US Nationalizes Banks, Candidates Talk Economy

US President George W Bush made the radical announcement on Tuesday of
the partial nationalization of 9 of the nations leading banks. With
the presidential candidates offering their solutions to deal with the
current financial meltdown. The Real News spoke to Mike Whitney,
columnist for Counterpunch.org. Mike Whitney feels that " neither
candidate shows that they really have any grasp of the situation as it
stands now"
. Barack Obama spoke in Ohio on Monday: "Today, I'm
also proposing a 3 month moratorium on foreclosures. If you're a bank
or a lender that is getting money from the rescue plan that passed
congress and your customers are making a good faith effort to make
their mortgage payments and renegotiate their mortgage, you will not be
able to foreclose on their home for 3 months."Obama also proposed
allowing people to withdraw up to 10 thousand dollars from their
retirement accounts without any penalty for the remainder of the year
and 2009.

John McCain made his announcement in Pennsylvania on Tuesday."On my
orders, the Department of the Treasury will guarantee one hundred
percent of all savings accounts for a period of six months. - I will
cut in half the capital gains tax on stocks purchased and held for more
than a year from a rate of 15 to 7.5 percent."

Whitney feels McCain's proposals are " not really creating any
innovations so far as policy" is concerned, and that Obama's "700
billion dollar bill (is) just the first installment on this bail out
(and) is essentially a tax on every man, woman and child in America of
$2000."

Whitney says that "wages aren't keeping pace with production" but
the Federal Reserve and the treasury would prefer people be indebted to
them than see people's wages increase. The only solution according to
Whitney is "wages have to increase so there is greater distribution to
strengthen the society."

You can find complete coverage of this story at our website: US Nationalizes Banks, Candidates Talk Economy