According to Bloomberg News, stocks lost $1.2 trillion in value, meaning the market loss was larger than the size of the $700 billion bailout.
Paulson’s $700 billion boondoggle
How did Treasury Secretary Paulson figure out that recapitalizing the banking system would cost $700 billion? Or did he just estimate the amount of money that could be loaded on the back of the Treasury’s flatbed truck when it sputters off to shower his buddies at G-Sax with freshly minted greenbacks? The point is that Paulson’s calculations were not assisted by any economists at all, and they cannot be trusted. It is a purely arbitrary, “back of the envelope” type figuring.
According to Bloomberg: Swiss investor Marc Faber, known for a long track record of good calls, believes the damage may come to $5 trillion: “Marc Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd. in Hong Kong, said the U.S. government’s rescue package for the financial system may require as much as $5 trillion, seven times the amount Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has requested . . .
“’The $700 billion is really nothing,’ Faber said in a television interview. ‘The treasury is just giving out this figure when the end figure may be $5 trillion.’” (Bloomberg News)
Trouble in Banktopia: The financial system is blowing up
Fed games: we're being played like a fiddle, this is a manufactured financial crisis to transfer more wealth from the middleclass taxpayers to the few wealthy:
Special commentary by Big Dan: "When you lose your job, you get to keep 1 of your 4 weekly unemployment checks per month, before your unemployment runs out. 2 go to COBRA to continue your health benefits because your employer is no longer paying for it, 1 goes to tax because Ronald Reagan started taxing unemployment, and you keep one. And the one you get to keep is a cut in pay from what you were making at your job. Job loss and medical problems are why people are losing their homes, they're not "deadbeats" like the Republicans want you to think, and how come the Democrats aren't saying this? And don't fall for this BULLSHIT that bailing out the banksters is helping YOU! They're LYING to you! Haven't you seen enough LIES from all of these crooks to detect it yet?"
Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.
This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!
Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.
read entire Michael Moore article
Democrats throw the little guy under the bus with their "compromises"…THANKS A LOT, DEMOCRATS!!!
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: This is a copy of the bill which will provide for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. It has provisions in it where it talks about helping homeowners, but when you read the fine print, you see it has language like “may” instead of “shall” and “encouraging” instead of “mandating” help for the millions of homeowners who are worried right now about whether they’re going to lose their home. There’s no help for them in this.
So what we have here is a rescue plan that essentially gives all the speculators a bailout and puts the bad debts in the custody of the government. The president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank has said that this plan could create a fiscal chasm, says that the problem isn’t tight monetary policy, it’s the reckless behavior of some of these investors who have now found themselves in a position where a government bailout is going to help reward their bad behavior.
“Is this the United States Congress or the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs?” Rep. Dennis Kucinich Rejects $700 Billion Bailout
FDR in 1933: "There Must Be a Strict Supervision of All Banking and Credits and Investments. There Must Be an End to Speculation with Other People's Money."Kucinich on the bailout and FDR pulling the country out of the Great Depression:
With All Eyes on the Bailout, House Passes Trillion-Dollar Defense Bill (see the pie chart below; we're spending more than half our federal budget on WAR!!!
What did McCain say in the debate?
During the debate, Obama referenced President Bush ten times. McCain never said Bush’s name. When asked about the economic crisis, John McCain called for a sweeping spending freeze.
Sen. John McCain: “How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.”
Jim Lehrer: “Spending freeze?”
McCain: “I think we ought to seriously consider, with the exceptions of caring for our veterans, national defense and several other vital issues.”
When McCain said he'd freeze spending...except for the military, look at the pie chart above! That's more than half the budget anyway! The Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned about!
Arsenal of Hypocrisy; you'll only see programming like this on DISH channel 9415 Free Speech TV:
