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TechnoratiHow the Media Sold Their Souls to Wall Street
If you are like me, the pundits, and 99.9% of the American public, you really don't know much about economics. And despite Monday's refreshing moment of rebellion in the Congress, in all likelihood the House and Senate will pass a modified version of the $700 billion handout this week to fat cat Wall Street financiers.
The likely result, according to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz: "The unemployment rate will still increase, growth will remain anemic, house prices will continue to fall, the number of houses in foreclosure will continue to rise, credit will be harder to get, states and localities will remain in a fiscal crisis, and there will be cutbacks in basic public services. .... Our living standards in the future will be lower than they otherwise would have been. "
Here's the problem: None of us really know that the hell is going on, and what the largest financial bailout in the history of our nation would actually achieve. Based on McCain and Obama's hasty support of the bailout, it would seem they are both too far under the thumb of Wall Street to look at viable alternatives to an unprecedented handout to the same reckless bankers who got us into this mess.
And like they did in the run-up to war in Iraq and the passage of the Patriot Act, the media are compounding the problem rather than helping it. While TV devotes 24/7 coverage to pretending that mudslinging Democrats and Republicans represent the full range of debate, while right-wing radio hosts scream socialism, and while pundits like Thomas Friedman implore Congress "to give them the capital and the flexibility to put out this fire," the American people are getting virtually no hard economic analysis about what the bailout would achieve or what the range of options are.
Why aren't Luc Laeven and Fabian Valencia on television right now? They just submitted a comprehensive report to the International Monetary Fund after studying 42 banking crises over the past 37 years. Their conclusion: Bailouts often do not work, they often result in more bad practices, and they distort economies by transferring wealth from taxpayers to bankers and their customers.
Why hasn't economist Dean Baker been invited onto a single television program in the past week ? He is one of the guys who actually predicted the current crisis. He wrote this week: "There is no way that the failure to do a bailout will lead to more than a very brief failure of the financial system. The worst case scenario is that we have an extremely scary day in which the markets freeze for a few hours. Then the Fed steps in and takes over the major banks. The system of payments continues to operate exactly as before, but the bank executives are out of their jobs and the bank shareholders have likely lost most of their money. In other words, the banks have a gun pointed to their heads and are threatening to pull the trigger unless we hand them $700 billion."
Why isn't New York University economist Nouriel Roubini all over the news right now? He says the claim that "spending $700 billion of public money is the best way to recapitalize banks has absolutely no factual basis or justification. This way of recapitalizing financial institutions is a total rip-off that will mostly benefit - at a huge expense for the U.S. taxpayer - the shareholders and even unsecured creditors of the banks. ....The pockets of reckless bankers and investors (will) have been made fatter under the fake argument that bailing out Wall Street was necessary to rescue Main Street from a severe recession."
Roubini continues, "Instead, the restoration of the financial health of distressed financial firms could have been achieved with a cheaper and better use of public money. It is pathetic that Congress did not consult any of the many professional economists that have presented alternative plans that were more fair and efficient and less costly ways to resolve this crisis. ... and it is a scandal that even Congressional Democrats have fallen for this Treasury scam that does little to resolve the debt burden of millions of distressed home owners."
But turn on your television - the place where more than 60% of Americans get their primary news - turn on your radio, or open your local newspaper, and you're not going to see what these top economists are saying. It's a McCain quote, an Obama sound byte, and the same pundits who have proven their incompetence over and over. The result is an American public that is fundamentally uninformed about the issues that matter most - like economics, health care, and war - and over-informed about those that matter least: sports, celebrity, the latest campaign ad, and horserace analysis of elections.
We have no reason to believe that the press -- and along with it, most politicians -- will ask the tough questions, expand the range of debate, and bring the facts to the American people. But until they do, our economy - and our democracy -- will continue its race to the bottom.
42 Comments so far
Show AllUnderpining the Economic crisis, the Health Care crisis and so many other crises is THE MEDIA, not at all FREE or FAIR or RESPONSABLE in over 90% of all cases- as rightly pointed out- if it troubles you to read- and TV is you main source of "news"...Heaven help you...and the USA and the rest of the World to boot. We just a debate in Canada- our own Republican smirked his way all through...most of our so called MEDIA, hey, it"s ALL RIGHT! That is to say, the American CRISIS will NOT affect CANADA. Somehow, this is WORKING. So, the MEDIA is effectively CORRUPT, and now what do we do????? Thank God for COMMON DREAMS and RABBLE.CA and the CBC for making the (noble/necessary) effort! Still, all of us are RESPONSABLE for spreading the real news that affects us and our fellow man...this is very important, our personal integrity requires we do no less.
Whoever controls the media controls the country. Period.
I've repeated this statement LITERALLY over a thousand times on hundreds of websites.
Yes!! This is quite true. Down at the bottom of the comments, I posted a link to what is perhaps the most important, non-reported subject of all time, a subject that, with the financial crisis, is finally seeing the light of day. I urge absolutely everyone to visit this site and patiently read the story told there, which will take most from 5-6 hours (about 70 pages). The story is absolutely authentic and exposes the Deep Capture of a critical segment of the media, and how that segment's capture helped to bring about today's financial crisis; for the crisis isn't about some firms making "bad bets" or about the "subprime meltdown;" rather, it details how the crisis was manufactured for the profit of a small cabal at the expense of the USA and likely the global financial system. Yes, it sounds fantastic, but it's absolutely correct; and all the activities echo the similar machinations that led to the Great Crash that preceded the Great Depression and resulted in what regulatory securities laws we have today that weren't repealed under Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush.
From Patrick Byrne's Intro:
"His exposé reveals a circle of corruption enclosing venerable Wall Street banks, shady offshore financiers, and suspiciously compliant reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, CNBC, and The New York Times. If you ever wonder how reporters react when a journalist investigates them (answer: like white-collar crooks they dodge interviews, lie, and hide behind lawyers), or if financial corruption interests you, then this is for you. It makes Grisham read like a book of bedtime stories, and exposes a scandal that may make Enron look like an afternoon tea."
I have never seen more blatant bias on an issue. I watch and read alot. In the mainstream I barely saw the correct side allowed a sound bite or a paragraph.
Even on the one show where Marcy Kaptur was allowed on, the crazed Dave Dreier was given twice as much time and Marcy was twice interrupted by the host who was on Dreier's side.
No one in the mainstream pointed out how McCain, Bush and Obama all represent wealthy elites, get their funding from them and do their bidding.
Obama fans: it ain't gonna be better when Barack is in the White House. If you think it is, you are in for one rude awakening.
Barack Obama was for single payer before he came out against it.
O'Bama came out against everything progressive. But the Demok base fully expected this. The Demok base understood that their boy was to shift extreme right after the primary. The Demok base is fully lodged in the extreme right gutter. They spent the past eight years demonstrating this. The Demoks are not in any position of strength today. It is the progressives, far to the left of the Demoks, who have the mandate today.
rtdrury October 3rd, 2008 4:39 am
"O'Bama came out against everything progressive. But the Demok base fully expected this. The Demok base understood that their boy was to shift extreme right after the primary"
I think the party "elites" understood that, but not the base.
Lobo Gris
Personally, I'd like to see another Depression, ala 1929. Everything I buy is paid for with cash as in pictures of dead presidents.
Oldhippy39 October 2nd, 2008 6:42 pm
"Personally, I'd like to see another Depression, ala 1929. Everything I buy is paid for with cash as in pictures of dead presidents."
I think we'll have it but it won't be exactly like the one in 1929. For one thing, if the government keeps printing money like they have you will need a wheelbarrow to haul enough of those dollars to the store to buy a loaf of bread. Think Germany after WWI.
Lobo Gris
Before the media pundits lick their stockbrokers hands, they should consider the following question.
Do you know where your stockbroker's thumb has been?
John F. Butterfield October 2nd, 2008 6:35 pm
"Before the media pundits lick their stockbrokers hands, they should consider the following question.
Do you know where your stockbroker's thumb has been?"
I believe the quote below is very appropriate in this case.
Samuel Adams
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom ... go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels nor arms. Crouch down and lick the hands of those who feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Lobo Gris
I know what's going on. The Economy is addicted to making and selling wasteful junk and the buyers are running out of home equity to buy it with.
Oh no, let's not use our finances and energy for health care, child care, rebuilding infrastructure, developing alternative energy sources, education, and the like. Let's do a bailout to prop up consumerism! No, I don't want people to lose their jobs, I want them to take other jobs doing what's needed. Making useless junk because of economic momentum is supposed to be the hallmark of a "command economy".
Besides, just be glad it's the ECOnomy and not the ECOsystem. When the latter goes and the chief monkey addresses the nation with a sad face, all the King's horses and all the King's men won't be able to put that back together again.
The author is correct, most of the press is a fact or two followed by FEAR. I wish more regular people would read Common Dreams and the like. Then again, I wish more regular people could read (period).
dmgreenaz October 2nd, 2008 5:47 pm
"I know what's going on. The Economy is addicted to making and selling wasteful junk and the buyers are running out of home equity to buy it with."
You are partially correct IMO. The Economy is addicted to selling wasteful junk but it is wasteful junk that is made in low wage unregulated areas of the world such as China. China and the sellers have been getting rich while the American consumer has suffered from lost jobs and lowered wages which is why they had to tap into their home equity to buy it. But the party is over, as you put it so well, the American consumer has run out of home equity to buy it with.
Lobo Gris
One of the main reasons that no one knows what's going on is that there is no sound scientific theory for what's going on. Adam Smith was wrong. It is physically impossible to produce profits from transactions; profits can only come from victims and it is the state that confers the luxury of victimizing outsiders to participants in a market transaction. About this role of government, Karl Marx was correct, but his theory of economics was wrong because it is Adam Smith's theory with the terms rederived and given new names.
As against the physiocrats, Smith was correct to realize that production governs economy, but it is thermodynamics that governs production. All transactions carry hidden costs – "externalities" is economic jargon – that dwarf any value of the sheltered market. If academics do not acknowledge such truths, how could journalists do so? They know nothing about anything except "media" and "journalism" and must be guided by paid shills to express any kind of "gee whiz" insights. This is what is perceived as qualifying them for their position; they know nothing and so they owe nothing to any informed viewpoint – like their idealized audience, which comes to resemble their real audience more and more every day.
Come on, Josh Silver, it's the perks and paychecks of these media tycoons this is all about as well!!
Mainstream media and their top people will not only benefit indirectly but many of them will directly benefit from the bailout, they are part of the fat cats circuit, that's why they aren't questioning it as hard as they should.
One dangerous thing that George Bush did secretly one weekend about 2years ago
was to repeal the UP-TICK rule that was instated by FDR in 1934 to help prevent
another depression. Simply put, the up-tick rule prevents anyone from selling
a stock short if the last sale was a down tick. This little rule prevented an
avalanche of downticks that ruin a stock or a country.... Ingrid
"Here's the problem: None of us really know that the hell is going on, and what the largest financial bailout in the history of our nation would actually achieve."
There is one remaining hurdle, and the Executive needs to effectively deal with it to achieve its goal... stripping balance from America's governmental process as it has been defined for hundreds of years.
If the Executive does not have to deal with a truculent Congress to garner funds for its agenda... then it will have met all of CheneyOilCo's goals.
And this bill does just that... puts endless billions into the control of an Executive Brach appointee who can apportion the funds as it sees fit. Any oversight is pretense, as the expense of those funds can easily be classified to meet needs with just the smallest amount of spin. As an example, just review what now falls under the guidance of "Homeland Security".
Want funding for wars?
War is GOOD for stabilizing the economy!!!
IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall implement any program (snip) which office shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by the President (snip).
"The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act (snip)".
We're screwed.
Please excuse my very Freudian slip.
It's Lloyds of London.
Bill from Saginaw
As Albert Einstein supposedly once quipped, in response to a pesky reporter's demand that he summarize his theory of relativity in a single sentence sound bite, "Well, it's all about time....."
The underlying flim flam games of the Masters of the Universe in the investment houses and on Wall Street that created what the White House itself recently called a house of cards was a churning shell game that started decades ago, fueled by Reaganomics and its related mantra of deregulation, deregulation, deregulation. The post-New Deal lines of demarcation between commercial banking and investment banking, the business of financing and the business of insurance, were consciously blurred beyond recognition. When the joker card of AIG - supposedly a central pillar of international capital markets roughly comparable to Lords of London - was yanked from the stack, the edifice genuinely began to teeter.
Why this calamity struck just when it did (8 weeks before a presidential election, 4 months before the Bush junta is scheduled to pack up and vacate Washington after two terms of unfettered access to the public treasury) is of course highly suspicious.
Bush's abrupt demand that the Congress write out a $700 billion blank check for his Treasury Secretary to distribute in Mr. Paulson's unreviewable discretion was indeed reminiscent of earlier bits of parliamentary brinksmanship that immediately preceded a legislative recess - the 2002 Iraq war authorization vote, the Military Commissions Act, the FISA statute revisions, and various emergency war funding votes, all come immediately to mind.
Why such haste? Why the orchestrated media hype?
Why the urgent time deadline to complete the task of finalizing a mammoth bipartisan bail-out bill right before the recess, when our elected representatives have to go back to campaigning in anticipation of November's balloting by American voters?
Haven't we all danced this dance, at the same breathless tempo with shameful end results, a few too many times before?
But then again, who knows? Maybe the sky really is falling in, and this timing is just an ironic coincidence.
Still, I suspect that a lot of folks who were planning to take the money and run - to get out of Dodge before a new sheriff arrived - glanced at the calendar in late September, and sensed (quite correctly) that their window of opportunity was about to close.
Unhappy days are here again.
In my neck of the Michigan woods, the natives are getting restless indeed.
Bill from Saginaw
i used to think the msm were just kinda lame, even laughable. but the last couple months have let me see their ugly side. first, they go along with demonizing the rooskies over south ossetia, when anyone with an ounce of intelligence could see that most of the blame should be placed on the cowardly fool sack-o-shitty. now this--going along with a rushed and flawed bailout scheme. yeah, something gotta be done, but it can and should be done with some deliberation. these media types have become careerists, not citizens...a comprador class in a badly flawed political/economic system.
CAUTION: You can get aids of the ears from listening to those corporate news arseholes.
Mainstream media have for years been nothing but propaganda tools for the ruling elite and have failed to do any investigative journalism.
A lot of people are aware of the Bilderberger Group and the members of this secretive group who are from the political world, financial world, military-industrial world, corporate world and of course the ruling elite yet mainstream media have never reported on them, you have to ask why?
Now the greatest con job in the whole of human history is going on right in front of our noses and the mainstream media have just been parroting on and on about how this bailout has to be passed without a shred of constructive debate as to why and definitley without any voice which dissents to this.
After there complient let's ape the politicians stance and get us into an illegal war and various other issues where they parrot the wishes of the corporations, politicians and the ruling elite is it a surprise that they are just continuing their usual lack of integral reporting and simply using brainwashing techniques by repeating a mantra over and over again until it is embedded into peoples brains.
Anyone with a little bit of common sense realises that the bailout is a con job and part of the ruling elites overall plan to establish themselves as gods by holding all resources and dictating who gets some and who doesn't.
The society we live in is a lie constructed by the ruling elite upheld by their shamans in the political world, mainstream media, financial world, military-industrial complex, corporations and religions. Wake up and realise this before it is too late. We have to stop working for the insidious ruling elite who only want to enslave us and build a society of them and us, with them holding all and us with nothing apart from what they deem to give us in order that we serve them.
Together we can change the world by working together by the good of all humanity in an equal society where no one is better than another. We have to take the power back now and we have the power to do this, together.
peace and love
all is illusion...there is no government
even Democracy NOW! & Media Matters w/ Bob McChesney have done a poor job with their guests.
our 'alternatives' out there never gave us these alternatives. the zinn article today is something he has been repeating over and over and over- and is frankly a bit late coming up today. The No Bailouts Act that was presented the other day doesn't do anything for the American people, except for we don't have to pay anything.
Even anarchist sites said nothing except that we need to organize & educate and market socialists said to go ahead with it too.
all i can think of since the media has been all over this is how Argentina refused to pay off it's bad debt to the IMF from previous rulers.
And where are the protests now? where is any one saying that the people have spoken and we don't want a bail out. we have decided that we don't want to waste our money on that crap. no one ever talks about it being our will except for a few acknowledgments that the vote on Monday was a win. WTF? Is democracy, the people voting, isn't that what we are striving for? So why the fuck are we subjecting ourselves to coordinators telling us that we need to bail out wall street and fix shit later? Could it be that they will benefit and not collapse themselves. Then they are no better than our masters above them.
DOOFUS!
THIS is our media now! The corporate media is JUST THAT!
So the "masses" dont want to inform themselves. How odd.
I guess when they have lost everything that they worked so hard for, MAYBE they will be a little more curious, no?
If they are smart enough to do their tax paperwork, and get a drivers license, they are smart enough to check around a little and see that there is more to the story than the boob tube is telling them. If not?
It's called DENIAL.
I think the major news outlets are just evidence machines for a totalitarian agenda, nobody I know REALLY believes any of it. Read "Manufacturing Consent" It's just nazi theater for the dead already.
The public has a clear choice today , INSURRECTION or DENIAL. Denial wins hands down, for a while longer...
It just hasnt gotten painful enough. I wonder if we will be so helpless and depleted that when the moment comes to make a move we will be too screwed to act. NAH.....
Remember the faces of all the protesters of the last couple of years, these will be our saints and leaders, they have nothing.
The media is nothing more than a corporate tool of mass misinformation designed to dumb down the public. Problem is many Americans still haven't tuned in to that yet. Instead surveys show that most Americans still believe we have a LEFT WING media! Why in God's name would a corporation want to instill an anti-corporate message is beyond me, but the point is that the massive amount of propaganda that is dished out each day is very effective.
Precisely because our MSM has been completely manipulated by a handful of profit-driven-only companies, the public is bound to vote corporate (Dems or Reps) this November further undermining the middle class and and poverty stricken majority. We need a 'Great Awakening' and we need it ASAP! Americans MUST boycott, turn away, reject and ignore all MSM until we can restore a functional democracy again.
Space Cadet [October 2nd, 2008 1:50 pm]: "Why in God's name would a corporation want to instill an anti-corporate message is beyond me, but the point is that the massive amount of propaganda that is dished out each day is very effective."
Space Cadet, read Orwell's "1984" -- the State owns the supposed opposition -- our mass media. Anyone who tries to practice actual journalism is purged from the ranks. (See Dan Rather and his CBS producers; Gary Webb, et al.) It's going to stay like that until there's a change at the top. (Yes, I mean Obama.)
Gary Webb bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb
Olbermann gets away with it so far because he has high ratings that helps peddle the pills and soap and he's not a 'radical'; I don't think they quite know what to make of Rachel Maddow yet -- she talks over the execs heads half the time.
"Here's the problem: None of us really know that the hell is going on . . . "
But we do know what's going on - it's called Theft, a Swindle, Extortion, Chicanery, etc. Whatever monies are handed over by the congress to Highway Robbery LLC will be stolen or frittered away. After a while, they'll be back for more. Corrupt Repimplicans and Germ-o-crats will stand in the well of their respective houses with their hands on their hips, snorting and huffing about Theft, Swindle, Extortion, Chicanery, etc., and then hand over more billions borrowed from our economic, political, cultural and religious enemies until, at last, the ignominious day arrives when the whole lousy thing collapses on our heads and the only ones wearing hard hats will be these very same corrupt politicians and thieves. Our creditors will sweep in like a tsunami and buy up what's left while the rest of us become serfs in a United States that has finally eaten itself.
See the video: Market Meltdown, a rare example of a clear and reasonable examination of the current financial crisis. With Barbara Ehrenreich, Dean Baker, Jared Bernstein.
http://liberationvideo.blogspot.com/2008/10/market-meltdown-bailout-economics-of.html
We need no more proof of the thesis of this article than to read today's edition of any major newspaper. The headlines and articles of most focus on the inevitability of a crash if THIS bailout is not hastily enacted. Articles addressing other approaches to tempering the economic downturn are either non-existent or have rated only a few column inches on page 16.
"If you are like me, the pundits, and 99.9% of the American public, you really don't know much about economics."
No one can know much about economics it seems, particularly economists. Science studies show that bookies are better at predicting things than economists are.
The question is, why depend on economists to lead our government and run our lives?
Once we make the leap that we are a part of a biospheric ecosystem, then we can apply ecological ways to achieve the balance between people and resources that we lost when we invented money.
ezeflyer [October 2nd, 2008 1:11 pm]: "No one can know much about economics it seems, particularly economists. Science studies show that bookies are better at predicting things than economists are."
I haven't Googled this for a link, but I read in the paper about 10 years ago of some college kids who did a project wherein they asked five Wall Street experts and five top economists for their opinions of the hottest stocks for the next quarter. Then they got five spider monkeys and had them throw their feces at a large chart with the names of all the stocks traded on Wall Street listed. You know what comes next: The monkey feces successfully predicted the top stocks 70 percent of the time; the 'experts' and economists 51 percent.
There was a similar and more tidy experiment done by some elderly women some years ago as well. The women picked the stocks strictly by the name, without studying any details about the stock. They ended up earning more money than the average trader.
Personally, I think you'd be better off going to the race track than investing in the stock market -- at least you'd get some exercise and fresh air as you blew your money. After all, the only real difference between a Wall Street stockbroker and a racetrack tout is the quality of his or her suit.
A friend was once married to an economist. She asked him why he got a degree in economcs and he said: "When you suck at everything else in college, you become an economist."
In the same vein, when you suck at selling cars, you become a stockbroker.
Oh, the media is captured by Wall Street all right. We have proof. Visit Patrick Byrne's Deepcapture website and start with any of the four links at the top of the page. When you finish, you will know much more about the cause and cuplrits of our "crisis" than most members of congress. And most importantly, pass this info on to your email network so your friends and family can learn what you now know.
Poor Obama...this will prove to be his Hillary's-vote-to-give-Bush-carte blanche-to-invade-Iraq moment. It is more of the same claim that hawkish triangulating and capitulating compromise is necessary to win followed by platitudes and promises of change once they sell their soul to win. Win what? The next hope over the next hill? This is shaky ground for the politician whose constituency from all walks of the spectrum are cut out--except the rich and powerful who have been driving the country into the ditch. It is a rocky road ahead, Mr Obama and the earth is falling away beneath your feet.
excuse me but there is no way the media sold their souls to wall street
those souls have been bought and paid for by the corporations
now, there may have been a cost plus sublease - that i could believe
cheers, b
LOL, bryanD [October 2nd, 2008 12:42 pm], perhaps it's a sub-prime mortgage with an adjustable rate.
BTW, would anyone else like to see CNN's Ali Velshi volunteer for the first manned mission to Mars?
From the school of "when life gives you a lemon, make lemonade," maybe progressives can foster some small hope that a movement can be developed on the theme of "we cannot afford the empire anymore." Maybe the $700 billion bill will turn out to be rope that can be used on the military-industrial-complex. Dreaming is not all bad.
The corporate media, more than ever, have become cheerleaders for the establishment and will only allow token dissent. I boycott corporate media but must admit my curiousity got the best of me and I watched a little bit to see how they handled the No vote on Monday - they scratched their heads at the stupidity of all these people being against this much needed bailout of Wall Street since the world would end if we didn't do it. Investigative journalism has disappeared from the corporate media landscape. We have to do better at creating stronger alternative medias, beyond the excellent things we are allready doing.
I was up late and ended up watching the BBC World News show that I can get. It was a great example of how horribly slanted this coverage is.
The entire content was on how this bailout is needed and must be passed. I don't think there was even a reference to the opposition to the bailout. Certainly no interviews with the people leading the opposition letting them explain why. It was entirely focused on the message that this bailout is required and must be passed. It ended with the BBC talking heads sitting around a desk and basically saying they hope the House 'does the right thing.'
Of course, with the BBC, there's an extra dimension to this. I'm sure the Brits are sitting around hoping that the poor stupid American tax payers give up $700 billion to help the world economy. After all, its not their money that's being stolen.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
With the IMF and the European Union advocating this bailout how could BBC's coverage differ. If you make a list of all the people favoring this bailout of moneylenders, you can be assured that it is not in the best interest of the American citizen.
The American citizen that seems about to betrayed once again by Congress and this President. Pass the KY please.
There is also the idea that a lot of this money will go to the European banks in order to convince them not to dump their dollar-based paper and therefore tank the dollar. Remember that this wouldn't just send inflation here into overdrive, it would also have effects on oil and many other things.
Think of this "bailout" then as similar to a small-time crook pressing the local businesses for "protection" money in order to pay a big-time crook enough that Mr. Big-Time doesn't call in Mr. Small-Time's gambling debts.
I could actually see this as what has got Congress running scared.
matti [October 2nd, 2008 6:57 pm], as Keith Olbermann has been saying, this is essentially the same as Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart in "Blazing Saddles" putting a gun to his own head and saying "Do what I say or the sheriff gets it." (Only he didn't say 'sheriff.') Wall Street is saying either you bail me out or I'll kill myself. Let's give them a nice send-off, since none of this trillion dollar bailout is going to help the economy one iota. (Please don't fall for that 'credit crunch' hysteria -- once banks know the Feds aren't going to bail out 'The Street,' they'll quickly be back in the business of extending credit.) Bush and Paulson's pals will stay fat under this neocon-job, but the rest of us peons will still be losing our homes, jobs, roads, bridges and futures. As far as the economic opinions of the Big Media, their emissions on the subject most remind me of the campfire bean-eating scene in the aforementioned Mel Brooks film.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and professor of economics at Columbia University, who has warned of this collapse, has a better solution than that nimcompoop Paulson and his chuckleheaded compadre Ben "Yes sir, Dr. Greenspan!" Bernanke, or most of the members of Congress. So does Thom Hartmann, who has also been prescient on this issue.
"Here's a Better Bailout Plan"
By Joseph Stiglitz, TheNation.com
Posted on October 1, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/101034/
"How Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar"
By Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams, Sept. 26, 2008
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/26
As well as the Constitution, it seems none of our BM or Washington nitwits have ever read Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes -- instead, it's all Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer, and their laissez faire neocon economic theories that have been repeatedly discredited by reality since Reagan was president.
The 'free' press is nothing of the sort; they are bought and paid for by big corps through advertising (and let's not forget they are big corps themselves), so what do you expect? Do you expect them to put truth above their own financial interests. Ha!
Its not just through 'advertising'.
Corporate America OWNS the corporate media. Litterally.
Its big corporations that own the media channels. Probably the most obvious conflict of interest is with GE owning NBC. But almost all the major media is owned by some big corporation or another.
If you work in a corporation, you are expected to contribute to the bottom line. Undoubtably the managers of the media divisions of these corporations have $$ targets they have to meet that make them look and short term $$ to meet those goals. And, if the media division were to do something to harm another part of the corp, that media division manager would be called on the carpet to get a royal chewing out.
And, there are interlocking boards of directors on a lot of these entities. So the people running the corps that own the media divisions probably have people from other corps boards of directors on their board of directors.
And advertising is a part of it. It ties in with the short term focus to meet corporate goals. Why do you think huge defense companies or agri businesses buy ads on TV. Its not to sell an ordinary American a tactical jet fighter plane at Target? Instead, they pump money to the TV networks as 'ads', but then they can threaten to pull that money if the network says something they don't like.
So, you've got the concept absolutely correct. These corporate owned media divisions are going to do what's best for the bottom line of the corp. But its a lot more than just advertising causing that.
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