Wall Street's Bailout Is A Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene - Naomi Klein

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sent by sacredsage since 453 days 39 minutes, published about 452 days 20 hours 12 minutes
The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal. In a moment of high panic in late September, the U.S. Treasury unilaterally pushed through a radical change in how bank mergers are taxed -- a change long sought by the industry. Despite the fact that this move will deprive the government of as much as $140 billion in tax revenue, lawmakers found out only after the fact. According to the Washington Post, more than a dozen tax attorneys agree that "Treasury had no authority to issue the [tax change] notice." Of equally dubious legality are the equity deals Treasury has negotiated with many of the country's banks. According to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the legislation that enables the deals, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending -- for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. -- is a violation of the act." Yet this is exactly how the funds are being used.
tags: wall street, bailout, economic meltdown
9 commentscategory: Progressive Issues karma: 170

comments

  1. #1    Fine, Naomi, but follow through. Think - the Bailout was engineered by Obama and Frank as much as by Bush and co.. Stop trying to snow us with the idea that Obama will make it all better. Only we can make it better.
    written by epppie since 452 days 23 hours 48 minutesepppie
  2. #2    Look, this "Bailout" was crafted with only 1 intent. To break the treasury. With no money in the treasury, non of President Obamas initiatives will ever get funded, because unlike the Republicans, the Democrats still have a modicum of fiscal responsibility.

    Well, actually, there is a second part to this, it also has the intent of transferring a massive amount of national wealth to a relative minority of rich, well to do people.
    written by Dano2112a since 452 days 19 hours 23 minutesDano2112a
  3. #3    "Roger That" #1........But I honestly don't see anything but doom and gloom comin' down the pike.... We as a society have become accustom to "letting it ride" when it comes to big government. The "snowflake" has now become the proverbial "avalanche"...Yesterday was the day to start worrying about what to do and how to do it......

    Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!! Me thinks ya better get used to grabbin' yer ankles there young laddies....


    It ain't gonna be pretty!!!
    written by mercman since 452 days 19 hours 18 minutesmercman
  4. #4    Does the term "Enemies Foreign and DOMESTIC" ring any bells - I'm sure the resources can still be found to track down, try and sentence these traitors - and start a whole new industry of asset recovery and nationalization.

    AND "lawmakers found out only after the fact." - Just shocked, shocked you hear! either these people are way to stupid to be our lawmakers OR they are co-conspirators. I vote for the latter.
    written by bee since 452 days 18 hours 19 minutesbee
  5. #5    Mercman, I'm no lady, but I will be grabbin my ankles too. I don't see anything good comin!!
    written by Sparrows since 452 days 18 hoursSparrows
  6. #6    STUPID AMERICAN WHITE FOLKS DESERVE TO BE FLEECED BY THEIR GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO BUSY STUFFING THEIR FAT GREEDY MAWS WITH MCDONALDS' & KFC BOWLS!

    The HighTech SCAM of 2001, the SubPrime Scam of 2005-7 & the Financial Crisis Scam of 2008 are all THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF 40% OF WHITE RACIST AMERICANS SO DAMN BUSY CHASIN' DOWN Black & Brown Folks, THEY LET THE WEALTHY OLD WHITEBOY 1%-ERS JUST REAM THEIR CHEEZY BUTTS GOOD!! (They can hear the SQUELIN' ALL THE WAY TO MOSCOW & BEIJING!)
    written by MotherJones since 452 days 17 hours 50 minutesMotherJones
  7. #7    And the Chinese and Russian people all know exactly what their governments are doing and they are never massacred by their benign governments, they jump in and make things right, every chance they get..like the Red Square and Tinnerman Square massacre's, right?...Hows that economy working for you in China and Russia...this crisis has become global(just like last time) and the people in China, Russia, Canada, U.K. and all other countries are just as guilty, by letting it happen in their own complacency laziness, and cowardliness as the "Stupid American White Folks"...the question is are we all going to sit around blaming each other, calling each other names, when we should be holding, our leaders and governments accountable for selling us out to the corporations..or are we going to unite and change things...?
    written by chabuka since 452 days 17 hours 3 minuteschabuka
  8. #8    Regarding the "market", it's time to have an intervention, take away the car keys and pack it off to detox.
    written by sulphurdunn since 452 days 16 hours 56 minutessulphurdunn
  9. #9    "Only we can make it better."

    We've already seen how Obama/Biden and the D leadership and large D majorities in the House and Senate, supporting Bush, responded to massive public disapproval of the bailout/giveaway -- they rammed it thru anyway. And the public, especially "progressive" and "liberal" voters, rewarded them anyway at the ballot box, the ONLY place where the public has any real power that politicians care about.

    As long as "progressives," the left, social-libertarians, antiwar, labor, environmentalists etc consistently waste their votes on candidates opposed to their interests -- throwing away their only real (legal) power in our sys...

    » ver todo el comentario
    written by nasrudin since 451 days 17 hours 59 minutesnasrudin
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