constitutional $ then I am in agreement. If keeping the current system & having the US gov take over...well, that is very lame as most on Capitol Hill are owned by those who own the 'Fed' so nothing would change. Basking in the light of deception is not going to do any thing but mollify those who think this is a good idea, but whamoo! We will soon find that we were tricked again, as we were with Obama.

This is the Obama who said he would do away with pork & earmarks. But the current 'stimulus' bill is as full of pig fat as ever. Here is a good chance for the Prez to put up or shut up. I doubt he will do either, but we can always hope.

Instead of nationalization & giving the Fed gov even more control & making the bloated harlot fatter, we need to cut the size of gov & get it back in line with the Constitution. If we do not do that we are doomed & will be relegated back to square 1 again...& again...& again....just like we have been every time we allow the Fed gov more power & do not protest when the gov steals more control from the citizen or illegally over ride State's Rights like they have done via the MMJ raids against growers & care givers.

SamFox

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The "Bad Bank" idea is a bad idea. And once TARP money is turned over to banks it is impossible to supervise or verify exactly how it is actually used. These banks played a very insideous role in the precipitation of the current crisis but not the one often attributed to them by alternet conspiracy types.

In the first place, the housing bubble that was created by low interest rates was only part of the problem and not the real one. Many would argue that real interest rates were even a bit high considering the deflationary conditions between 2001 and 2004. The rate cuts were like pushing on a string. There was no real growth or net new investment to speak of at the time and the "job market recovery" in 2004-05 didn't actually match the level of job creation before the downturn in March 2001. Investment would occur due to a lack of effective demand. What was needed was public investment stimulus package which we could never get from the likes of Bush.

What we did get was the continued absorption of our main trading partners' savings costing them the development of internal markets which could absorb US exports and provide better jobs and income. Instead, excess savings produced overseas is invested in high yield, secure US capital markets suppressing long term real interest rates in the US. Most of surplus accumulation was lent out for consumption against appreciating housing values but some sloshed back overseas as investment in sovereign bond issues. To prevent money stock growth that would cause currency apprecitation and harm exports these countries sent the investment right back. US banks were happy to allow money growth for domestic lending. Despite a near doubling of US labor productivity between 1979 and 2004, US median income was utterly flat. In the absence of effective consumer demand, lending became the only way to continue to sustain even the meagre US GDP growth that was being experienced. The problem's real roots ran much deeper than bank policies. It ran to the chronic stagnation of late capitalism. The banks only continued to accomidate this inevitable trend.

A policy could have been pursued which opened up opportunities for a boost in US exports and hence job and real income growth. A policy of strict capital controls which would have forced the Chinese to deal with their abnormally high savings and low consumption rates would have been preferable. It would have put upward pressure on real Chinese wages causing the Chinese government to seek efficiencies in energy use policy to contain their industries cost structure. This would have created markets for the advances in US technologies in energy efficiency which would have improved exports and created high paying US jobs. Policies to place upward pressure on the wages of our trade partners forces them to spend their excess savings in ways that promote US exports not only that cater to the capital goods needs of the growing Chinese economy but to growing consumption as well.

Instead, banks continued to treat the world's excess savings as an unlimited source of lendable capital which inflated housing values and allowed low interest rates and debt financed consumption to avoid the issue of low real US wages.

Bank nationalization would eliminate the corruption that accompanied the mortgage crisis and the bad debts incurred. But it would also allow us to engage in a long term fiscal policy that places labor and growing real wages ahead of needless financialization.

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Right on. Nationalize the Banks. Restructure the mortgages - none of this ARM business for 10 years. Change the credit card insanity by limiting the interest charged, guarantee 30 days to pay and stop playing games with the consumers. Also - fire all the top guys and half the pretty Vice Presidents who sit and do, well, not much that I can see (they also make a lot of mistakes). Break up the large conglomerate banks. Then close Bank of America and charge the CEOs therein with terrorism - many of their policies have destroyed average people and they should be stopped. The penalties for the behavior for banks, mortgage houses, etc. should be fines so heavy that the robbers are forced to live like Mr. & Mrs. Average American who earn about 40K a year.

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The only institution or bank that should be allowed to be too big to fail should be a National Institution or Bank. Private institutions and banks, businesses or corporations do and should fail. The people of the USA deserve national Banks, Health Care, and public institutions most of the rest of the civilized world already does.

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Worked for Hitler's Germany, didn't it? Worked for the U.S.S.R., didn't it?

Worked for China, didn't it? Oh well, that's right, China didn't start taking off until they DEnationalized everything.

Can't win them all.

NEXT.

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While discussing a completely different topic, I was reminded of the Fallacy of the Excluded Middle by a friend.

This goes as follows: Two sides of an argument spend a lot of time and energy proposing opposite solutions to a problem. End result: permanent stalemate or a seesawing from one extreme to the other.

In this case, the original middle ground solution to the initial cause of our economic problems was to impose (actually re-impose) regulation on not only the financial "community" but on several others as well.
The Republicans spent about 30 years dismantling regulations. This allowed even "honest men" to be tempted into dishonest activities (like creating phony debt instruments and trading them around the world).

Rather than "full Right" or "full Left" the Obama administration should pursue two courses: first shore up the wobbling consumers (70% of the economy) and energize a massive rebuild of infrastructure and second: reinstall some realistic regulation of all financial corporations - including some cap on salaries and benefits for the top dogs.

This will not be a disincentive: provided everyone realizes that we need "cops" to keep us from speeding into that bridge abutment just ahead and that - honesty - IS the best policy, period. Don't anyone tell me that there's no incentive for an executive to reach a top salary equal to 20 x average wage level. At current wage level: that would be about $300 / hour. Twenty times avg. wage level was good enough for J.P. Morgan and he was a promoter of that as a cap. He made himself famous for more than being one of the richest: he made a career out of rescuing failing companies and putting the top execs on "a diet."

Middle ground, people - don't forget.

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-——————————
Flv Converter for Mac

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Friends: Some of Obama’s specific moves in opposition to the Bush gang's dictatorial policies are Okay. But continuing the Bush/Paulson plan will prove a disaster. Last fall, the Congress provided the Banksters with an 850 Billion Dollars Gift-of-Taxpayer-Money. And then, some of these Congress people acted “shocked” when the crooks awarded themselves $18 billion dollars in personal bonuses.

Yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanded another Two- Trillion- dollars be provided to the Banking Crime Syndicate as another installment of bailout payments.> It is just like the old Mafia “‘protection” racket. You pay them or they will destroy your business and then they will break your legs as part of their messenger service. It is nothing but a shake down based on a scam. >“ Pay the Banksters, or we destroy the economy!”

PleaseTake Note: the Republicans in Congress completely ignore the accuracy of Dr. Christina Romer’s analysis on the benefit of tax cuts, how and when to use these cuts. The Clintonoid “market fundamentalists”(as George Soros calls them), and the so-called “economist” in the Obama administration, also seek to keep these tax cuts. It is business as usual.

Here, briefly, are three basic methods of addressing rising unemployment and credit crisis and distinct methods of addressing a stalled economy that has been systematically fleeced and scammed by the banksters at the Feds and Treasury:

1. Funding government programs through inadequate “stimulus spending, the liability being the administrative overhead of doing it this way and the administrative cost of implementing these measures: it means that money is still funneled through the banks, and the bankster’s fees are collected, before, say, in the Gift to the automobile corporations (first to their administrator's and CEO, second to the dividend ‘deprived’ stock holders who get their dibs)-with little of the Taxpayer's funded Gift going to worker’s salaries, or direct to spending on economic consumption.

2. Tax cuts: Like the Republicans propose. This is their mantra because the tax code is riddled with loopholes, exemptions, tax credits, and deductions. This approach ends up funneling money back to the rich, and to the upper income brackets, who are able to exploit the tax “laws” and its' provisions and to hide wealth off-shore. The greedy also have a bevy of tax lawyers and accounts, and they have been able to purchase Congress, establish thousand of lobbys, and to bribe, corrupt and bamboozle the courts, public and judges .


3. A Direct Cash BONUS to the American people, as I favor. The British government now has plans to nationalize the private banks. I have previously suggested nationalizing the Federal Reserve (and its major “solvent” banks) along with the U.S. Treasury, (and putting these under a system of democratically controlled elections and thus hopefully responsive to the American people); and, correspondingly, a transfer of Federal Reserve Notes (“dollars”) to a new fiat currency of Greenbacks –a new dollar currency-- with the original Red Seal replaced on the bill. And Give a Personal Income Bonus equally to Every American.

[Let me suggest, as a start:

Three Trillion as an Emergence spending measure, and then $30 trillion over the following two year period is do-able. Giving everyone a bonus as this would stimulate consumption and get the economy growing again. THE CHALLENGE BRFORE AMERICA IS TO QUICKILY RAISE THE MEDIAN INCOME; EXPAND DISPOSABLE INCOME; AND EXPAND SPENDING ON CONSUMPTION; on INDUSTRY; AND on JOBS; AND TO SPEED-UP THE IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF LIFE. As it stands now, the bankster’s can create wealth "out of thin air" and charge the American Taxpayer interest both on their ransom demands and for their credit business,

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while profiting personally off their systematically plundered of the US public wealth. ]

In previous e-mails I suggested:

(4) Nationalize the Federal Reserve, its' banks, and also nationalize the US Treasury! No more bonds, notes, or credits use to benefit the exclusionary special-interests of the plunder-elite and no more exclusive control of public social wealth by banks as stock holding institutions and as privately owned corporations. (5) Bring back Greenbacks and transfer the power to create and to expand credit directly to the American people . . . Put the financial Pirates and bankster thieves out of business. (6) Lock down the national debt, and the accumulative personal debt of every American citizen along with it, and put all of this into a Debt Fund Trust,* to be (7) paid-off with a new Green Back People's currency (underwritten by the resourcefulness ,productivity, and technological proficiency of the American people) with an individual and corporate tax liability used to cover interest- obligations set at a fixed low interest rate favorable to future US taxpayers with necessary installment obligations paid on this interests and principal over a period of one-thousands years. (8) summary: No more private stock Banks or privately owned “public” institutions and no more private controls over the US Federal Reserve and Treasury and bring an end immediately to the Feds contracted monopoly on creating credit “out of thin air” that their strata uses currently to squeeze mountains, clouds and flowing rivers of wealth out of the American people‘s sweat and tears while generating economic depression as repetitious way of life. Bring an end to this Piracy!

* This “Debt Fund Trust” is not to be confused with a “Bad Bank” which is just another scam to transfer public wealth to the banksters.

I also wrote:

[In addition to the current $850 billion [$1.1trillion with interest and fees] in the economic "stimulus" bills. . .

In October of 2008 the finance capitalist received an earlier $ 700 billion dollars [$875 billion with interests and add-ons as a Gift from Congress] to cover their "credit swaps" and “derivatives” and transfer other “paper and account wealth” to the banksters -- as cover for their bookkeeping, gambling, and speculator’s accounting scams.

Under direction of Treasury Secretary Paulson's, these bail –outs > have strengthen the process of monopolization in the financial world; >specifically the monopoly status of Goldman Sacks within the business and banking anti-community for control of finance; and helped them dominate other investment houses. Within the general economy these bailouts >permit a higher degree and intensification of the processes of monopoly throughout all sectors of the economy (starting within the domain of finance capital and spiraling outward), and, along with all these public liabilities and expenses of monopoly, > are to be leveraged by the US taxpayer' for hundreds of generations to come. >The bubbles shown in the chart below does not cover the full spectrum of bailouts, such as commercial Airline industry, monies thrown into air terminal protection, the Steel industry, into Am-tract, “Homeland Insecurity,” private military contractors, Blackwater, Halliburton, Bectel, the annual subsidization of the petroleum giants, and soon, and most certain to be added > the bailouts to the auto –producers. > All of those bailouts were made during the Bush administration. >The $$$ including in these give-a-ways to banking-industry alone can be conservatively estimate at a total figure of 1 Trillion, 894 Billion, and 700 Millions dollars(from 1974 until today-with most of it in the last eight years). We must also add into this debt > the 12-billion a month spent on "the War of Aggression against the People of Iraq."

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>Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, puts this specific debt at 2.5 Trillion Dollars- that is, if one includes the on-going costs of replacement of military equipment and the inclusive social costs for returning veterans, along with future ongoing projected emergence spending appropriations. > The real figure for the transfer of this wealth to the wealthiest institutions and individuals is likely closer > to 5 trillion dollars as a sum including both these economic bailouts and un-necessary expense of war-making for an unnecessary war. One could also easily justify adding in >the shortfall on public revenue >due to Bush’s tax- cut -give- a-ways provided to the top brackets >plus the multitude of tax loop- holes provided to this strata by the Bush gang.

These bailouts mark an absolute failure of (1) Trickle Down Economics; (2) the deregulation of the banks under the sleazy Clinton administration and the Neonazicon Bush/Cheney administration;* and (3), the final failure of “free marketer-ist” ideological bias of right-wing fanatics and lobbyists, working for a “Unitary Presidency” and expansion of the “Financial-State “of Debt as a replacement of the “Corporate-government” while they abandon "the Bill of Rights," with an accompanying lack of transparency in government); the Bush administration have uncritical support from “Centrist” politicians that demonstrated ignorance, and reactionary support, as exemplified by the ignorant Sarah Palin’s of the USA; and (4), all of this amounts to a partial cost of a failed Bush administration. (5) The Plunder Elite have loyal support from the Clintonoid political wing. Starting:

*When Bill Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Biley Financial Modernization [Deregulation] Act (Nov. 12, 1999) that replaced FDR’s, Glass-Steagal Act of 1933-–that was itself a response to insider trading and banking corruption-- that produced a philosophic and policy bias in an earlier period American history that produced the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and brought on the First Great Depression. Thus, the Clinton/Bush deregulation of the banks, while promoting plunder and lawlessness, generated unchained greed and economic anarchy.

How long do you think it will take Obama to get "our" $ 18 billion dollars back from the corporate-banking thieves?

Enjoy,

~>A.Z. Arrow

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