Over 200 years ago, Thomas Paine wrote a treatise on government in which he said "a republic is supposed to be directed by certain fundamental principles of right and justice, from which there cannot, because there ought not to, be any deviation. (It) is executed by a select number of persons, who act as representatives, and in behalf of the whole, and who are supposed to (govern) as the people would do were they all assembled together....
When a people agree to form themselves into a republic (they) mutually resolve and pledge themselves to each other, rich and poor alike, to support this rule of equal justice among them....A republic, properly understood, is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will."
Since its founding, America was never governed by Paine's principles. Never less so or more disgracefully than under George Bush.
This article follows from an earlier one titled Grand Theft America. On the crime of the century. The greatest one ever. Unbridled excess gone awry. An economic system built on a foundation of greed and fraud. Threatening the country with insolvency and ruin. World economies with it. Plundering the national treasury to save it. Bailing out criminal bankers. Rewarding fraudsters with public funds. Making the world safe again for capital (or trying to) and heading it for an even greater calamity ahead. Maybe next time (or this one) one no financial engineering can fix.
An Update on the "Bailout": The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA)
EESA defrauds the public. Fleeces the treasury to reward criminal bankers. Arranged secretly behind closed doors. The $700 billion is just for starters. Another $150 billion was just added to it (discussed below). Trillions will be pilfered for this scheme. Millions of innocent people will suffer grievously. Crumbs at best are in it for them.
This goes way beyond a subprime crisis as author Ellen Brown explains. The real problem is a "black hole of ($180 trillion in bank-held) derivatives." If enough of them implode, so will world economies. The "bailout" and various other schemes hope to prevent it, but there's no guarantee anything will work. That's the real dilemma.
Public pronouncements about EESA were deceitful on their face. George Bush calling it a plan for Main Street, not Wall Street. Nancy Pelosi saying that "All of this was done in a way to insulate Main Street and everyday Americans from the crisis on Wall Street," and added: "The party is over. No longer will taxpayers be forced to bail out reckless investors." That's precisely what they're being forced to do.
Both presidential candidates endorse the plan and voted for it. Most party leaders as well. A bipartisan conspiracy to compound the fraud. Reward criminals with public money. Empower the Treasury secretary as a financial czar. With unlimited authority to dispense public money. Direct it as he wishes. Stipulate the terms. Conceal the plan's true purpose from the public. To save Wall Street and big banks. The entire financial system. Industrial capitalism in trouble. And make ordinary people pay for it.
The Senate passed EESA on October 1 - by a 74 - 25 vote. The same body that (on September 26) rejected a $56 billion stimulus plan that would have extended unemployment benefits, increased food aid, and funded new construction projects to create jobs at a time the economy is in a deepening recession.
After first rejecting EESA, the House reversed itself (263 - 171) on October 3. Global markets reacted convulsively. Plunging on September 29. Soaring the next day. Plunging again. Continuing the same volatile pattern begun last fall. From the crisis-level weakness of major banks worldwide and the effect on global economies. The possibility that nothing proposed will work. The likelihood that only mass worldwide infusions of public funds and recapitalizations have a chance.
Ignoring the core reason for the crisis. The extraordinary amount of criminal fraud. Rewarding and not prosecuting the fraudsters. Compounding the enormity of their crime. Looting the national treasury for it. Rejecting emergency measures with proven past success. Recapitalizing banks through government interest-bearing loans with guaranteed repayment provisions out of future profits. Temporarily nationalizing troubled banks. Letting governments take over weak ones until things stabilize. Restarting credit flows now frozen. Then designing a whole new system to replace the current failed one.
The present crisis shows industrial capitalism's failure. Financialization-based. Speculative finance. Frankenstein finance. Unfettered. Unregulated. Greed-based. Rewarding fraud and harming people. The government - business partnership behind it. The inevitability that nothing this pernicious is sustainable. The naked truth about an ugly system.
EESA's hidden details make the prima facie case. Besides add-ons, it's little different from its initial version. It:
-- directs the original $700 billion to Wall Street and big banks;
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.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
I think it will come to some good old fashioned socialism and 'nationalizing' the entire banking system, taking it temporarily out of the hands of the private consortium known as the "Federal Reserve" until such time as credit can be issued by the government and failed banks bailed out and a default on all derivatives. This will demand similar steps by other countries and take the world banking system temporarily out of the hands of the private bankers who are extorting money. There isn't even 180 trillion dollars worth of money in the entire world economic system, so that ridiculous amount of debt can't be allowed ot stand. I know it will cause economic dislocations, but the super rich need to be stripped of their ability to hold the world hostage. If those super rich are in other countries, we need to issue national rules taking out, for now, this numbers game and just nationalizing everything until the means of lending and borrowing can be recapitalized. We may have to declare national bankruptcy, like what Argentina did and what other countries do when they can't pay the debts they owe. The amounts run up by the derivatives scam are ridiculous and the world economy can't pay for this nonsense. The world bankers need to be cut down to size by each country and the losses brought to a reasonable level or else written off and the rich who invested in these schemes in whatever countries, should have their holdings nationalized for the common good.
The Iraq War borrowing, along with profligate borrowing for 30 years caused a lot of this as well as the derivatives. Bush and the neocons and any Democrats involved in setting up this system ought to be put on trial.
I think it will come to something like this because the turmoil will continue, and the bailout won't be enough to fix anything. It will just go on and on until the governments of the world each step in and nationalize their part of the banking system and a new system be agreed upon among all the major and minor nations (good luck getting agreement on anything from all these players). But I don't see any other way to 'fix' this. Am I wrong?
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JOHN LORENZ (23 articles, 117 quicklinks, 118 diaries, 313 comments [25 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Oct 6, 2008 at 8:10:47 AM
Bull! As long as we allow criminals to steal from us they will continue until there's nothing left. The're nothing wrong with some degree of libralism but you can liberal yourself to death if you are not equally vigilant and defensive.
by
PeterJ (16 articles, 3 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 236 comments [53 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:48:58 AM
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