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TechnoratiThose Hit Hardest Get No Bailout
Taxpayers' bailout money for AIG bonuses has rightfully provoked a massive backlash against AIG, Wall Street, President Barack Obama and his economic advisers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. The U.S. public now owns 80 percent of AIG. The outrage is bipartisan: Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley even suggested that AIG executives "resign or go commit suicide." New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just released details on the bonuses, exposing AIG's ridiculous claim that they are "retention bonuses" aimed at keeping key employees, since 11 of those who received bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer employed by AIG.
These AIG millionaires may need to return their unearned millions (Congress may pass a tax law aimed just at them, taxing their bonuses at 100 percent). But will the outrage help those who have been hardest hit by the economic meltdown? Will the hundreds of millions of dollars in various stimulus packages and bailouts find its way to regular people who are trying to get by, or will it go only to corporations deemed "too big to fail," leaving behind millions of people who are, apparently, small enough to fail?
The Center for Social Inclusion has just issued a report on the economic meltdown and how best to solve the problem. It links race to the lack of opportunity and to the prevalence of the notorious subprime mortgages that triggered the economic crisis.
CSI Executive Director Maya Wiley told me, "We have to stimulate equality in order to stimulate the economy." Access to education, transportation, housing and a clean environment give people a firm footing to respond to crisis and to succeed. Noting that "shovel-ready" stimulus jobs in construction will disproportionately favor those who are already in that industry, predominantly white males, Wiley is pushing for "community benefits agreements for construction jobs [that] ensure when the government has construction contracts, low-income people, people of color, women, are going to have their fair share of those jobs." Since people of color are more likely to live far from available jobs and are less likely to have cars, Wiley says, "we must ensure that the way transportation dollars get spent go to transit ... to connect people who need jobs to the places where there are jobs."
The group United for a Fair Economy also highlights the racial wealth divide, noting that "24 percent of blacks and 21 percent of Latinos are in poverty, versus 8 percent of whites. In the corporate world, we are seeing the highest executive pay and the biggest bailouts in history. CEO pay is 344 times that of the average worker."
Prevailing wisdom posits that freeing up credit will save the economy, thus these huge banks need hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts. But the crisis was initially caused by defaults on subprime mortgages. One option at the outset would have been to support the distressed homeowners, helping them avoid foreclosure. Wiley points out that "35 percent of subprime mortgage holders were actually eligible for prime-rate loans. ... Most of those were people of color ... communities of color did not have fair access to credit."
The banks and the mortgage lenders pushed bad loans on poor and minority borrowers. The NAACP has just filed lawsuits against Wells Fargo and HSBC, alleging "systematic, institutionalized racism in subprime home mortgage lending."
The banks bundled the bad loans into securities and sold them, then created derivatives based on these securities that are impossible to understand, let alone value. AIG insured the investment banks against potential losses from these complex derivatives. The U.S. Treasury bailed out the banks along with AIG. AIG then paid out tens of billions of its bailout money to the very large banks that already received billions in bailout funds: Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Yet, despite the hundreds of billions being siphoned off by these megabanks, we are told that the credit market is still frozen. Many European banks also received funds this way, including Swiss bank UBS, which offers secret bank accounts that allow the richest Americans to avoid taxes. In effect, beleaguered U.S. taxpayers are bailing out wealthy U.S. tax dodgers.
Obama has surrounded himself with financial advisers who are too cozy with Wall Street, like Summers and Geithner. It's time to direct the stimulus to the people who need it, to those whose tax dollars are funding it.Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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Show AllHello
We are TheTribe2009, our mission is to eliminate pain and suffering in the world.
Currently we have two projects in development, the Citizen’s Initiative and Citizen’s Central.
The Citizen’s Initiative is a prototype for citizen development of laws and legislations that are directly
submitted to the President and appropriate congresspersons and Senators for enactment.
Citizen’s Central is a depository of demographic information for every citizen in the country.
Citizen Central is near initiation, what’s needed is the physical creation of its infrastructure.
The development of Citizen’s Central is of obvious benefit to the government, NGO’s, businesses, etc.
Since C.C. is citizen owned the government would be willing to fund the project.
Citizen’s Initiative is set to go, all the field work is complete. The platform of laws and legislation that are being offered has been determined by citizens to be implemented immediately. What remains to be done is for the citizens of the country to approve or disapprove .Provisions have been incorporated into the format presented so that if something in not approve compromise is possible.
The resources available are a few laptops and web- addresses.
Citizen’s Initiative is time sensitive because it pertains to legislation that has recently been enacted, and is scheduled to be enacted in the near future.
What we are trying to do is engage the citizen’s of the country to actively participate in creating progressive
democracy. The tools exist, thanks to all of you, for this type of dynamic democracy to manifest.
There are many revelations that developed from the process of getting citizens to personally create a platform.
The methods used to create the platform and the contents of the platform will be discussed prior to creating the infrastructue or later if you actually get a chance to vote on it.
Thank You
Frank Tarantino from : The Tribe 2009
There will be an e-mail arriving in two or three days. It will come from thetribe2009@live .com
The content of the e-mail is a citizen’s initiative, reflecting issues the citizens of this country want the current Administration to implement immediately.
It will also include the development of citizens central which will be a central web site documenting the demographics of every person in the country. The web site will be accessible to all citizens all the time. I am sure we all understand what can be done with this information.
Admiral Poindexter had a similar idea; he wanted everything, with the government controlling all the data. Well this information is owned by the citizens of this country.
The methodology used in determining what the citizens of the country want will be included.
However the methodology will be a moot point, when all the citizens have a chance to agree or disagree with what is presented.
Obviously this kind of direct citizen involvement in establishing laws and directing policy, with the President and both houses of congress implementing the citizens’ laws and policy, has never been done before. Lobbyists and money will no longer dictate public policies.
If the President and/or congress can’t or won’t implement citizen’s directives then they can be recalled
and their position filled with a person that will represent their respective citizen’s wishes.
The I.T. requirements are:
For Citizen Central –we need a system that can accommodate three hundred fifty million people
A method of communicating to that number of people
A method for collecting that communication from the people and storing all of it
Creating a demographic questionnaire that will collect all the required variables
A software program that can organize and collate the data.
Personal information such as names, addresses, social security numbers, will be immediately dis-associated with the given data and only re-associated when there is a reason. For example a person with a disability, or someone out of a job, would be temporarily re-associated with the data and contacted if a new benefit was created for this specific group, then dis -associated again.
So giving personal information is optional, but is recommended for getting resources to the people that need or could use them. Everyone will have access to the data but no personal information will be accessible.
The only new technology needed would be a system of integrating the internet, cell phones, and television so that people with limited wide-band access would be able to use one of the three instruments available for communication.
An example, a person with a cell phone or regular phone could use the television to view the questionnaire then toggle the phone for inputting the data.
At least 95% of the people in the country have at least one of these devices, and provisions made for the other 5% so that they could participate.
The infrastructure for the citizen’s initiative would mimic that of citizen central.
The data needed to be collected would be a citizen’s name, zip code, and whether a person votes yes or no for the initiative. If a person voted no on an issue, would they be willing to compromise
This information will tell us who voted how they voted, and what district they come from. The appropriate congressperson and senator would know what the citizens of their district wanted and implement their wishes.
A person does not have to be a registered voter to participate. People that are homeless can use a shelter for an address.
That’s it; paragraphs have been added to the semi-original of the document to reach a broader group of people. I’m tired and its time to get this out into the airwaves.
I think you all can appreciate what will be needed if we collectively connect, a simple web-site will not do it.
I want to thank all of you who contributed in every which way, to make a better world, including me I hope.
From All Of Us To All Of you With Love
WE HAD 100 PEOPLE IN TWENTY FIVE CARS VISIT EVERY STATE
FROM WEST TO EAST. THEN BACK AGAIN FROM EAST TO WEST TO REFINE THE DATA WE COLLECTED
WE GOT SOME AMAZING PROPOSALS FROM PEOPLE. THAT INFORMATION AS WELL THE SPECIFIC LAWS WAITING TO BE INACTED FROM THESE PEOPLE WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.
WHAT GOOD IS IT, IF WE DON'T HAVE THE TOOLS TO PRESENT IT.
WE HAVE LOVE ,WE HAVE COMPASSION, WE HAVE INTELECT WE DON'T HAVE MONEY.
IF WE SOLD CITIZENS CENTRAL,WE WOULD BE MILLIONAIRES
WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO STORE 350,000,000 DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES
THE CITIZEN INIT. NEEDS TO STORE A MINAMUN OF 1,000,000 NAMES.
WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASTE. THE LONGER WE WAIT THE MORE TRILLIONS WILL BE
GONE FROM OUR NATIONAL TREASURE,WITH NO ONE HAVING A CLUE WHERE THE MONEY WENT WHEN THE DUST SETTLES.
Oh yeah, another thing:
"Noting that "shovel-ready" stimulus jobs in construction will disproportionately favor those who are already in that industry, predominantly white males, Wiley is pushing for "community benefits agreements for construction jobs [that] ensure when the government has construction contracts, low-income people, people of color, women, are going to have their fair share of those jobs." Since people of color are more likely to live far from available jobs and are less likely to have cars, Wiley says, "we must ensure that the way transportation dollars get spent go to transit ... to connect people who need jobs to the places where there are jobs."
I like that idea... except for the white male part, though I don't mind bein' a minority... I already am in my neighborhood called "tijuanita"... it'd make me feel at home.
But bein' unable to weild a shovel for the past two years since I broke my back and insurance didn't cover nothing and I didn't get "rehab" or physical therapy like the rich boyz do, I don't except the "stimulus" I or II will do much for me. Same as it ever was... the lowers get left out. Always have, always will.
Makes me wish I never had offspring. What a shithole I brought 'em inta.
It's fascinating and infuriating both to watch the onion of the owning class peeled away layer by layer in public view. Of course most of us "lowers" already knew the truth about the owning class and their myth-machine... hell most of us have suffered for decades under their oppressive cultural meme machines (the kool-aid) as well as their oppressive economics and class warfare. Reading the comments was entertaining too, and at times, just as irritating.
I have to wonder why we lowers are forced to go into bankruptcy, which only partially addresses what ails us (it never helps our income and never makes us whole or gives us a fresh start thanks to our being unjustly characterized as cheats by the owning class), but the rich folk just seem to get both a bail out and a pass... imagine that, different rules for different classes.
When Liddy was wailing before Congress today (or yesterday) about the death threats his people were getting, all I could think of was my irrascible grandma who used to say during a potato peelin' pause on the back porch, "If you don't wanna be punched in the face, don't punch others in the gut."
And, we lowers are having yet another deja vu as we did back in the runup to the illegal Iraq invasion six shitty years ago, we knew then the rich boyz were lying and cheatin' and gettin' ready to do some stealin'... then when the Bamabots were cooing their Messiah's praises we saw his picks and went, 'hold up wasn't that Geithner guy that asshole who did this and that?'
But for the owning class, we could have jobs, heath care and a country again. But they control everything and give each other passes while yet again plundering and pummelling us.... wonder how long before we git sick of being gut punched before we do some punching back... wanna see a rich boy's face bleed? I not so sure I don't anymore but I bet I'm gonna.
And all those Senators and Congressmen, in cahoots, who looked the other way while the entire financial business was being deregulated, should be called on the carpet too. Senators and Congressmen should have their terms in office limited too. This would certainly cut down on corruption - because this is what it boils down to: CORRUPTION!
Well, I think Goodman and others were just afraid of McCain getting in and felt that Obama was the best, most "electable" bet. I don't fault them. I wrestled with it myself but ended up writing in Kucinich and voting for Nader. There's still I chance I think with Obama though. He's not what I wanted, and he's done some good things, but none of it is enough. It's all mild, and he's got at least some foxes watching the chickens.
If we gave every person a job who was able to work, at a living comfortable wage, that alone would lift so many people out of poverty along with forgiving everyone's debt, among many other protocols. I don't know whay that's so hard or complicated. That's one reason why I'm not Obama's biggest fan. This guy is so intelligent and articulate yet he either can't see that or doesn't want to.
And let the bonuses be doled out. Just tax the living piss out of them!
Noting that "shovel-ready" stimulus jobs in construction will disproportionately favor those who are already in that industry, predominantly white males, Wiley is pushing for "community benefits agreements for construction jobs [that] ensure when the government has construction contracts, low-income people, people of color, women, are going to have their fair share of those jobs."
Um...so low income and white male are mutually exclusive? I think not. There are millions of poor white men in America, but "progressive" rhetoric marginalizes them and almost never addresses their problems.
I'm in my forties and have spent decades in the human rights, anti-nuclear and peace movements. I have come to the conclusion that progressive ideology is essentially anti-male, particularly anti-white male. White men are always described as priveleged and almost always as The Oppressor. This is bigotry pure and simple.
White working class males are in fact victims of our system. Progressive ideology has become clouded by "identity politics" and has lost its footing as the ideology of the Working Class.
Finally this ideology has come to dominate family court and social services. To the great detriment of the American Family
This is essentially a bias that arose when the Democratic Party was taken over by the McGovernites
President Obama promised several times quite loudly as a candidate that no one in the USA who makes $50,000 or less should pay taxes. Where is the law? I haven't seen it. Mr. President, if you can't keep any of your other promises like decent health care, at least keep this one for the people's decency!
"President Roosevelt was elected on November 8, 1932. People look upon an elected President as the President. This is January 1935. We are in our third year of the Roosevelt depression, with the conditions growing worse...
We must now become awakened! We must know the truth and speak the truth. There is no use to wait three more years. It is not Roosevelt or ruin; it is Roosevelt’s ruin.
Now, my friends, it makes no difference who is President or who is senator. America is for 125 million people and the unborn to come. We ran Mr. Roosevelt for the president of the United States because he promised to us by word of mouth and in writing:
1. That the size of the big man’s fortune would be reduced so as to give the masses at the bottom enough to wipe out all poverty; and
2. That the hours of labor would be so reduced that all would share in the work to be done and in consuming the abundance mankind produced.
Hundreds of words were used by Mr. Roosevelt to make these promises to the people, but they were made over and over again. He reiterated these pledges even after he took his oath as President. Summed up, what these promises meant was: “Share our wealth.”
... We have nothing more for which we should ask the Lord. He ahs allowed this land to have too much of everything that humanity needs.
So in this land of God’s abundance we propose laws, viz.:
The fortunes of the multimillionaires and billionaires shall be reduced so that no one persons shall own more than a few million dollars to the person. We would do this by a capital levy tax. On the first million that a man was worth, we would not impose any tax. We would say, “All right for your first million dollars, but after you get that rich you will have to start helping the balance of us.” So we would not levy and capital levy tax on the first million one owned. But on the second million a man owns, we would tax that 1 percent, so that every year the man owned the second million dollars he would be taxed $10,000. On the third million we would impose a tax of 2 percent. On the fourth million we would impose a tax of 4 percent. On the fifth million we would impose a tax of 16 percent. On the seventh million we would impose a tax of 32 percent. On the eighth million we would impose a tax of 64 percent ; and on all over the eight million we would impose a tax of 100 percent....
...What this would mean is tat the annual tax would bring the biggest fortune down to $3 or $4 million to the person because no one could pay taxes very long in the higher brackets. But $3 or $4 million is enough for any one person and his children and his children’s children. We cannot allow one to have more than that because it would not leave enough for the balance to have something....
...And now you have our program, none too big, none too little, but every man a king."
Senator Huey Long, 1935
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hueyplongshare.htm
PS. This solution would allow for paying off all US debt immediately upon becoming law.
Great stuff.
I may write in Huey Long at the next election.
why Ms Goodman! Are you implying that supporting Obama was the wrong thing for you to do? Are you telling us that your radio show could've exposed the preacher for what he is, a corporate fraud out to stab Americans in the back?
Why didn't you openly support either McKinney or Nader, who would both put a stop to these pornographic bailouts and bonuses? Now it's too late, honey, we're stuck with him for at least 4 years.
I don't recall Amy Goodman ever saying she was backing Obama. I watch her show every day and I've read her articles. I did hear her state that an Obama administration would be a better one than a McCain administration. But I think everyone can agree with that, myself included and I didn't vote for either candidate.
Ms. Goodman might not have officially endorsed Obama but it was pretty obvious that her show gave Obama a much more favorable coverage than the ones received by McKinney and Nader, who barely got any coverage at all. I listened to Democracy Now! daily last October and the bias was obvious. Shame on them for not promoting the only two honest candidates for president last election.
As for everyone on the left (I assume that's what you imply) agreeing that Obama's better than McCain, that's not true. With McCain as president we'd have a clear enemy in the White House, not a fuzzy one pretending to be our ally and fooling millions, doing exactly what McCain would and coming out smelling like a rose.
While the entire country is obsessed about a paltry $150 million in bonuses to the brightest sociopaths at AIG catch this story:
---------------------
Federal Reserve to Buy $1.2T in Bonds, Mortgage-Backed Securities
The Federal Reserve said today that it will deploy an additional $1.2 trillion to try to lower interest rates and stimulate the economy, an aggressive move aimed at containing the recession.
The central bank will increase its purchases of mortgage-backed securities by $750 billion, on top of a previously announced $500 billion. It also will double its purchases of debt in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to $200 billion. Those steps are intended to lower mortgage rates. The announcement of the previous purchases pushed mortgage rates down a full percentage point.
The Fed also said it will buy $300 billion in long-term Treasury bonds, a step it had previously considered but had been reluctant to act on. That move will lower long-term interest rates for the U.S. government directly and, Fed officials hope, will indirectly lower borrowing costs for businesses and individuals.
Full and unedited:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/40837
** This is on top of at least $2.2 TRILLION already dished out by the Fed to unknown recipients putting up unknown collateral.
The reason all the bailout money went to AIG is because they could then funnel it back to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley and Barclays and State Street - but the Federal Reserve isn't insisting on transparency. All told, something like 90% of the bailout money ($100 billion?) that went to AIG has been passed on to third parties - that is the real scandal.
Imagine what a $90 billion investment in U.S. infrastructure would do for job creation in the U.S. - or imagine a $90 billion investment in renewable energy. The corporate press (including Amy Goodman, who gets paid by private foundations set up by billionaire shareholders) is ignoring this larger scandal and focusing on the bonuses, which are about 1/500th the value of the AIG payouts to Goldman Sachs and the other architects of the subprime collapse.
This takes us back to Democracy Now itself, its genesis, and its funding sources, which are cloaked in secrecy - except that non-profit tax returns are now available on the web, as are private foundation blurbs.
For example, in 2006 DN! took in $3.9 million gross, $1.6 million of that in broadcast fees. That's a similar model to NPR, I believe. What about the rest of their support, roughly $2.3 million? That's not specified - just "external support".
Democracy Now! also made $2.3 million in grants itself in 2006 - a neat match to their support, which is typical for a group that funnels private foundation support to various projects - on the web, this is called "anonymous hosting" - not really true, as the server operator always has all the info.
The blatant case in point is the acceptance of a $150,000 grant by DN! from the Ford Foundation in 2005, the same year the ACLU turned down Ford Foundation funding over restrictions on "activities fomenting political unrest and terrorism" - a very broad brush. There are other secret foundations involved in the financing as well, most of them funded largely by billionaires who've gotten rich off of speculation on the markets and inflated dividends from their stock holdings.
Thus, DN!'s budget is comparable in size to that of right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation... and she just respins the corporate news for the public with a liberal flavor added. That's called propaganda, Ford Foundation style - they've been at it for decades.
Criticisms are well received when they are accurately posed. AIG is , or was, an insurance company. The monies paid out by them to many sources, including the ones you name and many overseas as well were paid as required by the insurance AIG wrote on those infernal mortgage based securities. AIG made fortunes insuring the risks banks took on those derivatives and now are stuck paying out the premiums.
There is much to be critical of, lets all try to remain accurate, shall we?
You are correct.
But, if AIG was not bailed out, if it had gone bankrupt, shut down, none of those monies would have been paid out.
Quite true, and banks and other financial institutions across this planet would have suffered and possibly toppled as well. What is your point?
The point is: Let them fail.
Much more than just an insurance company... but yes, let them fail as capitalists are supposed to do.
I wouldn't equate Amy Goodman or DN w/the financial-corporate pigs who run this global empire. I think that is too harsh. Amy does good work exposing political and economic corruption and has for some time now. You probably think Noam Chomsky and Ed S. Herman are members of the ruling elite as well.
By the way gunboatdiplomat, please supply us w/your sources of info that you site.
There are only two questions that matter; "How much?" and "Who says (How much)?"
All over the world, it doesn't matter.In China, London, at the bottom of a well or at 30,000 feet. It doesn't matter whether you are talking about soldiers, senators, dollars or turnips, it doesn't matter.
"How much?" Who says "How much?"
I'm much more outraged that the majority of bailout funds have gone to 'bail out' AIG banks which aren't even American. AIG doesn't need several European branches or South American branches. The paltry millions in bonuses are a drop in the bucket of the REAL THEFT.
The AIG bailout should only be for Americans! It's our money, or it was before it was stolen.
Close out the non-American parts of AIG. Sell them off. Bankrupt them. If the Europeans want to bailout AIG Europe, it's fine. US Taxpayers bailing out AIG Europe is NOT fine.
Are they too big to jail?
Gaol cells are rather small no room at all for a person and a big fat wallett
There is a lot of press lately decrying the AIG compensations. These pieces are worse than useless because they distract people into bickering about pseudo plans, which in reality are nothing but chaotic bungling, bungling which would be quite amusing were it not dragging us down the road to financial ruin. And with this financial ruin will come the political ruin and destruction of our society. NO JOKE, FOLKS!
AIG and all the other institutions which are unable to meet their financial obligations must be put through bankruptcy reorganization, along with the federal government and the governments of states like California. Basically, we have to (1) identify and protect the useful functions provided by these institutions and (2) help them meet their valid obligations to creditors in the degree compatible with (1). Any approach to the current financial crisis which does not include this process is destructive. Public officials who waffle on this do so because they fear a real exposure of our financial situation and of the people who created the mess. Both groups -- the public officials and their financier owners -- are the mortal enemies of the American people.
thank you, Amy.
this "outrage" over the bonuses may have un-intended consequences.
one of the congress-men at the hearing today asked Mr. Liddy whether he realized that a consequence of AIG's payment of "retention" bonuses might be that the next stimulus/bailout bill may fail?
by the way, mountainmike, these boys don't have to lie. mr. liddy explained away the issue of why folks who left received "retention" bonuses. he also gave a reasonable (from AIG's and wall street's point of view) explanation of why they went ahead and gave the bonuses. they still have 1.6 trillion $ in toxix assets to divest themselves of.
the great fear is that if they go into bankruptcy, those assets w'd not be worth the paper they're printed on. those hundreds of billions given to their partners on wall street (goldman sachs, etc) and overseas is meant to keep them from grabbing their "good assets" and pushing AIG over.
me? we (collectively) didn't get a taste, so i say: stop the bailouts and kick 'em over.
Senator Grassley's suggestion that the AIG executives go commit suicide is a far too mild and conciliatory gesture. Leave it to a Republican to offer them an easy way out.
That's good and your user name is fantastic!
Well, in Germany, in the thirties, 1% of the people owned 99% of all the wealth and it amused them to watch the 99% of the people scrabbling and fighting over the 1% left.
We're rapidly reaching the same point. God help us if another Hitler comes along and promises us a return to solvency if we'll just, unquestioningly, obey his advice! Perhaps he has.
"--1% of the people owned 99% of all the wealth and it amused them to watch the 99% of the people scrabbling and fighting over the 1% left."
That is about where we are now. The stats say that the top 5% owns 95% of the wealth...but, the top 1% own 99.9999% of that. The repuglicons under Bu$h started this, and, based on Obanma's "skill" at reconciling what Bu$h created, will finish their evil project in 2010. So...I reckon we are at the same place as Germany in the 30's, eh?
¿What say an economic Nuremberg 2 prior to the Bush League Nurember 2?
All in favor.....
The world turns around Mammon and all rulers turn to its highest priests for advice as science takes a back seat to religion.
The New York Times reported this morning that the AIG bonuses were about "...the company’s legal obligation to honor its employment contracts." What about the United Auto Workers who were laid off while others took cuts in pay and benefits? They had employment contracts too.
Obama is Calvin Coolidge.
Please read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, or people will remain thinking that the Presidents Chosen by Wolf Blitzer will change everything, and we-- as a species will devlove into quivering lime Jello, and not even cold quiverin
"Will the hundreds of millions of dollars in various stimulus packages and bailouts find its way to regular people who are trying to get by, or will it go only to corporations deemed "too big to fail," leaving behind millions of people who are, apparently, small enough to fail?"
I could here this sentence coming from a republican who is advocating tax cuts instead of bailouts. It becomes especially clear when Amy ends the piece with:
"It's time to direct the stimulus to the people who need it, to those whose tax dollars are funding it."
Sounds like an argument for a tax cut to me.
I am typing this while listening to news about all of those AIG executives receiving bonuses allegedly in order to keep them from leaving AIG. The news this morning is that 11 of them have already left. So we just caught AIG in a flat out lie.
I think about all of these sociopath loan sharks that got their bonuses this last Friday, and I have to think about the mansions they live in, the stretch limos they are cheuffered around in, the private jets, the yachts, etc... They are not hurting in this recession at all. In fact, they are exploiting our economic recession.
On the other hand, I have to think about the homeless tent city that has developed in Sacramento, California. They are not being bailed out. Approximately one third of the homeless are veterans. Many of the current homeless are the people that lost their homes and lost their jobs.
Yes, the gap is widening between what seems to be a permanent underclass inclulding the poor, working poor and homeless, and the billionaire super rich. Then I have to think about historically when this gap was so wide, and I have to think of the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette told the peasants they could eat the crumbs that fall off of the royal dinner table. The original "Trickle Down" economics? She and other super rich French royalty got their heads chopped off and mounted on pikes.
"Marie Antoinette told the peasants they could eat the crumbs that fall off of the royal dinner table. The original "Trickle Down" economics? She and other super rich French royalty got their heads chopped off and mounted on pikes."
You must consider the fact that during Marie Antoinette's day, they didn't have the mass propaganda intrument(S) of today's ruling class, i.e. American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopolis, etc., etc., the fucking TELEVISION SET, plus A.M. radio with Rushbufu, Vannity, O'Really, et al without a balancing voice!!!
Sorry...I supported Obama (sort of, in lieu of McCain/Palin), and I am willing to give him at least (but not much more) his 100 days. Howsumever...at this point in time, he appears to be another Bu$h with a different suit (or perhaps an empty suit???) THAT my friends ain't gonna cut the mustard, and at this point in time, given Obama's lack of support in stopping the GREATEST HEIST IN HISTORY, and given the fact that millions have lost most of their 401K or other retirement plans that they have contributed to for most if not all of their working lives (and Bu$h wanted to privatized Social Security?), 600,000 lost their jobs last month, hundreds of thousands of people have lost the roof over their heads, one in three of us are under some kind of judicial supervision or imprisoneed (mostly for non-violent drug offenses), and HE has failed to stop the bonuses for those who fucked us over in the first place, including some who stand to get over ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN BONUSES IN ADDITION TO THEIR MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SALARIES, he may be facing something that Bu$h should have, and previous presidents haven't. That something is not pretty, BUT, both conservatives and liberals now have something to unite on and fight for. That something is the continued existance of our coutry as an at least semi-free nation, but hopefully as a truly free nation. How do we do it? You decide.
Your picture is grim but not grim enough. America's collapsing and has passed the point of no return. It's the famous "chickens coming back to roost" that Rev. Wright was talking about. All those millions of lives that Americans destroyed by invading, bombing and overthrowing leaders of some 60 nations since Korea are coming back from the dead to claim justice.
It won't be pretty.
"I am typing this while listening to news about all of those AIG executives receiving bonuses allegedly in order to keep them from leaving AIG. The news this morning is that 11 of them have already left. So we just caught AIG in a flat out lie."
The fact that the bonus isn't 100% effective in retaining executives doesn't mean the reason offered was a "lie". Wise up.
Sacramento is the first, since it has relatively mild winters. When spring arrives you will see tent cities springing up in many northern cities.
The railroads will be hiring more railroad police to keep the homeless from riding freight trains.
Sioux Rose
MM: I get the same image (as related in your last paragraph) that you do.
Is there any further evidence required to recognize that America is less a "Christian" nation than one under thrall to Mars (military spending) and Mammon (bail out the bankers who do not "deserve" to fail). These are the twin temples that claim and command the lion's share of the nation's assets.
It's remarkable to me that the same ASSETS exist from the day before the collapse to the day after in terms of TANGIBLE items and elements like: homes, natural resources, and human talent/time/energy/resources. The only thing that has altered is the COUNT, the numerical system that measures these quantities through its own clandestine instruments. If the gamers of the system decided to add extra "zeroes" to the columns of illusory worth and these systems (numbers) are failing, then maybe a different fiscal COUNT is what is required, without everyone looking through the glass darkly at all that's been lost. What's essentially lost is a numbers GAME! We're being asked to examine this paradigm through smoke and mirrors since it lacks substantive parameters... so if anyone is due to pay dues it's the magicians who put the smoke and mirrors out there. Meanwhile, HONOR your daily bread and the roof over your head(s). Grace comes from an attitude of daily thanks-giving.
Right, there is no real equity behind a lot of those so-called 'instruments.' It's just that many of the wealthy bought into the fraud (they don't really care about the small investor), and want to maintain the illusion of value. Ironically, those that stand the lose the most can afford it!
Amy, Amy, Amy......Summers and Geithner along with Bernanke and Paulson were invitees to Bilderbeg Club Meetings......as Bill Clinton once said, "Yes, I attended a meeting , but, it was just a bunch of European Businessmen."
NOT!
So, why would Geithner continue to give funds to AIG when they were funneling some of those funds back to Goldman Sachs who was already getting bailout money from the U.S. Treasury? My answer: They are all in on the plans to bankrupt the United States and attend meetings like the Bilderberg Club to coordinate those plans.
When did AIG learn of the impending attacks of 9/11.....Yes, they were the insurer for Larry Silverstein, but resold the policy to other insurance companies before the attacks and did not lose a cent. The Greenberg Family (AIG) were also linked to the 2000 Election Supreme Court Case....
Amy, I read the other day that American Families had lost over 12 TRILLION DOLLARS so far....Let's say there are 100 million families in the United States, that comes out to $120,000 per family. But, 40% of Americans live below the poverty line and they didn't have any money to lose......So, how much money has each family really lost?
Amy, I dare you to describe the 99% of the people who are walking away with all the money!
The majority of the trillios skimmed from the financial systems around the globe is NOT lost. Only the last institutions and/or persons holding the various toxic "Hot Potatoes" lost out. Most of the loot is in various locales with secrecy banking laws hiding it.Now would be the time for the powerful US military machine to exert it's influence-said secrecy laws are at least temporarily declared null and void-the planet's economy-and very existence is at risk-full disclosure is demanded,or "War" would then indeed be apt for those who held out,US thiefs and foreign governments alike. Of course my plan would require patriotism from the MIC,so,what lies ahead for us? Open rebellion on a massive scale?
My allegiance is NOT to the US government or any other,it's to Nature and the 6th and 7th generations hence.
Unfortunately the people who ended up with all the loot own Congress and the commander-in-chief of the military (Obama), so don't expect Congress or the commander-in-chief to deploy the military against the people holding the loot.
The military is more likely to be deployed against you if you interfere with the flow of additional loot (bailout money from you and other victims, other wise known as US taxpayers) to the people holding the loot.
As Amy Goodman reveals the rich continue to get richer and the income gap between them and us gets wider. Let's help Presdent Obama bring the CHANGE he promised.
I agree w/Amy's analysis re/the income gap but I would not put my faith in Obama or any member of either wing of the US Business Party to rescue us. The people who are surrounding Obama are the same bunch of corporate/financial thugs who created this mess. To believe that they are somehow going to fix this in the interests of the people is ludicrous. They represent another class entirely and you and I -- the working class stiffs -- are not part of that.
What we need to do is organize from the bottom up and make clear to this administration that the same old policies of the past 30 yrs. will not stand. But unless this takes place Obama is going to remain exactly as he is -- a spokesperson for the ruling elites.
Until millions of suckers who showed up in DC for the inauguration return to DC and camp out in front of the white house until Obama quits painting and relabelling populist facades onto neocon and fascist programs and institutions, we will continue to see Obama pander to the bank robbers.
Geitner's talk about "supervision of financial firms that are too big to fail" at some future date indicates that he is barely thinking about dealing with symptoms and not thinking at all about dealing with the systemic problem caused by government enabling institutions to become too big to fail. The economic freefall will not stop until private investors have confidence that the governmment will break up the big firms until there are no firms too big to fail.
Obama assured us we needn't worry about Summers and Geithner's employment history.
They were working for him now and they'd be following his blueprint.
It appears, however, that Obama neglected to tell us his blueprint was exactly the same as theirs.
Yesterday we learned that Team Obama made the decision to LIE and blame the AIG bonuses on Senator Chris Dodd.
It was actually Dodd who tried to include legislation to PREVENT the bonuses.
Summers and Geithner threw a hissy fit when they saw their bank-robbing brethren wouldn't get compensation for destroying the world's economy.
That level of deceit is Karl Rove-grade porn.
You're doing a heckuva job Obama!
Yep, I was pretty skeptical of the whole deluded Oba-messiah movement all along.
We thought we knew and now we know that Obama more closely resembles Richard Daley and LBJ, than he resembles MLK, JFK, FDR or Lincoln.
The bonus scandal is minor compared to the trillion dollar unconditional financial industry bailout Obama told us needed to be rushed through last September. He told us that there was no time to impose conditions. 90% of US citizens opposed this bailout and now we are seeing the symptoms of this flawed legislation arising everywhere.
Sioux Rose
RAY: Great point. Just as MSM focuses on the latest pretty blond child to be kidnapped and gone missing, the media focuses on the bonuses because they are a paltry percentage of what's really been given away! It's disgusting, but it keeps average viewers from connecting the dots, getting a GENUINE sense of outrage for what this bank heist is actually about. Rightenous outrage is instead directed to point fingers at low hanging players (Madoff), or at generic bonuses that are chump change when compared to the phenomenal sums allocated, not unlike what has gone missing (and therefore unaccounted for) in Iraq. We are talking probably a net sum of 4 trillion in parallel debacles sponsored by Mars (military adventure in Iraq) and Mammon (underwriting losses at the temple tables of Wall Street's moneychangers). A nation of laws, what hubris!
In addition, having read the long article on torture posted today, that the officials sponsoring these joint debacles have the NERVE to point their fingers at so-called "evil" doers and torture the living s--t out of them, when THEY themselves are guilty of murder on a grand scale and a financial blow to the US (and via reverberations) world economy, wow... wait till this karma comes back around!