Bad Bailout, aka Chuck Schumer Thinks You’re Stupid
This has me absolutely pissed. There is emerging evidence that we were all totally punked by Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson on the whole Wall St. Bailout. Not that I’m surprised, I was suspicious from the get-go, given that the Bush administration has a long history of acting in bad faith and self-interest.
As the Minneapolis Federal Reserve reports, the major claims about a credit crisis that justified Congress cutting a trillion-dollar blank check to Wall Street were demonstrably false. And new data and reports show they remain demonstrably false.
For instance, take a look at line 1 and line 5 of this December Federal Reserve report on bank lending. That’s right - you see no significant decrease in lending, and in some cases, an increase. Interbank lending has dropped some, but certainly not at the crisis levels the Bush administration and banks claimed.
Reuters and even the Wall Street Journal are reporting that the credit crunch is largely non-existent, with decreasing lending coming from companies wanting less credit as a result of the slowing economy.
So a trillion of our money has been handed over to banks based on trumped up, false evidence, with no strings attached. What can we do about it?
First thing’s first - we have to pressure, cajole, lambaste and downright humiliate Wall Street stooges on Capitol Hill who claim nothing can be done. These are people like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D). The recent subject of a scathing New York Times profile examining his complicity in the financial crisis, Schumer insisted to the Wall Street Journal that despite Congress’s clear power to reform - or even revoke - the bailout, “there’s not much we can do other than jawbone.” It’s the old Innocent Bystander Fable, designed to make us think Congress can do nothing other than keep forking over the money to campaign contributors. And it’s a straight-up lie.
Second, Congress can reject the Bush administration’s request to release the next $350 billion installment of no-strings-attached bailout money for Wall Street, if that request happens.
Third, Congress can add all the strings and oversight measures to the remaining money that bailout critics originally said were necessary. That means eliminating gaping loopholes in the executive pay limits; preventing the money from subsidizing shareholder dividends, forcing the government to buy voting shares of bank stock (rather than non-voting stock as it is doing today) so that regulators have the leverage to clean out bad bank management; following Britain’s lead in making the money contingent on increased lending; and expanding the ways the money can be used, so that it can be allocated to the real economy (ie. manufacturing companies, etc.).
I’m going to have to echo stlo7’s long-standing request to Schumer that he “knock it off and grow a set“. Time to call his office:
Phone: 202-224-6542
Fax: 202-228-3027
TDD: 202-224-0420
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If what you write is correct, George Bush really hates John McCain much more than I thought.
I mean Bush and cronies manufactured a financial system collapse in the middle of an election that McCain was winning, just to ensure that Obama beat the guy. Wow!
I can’t wait for you to reveal the real reason why Bush decided to save the Big Three.
L E G A C Y.
Feeble attempt mind you. Can you spell T O R T U R E ?
Balls rolling in the direction of a war crimes trial. We’ll find out the truth soon enough. Do you have the phone number to The Hague?
This March 2007 article is reappearing now that efforts are being escalated to push for proceedings as soon as the keys to the White House are out of his mitts:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/mar/18/20070318-121749-6686r/
[...] Bad Bailout, aka Chuck Schumer Thinks You’re Stupid [...]
That’s quite a leap from what I wrote. Whether or not the Bush administration “engineered” the collapse (or merely fumbled as it happened), my focus is on their response: write Wall St. a blank check, with no oversight.
The Dem leadership in congress is complicit in this, which is the thing that gets me. I expect bad faith from Bush & co. Why are the Dems not doing their job of oversight?