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TechnoratiOnly Real Fix Is Regulatory, Analysts Say
WASHINGTON - The blood flowing this week from Wall Street, spilling over into the homes of most citizens and the economies of other countries, raised urgent calls for stricter regulation of major players in the U.S. economy.
![[A dragonfly is seen on a Wall Street sign in New York September 18, 2008. Deregulation was the theme song of the Ronald Reagan presidency, epitomised by his assertion that 'Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.'
(Eric Thayer/Reuters)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/wallstreet.jpg "wallstreet.jpg")
Thursday's immediate worry was the health of the two remaining large-scale private investment firms Goldman-Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as Seattle-based Washington Mutual. Would they make it through the day?
By mid-day Morgan Stanley was reported to be looking for a buyout by a regional bank, Wachovia.
The middle-of-the-night crisis call that all presidential hopefuls must claim to be ready for are now being directed to the Federal Reserve chairman or Treasury Secretary.
After all-night meetings and phone consultations, the Federal Reserve moved in the wee hours of Thursday to stabilise financial markets here and abroad with infusions of 55 billion dollars in the U.S. and 180 billion dollars to central banks around the world.
Will this, along with the federal takeover of the American Insurance Group and mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- be enough to halt the crisis? Pundits are doubtful, tending instead to insist that stricter regulation of financial markets is the vital component needed for a long-term cure.
Major media outlets, including Time, Inc. and the Washington Post, both today blamed lack of regulation for the crisis.
Business writers for Time.com wrote: 'Fear is so pervasive today because for years the financial markets -- and many borrowers -- showed no fear at all. Wall Streeters didn't have to worry about regulation, which was in disrepute,' leading to a 'hothouse of greed' and thus to the troubles we are seeing today, argued Andy Serwer and Allan Sloan.
The Washington Post ran a lengthy article blaming 'official Washington' for failing to oversee the machinations of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac -- whose imminent failure sparked last weekend's crisis -- resulting in a federal takeover that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
The Centre for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank, also placed much of the blame on lack of regulation, charging in a statement today that President's George W. Bush's 'hands-off approach is what has propelled the current crisis.'
'Despite being in charge for seven and a half years, Bush administration regulators neither recognise how the current turmoil could have been avoided with more effective supervision of the financial markets nor understand how the resolution of this crisis begins with individual homeowners,' argues Andrew Jakabovics on the Centre's website.
James K. Galbraith, a professor of business at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of a recent book on free-market economics, argued that: 'Deregulation has been the public faith of the financial sector since [Ronald] Reagan. Under Bush II, waves of predatory finance in housing were aggressively promoted by Alan Greenspan, by McCain's closest economic adviser Phil Gramm, and by so-called regulators who systematically subverted the public interest.'
Deregulation was the theme song of the Ronald Reagan presidency, epitomised by his assertion that 'Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.'
Reagan oversaw the elimination of government controls over a wide range of financial institutions and instruments, consistent with his belief, shared by most Republicans, that financial markets should be unfettered.
More recently -- and very pertinent to the current crisis -- passage of the Financial Services Modernisation Act of 1999, proposed by Republicans Phil Gramm and Jim Leach, did away with financial controls imposed under the New Deal that had barred banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies from mergers and involvement across sectors.
The banking industry and its powerful lobbyists had been pressing Congress to change the law for some time. But Congress' research arm, the Congressional Research Service, advised against overturning the 1933 legislation, known as the Glass-Steagall Act. Nevertheless, Glass Steagall was overturned, and less than 10 years later the consequences are being felt throughout the country.
Most analysts are hesitant to predict the future, except to foresee that the U.S. economy and population will continue to experience financial turbulence and pain for some time to come.
Nomi Prins, with a decade of experience working at Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs is now pressing for urgent reform. 'Only a quick bout of sweeping and decisive regulation can fix what's broken,' she said.
She points out that until the complexity of entities created since 1999 means that no one is capable of regulating or overseeing them. The Federal Reserve, for example, is not set up to regulate the insurance business.
'If you buy a new car, you want to look under the hood to make sure it runs,' Prins told IPS. 'The same should be true of decisions made in recent weeks to either bail out or facilitate the merger of failing institutions, but this is not happening, there is no conversation; no strategy.'
Focusing on the trigger of today's crisis, sub-prime mortgages, the Centre for American Progress' Jakabovics argued that the solution lies in developing a programme to help strapped homeowners repay their debt, not standing by and watching them default.
Business analysts Serwer and Sloan warn that: 'Whatever the politicians do, we as a society are going to be poorer than we were,' because credit will be harder to come by, and U.S. citizens will have to learn to live within their means.
'For a year, the Fed and Treasury have been propping up the markets in the hope that this system would recover on its own. It will not, and today's [Lehman] collapse should mark the end of that mindset,' they said.
125 Comments so far
Show All"Free market broke it". The CD headline to this article is a misnomer. We've never really had a free market in the US. Ours is a forced tribute system, built on slavery, indentured servitude, monopoly, robber barons, guilded age elite, sweatshop labor, communist Chinese labor.
We've always had regulation. Maintaining a system of gross inequity takes a lot of energy input. We just need the right kind of regulation. Those who are wealthiest or have the most power to cause harm need the most regulation, not the least. And those who are poorest and least powerful, are in need of very little or no regulation.
snydly
This might be a good time to match the lists of short sellers before 9/11 to the list before this "free market" meltdown. Cheney said it best---"It's our due."
Probably is some co-relation to the S&L looting, too.
Give forensic financial teams 1/3 bounties and see what happens.
Are we having fun yet? Do we have enough of this nonsense that 'the market should regulate itself'? Do we have enough of 'get the government off of our backs'? Even freedom has its limits - but of course the crooks don't like this.
.
Ralph Nader : "Capitalism will never fail because Socialism will always be there to bail it out."
http://www.votenader.org/issues/
.
snydly
The actual political spectrum is not a straight line with the two ends far apart---it is a broken circle with the two ends closer to each other than to the center. A purple party would own 2/3s of the votes in this country.
Capitalism is not based on greed, there is a simple law of capitalism 'supply & demand' that justifies making an honest buck. I dont think thats wrong...it is basis for my personal economics in this USA. I guess I didn't explain fully earlier... everyone has a choice, to conduct their own business honourably, or not. I chose honour...that is not a religion, it is much simpler for me, to earn an honest dollar than to resort to the exploitation of my customers/employer/neighbor..just to make a buck. Is it all about me? me? Of course not! Anyone in business -'Capitalism' knows there is a right or righteous way of doing business or there is the wrong way. Usually the wrong way crowd falls, quickly even...because that ilk got greedy. That is their mark...greed, dominion, DESTRUCTION, subtile lies, bribery..stuff like that. Those play the game in the high places too, they play with billions & trillions, all I'm calling for is an honest playing field. Sadly some of these bailout corporations, & the USA government could have chosen the honest, righteous way of doing business--and they did NOT. They do NOT. They will NOT.
And bytheway...even Capitalism has its limitations- laws, & licenses, regulations, honour just to name a few.. it does not cover 'limitless individual greed' that implies by using the word greed, there is a selfish desire beyond reason.
wild;)
Sioux Rose
METAL & C POTTS: You added MUCH to this discussion. I cut and pasted your ideas and analyses. Very helpful... if you had a few thousand, where would you invest it these days? Should I buy a piece of land and get out of stocks entirely?
"stricter regulation of major players in the U.S. economy"
The economic players may be 'major' but they are NOT necessary. A much more relevant descriptor is DESTRUCTIVE. We don't need economic growth. The economy should be driven by the well-informed demands of the people. This means duct tape on the mouth of the capitalist beast and chains on its legs.
O, what an insight!
Who would've ever guesssed that a system based on limitless individual greed requires democratic regulation?
I don't blame capitalism, for the bankruptcy of USA economy.
Capitalism is all I know, it has always worked for me.
This article, & the progressive left imply that indifferent Bush lead government regulators, and Republican sponsored law ( Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 )--supported by countless 'wellmeaning' Democratic politicians--these changes have caused this economic bankruptcy.
But try as we may..PROVING such 'wrongmindedness' in the press/in public becomes futile. I certainly know that Congress is not about to 'reverse' laws & authority that the progressive left and others deem unfit. I don't expect the judicial branch to do anything, except judge those that break the existing 'wellmeaning' laws.
Could it be that these 'wrongminded' can be PROVED for what they are? Could it be that the great financial megacorps & partnered government have shown us just another diversion, or side show..inorder to keep the real issue just out of sight? They expect as in the past, that PROVING the sideshows would require their dedicated masses to all change their minds & laws. NOT going to happen. Business as usual.
So what is the real issue just out of sight?
What law do you abide, in the face of night?
Know this..that they cannot pull down rightousness.
What has Leaman Bros., Bear Stearns, JP Morgan, Merril Lynch, Northwest Airlines ever done for you? So if you lose these & others as time marches on, what have you lost? I say NOTHING!
Did any of those ever do a thing for illegal aliens, or convicts, or for you? And big deal if the money is become useless paper...what have you lost? NOTHING! It is useless paper! And are you going to lose you deadend job? Get a new deadend job. Got a crappy retirement account, that just got worse? Make your own retirement (take care of yourself) quit turning your worthless paper over to someone your deadend job choses for you. As for your government, vote for anyone other than a Republican or a Democrat.
wild ;)
The problem is, it works for YOU! YOU! and that is all you care about.
You are the perfect capitalist.
What is "righteous" about yoyo govt?? Are you supposed to be religious or something??
The title of this article is pretty funny. The only Real Fix now is jail time
for everyone in the Bush, Clinton, Bush and Reagan adminstrations, and all the members of Congress who voted for any of the legislation that enabled this theft of our nation. Plus, all of the talking heads on TV, the analysts, the pundits nad the LIARS who helped perpetuate the lies and theft.
I hear they've built a number of FEMA camps around the country, so there should be plenty of room for all of thse fascist creeps!
It's a damn shame that We the People have stood around while humanity's last best hope has been destroyed: The Constitution of the United States of America.
Regulation hell. Taxpayers now OWN the banks. Only after all mortgages and debt of any kind is canceled should the taxpayer consider allowing any banks to continue to exist.
If it is our governments' intention to steal our money so that banking can continue as usual, then this is not a government that is serving the people. It hasn't for a long time, what with the country being allowed to fall apart so the edges of the empire could expand, but this is too much.
If we allow this we are become officially slaves of the rich.
I know they have the guns and the disposition to use them, I guess our future depends on how much misery we will tolerate just to continue to breathe.
Any bailout provisions should include common-sense items such as FEE LIMITS and CREDIT-CARD INTEREST RATE CAPS. If the taxpayers are going to pay for this sh*t -- we should remember Grace Slick's immortal words: "I don't mind getting screwed, but I would like to come once in a while!".... in other words, we better be getting some jollies too!
Somehow that line got by me until now. Thanks for the laugh. They are getting hard to come by.
Bush will be remembered as the most successful president the right could have ever wished for. Bill Clinton, with his demise of the welfare and NAFTA, the second most successful. Ronald Reagan would be green with envy of these two.
The primary goal of conservatives is to bankrupt government so social programs can be destroyed. Their second goal is to keep the working class humiliated by keeping wages at below slavery levels.
Bush has been a great success beyond the right's dreams. Obama will not be upstaged, however, neither will McCain. The top 3 senators getting big Fannie and Freddie cash were Democrats and No. 2 is Obama. Obama has blood money in his pockets on the expense of foreclosed Americans.
All of us that think that this is left vs right, liberal vs conservative or democrat vs republican are playing into the hands of the Power Elite, which have one party (Money/Power).They are spinning/creating the very game of divide and conquer that we revel in most of the time. Once we realize that we might have a chance to begin the road back to America and real freedom.
Best of Luck
snydly
The actual political spectrum is not a straight line with the two ends far apart---it is a broken circle with the two ends closer to each other than to the center. A purple party would own 2/3s of the votes in this country.
I agree
Since everything that led up to all of this was free market and capitalist - I think the solution is to let the market work. We'll see how well capitalism then works.
If they want this half trillion bailout it should come with some conditions. 1) Out of Iraq and all the wastefull spending now. 2) The heads of all of these firms bailed out should repay all of their bonuses and excessive salaries to the taxpayer. 3) Things should be made more simple - Wall Street should get out of a lot of things that used to be handled locally - like banks and loans and mortgages. They have made everything so confusing so they could create this scam but really no one knows what is going on - there are derivatives, hedge funds, swaps,shorts, etc, etc, do the american people understand all their government has put them at risk for? no. Just like many (over 50%) believe that Sadaam was involved with 9/11. 4) We need to bailout education. 5) We need to build new railroads and mass transit. 5) We need more libraries, public schools. 6) We need more local american non-corporate farming and manufacturing. 7) We need to bailout those who have no health insurance and repay those who have lost everything when they had no insurance and had to pay. 8) We need to finally take care of those who lost everything in Katrina.
Let capitalism work as it should - the risk part - and we will soon learn the truth.
Let capitalism work? Too late for that, Bush has already interfered and squandered what's left of the treasury. He bailed out corporate criminals who belong in jail, where have you been?
Ronny Reagan's predictions came true (NOT).
so the ax payers bail out the billionairs who caused this, they keep their jets and mansions.
PEASENTS OF FRANCE REVOLT, SHARPEN THE BLADES OF TYRRANYS REWARD
I agree with mckinney's goals here. And that might be a good approach, but you need to make those temporary and will soon not be necessary, in that this poverty and inequality is mostly the result of structure problems in monetary policy. This once was actually an important issue before people started focusing on lapel pins and what church you went to.
Real reform begins with abolishing the Federal Reserve and eliminating extreme fractional reserve lending. The Fed has to much power to be unsupervised by our legislative branch... actually its in the constitution that the congress should coin the money and regulate its value. Section 1 Article 8 I believe. Then freeze the money supply. This would mean that the fruits of our labors, our money, will gain in value over time as opposed to going down in value over time. This will help eliminate inequality over a long period of time because it would give more of an incentive to save and prices for goods will go down over time. Inflation is BS. Even though prices for goods and services have gone up every year by 3% in our lifetime, that doesn't mean it has to. Inflation is BS and it doesn't have to happen.
Now most people who are for eliminating the fed also say we should go on a gold backed currency. This is not a good idea. The problem is we don't have much gold. You take advantage of the dollar's remaining credibility on the world market and you just freeze the money supply. That stops inflation all together.
Also... you need to redevelop old buildings. 10% of the houses in this country are condemned or otherwise unused. We should focusing on refurbishing, not building new houses. You could work with some tax incentives and regulations to make refurbishing cheaper than new building.
Progressives and Libertarians needs to put their heads together and use the good ideas for each side to create a 3rd party capable of competing with the 2 institutionalized parties.
Cpotts18:
Progressivism and Libertarianism are two diametrically opposed philosophies of governing and will never merge into a 3rd Party that doesn't splinter within one election cycle. What Libertarians need is a good hard dose of fiscal reality when it comes to understanding responsible governance of as large and complex a nation as the U.S.--especially in the present global economic, environmental and foreign policy crises. This isn't a Jeffersonian democracy dominated by white male farmers whose farm wives can home school all the kids anymore.
We have too many people entering a post-industrial job market with insufficient jobs that pay a decent living wage and rising unemployment that is soon going to become severe. Beaucoup lower income Libertarians and Republicans are going to get a very hard and very personal economic wake-up call over the next 18 months. Many of them are going to find themselves in lines at food banks and welfare offices and bitterly acknowledging a role for government in sustaining a realistic welfare safety net for people in their position. In all the decades of my life I've heard Libertarians and Republicans complain about government handouts. But I have yet to see any of them turn one down--especially when they actually need them. Rush Limbaugh (who has lived on the dole) and Ron Paul are going to start to ring false (or in Paul's case, let's just say, very inadequate) in their ears.
We already have multiple Progressive Parties that should have merged into one Party years ago along with some 80 million members of the electorate who consistently do not vote and need to be appealed to better by progressives. Progressivism needs one Party and a broad and deep coalition built out of the traditional core constituencies abandoned by the old Democratic Party in the 1980s: Women (and children's issues), minorities, the environmentalist and green sustainable economy movements, social reform activists and community organizers, working poor (both urban AND rural) and those who believe in a strong and respected Constitution and Bill of Rights and government accountability.
Also, the housing problem regarding the homeless is not one of shortage. There are already some 18 million units of housing standing empty with more on the way as housing values continue to plummet well into next year. There are some 3 million homeless now and I wouldn't be surprised to see that figure more than triple in the next 18 months or more--still far more empty housing units than homeless people. Like everything else decades overdue for reform in this country it's a matter of political will and sweeping away the miasma of ignorance, imbecilic greed and the current generation of GOP and DLC hacks in Congress. The more I think about what the DLC Dimocrats aided and abetted over the last 18 years the angrier I get. I hope and pray I'm not alone.
snydly
The actual political spectrum is not a straight line with the two ends far apart---it is a broken circle with the two ends closer to each other than to the center. A purple party would own 2/3s of the votes in this country.
I hope you don't mean more "progressive" regulation like this.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/thank-acorn-and-their-ilk-for-mortgage-crisis
What I would expect from the NY Post.
Ever since Ron Paul dropped out and endorsed Nader, I hear more grumblings among Paul supporters that "some progressive regulation might be good, temporarily". This is good, as far as it goes. (I do find them an odd pairing)
But, if they also want to elimianate all income tax, the price of goods may go down by inflation--but they would rise drastically , as the country would have little source of revenue , except sales tax. This would put an inordinate burden on the poor, who cannot afford to buy internationally or in bulk. It would open markts to complete free trade. If you belive in a total Friedman/Rand style capitalism, with, eventually , no regtulation,(with a littel "christisn charity" thrown in, this wouidl work well for you.
There is absolutely nothing "progressive" about it.
Bring America Back !!!!
Right !! RE:Regulation is the only answer and Prevention !!
ALSO< Big Oil needs RE:Regulated immediately.
President Eisenhower warned us gravely THIS exact situation would
occur when the Military Industrial Complex gained control of all
THree Branches of Government, Wall Street, Big Oil, BIG CEO's.
Does a Trillion $$$ sound familiar--Right just happens to be our
$$$ shoveled into the Military Iraq Debacle !!! Just happens to
be the weekend before Congress goes onto its Election Recess !!!
The NEOCON's are having their Financial Shock & Awe in the US
just like their Iraq Shock & Awe !! THE WHOLE THING STINKS !!!
Each and every penny of the hundreds of Billions $$$ of the Big Oil
Windfall profits since 9/11 needs to Revert back to the US Treasury
to help cover this Wall Street Mess !! It ALL started with 9/11 !!!
Meanwhile, the Stock Markets have had humongus Increases the last
two days==So the Big Stockholders are having a blast, while us
poor SOB middle american taxpayers take another one in the Ear !!
Another Bush Emergency. Seems like everyone of these "we gotta act now" deals from this administration has turned into a disaster. Lets try something different and just tell him to shove his emergencies. No credibility gets no responsive action. Send the message that he's cried wolf too many times.
My GAAAAWWWDD! Have you HEARD Dubya on this one??!! WTF is he talking about??!! He is SOO dear in the headlights.
This is all the inevitable conclusion of deregulated capitalism. Capitalim = moneyism. Moneyism= greed. Greed= death
KDelphi September 20th, 2008 11:36 am
"My GAAAAWWWDD! Have you HEARD Dubya on this one??!! WTF is he talking about??!! He is SOO dear in the headlights."
One tiny little thing I have enjoyed about all of this......it has finally wiped that f#cking smirk off of Bush's face.
Lobo Gris
If you missed Moyer's discussion with Kevin Phillips last night on public TV, you missed a great interview. Try to find it...it is amazing.
I saw Moyers-(DVR)-was it a re-run on other pbs affiliates or something?? I'd love to see it--I detest Phillips and love Moyers.
BTW, anyone else see Bill Maher last night?? AWD!! I was really looking forward to seeing Naomi Klein and wil.i.am. Andrew Sullivan was on there, bloviating about he "Palin pick" (wil.i.am tried to step in several times and ask if we could not talk about Palin--Klein tried to inject that it mattered how she was criticized)all to no avail. Sullivan was also pissed abouthis investments. But Sullivan got applause for trashing Palin (Maher sure sounds different on his show in LA), so it became the Bill and Andrew Show. Liek wil said--it matters what you trash her for.
I WANTED to hear Klein on the shock doctrine and wil.ilam. But , Bill just let it go, on and on. I wont be watching anymore. At the end, he did this cute little joke about Palin's l7 year old daughter's "fiance to be" (her daughter is a victim , you know)as to how he could "escape" marrying her daughter. blah. bla;h.
I'm am as puzzled as the next person as to why Palin did not teach her daughter birth control (but, none of Palin';s beliefs make sense to me anyway). But that was NOT what was criticized. Maybe trek or trink ot whoeever the f he is, should have kept it in his pants!
Obama already has lA. I fear that this kind of talk is , not only, not helpful, but harmful. I went to the website to complain, and--i am not making this up--go check it out--and there's a guy saying, "Hey, I'm a conservative,. If I hire someone to clean my swimming pool, and i leave the cover off, and its gets leaves in it, it is my fault. Liberals would blame the worker". I decided there was no point.
Of course, Bill plays to the audience, like every other entertainer, but, when it comes to religion--BOOM! He attacks not only religiosity, but even spirituality (as in wil.i.am's) So that was last night, with an excellent guest like Klein. What a rich, dumbass basterd he has become.
The only thing we agree on anymore is atheism/agnosticism. Even on that, the way he jumped on wil and let Andrew rant about the "state church" was stupid.
What the hell is wrong with Maher? I used to love him.
Given that, apparently, over 40% of those polled support McBomb, it is necessary to state the obvious first. Bush has added over $4 TRILLION to the national debt. The deficit for the year ending 30 sept is over $400 BILLION. A larger deficit is forecast for fiscal 2009. This bailout would be much less damaging and much more easily managed if the Bush federal deficits were not so large. Second, the endless creation of
"magic" paper dollars to fix this mess can only lead to one or more of the following:
1) lower standard of living for Americans
2) much higher inflation
3) much higher interest rates
Which do you prefer.....
Moving on to Cynthia McKinney's list:
1. enactment of a foreclosure moratorium now before the next phase of ARM interest rate increases take effect. [metal: Good sounding idea and most foreclosures should probably be halted until markets calm more, but not all of them should be halted. Just as not every financial institution that traded in bad paper should be bailed out by tax payers--not every home buyer who tried to game the pre-ARM rollover system should be bailed out either. Amurkans need to start learning the consequences of their hypermaterialistic fantasies at some point.
2. elimination of all ARM mortgages and their renegotiation into 30- or 40-year loans. [metal: Possible in some cases; others should be allowed to remain in their homes as renters and some of them who can't afford "fair market" rental prices should receive some limited rental subsidies based on an income vs. local market valuation formula.]
3. establishment of new mortgage lending practices to end predatory and discriminatory practices. [metal: The time is long overdue to restore early 1980s era laws against usury, to create federally standardized and strict laws against discriminatory home loans and to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (aka: the Financial Services Modernization Act) and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.]
4. establishment of criteria and construction goals for affordable housing
[metal: This is an interesting topic that reaches from the idea of affordable low maintenance, energy efficient housing for entire families to various co-op and communal housing models to subsidized rents to minimalistic uni-shelters for homeless individuals (some costing as little as $900 per uni-shelter). Sad to say, as long as many people of inadequate incomes are too ignorant to use birth control, or cannot gain timely access to safe early abortions, and will, therefore, have too many children there will be a need for government subsidized housing. There is a moral imperative to shelter the homeless and we can expect an unprecedented deluge of homelessness in the next year. Since the government just nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of relying on private capital, perhaps the government should recreate the Civilian Conservation Corps to build this new housing and shelter system. Many of them would be building their own families' homes.]
5. redefinition of credit and regulation of the credit industry so that discriminatory practices are completely eliminated. [metal: Sounds good to me, but the devil is the details regarding the "redefinition" of credit--kind of like "redefining" torture.]
6. full funding for initiatives that eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in home ownership. [metal: A good sounding generality. What are the specifics?]
7. recognition of shelter as a right according to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights to which the U.S. is a signatory so that no one sleeps on U.S. streets. [metal: I agree with that, but people who can't afford and yet have too many children should have one set of strings attached to their government subsidized shelter, and illegal aliens on their government escorted way to being deported should have another.]
8. full funding of a fund designed to cushion the job loss and provide for retraining of those at the bottom of the income scale as the economy transitions.
[metal: We need a New Green Deal as some Brits have suggested--a combination of New Deal era programs and a federally subsidized, environmentally sustainable economic transition that is on a time frame for implementation like the NASA program to land a man on the moon. I think we need another WPA and CCC for several socially and economically beneficial reasons.]
9. close all tax loopholes and repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the top 1% of income earners. [metal: I agree 100% and would add the need to return corporations to their pre-1880s status as legal entities that do not have equal protection rights the same as flesh and blood human beings and must have their business licenses annually reviewed by representative committees in the localities in which they are headquartered, and States and foreign governments in which they operate, to determine if they are behaving in socially responsible ways--subject to having their licenses summarily yanked if they are not. This goes along with shareholder rights reform and board/CEO salary reform.]
10. fairly tax corporations, denying federal subsidies to those who relocate jobs overseas; repeal NAFTA. [metal: I agree with all of this and would add the need for a slowly phased-in, sector-by-sector moratorium on WTO and "free trade" treaty rules and regulations until an industrial sector-by-sector economic analysis can be done in the U.S. to determine the adverse effects on the U.S. economy--including middle-class jobs--since 1994 because of the "free trade" regime. The full impact of these treaties in terms of middle-class job loss has been deliberately kept secret by Clinton and Bush II and it's time for a reckoning.]
snydly
This is the time to cross-reference the short seller lists from 9/11 and the S&L crisis with the shorts of this looting.
I agree with her goals here. And this might be a good approach, but you need to make these temporary, in that this poverty and inequality is mostly the result of structure problems in monetary policy. This once was actually an important issue before people started focusing on lapel pins and what church you went to.
Real reform begins with abolishing the Federal Reserve and eliminating extreme fractional reserve lending. The Fed has to much power to be unsupervised by our legislative branch... actually its in the constitution that the congress should coin the money and regulate its value. Section 1 Article 8 I believe. Then freeze the money supply. This would mean that the fruits of our labors, our money, will gain in value over time as opposed to going down in value over time. This will help eliminate inequality over a long period of time because it would give more of an incentive to save and prices for goods will go down over time. Inflation is BS. Even though prices for goods and services have gone up every year by 3% in our lifetime, that doesn't mean it has to. Inflation is BS and it doesn't have to happen.
Now most people who are for eliminating the fed also say we should go on a gold backed currency. This is not a good idea. The problem is we don't have much gold. You take advantage of the dollar's remaining credibility on the world market and you just freeze the money supply. That stops inflation all together.
Also... you need to redevelop old buildings. 10% of the houses in this country are condemned or otherwise unused. We should focusing on refurbishing, not building new houses. You could work with some tax incentives and regulations to make refurbishing cheaper than new building.
Progressives and Libertarians needs to put their heads together and use the good ideas for each side to create a 3rd party capable of competing with the 2 institutionalized parties.
I agree with every word of this! This is exactly what I want in a candidate.
I have been to her website, and found it a little difficult to navigate. (maybe its myold pc)
Is she going to be on the ballots anywhere?
I'm offering up the following critiques of Ralph Nader's and Cynthia McKinney's two lists of 10 Points to address financial market meltdown beginning with Nader's first:
1. No bailouts without conditions and reciprocity in the form of stock warrants.
[metal: What are stock warrants, who writes them and who would issue and enforce them?]
2. No more lobbying for any company that is bailed out. [metal: Could be fought in the courts and even if it wasn't such lobbying would take place on the sly, via middle-men or offshore.]
3. No golden parachutes and get out of jail free cards for guilty executives.
[metal: Cutting the parachute cords would be easy. Getting rid of plea-bargains--not so easy.]
4. No bailouts without public hearings. [metal: Good general idea except that much of the bailout looks to be massively consolidated under a Resolution Trust Corporation and the sheer number of institutions and individual executives involved would make hearings go on for months and months and months. I think the overall situation calls for preventative legislation and strict enforcement of the new rules to prevent this from recurring, not post-mortem hearings that are too little, too late. Personally, I think We the People should convene a Continental Congress with newly elected representatives (no Senators or current Congressmembers allowed) with inherent contempt trial powers, new sentencing guidelines and rendition powers. They should put on trial ASAP not only the execs of the firms who pushed this mess and profited from it but the politicians who pushed it in the GOP and DLC--along with the long list of Team Bush/DLC war criminals who deserve their day in the Hague and their time in prison or in the noose. Consider the scale of the domestic and foreign suffering these self-aggrandizing hacks have inflicted on the U.S. and so many other millions around the world. We haven't even dipped our toes in the level of economic suffering we are about to experience because of these crooked fat cats. We don't need hearings: We need speedy trials with limited appeals and guillotines.]
5. Reduce the moral hazard in U.S. mortgage markets by introducing covered bonds for the majority of mortgage products as they do in Western Europe. That gives institutions that finance mortgages an incentive to be prudent, because they cannot just unload them and wipe their hands clean of the liability, but are instead on the hook if the homeowner defaults. [metal: Sounds good to me.]
6. Maintain neighborhood stability and housing security by passing a law with a sunset clause allowing below median-value homeowners facing foreclosure the right to rent-to-own their homes at fair market value rates. [metal: Fair market rents affordable in one area are outrageous in another. This is income vs. location discriminatory but better than nothing. I support limited progressive rental subsidies based on an income vs. local market valuation formula.]
7. Avoid future housing bubbles by removing implicit government guarantees for new mortgages that exceed thresholds of greater than 15-20 times the annual fair market rent value of the home. [metal: Sounds good but market creep would eventually erode it with the help of more Phil Gramm's down the line without strict enforcement.]
8. Make the Federal Reserve a Cabinet Position, so it is accountable to Congress, as well as making sure all Federal Reserve Bank presidents are appointed by the President and answerable to congress. [metal: I agree with making the Fed Chairmanship a Cabinet Position, but letting presidents appoint all Fed Bank presidents? No thanks. Picture every Fed Bank president being a neo-con Bush II appointee. A better idea would be to nationalize the Fed itself as a Departmental Agency and make all its top committee functions publicly transparent with mandatory operational reports and hearings before select Congressional committees three times a year.]
9. Reduce conflicts of interest by taking away power for auditor and rating agency selection from companies and placing it in the hands of the SEC to be administered on random assignment. [metal: Sounds better than what we have and the SEC is due for a serious structural overhaul.]
10. Implement a securities speculation tax, starting with derivatives to deter casino-style capitalism. [metal: A good beginning but other "securitization" and traded "debt instruments" need to be either taxed or outlawed. We also need to repeal of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (aka: the Financial Services Modernization Act) and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
snydly
The actual political spectrum is not a straight line with the two ends far apart---it is a broken circle with the two ends closer to each other than to the center. A purple party would own 2/3s of the votes in this country
Nader's and McKinney's prescriptions for fixing the Friedmanite Capitalism Collapse of 2008 look very disappointing from here. Those fixes only amount to new obstacles on the playing field, new challenges for the players, who will gallantly rise to the challenge, because they love the challenge, and will compete ever more enthusiastically with each other to claim the next plunderous prize.
Instead of that, let's change the indoctrination in the K-12 civics curriculum. Let's teach the kids the objective truth about the USA and its errant style of capitalism. Let's put comparisons with other societies in the curriculum. Let's teach the kids to take civic responsibility. To understand that we don't need perpetual economic growth. That there is more to life than economics. Let's take them on field trips to the school board meetings and let them instill some fear in the school board. As high schoolers they will go to the state capitols and instill some terror there.
Next, let's implement localism. Everyone shifts their individual exchange/association away from the power centers and toward their local communities, to keep the political/economic power local where it belongs. This is the real silver bullet - look into it. You know it's good by the elites' very unenthusiastic response to it. Let them eat cake, ehh? Small independent farmers, craftsmen and merchants are guaranteed local markets. They will have to sink or swim. All enterprise sizes and asset ownerships limited to ten man-powers. This one will make the Friedmanites impale themselves. So be it.
Then we'll implement full costs in retail prices and closed-cycle production, meaning all sewage and landfill waste gets recycled. As for banks and investment houses - we don't need any of them. Let's build the new progressive economy without them. Get creative people, build something good. Take the ball away from the Friedmanites, please!
Let's see.....what could a half a trillion dollars buy us ordinary citizens of the United States of America? I mean, if the the government is willing to shell out this much now, why did they keep insisting we could never afford anything before?
How about health care? How about education? How about help for small business?
No, no, no, we taxpayers don't get to see the return on our $500,000,000,000 investment. We get to buy up the bad debt ("illiquid assets")of the already rich investor gamblers. How about that? No education, no health care, no small business assistance - just a bought "assurance" that we're all not going to go down the tubes.
Sounds like we've got the gun to our heads and we better do what they say - or else!
Remember the line from the movie Wall Street? "I used to make $750,000 a year, now it's just a day's pay."
The failed CEO's walk away with their million dollar mansions and bonuses; the US Taxpayer foots the bill. Clever.
http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSWEN677520080718
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1341059120080914
My other favorite line in the movie: "Wealth is transferred from one perception to another."
That is how the game is played. Happy investing!
Actually I DON'T CARE. NOthin I can do about the crooked neo-cons who got our country and us into this friggin mess.
I'm ready and fully prepared for the coming depression. Got a two year supply of rice, beans, cases of natual peanut butter, aspirin by the cae, a still, six twelve gager pumps, 24 hickery-honey smoked hams, three cases of Bugler roll your owns, a library full of good books, my Yanni tapes and vieos and all of my fishing gear, duck tape and rolls of plastic sheeting. ____ Bring it on.
Ya know what? ___ I'm deadly serious, we have a lot of other neat stuff stocked up too. Get ready, time is fleeting.
~Kem Patrick~
Kem, if you play the Yanni tapes loud enough you won't need the shotguns, you'll drive everyone away. (sorry, couldn't resist).
Stone,
Yep.
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
Thanks for the link. Looks like it. If Obama has a populist bone in his body--now would be a good time to show it.
I'm not holding my breath. He already gave the "moral hazard" speech about l8 mos ago.
Look at the headline--"Regulation...say Analysts". Yeah, sure, now. Why shoudl we listen to these ass clowns now.
O'Bama is only a matrix construct. They reprogram him as needed.
Listen, while we have taxpayers money to bail out the rich we don't need regulation. Just throw billions of dollars into the market and the cycle of greed will continue and the rich will continue to get richer until the world is destroyed. What's wrong with this?
For answers, check:
www.dangerouscreation.com
Thanks for the post--and the visuals!! That poor woman will be with me all night!!
The proof that the Shock Doctrine is at work in this crisis is in the pudding. The Government is bailing out the rich at the exclusion of the poor. This makes no sense unless the Shock Doctrine is being applied. This is a play for the rest of your wealth. A shocked and weakened middle class will likely not protest too loudly when the Bushies declare martial law. Condo is attempting to scare us via Russia, the media is propagandizing us regarding Venezuela, Cheney likely arranged Georgia, Lieberman is pushing the bombing of Iran, we are being told that we are losing in Afghanistan, and we are entering the sovereign country of Pakistan illegally. This seems to be the Shock Doctrine in spades.
It sure sounds like it to me. I have to DVR back Bill Maher to hear what she said tonight.
The Dems should be sticking up for the middle class and the poor on this one. If they dont, I dont see how we can call them anything but useless.
Well, two hours later, and I played back Bill Maher--Naomi Klein ands Wil.i.am could scarcely say anythign because Bill would not make Andrew Sullivan (who is prob. just pissed over the stock mkt) shut the f*ck up!
I'm sick of Maher. He sure is different since he moved to lA and got rich. And al "neo-liberals" can talk about is PalinPalinPalin. Who gives a rats ass, shes running for VP. He let Sullican dominate the entire show. (He objecteed at first, but, then, he was getting so muc applause for saying how stupid Palin is , from the alA audience, he went on and on--bothother guests tried to comment--but Sullivan shouted them down)
Why dont I go tel Maher--well, I went to his website, and the first post I saw was some guy asking, "Hey, I'm a conservative, and if I hire people to clean my pool (I am NOT kidding!!) and I leave the cover off, its my fault. If its a liberal they blame the people they hired to clean it".
Doug Terpstra,
You right. But when you look at photos of the Great depression, do you really think everyone standing in a soup line was a former wall street investor?
It's called the ripple effect. We all get hit.
The old economic paradigm is dead. We are too many humans greedily grasping for MORE. It's over. The market will roller coaster: up up up; down, down, down, and down. Raw material provision for our demands is spluttering. I am very fearful.
NO BAILOUTS! Foreclose any troubled banks; cut the parachute strings; put the thieves in prison; and transfer titles to the taxpayers. The idea that the people should shoulder bad debts for huckster bankers and hedgehogs is outrageous insult heaped on injury. This is farce market theology.
The "Free Market" didn't do this.
The "Free Market" doesn't exist.
Maybe call it the "Bought Market."
These people are not capitalists! Capitalists believe in the concept of "risk".
Free Market Fantasies
Amazing that after the wake-up call of the savings and loan collapses of the late 80s and early 90s (remember, John McCain was a card-holding member of the Keating Five) that evaporated the life savings of tens of thousands of retirees, and which resulted in oversight and regulations of that branch of the financial world, the Republican de-regulators managed to dismantle those reforms along with those set in place in the 30s. Less than a decade later we are re-visiting the collapse of financial institutions -- only on a deeper and more pervasive level. These "titans" of the world economic system designed products and relationships so diabolically interwoven that no one can figure out how to extricate themselves without collapsing the entire financial/investment/banking/commodities/insurance,etc house of cards. They've declared themselves "too big to fail" and have stuck the taxpayers of (now) the world with the bill for their gambling losses. These mega wheeler-dealers will escape with their fortunes intact. The bill to the taxpayer (every man, woman, and child) is nearly $40,000. That is an insurmountable bill to the majority of citizens, but it's chump change to the movers and shakers who caused this problem. I can't understand the "too big to fail" concept. Where is the accountability? Why are the taxpayers paying for the speculators who gambled and lost? There must be a way that those responsible will bear the pain commensurate with their culpability. I know, life is not fair.
I don't know if this site is jammed or corrupted, but I lost a blog to a "not available' window, and I was accptable yesterday.
Conceptualizing this as a matter requiring only regulation misses a real opportunity. The situation proves Wall Street can only survive in the context our society provides. The bailout constitutes socialism of risk, and the gov't can go ahead and take the next step by doing the same thing for infrastructure and social programs. The cost of building a society which can bail out fundamentalist free market capitalists, who can pay for that context with an increased share of taxes --a sort of 'use-fee' if you will, and require all money to pass through it. If that means just printing up the paper for common wealth projects to obtain that result, fine. We are what is powerful, and necessary, not Wall St.
Quote #1:
"Free Market Broke It, Only Regulation Can Fix It"
Quote #2:
"James K. Galbraith, a professor of business at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of a recent book on free-market economics, argued that: 'Deregulation has been the public faith of the financial sector since [Ronald] Reagan. Under Bush II, waves of predatory finance in housing were aggressively promoted by Alan Greenspan, by McCain's closest economic adviser Phil Gramm, and by so-called regulators who systematically subverted the public interest.'"
Quote #3
"'For a year, the Fed and Treasury have been propping up the markets in the hope that this system would recover on its own. It will not, and today's [Lehman] collapse should mark the end of that mindset,' they said."
End of Quotes.
Regarding Quote #1:
This quote appears above the link to this article and is misleading. "Free Market" does not appear in the article. "Free-Market is used like an adjective to describe the type of economics about which Galbraith wrote. (Quote #2)
Regarding Quote #3:
All readers who believe
". . . . have been propping up the markets in the hope that this system would recover on its own. . . ."
describes a Free Market should find someone to slap some sense into their heads.
If deregulation had eliminated the "bail-out" mentality in the de-regulated financial markets it is unlikely the rescue recipients would have done what they did. They're not stupid - just greedy and crooked.
The Repimplican Party is nothing more than a monument to greed, stupidity, corruption and aggressive behavior. The so-called free market belongs to them and those like them, as does the country itself. The rest of us belong to The Shit Eating Grin Party and our convention has been indefinitely postponed since 1968.
Well Mordechai, I guess it's time we called back to work all those who went out on strike or adjourned indefinitely back in 1968. We abandoned the chicken house to the foxes, and now we have to revive or bury those foxes or the house of cards will come tumbling down around us. Our withdrawal has become harmful to the body politic-c-c-c. It should be no more difficult than levitating the Pentagon. Cheers.
You cannot call back people who 'adjourned.' That was not an adjournment. It was a cultural refutation of a chicken house we were not a part of, or invited to, on a very dubious interest of what we might have to say. So, you are right. Let those Yale cheerleaders and Harvard superior intellects figure out what was already the knowledge for now, even then. Their choosing a dead end street was their undoing. I am not responsible, I will not participate, I will avail myself to a merchant marine ship to Marseilles for the remainder of life's flush on my face.
My children, now adults, will be fine.
If not...
"I'll come back here and kill every last one of you bastards."
:)
huh
Regulatory reform is only part of the solution.
Corporate and Economic class warfare through lobbying must also be ended.
The Tax Code must be immediately amended as a part of any bailout with very steep tax increases on the rich who benefited so greatly from deregulation and greed. Any bailout absent significant increases on taxes on the rich should signal an end to anyone voting Democratic in this present election. The Democratic feet must not just be held to the fire but burned to the stubs if necessary.
The exportation of jobs must end now.
Illegal immigration must be ended to force up incomes at the bottom.
The low prices of imported goods have not been passed on to consumers, instead, they have been held artificially high by corporations who are making immoral profits while the poor and middle class are being robbed of their last dollars. Corporate tax must be raised to discourage price gouging and those funds must be returned to the middle class.
The upper middle class is still relatively well. The middle middle class and lower middle class are broke and in desperate need of immediate assistance. No bailout should be arranged without at least half the money going to the poor and middle class.
This economic recession is not CYCLICAL as they have been in the past. This one is STRUCTURAL, something new. This time the middle class is broke and cannot lead a consumer movement out of recession. This time economic policy must put large amounts of money in the hands of the poor and middle class soon, or this recession will continue downward.
Finally, the foreclosure crisis is not the only crisis on the horizon. Unless the middle class and poor get more money quick there will be another banking crisis regarding unpaid credit cards. So, attempting to solve the banking crisis absent a significant appreciation of the looming credit card bubble is just throwing good money after bad.
If you haven't raised holy hell on the phone with the leadership of both parties and your Congressmen then do so immediately. If you don't the Republicans, who are over a barrel, and compliant Democrats will pass the cost of this banking crisis onto you, the middle class, in the form of higher credit card rates, higher taxes, a declining dollar, and inflation. If you don't stop this nonsense now, before the election, you will get stuck with the bill.
If there was ever a time to shout it is now.
Maybe this will be the end of the Reagan Era, when big "gub-mint" was supposed to be the problem, not big business.
But business got so big, it "couldn't afford to fail." Now those businesses are failing and the taxpayers, via their government are asked to take on the business losses!
The Democrats turned their back on New Deal ideals and ideas, and it was Clinton who signed the law that repealed the 1933 legislation, known as the Glass-Steagall Act, that regulated banking after The Crash.
As Amy Goodman wrote: " politicians are too dependent on Wall Street to do anything. The people who vote for them, and whose taxes are being handed over to these failed financiers, need to show their outrage and demand that their leaders truly put 'country first' and bring about 'change.'"
So let's get about charging them for cleaning up their failure and make the changes necessary to prevent its recurrence. We're standing right on the line where the position that commonwealth projects are costly makes only nonsense. We are crucial to their existence and they pay entertainers very well don't they? All the financial money should go through a turnstile supporting our Common Wealth.
I am going to write my congressman and tell him that he better not vote for any Wall Street bailout unless it is tied to a capital gains tax increase that is targeted to pay completely for any funds the bailout requires. It is better for everyone to go broke than for only the non-elites to become impoverished while the financial elites continue to rob us and dominate our economic, political, and cultural systems. I know there is only an infinitesimal chance that such a bill would be introduced and pass, but I feel I must try to do something immediately.
For the longer term, I wonder whether there will be a march on Washington related to this. There should be.
Bush's economic plan...give $1 Trillion more of your tax dollars to the very people who have brought you this fiasco in the fidst place...I am just surprised they have not simply outsourced finding a solution to this problem to Blackwater and Haliburton.
"Here's another trillion: figure something out."
Who needs Al Qaeda to destroy america when you have Wall Street?
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
mujeriego
"Who needs Al Qaeda to destroy america when you have Wall Street?"
Touche! Best line I've seen in a long time!
BTW..$1 Trillion = $3,333 for every man woman and child in the USA.
I'm sure a family of four will have no problem pulling another $13,333 out of there ass come tax time, so that the Bush cabal can keep themsleves in Caviar and towncars......doh!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
This is will not cost "billions." It will cost $trillions and will make Bush 41's S&L bailout feel like a hiccup. Taxpayers should not stand for assuming bad debt without outright ownership of these banks; they have lost the privilege of management. I'm mad as hell.
The reason government "rewards" Wall $treet while punishing Main Street is simple. The "conservative" ideology of what George Lakoff calls "Strict Father Morality" or as I would correctly term it Strict Authoritarian Morality is designed to reward the financial elites over the working class just like that. It does not matter to them that the working class is actually working harder than monied elitists or the politicians. In the "conservative" mindset, people who aren't "rich" enough and are even frugal are labelled as "threats" to the "economy" and must be swiftly punished regardless of their honesty and hard work. On the other hand, those who have the money and/or clout are to be "rewarded" at all costs even if they lied and cheated. This is why social "conservatives" and Wall $treeters are unnatural allies even though the social "conservatives" are really pushed to the side since money trumps morality in the "conservative" mindset.
Very nice! I am glad to know someone here sees the ground covered before this pathetic last 30 years, mostly the last 16 consisting of my generation in power. See my other comments, if interested.
Can we know say the conservative ideas of unfettered markets have not worked. The mantra of the Republicans (and supported by many Democrats) of the invisible hand of greed working magic is a fallacy. Unbridled greed does not make a generous society benefiting everyone.
The "invisible hand" is really none more than government providing the RIGGED market corporate welfare checks.
"the invisible hand of the market just fisted me in the ass, and didn't even have the common courtesy to give me a reach around"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Sioux Rose
FREIA: I was wondering about the exact same thing. This is why I made the analogy to the pyramid monetary schemes of the l980's... it's all Ponzi all the way.
CHESS GAME: I totally agree with your humane strategy. Otherwise this does have the markings of a disaster-capitalistic exploitation heist... I mean if WE/taxpayers bail out the banks, who already made fees on these "loans" and now "own their titles," and they get to hold all this property, while WE pay for it, where is the pay-off, and to whom? MUCH better to nationalize all these foreclosed homes that the public, after all, paid for, and rent them out at market value to pay down the debt; that is when not charging those who made off like bandits, with the EXACT same strategy being deployed in Iraq with private contractors who do NOT meet the goals of the contracts they are paid to satisfy, while simultaneously managing to lose 9 billion or more... this is Enron coupled with the S & L debacle on steroids! Probably orchestrated by the same players, too. Crime sure DOES pay under Bush & his cabal.
REBEL NOW: Excellent and germane story.
Good points Rose. It's enough to keep you from filing an income tax return (if you anticipate owing money).
Even one of THEM is criticizing:
_________________________________________
Meltzer Calls Paulson Plan `Social Democracy at Its Worst'
By Bob Willis
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve historian Allan Meltzer said U.S. government efforts to cleanse financial institutions of troubled loans shouldn't be financed by taxpayers.
``I certainly don't think this is the taxpayers' problem,'' said Meltzer, a professor of political economy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. ``This is not a place exactly with a great big surplus that can afford to do these things. This is social democracy at its worst.''
The 80-year-old economist spoke in an interview after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in Washington that proposed measures to rid banks of troubled assets and shore up financial institutions would cost ``hundreds of billions.''
________________________________________________________
But Nancy Pelosi wants to rush to action. She says "time is of the essence". For whom, Nancy?
Joe
Is the American Government being hijacked by Wall Street? It's true, there was an actual financial crisis, but it was on late Wednesday afternoon that the Dow Jones once again did some major plummeting. This could have been orchestrated by big Wall Street players that afternoon. Then on Thursday, after Henry Paulson announced that the Federal Government would implement a far-reaching plan to help rescue the banking industry (utilizing tax payer money of course), walahh, just an hour or so before the Dow closed, the big players bought, bought, bought, and the Dow gained over 400 points. Pavlovian reflexes at work here - Wall Street conditioning the American Government to give Wall Street what it wants.
Probably the closest were going to get to seeing any justice here is for Obama to get elected President and then for his tax plan to get passed. This would give some relief to the middle class while putting a greater tax burden on the wealthy and large corporations where it belongs. Real justice of course would involve levying heavy penalties on all those who overturned the Glass-Steagall Act, but that ain't gonna happen. Another reason I'd like to see Obama elected is because the alternative to him is egregious. McPain and his darlin redneck sidekick would take America straight into the bowels of ruination without even a momentary sweet detour.
I see no really significant changes in the Obama tax plan that will help the "middle class". And what about the poor (many of which eroneously call themselves "middle class" - especially in "Mountaineer" country)?
No major changes to the tax rates are proposed by the Obama campaign.
No new regulations, or a reinstatement of old repealed regulations - like Glass Stegall. He regards this stuff as "the failed policies of the 60's and 70's".
He does want to waive capital gains taxes for owners of "startup small businesses" - this hardly sounds like a middle class tax break to me.
Actually, the complexity of the tax code applies equally to a giant corporation and a small start up. It takes professional accounting to figure out the taxes, which creates a big burden on the small business compared with a large company. So I would be for giving small businesses with assets and revenue below a certain low amount a couple of years of exemption from filing and paying. Naturally this is subject to abuse, but there needs to be some room for a little creative enterprise such as a bakery, a band, a small internet service or a tailoring design business.
Even better is to have a small business administration that provides hands on individualized help. They seem pretty much useless.
Joe
jclientelle,
There is 'truth' in what you state. Small business is the backbone of the corporate empire when most of it is a derivative. But the ones that are out on a limb are those with something different, say, a women's clothing store selling handmade, quality and designed apparel for women, that is not factory made in even low numbers, yet is affordable by a patient person preferring longevity over seasonal, annual shlock and no individuality.
Did I just give away...?
The SBA might send someone to see your 'going concern,' a retired upper management person. You might get a few words of encouragement and a suggestion. There will not be a mentoring, a guiding towards an SBA loan. Even when you have an application being processed.
That was my experience anyway in my one major attempt with one idea. I was young then. I worked nights as a janitor to keep it alive for a year. I was in the right place, gentrification was beginning. But I jumped in with personal money, not a lot by any means, to fix a space, a storefront in an 'old town' area of a large city in the northwest. My experiences with the people who were interested, since I wasn't selling clothing or another retail mass market product, are some of my best. And I have no regrets. Hell, if I could have had some SBA money, I would have been the northwest version of Lawrence Ferlingetti. At least, that was part of my intent.
Those late hours, before the janitorial work, during the week; then the public weekend open hours, and the peace of alone hours working on a commissioned artifact, are like wounds in the soul of my youth. It healed my SE Asia bitterness without public expressions of lament. It was fucking fun and it was real. More real than this circle jerk of stiff necks.
Ha :)
You are grossly mischaracterizing Obama's positions.
Please back up your claims.
q
The last thing this country needs is another "stimulus package" (what good did it do last time?) ; and the second to last thing the middle class need s ia $1000 each to spend on Chinese goods.
As the outlaws on mainstreet lie dying and wounded from a bloody shootout, and as the surviving gang members continue to loot and fire what little ammo remains, a previously complacent population watches nervously from their windows. What's going on ma? Some kind of shootout, not sure who the good guys are or who's bad, looks like a mess though. Well it don't concern us so let's keep out of it. Oh it concerns us Pa, seems our bank moneys gone. Hell no. Yep. Hey look Sheriff Paulson just showed, and his posse.
A little more confidently the people walked slowly out on mainstreet. What a mess. How'd this happen? they wondered. Sheriff Paulson reassured everyone, don't worry folks we have ways of cleaning up this mess. And as he kept the innocent folks distracted out on mainstreet with a posture of confident reassurance, his posse was sneekin in the back doors of every house in town takin what they could, pa's retirement savings under the mattress, ma's coins in the cookie jar, kept there in case one their kids got sick, Joey's education savings, anything they could find. But they kept it real quiet like, makin it look like nothin was missin.
Ma and pa walked back into their home after Sheriff Paulson convinced em all that they got the town under control. Wow, said pa, that was some shootout. Yeah, ain't seen nothin like that, reminds me of grandpa's story about that shootout in the 20's. It's different now, said ma, they got ways of handlin things better. Hope you're right ma.
Pa? yeah hun? What'd you do with the coins in the cookie jar? Didn't do nothin, why? Coins are gone, and it's filed with sand.
It's a daylight robbery alright. That's social security flowing into Wall Street right now. They couldn't get it by a vote; they're just gonna take it by hyperinflation.
Dear Mom,
Could you please send some cash right away? Sorry I blew Dad and your's life savings, on those real estate speculations, but you can get some dough from little Jimmie and Mary's college fund, and sell grandma's wedding ring on e-Bay. They're gonna tow away the Testa Rosa any day now. I'm still at the penthouse address, for now.
Love & kisses,
Frankie
It would be a simple task to separate those that , say, got equity loans to pay medical bills, or to buy a small family home, from the flippers and speculators. Its just an excuse. Just admit that you dont give a fu**.