"There are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America - middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington's command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a president." --Presidential Candidate John Edwards, 2004
So the banks got themselves into a mess with irresponsible lending, reckless leverage, a raft of shadowy unregulated securities, and equal measures of good old fashioned greed and fraud. They then got a massive bailout in both direct cash infusions, insurance payoffs, and generous support from Fed programs like TAFT, TALF and god knows what else. And it wasn't enough. After a commitment of more dollars than all past American national wars, the banks were still in a hole so deep that no one could fathom its true depths. So we told them to simply change all their accounting rules and re-value all the toxic "assets" at peak boom time levels. No more "mark-to-market." Who needs it now? The free market is dead and toe tagged. Let's pretend all the banks are still solvent and use these bailouts and accounting tricks to claim they have just logged some nice fat profits. This will sucker more money into the stock market, right?
Meanwhile, in that other America John Edwards was talking about foreclosure rates and unemployment hit all time highs--and the numbers reported are just a part of the real truth. The banks are holding over half a million more homes that are destined to fall into foreclosure, foot dragging the process for their own devious reasons, and the unemployment numbers don't count people who have given up trying to find jobs--by the millions. The official stats are fudged so bad they are really just another level of delusion, like the banks accounting tricks. But on the streets people know the real truth--stores closing, homes lost, jobs lost, bills mounting up, and many struggle just to feed themselves now.
The banks needed help? Why didn't the government just give the bailout bucks to the American people? It would have paid off every credit card and car loan, and brought every mortgage current in the nation. Every American would have a clean start, being out from under the usurious debt loads they have been carrying. The bailout bucks would have ended up getting deposited in the banks, right? Only this way the American people, who provided the money, would have had first use of the dollars to better their own condition and relieve their debt. Once done, we just turn off the credit card game altogether, by a mandate of law, so we never go to that debt hell again. With all their debt retired, the monthly income of people would have been freed up to keep spending levels high--though this time it is all cash and carry, no credit. Do you think we'd be mired in recession if the bailout had been given to the American people instead of the banks? As it stands now the money just seemed to vanish into a black hole. No one can really account for it all. No audits are allowed.
Yes, snooty economists will look at a suggestion such as this and talk about inflation and all--but they won't talk about the$500 trillion in securities, derivatives, and swaps floating around out there, all a creations of the banks. What really happened? We got a check for $300 from Uncle Sam, and then a bill for over $30,000 each to fund the bank bailout that produced little more than a false front of "profitability" that is nothing more than a lie. Nothing has changed. The big banks remain insolvent, and anyone who looks at the economy with any honesty will see there are really no "green shoots" either. We still have our two Americas, one getting richer, getting its way in anything it desires, the other getting poorer, getting left behind, and the people seem unready or unwilling to do anything about it.
"This is the way the world ends...not with a bang, but a whimper."
So the banks got themselves into a mess with irresponsible lending, reckless leverage, a raft of shadowy unregulated securities, and equal measures of good old fashioned greed and fraud. They then got a massive bailout in both direct cash infusions, insurance payoffs, and generous support from Fed programs like TAFT, TALF and god knows what else. And it wasn't enough. After a commitment of more dollars than all past American national wars, the banks were still in a hole so deep that no one could fathom its true depths. So we told them to simply change all their accounting rules and re-value all the toxic "assets" at peak boom time levels. No more "mark-to-market." Who needs it now? The free market is dead and toe tagged. Let's pretend all the banks are still solvent and use these bailouts and accounting tricks to claim they have just logged some nice fat profits. This will sucker more money into the stock market, right?
Meanwhile, in that other America John Edwards was talking about foreclosure rates and unemployment hit all time highs--and the numbers reported are just a part of the real truth. The banks are holding over half a million more homes that are destined to fall into foreclosure, foot dragging the process for their own devious reasons, and the unemployment numbers don't count people who have given up trying to find jobs--by the millions. The official stats are fudged so bad they are really just another level of delusion, like the banks accounting tricks. But on the streets people know the real truth--stores closing, homes lost, jobs lost, bills mounting up, and many struggle just to feed themselves now.
The banks needed help? Why didn't the government just give the bailout bucks to the American people? It would have paid off every credit card and car loan, and brought every mortgage current in the nation. Every American would have a clean start, being out from under the usurious debt loads they have been carrying. The bailout bucks would have ended up getting deposited in the banks, right? Only this way the American people, who provided the money, would have had first use of the dollars to better their own condition and relieve their debt. Once done, we just turn off the credit card game altogether, by a mandate of law, so we never go to that debt hell again. With all their debt retired, the monthly income of people would have been freed up to keep spending levels high--though this time it is all cash and carry, no credit. Do you think we'd be mired in recession if the bailout had been given to the American people instead of the banks? As it stands now the money just seemed to vanish into a black hole. No one can really account for it all. No audits are allowed.
Yes, snooty economists will look at a suggestion such as this and talk about inflation and all--but they won't talk about the$500 trillion in securities, derivatives, and swaps floating around out there, all a creations of the banks. What really happened? We got a check for $300 from Uncle Sam, and then a bill for over $30,000 each to fund the bank bailout that produced little more than a false front of "profitability" that is nothing more than a lie. Nothing has changed. The big banks remain insolvent, and anyone who looks at the economy with any honesty will see there are really no "green shoots" either. We still have our two Americas, one getting richer, getting its way in anything it desires, the other getting poorer, getting left behind, and the people seem unready or unwilling to do anything about it.
"This is the way the world ends...not with a bang, but a whimper."
