Isn’t it about time We, The People awake from reality TV, carb induced fog, and be interested and responsible enough to learn what is going on around us?

TARP. Has it worked? Well, no. Despite the spending of these funds and more than two trillion by the U.S. Federal Reserve, there were more than 2 million home foreclosures in 2008. If actions speak louder than words, the letters TARP more likely stand for To Assist Rich People. So far, without our permission, our money has been repurposed and redirected. At risk homeowners will have to wait until recipients including Big Banks, Big Auto and Big Insurance have had their helpings... with some, like Bank of America and AIG going back for seconds.

So where has our (We, the Taxpayers’) money gone? Not to be accused of sleeping while on duty, a Congressional Oversight Panel, a four person board authorized by Congress and led by consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, is charged with finding out what Treasury has done with the billions it has already spent. "'We are here to ask the questions that we believe all Americans have a right to ask; who got the money, what have they done with it, how has it helped the country and how has it helped “ordinary” people?'"

Huh? Using the term ‘ordinary people’ suggest some people are ‘extra-ordinary’ as described in Orwell’s Animal Farm. “We are all equal… but some are more equal than others…..”

So far, the Treasury’s official response to the Congressional Oversight Panel has pretty much been, “Ah, it’s really none of your business...”

It’s no secret who the money hasn’t helped. While AIG executives languish in luxury thanks to our bailout billions, the “ordinary” folks still wait. Do you recall the Nation’s collective sigh of relief when the White House and the supportive fat cat Congress issued the Hope For Homeowners Program? It was introduced to help 400,000 at risk homeowners save their homes. Since its ballyhooed unveiling in late July 08, guess how many homes have been saved? If you guessed ZERO, you would be right. The program was a dismal failure... as many of us in the trenches predicted it would be.

Ah, it’s really none of your business...” Bullshit! It’s everybody’s business because this crisis adversely impacts every person, every house, every neighborhood, every town, every city and every state.

Some of the most challenging issues We, The People face today are ensuring the stability of the residential real estate mortgage market, and the reduction of the rising tide of foreclosure throughout New Jersey, and the Nation. Along with other stakeholders, the Society for Preservation of Continued Homeownership (“SPOCH”) a 501c3 nonprofit based in New Jersey for which I serve as the Executive Director has the capacity and experience to help achieve these priorities. How? Check out www.spoch.org. Click on Housing Crises Solved

Hey, Mr. Secretary of the Treasury! If you want results and a return on your money, then LOAN, not give, SPOCH some TARP funds. We’ll use it for the public good, repay it, and create jobs, too. Without the overwhelming bureaucratic red tape, and not motivated by corporate profit mandates, I would unilaterally keep homeowners in their homes by cutting out the middle men and dealing instead with at-risk homeowners directly.

You must understand that while Lenders are invited to participate in non foreclosure workout alternatives, NO laws yet exist which require lenders to offer loan workouts to its borrowers. The contract between lender and borrower is pretty straightforward. If the borrower doesn’t pay as promised the borrower forfeits the loan’s collateral....the house.

Since Lenders are unwilling to help voluntarily, We, The People need to empower (fund) non profits, like SPOCH, to negotiate the purchase of lenders’ bad debt at a discount, and then send them packing… and let SPOCH and others like SPOCH solve the nation’s housing crises.

Unless and until We, The People demand TARP funds are re-dedicated to the purchase and restructuring of individual loans in foreclosure, and pools of non performing loans, instead of waiting for relief to trickle down from above…. the problem will get worse, much worse, before it begins to get better.

www.spoch.org

They can't find the money... they don't even know how much has been printed if any.

Nobody has a clue because the fed is a giant ponzi scheme and it is more obvious every day... the next shoe to drop is gonna be inflation if they really do print the money being pledged.

So far it looks like the secret Fed has given only electronic credits to their Banking pals and that money has probably disappeared into secret accounts all over the world. If that funny money will be worth much when big inflation hits in time for getting bogged in Afghanistan, and Pakistan, a few trillion should buy something for the fat cats.

"Saving the capital markets" is a phrase Geithner likes to use also. Preventing a meltdown of the financial system is what he's all about. The speculators and market manipulators, the banks & investment houses, ARE the financial system. Taken all together, they ARE the capital markets.

Calling this redistribution of wealth from the non-rich to the rich who have screwed up so badly is a crude "philosophy" like calling a pig the Prince of Wales is a philosophy. This is how it has always been and this is how it is under a privatized monetary system. Private capital controls the money the people depend upon to run their economic apparatus.

The crisis demonstrates that private capital has failed in its mandate to manage the monetary system and thus run the economy. The Federal Reserve was established to guarantee monetary stability and prevent economic dislocations. It has failed.

No writer for the mainstream press is going to tell it like it is. It is dangerous to tell the truth because the truth is that the failure of the private monetary system means just one thing: we have to Nationalize the monetary system so that it will work in the public interest. This is being done because it is the only alternative, but every effort is being made to keep monetary control in private hands. The rich want their cake and they want to eat it, too. Even though they have failed, they want the government to keep them in control anyway.

Geithner is between a rock and a hard place. He must either betray his class and do the rational thing: let his rich buddies fail, seize their banks and shut down their casinos in the name of the general welfare; or he must must continue this phony bail out and destroy the US economy for everyone else.

I have not heard you, Dean Baker, calling for the liquidation of the private monetary system. You are just as cautious and timid as every other mainstream writer when it comes to challenging the prerogatives and monopoly control of the elite wealthy class.

You could substitute Bernard Maddoff's name for the "banks" in this article and you would have just as accurate a story. And the money, like Madoff's, is hidden away to prevent access by the true owners - American citizens.

We can make as many "demands" as we want - the government will do as it pleases! And, by this time, what it "pleases" should be quite obvious.

The banks are the treasury for the Washington, DISTRICT OF CRIMINALS CRIME FAMILY!

The government was told it would buy toxic loans at fair market value. This week we found out that we were overcharged $78 billion. That isn't a small little oopsie. That looks like government collusion in providing profits that could not have been earned through fair market competition. So the taxpayers once again are being put in the position of the sucker while the people that led their companies into near bankruptcy are the one and the same people we are profitably bailing out. Taxpayers have to deal with defaulting on mortgages, geting laid off at work, taking lower paying jobs and then barely being able to stay above the homeless level. Beyond that is dumpster diving for food. Those toxic loan creators, CEOs and executives still have their mansions, yachts, stretch limos, servants, etc...

What's wrong with that picture!

My vote would be with Paul Krugman and short term nationalization of banks due to the obvious fact that otherwise we are dealing with the same money grubbing sociopaths that created this mess to begin with.

Forgive me for repeating myself, but I will until this alternative is given serious consideration, or I turn blue:

Don't bail them out and don't nationalize.

If you bail them out, you will be handing over our money and control to the same people who caused the failure without getting anything in return.

If you nationalize, you will be handing over our money and control to politicians who are bought by the same people who caused the failure without getting anything in return.

If banks can't be allowed to fail, buy them out and give each American equal, non-transferable shares in their stock so we can acquire any dividends directly.

It's our money that's buying the banks. With equal shares of their stock we have a chance of recovering it, plus as stockholders, we will have an equal say in their operation.

Just think about this debt based monetary system we have for a bit.

All new money brought into existence is borrowed from the fed. The fed just creates it buys T Bills with this new money the created and charges interest on it.

So if all new money coming into the economy is debt. Then how are we ever going to pay it off? You can't. (see Web of Debt).

As for any prospect of nationalizing any banks, if that was a route some are thinking about then, don't take over the existing ones who are weighed down with debt. Let them fail and start new government controlled one.

I think the best choice would be to scrap the privatized debt based system we have now. Start using money ONLY as a means of exchange of goods and services, not as a commodity.

Some sort of a social credit system (no, not a political system - don't get scared!). A social credit system would work more like the money not being based on debt, it would be just a means of exchange of goods and services, no longer would people, like bankers get filthy rich just for handling money.

This is also the reason why a social credit system is not being mentioned by the politicians. Just look at who contributed to their campaigns. Money has become a powerful tool.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” - Abraham Lincoln

ezeflyer

the argument has always been "you can't trust the politicians" and that's why we need rich people to manage the money.

Well, obviously you can't trust the rich any more than the politicians.

But in this internet age, the activities of the public banking system managed through the treasury can be made transparent as never before and accessible to the people, many of whom, such as yourself, are smart enough to see what's going on and blow a whistle when the whistle needs blowing.

WERE fucked. The mess these assholes have created makes the Gordian knot of Alexander fame look like a small ball of yarn. As a person called in many a time to fix Network spaghetti as I call it, sometimes the only way is to just cut it all out and start from scratch. It's going to take more time and effort then it's worth trying to fix the awful tangle these bastards have created. Start over Tim, other wise it's all doomed to fail.

"It would be nice if the Post and the rest of the media would report honestly on the bank bailout and stop trying to conceal plans for a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives."

Well, since most people who still call themselves "journalists" are actually working for the "super-wealthy", Wall Street Cartel, it doesn't really matter what these idiots put in print; the average person already knows they've been screwed after losing his/her pension or other retirement fund along with the money he/she saved for the kid's education.

It doesn't take an Albert Einstein to figure out who is winning in this f-king perverted game. After all, it's been going on for decades!

Unstinting:

It seems that Americans are ill trained and under educated regarding the general economy. Even the left in the US of A is conventional when it comes to economic arguments.

?????? WHY IS THERE NOT A BIG AND I MEAN BIG DEMONSTRATION BY THE PEOPLE O THE UNITED STATES AT WALL STREET AND WASHINGTON??????

BE PEACEFUL AND DON'T LET THE MASKED JACKBOOTS OF THE GOVERNMENT UPSET YOUR MESSAGE.

SURELY THERE ARE ENOUGH CITIZENS OF THE USA WITH ENOUGH FREE TIME TO MAKE THEIR POINT.

PERHAPS OBAMA WILL PROVIDE THE $$$$ NEEDED FOR TENTS AND BUSSES.

BE SILENT AND SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OR MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR.
CALL THEIR BLUFF.

NOW THAT THE US GOVERNMENT IS ELITIST, OLIGARCHIC CAPITALIST, LET'S AT LEAST SUPPORT THE VENEZUELAN SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

Comrades! The February referendum in Venezuela is another battle in the revolutionary anti-capitalist war. We must support the Venezuelan Bolivarian Socialist process and win this battle in order to inflict a new defeat on the counterrevolutionaries and press on to the fundamental tasks of the socialist revolution in this world.

What is needed is to carry the revolution through to the end, expropriate the oligarchy, overthrow the bourgeois state and appeal to the workers and peasants of America and the whole world to join us in the socialist transformation of society.

For these reasons we say to the working people of Venezuela:

Vote YES in the referendum on February 15!

Step up the fight for socialist revolution!

Nationalize the land, banks and industry under workers’ control!

Join the Corriente Marxista Revolucionaria, the Marxist tendency in the PSUV, and struggle for this programme!

Long live the Socialist Revolution!

HERE'S A JUICY LITTLE TIDBIT:

SQUATTERS' RIGHTS.

IF YOU ARE ABOUT TO GO UNDER, TALK TO YOUR BANK (MORTGATOR) AND ASK THEM TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE ORIGINAL LOAN DOCUMENT THAT ESTABLISHED YOUR INDEBTEDNESS.
MOST WILL BE UNABLE TO FIND IT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN SOLD AROUND SO MUCH.
THEN, STAY IN YOUR HOME, THEY CAN'T THROW YOU OUT!

Why is everyone shouting?

"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell

Let me see if I've got this straight:

- investors buy shares in corporations and accept the risk that they may lose their investments

- for some reason the shareholders of these insolvent banks will not face the consequence of bad business practices and their investments will be protected

- instead of taking over some or all of the ownership of these insolvent banks in exchange for the funds that are needed to keep the banks in business, the Gov't will buy the worthless assets (bad loans, derivatives, etc) and the management of the banks who were responsible for the purchase of those worthless assets remain in place and are paid astronomical salaries and bonuses

- the taxpayers - YOU AND ME!! - protect those shareholders' investments and pay those incomprehensibly huge salaries and bonuses

WHAT THE F**K!!??

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

We need to keep Guantanamo open for the rightwing economists and other religious folk who worship the Free Market God.

There’s a parallel between America’s military and America’s financial system. Both are too important to be entrusted to private mercenaries.

I suspect there are millions of Americans like me who know “nationalization” is not a four-letter word.

Have we learned nothing from the last three decades, especially the last eight years? Are we nuts?

When the GOP and the Republican wing of the Democratic Party talk about reform and use wonderful words like “free enterprise,” “privatization,” and “deregulation,” be sure to count your fingers.

This and much more appears in, “The Bush League of Nations: The Coalition of the Unwilling, the Bullied and the Bribed – the GOP’s War on Iraq and America,” by James A. Swanson (2008, CreateSpace Publishing, 448 pages).

You can download the entire $25.95 book for FREE at www.bushleagueofnations.com.

I ask for nothing in return, except that you perhaps use my book to help restore and build America.

Jim Swanson, Los Altos, CA

Here is another article about the economic crisis and what should be done about it (working class mobilization): http://mltoday.com/looking-forward-542-2.html

Heh. I like this article. Dean Baker, you're alright.

In the real world this is called swindling, conning - these banks should be broken and controled. Financial crime is just that, crime and so well organized for the benefit of a few. The new two level justice system is filling private prisons with American youth for minor demors while offering the keys to the kingdom to those deemed above the law. ENOUGH!

I hope Obama gets out into reality and realizes the potential that still exists for a movement or everything may be carried away by a stampede.

I wouldn't count on the Washington Post for anything other that the mush they have been drooling out for years now. They have taken in every wet chicken in the Washington pen - especially those who lay only rotten eggs.

Two things need to be understood..1) the politicians are in league with the banksters and 2) capitalism is an unstable system, a cancer which has to keep growing and expanding or it dies. The banksters/politicians are in charge of the cancer which is eating away at the body, heart and soul of "Western Civilization" and they will keep right on doing what they are doing until people understand and decide to put a stop to it. The part that the "education" system and media play is to keep people from understanding and deciding for themselves..Even now most folks are looking to Obama to "save the system". It should not be saved. It needs to fail. Capitalism is destroying the earth as a habitat for humankind and a lot of other creatures. The lifestyle in the US is THE most obscenely wasteful of any the world has ever seen. Most people are living beyond their means because that is the only way the capitalist system can stay in business. The "American Dream" is a fraud which needs to be exposed. It's really more like keeping up with the Joneses to the benefit of the banksters..so just STOP!