Indeed, as I have previously documented,
7 out of the 8 giant, money center banks went bankrupt in the 1980's
during the "Latin American Crisis", and the government's response was
to cover up their insolvency.
Black also says:
There has been no honest examination of the crisis because it would embarrass C.E.O.s and politicians . . .
Instead, the Treasury and the Fed are urging us not to examine the crisis and to believe that all will soon be well.
PhD economist Dean Baker made a similar point, lambasting
the Federal Reserve for blowing the bubble, and pointing out that those
who caused the disaster are trying to shift the focus as fast as they
can:
The current craze in DC policy circles is to create a "systematic risk regulator" to make sure that the country never experiences another economic crisis like the current one. This push is part of a cover-up of what really went wrong and does absolutely nothing to address the underlying problem that led to this financial and economic collapse.Baker also says:
"Instead of striving to uncover the truth, [Congress] may seek to conceal it" and tell banksters they're free to steal again.
***
Time Magazine called Tim Geithner a "con man" and the stress tests a "confidence game" because those tests were so inaccurate.
William Black said:How do you think we did the stress tests? Like doing a stress test on an airplane wing, but you don't actually have airplane wing. And don't know what airplane wing is made out of. It's a farce.
And see this.
And while stopping the rising tide of unemployment is key to reversing the financial crisis, the government hasn't done much at all to staunch the loss of jobs.For example, as I wrote last August:
The government has committed to give trillions to the financial industry. President Obama's stimulus bill was $787 billion, which is less than a tenth of the money pledged to the banks and the financial system. [106]
Of the $787 billion, little more than perhaps 10% has been spent as of this writing. [107]
The Government Accountability Office says that the $787 billion stimulus package is not being used for stimulus. [108] Instead, the states are in such dire financial straights that the stimulus money is instead being used to "cushion" state budgets, prevent teacher layoffs, make more Medicaid payments and head off other fiscal problems. So even the money which is actually earmarked to help the states stimulate their economies is not being used for that purpose.
Indeed, much of the $787 billion was earmarked pork [109], not for anything which could actually stimulate the economy. [110]
Mark Zandi - chief economist for Moody's - has calculated which stimulus programs give the most bang for the buck in terms of the economy:
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