The Fleecing of America

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By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 2 of 11 page(s)

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-- directs the original $700 billion to Wall Street and big banks;

-- lets the Treasury buy unlimited amounts of junk assets (some worthless or close to it) but hold no more than $700 billion at one time; pay whatever prices it chooses; hold-to-maturity prices if it wishes for toxic waste;

-- includes whole mortgages in the program, not just securitized asset pools;

-- compounds fraud by rewarding it;

-- beyond tokenism and disingenuous rhetoric, provides no relief for beleaguered homeowners;

-- excludes a measure to allow bankruptcy judges to amend mortgage terms to help homeowners avoid foreclosure;

-- another one that would have allotted 20% of any government bank assets resale profit to a housing fund; set aside for the public;

-- also a bank-imposed fee to compensate the government for buying junk assets at inflated prices;

-- leaves executive compensation, golden parachutes, and lavish benefits unrestricted by inserting toothless provisions against them;

-- establishes a fake independent oversight panel consisting of the Treasury secretary, Fed chairman, SEC chairman, Federal Home Finance Agency director, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary;

-- an equally fraudulent Congressional Oversight Board composed of House and Senate leadership-chosen bankers and big investors - called "financial experts;" fraudsters to manage the "bailout;" business and government foxes in charge of the looting the national treasury;

-- includes a provision authorizing the SEC to suspend GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standards requiring mark-to-market valuations to let banks (on their balance sheets) carry toxic assets at purchased prices, not fair market value, and be able to conceal their losses; and

-- another providing tax breaks for companies holding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares.

The White House, Paulson and House and Senate leadership scrambled after EESA's defeat. Cobbled together a revised plan. Kept the original's core provisions unchanged, and added new ones:

-- temporarily (maybe permanently) increases FDIC insurance per account to $250,000;

-- lets FDIC borrow unlimited amounts from the Fed to protect against bank runs; thus exempts banks from paying premiums for additional deposit insurance;

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I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

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