Help us out by throwing some cash in the bucket:
Click here to read Hightower's personal message about
REAL CHANGE
(not small change)
Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television's yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street. Indeed, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, people voted for a fundamental break from Washington's 30-year push to enthrone a corporate kleptocracy.
bail out
I may sound prety naive here but, where does the government got all those millions, billions and trillions from; to give to these banks? Does it come from the workers, that doll 7/24/365?
Please help me understand.
Best Regards
-- posted by hansborg at 3:13pm, December 4, 2008
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THE BIGGEST BANK ROBBERY EVER
Most of the media and most Congress critters call the Bushites' gift to their pals on Wall Street the "$700 billion bailout."
That's a pretty big wad, but it's only the ante. There's also a secret bailout that Bloomberg News says has now topped $2 trillion! These are emergency rescue loans from U.S taxpayers that the Federal Reserve handed to America's biggest banks, investment firms, and insurance companies.
Which financial outfits got this money, and how much did each get? That's a secret, say the Bushites and the bankers. Well, what did the beneficiaries put up as collateral to protect taxpayers? None of your business, say the insiders. Excuse me, but that's our money.
Then there's Section 382. This is a tax-code provision passed by Congress 22 years ago banning a scam whereby big banks shunt their losing deals into dummy companies, then take over those companies and deduct the losses from their own taxable incomes. Good policy.
Now, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has unilaterally, autocratically, and illegally repealed Section 382. He didn't even inform Congress, much less consult with lawmakers, about his astonishing usurpation of power.
Hank wanted big banks to be able to use these tax shelters to finance their takeovers of smaller bank competitors, so he simply vetoed the congressional ban on such scams. Thus, when Wells Fargo took over Wachovia this year, it got Wachovia plus about $25 billion from Paulson's tax dodge. Over all, the 382 giveaway is expected to cost taxpayers another $140 billion.
This ever-more-odious bailout is the biggest bank robbery ever.