Dirty Secret Of The Bailout: 32 Words That None Dare Utter

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Paulson sounds so convincing. He WANTS oversight now. I am glad to see that he got savaged by Congress. Let's hope Sanity will Prevail.

Originally posted by yellowcard

Originally posted by tjack
I became very angry and rather frightened.
I began making preparations for myself and my family, getting us ready to "bug out" if necessary.
I oiled my guns.
Started gathering the essentials.
Purchased backpacks. Emergency rations.
She thanked me for caring about them (her, the kids) enough to make these preparations.

I think the Treasury plan is knee-jerk, but so was your reaction, people will profit from your fear one way or another. You were probably quite susceptible to such thinking...since you do have an ATS account.

[edit on 23-9-2008 by yellowcard]

You're painting me with a mighty broad brush there, since ATS to me is primarily a form of entertainment, but nevertheless, I do hope you're right. My wife, however, does not have an account, and she was freaked out as well, as well as every other level headed person I showed at work, so....ok.

Best case scenario, I now have proper camping/hiking gear just in time for my kids to be big enough to do that kind of thing, and I helped support a struggling economy along the way. SHTF, and that's covered too.
win, win.....win

edit to add:
This is also the last time I'll ever make one of those "I'm so ready because I blah blah blah" posts....man, I hate those guys! The reason I said anything at all was to help describe how CRAZY STUPID this whole deal is to me....there's a reason they call it "Conventional Wisdom" and it seems everyone elected to represent us is devoid of it.

[edit on 23-9-2008 by tjack]

Congress don't know how to do oversight, they expected it to be in the plan. What a joke, that is their job and they haven't been doing it then they whine when an oversight plan is not outlined for them. They need to roll up their sleeves and get busy instead of expecting the executive branch to do all the work for them.

The mother of all rip-offs

'Could there be a finer reward for failure?'
Michael West
September 24, 2008 - 8:31AM

Hank Paulson has got to be kidding. He wants American taxpayers to hand a cool $US700 billion ($840 billion) to his pals on Wall Street in return for a gigantic bundle of their delinquent assets ... without his pals taking a pay cut.

Could there be a finer reward for failure? Could there be a worse deal for taxpayers?

No stake in the upside, no ceiling on extortionate Wall Street salaries, no guarantee the system will be stabilised. Just the mother of all rip-offs: a deal to privatise Wall Street's profits and socialise its losses.

How about this bit: "Decisions by the (Treasury) Secretary (Paulson) pursuant to the Authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to Agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency''.

Paulson and his pals get an explicit protection against any review by the courts and Congress while taxpayers fork out top dollar for rubbish the banks can't sell. It is the quintessential dudding.

If the Paulson "cash for trash'' plan could avert systemic failure and this is by no means assured - it could have legs but Congress is jacking up at the ample "trust me'' element. And rightly so.

There is no reason to trust Wall Street, or the regulators. As House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, Congress would not "simply hand over a $US700 billion blank cheque to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome."

Until now Americans have been mostly apathetic when it came to the excesses of their investment banks. But now that Main Street is being asked to bail out Wall Street, again, and in huge measure, the temperature is rising.

Congress wants a brake on salaries, some kind of guarantee that Paulson's pals won't simply load up the truck with billions in bonuses again, this time funded by Ma and Pa Kettle.

The four biggest investment banks on Wall Street, which included Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, shelled out $US30 billion in bonuses last year. Lehman just went under and Bear Stearns was bailed out earlier in the year.

While pushing through his emergency deal, Paulson says he wants to defer the debate on salaries. Someone should take him aside and tell him, "Pal, it's over''. The moral and philosophical underpinning for $US50 million salaries is gone, let alone $US10 million salaries care of government.

These remuneration structures were struck on the basis of a compact with the market, that is that pay is "at risk'' and should reflect performance. That compact is finished. What is the risk if the losses are nationalised?

And what is the performance? The fancy deals and the structured finance rubbish brewed up by this crew gave the world CDOs, CDOs squared and cubed, RMBS, CLOs, ABS, CDS and all manner of noxious excuses for a fee.

From the sub-prime to the ridiculous, this orgy of leverage on leverage mimicked in financial centres as far afield as Australia has whipped the world to the edge of recession and destroyed faith in the entire system.

And now here is another $US1 trillion ($US700 billion is just for starters) to add to Bush's $US9.6 trillion national debt. Where will the money come from? The issue of Treasury bonds. Who will buy them?

Good question. Anyone for some bonds in an entity which can't pay off its debt but has just taken a trillion dollars worth of delinquent assets on its balance sheet?

The US dollar has been sinking thanks to the daunting prospect of a bond market deluged with bits of paper nobody wants: more US Government debt. The more paper on issue the lower the price.

Either the US defaults on its obligations an outcome many regard as "unthinkable'' or taxes will have to go up. Higher taxes, deeper recession. Thanks Wall Street.

All this makes it critical that Paulson and his pals demonstrate to the world that they understand the jig is up. The world changes.

People and pay are central to this understanding. Industrialists or entrepreneurs with their own businesses can pay whatever they like but the failed managers of licensed institutions on corporate welfare can hardly expect a blank cheque from those they have blown up. The contract is finished. Wall Street has not fulfilled its obligations.

As Paulson tries to shove his plan through in the face of congressional opposition the rewards for failure have already shamed the principal of pay for performance.

Fannie Mae boss Daniel Mudd and his opposite number at Freddie Mac, Richard Syron, walked last month with $US9.43 million in retirement and pension benefits on their way out the door. Failed, sacked and showered with money as their two giant mortgage operations were nationalised.

Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Richard Fuld picked up $US22 million for 2007, the year thousands of his staff found themselves on the street. He took $US35 million the year before.

Merrill Lynch boss John Thain took a $US200 million payout with two offsiders for less than a year's work. Merrill was so close to obsolescence it sold itself to Bank of America for $US50 billion in scrip few days ago just as Lehman was biting the dust.

Thain was given a $US15 million bonus for signing on. Two former Goldman Sachs executives hired by Thain may do even better. Head of global trading, Thomas Montag, has already received a $US39 million bonus since signing on in August. With stock options accelerated by the buyout, he could finish up with $US76 million.

The bank's head of strategy, Peter Kraus, was bestowed with a $US95 million package just to beat what he was on at Goldman.

Paulson himself has shares in Goldman whose value was estimated at $US700 million. He is a direct beneficiary of his own bail-out proposal blind trust or no blind trust.

On the positive news front, the former head of broken insurance company AIG, Robert Willumstad, voluntarily forfeited a $US22 million severance package after he was giving his marching orders. He was only appointed in June.

"I prefer not to receive severance while shareholders and employees have lost considerable value in their AIG shares," wrote Willumstad in an email to his successor Edward Liddy.

Goldman boss Lloyd Blanfein took home $US54 million last year and Morgan Stanley's John Mack $US42 million.

cont'd below

source


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[edit on 9/23/2008 by Hal9000]

Goldman boss Lloyd Blanfein took home $US54 million last year and Morgan Stanley's John Mack $US42 million.

The list goes on. Some of the investment bank's hedge funds clients have even been paying themselves more than $US1 billion.

Regulatory oversight and the ramifications of Bush's tax-cuts-for-the-rich policy alongside his catastrophic jaunt in Iraq have come home to roost.

On top of its $US9.6 trillion national debt, America is heading for its first $US1 trillion deficit this year. Paulson's bailout will add another $US1 trillion to the bill.

America is in trouble.

source

[edit on 2008-9-23 by primamateria]

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[edit on 9/23/2008 by Hal9000]

Here's a little nugget I found that came out of the mouth of White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto.

White House Dispatches Team to Push Economic Bill

The White House today is drumming up extraordinary pressure on Congress to approve its plan to enact a $700 billion mortgage bailout fund, suggesting the markets cannot wait much longer and dispatching Vice President Cheney and other top officials up Pennsylvania Avenue to jawbone lawmakers.
******SKIP******
Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.

They have been planning this for months?

They knew this was going to happen and just let it happen, planning on giving them these billions of US taxpayers money!

Thieves!

[edit on 9/23/2008 by Keyhole]

Keep running across articles that just make this whole deal worse!

Bush Backs Unlimited Compensation For Disgraced CEOs: Now Is Not The Time For ‘Punitive Measures’»

Today, the White House released a statement criticizing Congress’s potential plan to limit CEO compensation at the companies the federal government is bailing out, firmly standing against any “punitive measures”:

We certainly understand and are sympathetic to the sentiment regarding the pay of CEOs and senior management of these firms, but we have to focus on the problem, and the problem is that we need these firms to participate in the program and sell us this debt. Having punitive measures would provide a disincentive for firms to participate, and that would make the program much less likely to succeed.

So, we have to pay off the CEO's to get their debt?

I thought this $700 billion was bailing them out of financial ruin!

President Bush also released another statement earlier today warning Congress against inserting any “unrelated provisions” — such as help for struggling homeowners — in the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Now isn't the struggling homeowners and the struggling, thieving lenders issues all related.

In short, the Bush administration wants zero punishment for these wreckless CEOs who lost shareholder money and are now costing each person in the United States $2,000.

I just can't believe the complete arrogance of this administration!

This is sickening.

The news media MUST bear a portion of the moral burden for this. They maintained and capitalized on the illusion that they are journalists. America was led to believe it still had a "press", entwined within the true structure of our nation.

Instead, the media joined hands with the very demons that preyed upon America like a crime family of old.

The lion's share of course belongs with all those who lied while taking their oath to protect us and our Constitutional form of government.

But all of this does not change the position we find ourselves in today. Except maybe one of them will be overcome by guilt someday and bear the sins of his or her comrades into the light of day. Right. That'll happen.

Do we really need them to do this to save the economy for us? I think they need this economy more than we do. These are the people that have never walked into a grocery store to buy their own groceries. We can survive without an economy...they can't.

Damn I'd hate to be you guys with this rubbish being put though... it's a never ending story isn't it, yet it's not a fun one.

What can you do? Congress/etc doesn't listen to you. Emails do nothing...

The 2nd amendment however does.... hint hint.

Funniest thing about this thread is the fact that yellowcard and section8 are in here trying their usual rubbish. They are ALWAYS in threads that involve some government mythology vs the real truth. Funny that.... and painfully obvious for anyone who can put two and two together.

DD – I was as outraged as anyone over this when I first read of it yesterday and emailed my senate and congress representatives for the first time in my life to voice my anger. I was also more than pleased to hear the senate’s response during today’s meeting on the. There were several mentions of the lack of oversight and rule of law clauses outlined here. Sounds like they won’t go unanswered. I was also happy to hear one of the representatives (Ohio I think) speak plainly about the public response to the plan and point blank asking Paulson and Bernanke if Wall Street owed the American people an apology. I say make as much noise with your reps as possible for whatever it’s worth.

Originally posted by Keyhole
Here's a little nugget I found that came out of the mouth of White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto.

White House Dispatches Team to Push Economic Bill

The White House today is drumming up extraordinary pressure on Congress to approve its plan to enact a $700 billion mortgage bailout fund, suggesting the markets cannot wait much longer and dispatching Vice President Cheney and other top officials up Pennsylvania Avenue to jawbone lawmakers.
******SKIP******
Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.

They have been planning this for months?

They knew this was going to happen and just let it happen, planning on giving them these billions of US taxpayers money!

Thieves!

[edit on 9/23/2008 by Keyhole]

Oh MAN ! This is exactly what has been speculated...this bill was sitting in a drawer somewhere collecting dust until the time was right. I can't believe that GW is putting "extraordinary pressure" on Congress when this bill had already been drafted. Think about the mindset of these jokers waiting until everything tanked last week, then to pull this bill out of their a$$#@ and "ride to the rescue". Disgusting.

This is insane. I 'm going to bed.

BTW - great find man

Originally posted by Maxmars
This is sickening.

The news media MUST bear a portion of the moral burden for this. They maintained and capitalized on the illusion that they are journalists. America was led to believe it still had a "press", entwined within the true structure of our nation.

Instead, the media joined hands with the very demons that preyed upon America like a crime family of old.

The lion's share of course belongs with all those who lied while taking their oath to protect us and our Constitutional form of government.

But all of this does not change the position we find ourselves in today. Except maybe one of them will be overcome by guilt someday and bear the sins of his or her comrades into the light of day. Right. That'll happen.

THAT is indeed true the media are corporate/financial mouthpieces

very biased toward there "master's side"

it would be like having the jury (audience) only getting to here one side respond in a trial over and over and eventually you may just believe them, especially when the jury (audience) doesn't REALIZE they are BIASED!!!

oh and one senator took issue with this (section 8 of the bailout) i don't recall who this was, but CNBC immediately stopped broadcasting the interview and that cute chick started talking about something else. I watch the MSM finanical news for entertainment, i come to ATS for some critical thought stimulation.

So now I read that these companies are FINALLY being investigated
for FRAUD by the FBI. Thank goodness. This whole bailout/rescue
package smells of SCAM. Companies get in trouble, file for bank-
ruptcy and reorganize all the time. (United Airlines, Chrysler, etc.)

Is this a BIG DEAL with the media and the government because
of the large amount of money controlled by these entities? I talk
to a lot of people in my sales career every day, yet virtually none
of them understand the implications for the average family if these
institutions have to file for bankruptcy and then reorganize.

Is it worse for the taxpayers (you and me) to pay more in taxes
because of the bailout, or is it worse for us if the government does
nothing, (as Ron Paul suggests) and just let things work themselves
out? After all, there are plants that need to be pruned back so they
will grow better and stronger.

I suppose we don't have to worry about Social Security / Medicare
going broke down the road since the government can always find
money when it's needed, just as this banking/insurance/mortgage
debacle is demonstrating. Right?

THE FIRST OF THE TWO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WHO PUBLICALLY
COMES OUT AGAINST THIS BAILOUT WILL GET MY VOTE. This is now
the biggest issue of the election..or soon will be when the common person
figures out what this TRILLION DOLLAR gorilla will do to their family!

.

[edit on 23-9-2008 by carewemust]

carewemust: Ron Paul is against the bailout. Remember, you can still write him in for President. The two candidates are NOT the only choice.

Originally posted by Brittany
carewemust: Ron Paul is against the bailout. Remember, you can still write him in for President. The two candidates are NOT the only choice.

I will gladly write in Ron Paul if Obama or McCain don't come out
against this insane rescue-bailout madness. I'll give them until
midnight Friday 09/26/2008. After that, I'm committing to Ron Paul.
He won't win, but I'd be proud of myself for not voting for ostriches
who head their heads in a hole in the ground during a critical moment
in American history.

Persons all around the world are in shock.

They see this for what it is.

A coup.

They are in shock and awe.

Has America forgotten the meaning of freedom? Have they forgotten that they have friends who would stand for liberty and justice for all?

America is not alone.

I for one love her deeply although I am not a citizen.

And I have heard the voices of hundreds of others who love America who are not citizens.

My prayer as well as my action are for you.
God Bless America.

I understand that putting 700 bil dollars into the system would hopefully bring it back up but why give the secretary of treasury a ton of power? If you think of it from a non-conspiring sense it doesn't make sense, or did I miss something? I want to hear the reason that the Bush administration gave before I decide its totally wacko and needs some seriously paranoid fretting. lol

[edit on 24-9-2008 by MoothyKnight]

Well..this alone should be reason enough SERIOUSLY QUESTION this administrations actions concerning this 'leave no banker behind' bill.

The Bush administration's initiative to bail out banks was welcomed yesterday by the finance ministers and central banks in the G8 group of leading industrial countries.

Irishtimes.com