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I'm listening to Steny Hoyer give his speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He wants to "save that economy, save the dreams of our fellow citizens." It sounds so high minded, but it is still a swindle.
The ultimate proof will be if the bill passes and still they have not solved the underlying problem.
Predatory loans (ARMs) were given to people with shaky credit, in middle America where everyone's financial circumstances are pressured by contemporary economic challenges.
If they cared to fix the problem they would declare a moratorium on post-reset foreclosures where an owner-occupied house is the basis of an ARM.
It would also be well to declare a moratorium on resets, period. I happen to feel that all credit ought to be fixed-rate, and that there should be no teaser rates or teaser payments that are the advertising gimmicks by which borrowers get sucked into these loans.
To the extent that $700 billion is needed, it should be used to buy the houses and then to refinance them, placing them back in the hands of the owners who occupy them, with fixed-rate mortgages.
This is not my understanding of how the Bailout bill ("the Mug America Act of 2008," as I've nicknamed it) goes. Instead of buying the houses, I understand that they are buying financial instruments such as derivatives.
These are pieces of paper created on Wall Street and traded there. The Mug America Act is of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. We already know that Wall Street is basically a casino.
Hence, I can and I do stand by my earlier note that this Bailout is of the swindlers, by the swindlers, and for the swindlers.
By now, Hoyer has finished his speech and Pelosi is giving hers, hemming and hawing to urge passage of the bill. That means that I can and I do stand by my endorsement of Cindy Sheehan for Congress in the district that is now held by Pelosi.
Earlier, my Sheehan endorsement was contingent upon Pelosi being "in on" promulgating this legislation. She has met the bar of that contingency, and so not a thing is contingent about my endorsement for Cindy Sheehan.
Go Cindy! :-)
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