Dylan Ratigan Is Right

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan is a rare cool voice of common sense in a corporate-owned media circus. Listen to him: he's right.

"This is the very essence of the banking industry........to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt."
The International 2009

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The Sucker Punch

Here's a brisk statement of common horse-sense. Be sure & click on over & read the whole thing.

Bailout: The Sucker Punch
By Alyce Lomax
September 25, 2008
Motley Fool MSN

QUOTE I know many people are convinced that something akin to a financial apocalypse will occur if the $700 billion bailout isn't rammed through quickly.
Some major questions and issues about our socioeconomic situation are getting lost in all the panic and noise.
The big sucker punch On one side: "Save the banks; ask questions later." On the other: "But what about the poor homeowners, losing their homes?"
Although attention is being paid to "the taxpayer," I can't understand why more emphasis isn't put on the biggest victims of all, those poor suckers who:
Save money, even with no incentive to do so since interest rates are ridiculously low, and possibly don't even utilize credit card debt.
Rent and refused to buy overpriced homes with some cockamamie mortgage scheme, and have been waiting for a major price correction so they can achieve the American Dream the proper way.
I'm sorry, but they're really getting the shaft, even if their fiscal conservatism and cheapness just look so darn un-American to many people these days. You know, "the paradox of thrift" and all that. Add in runaway inflation from printing out money, and the potential for major tax increases to pay for our profligate ways, and these people are really getting the business.
The geniuses -- Wall Street and individuals -- who got us into this mess probably looked down their noses at these "infernal" savers and "cheapskates" for not tinkering with their own personal capital structures in a more sophisticated manner. Now they're trying to cheat those people out of affordable homes by making an artificial floor in the prices. Thanks, guys. UNQUOTE
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Joe Sixpack's Letter To Congress

A forum I frequent, Life After the Oil Crash, has the following excellent letter by member Joe-Bob Henry-Bob, to his congressional representatives posted over there. It explains things better than I could by a long shot. For your information:

QUOTE Dear (congresscritter),
There is one main reason that America has been a prosperous nation. Transparency. Both citizens and foreigners have devoted capital investment to our country over many decades because, simply put, we have rule of law and companies that want to do business in our country must tell the truth.

Consider a banana republic, in which accounting books are cooked, property is seized, markets are manipulated, currency is printed, and entire portions of the economy may be nationalized at any moment. Crooks tend to win out and the average citizen's wealth is destroyed. This is because they are not able to rationally plan for the future. ...so no one invests in such a country, as at any moment, one's hard-won wealth could be erased. Having a chance to rationally weigh the facts and make a sound judgment call allows wealth to be created. It is transparency that allows for prosperity and everything else we might want to achieve as a nation must stem from that.

Our current economic crisis is due to lack of transparency and a consequent absence of trust. Where once a person could make choices with one's money with some degree of confidence, this is no longer possible. Oversight and regulation were removed from our financial institutions. Our country's financial institutions are hiding liabilities and refusing to mark worthless "assets" to their market value and our Fed and Treasury are ASSISTING in this instead of stopping it! The entire system is seizing up because no one can trust anyone else. Moreover, if someone is attempting deceive me, if for instance they are trying to convince that something that is worth only $0.10 is actually worth $100 so that I will buy it they actually ARE trying to steal from me.

A lack of trust would be warranted! It is not merely a matter of "spin" or public "perception"

Please take steps to restore trust, transparency, and the rule of law in our nation.The Fed and Treasury have cooked up this 700 Billion bailout which can easily balloon to several times greater size, which will burden the taxpayers and benefit those who started the problem.

Moreover, their proposal contains this clause: "Section 8, ReviewDecisions by the Secretary 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."

Think about what that means. Regardless of whether they manage to keep this in the approved version.... THIS IS THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THE PROPOSAL WAS MADE!
Please take some time to review the following materials, at least the short youtube presentation.

It offers, briefly, a far superior solution to the most recent bailout. ...it is an alternative to what we've been doing so far - fruitlessly spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, nationalizing companies, and changing the rules of investment every week. That is NOT the rule of law, and it is NOT transparency. It leads to chaos.
Sincerely,
(joe-bob)
UNQUOTE

Please watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KYtD-Ff_eM&eurl=http://www.fedupusa.org/

http://www.denninger.net/letters/mortgage-mess.pdf

http://www.denninger.net/letters/2008-07-19-Lawmakers.pdf
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Hagel:Crisis Has Power to Eclipse the Great Depression

We're screwed.

OMAHA, Neb. - QUOTE U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel says urgent governmental action is needed to resolve the nation’s financial crisis, which he warns has the potential to eclipse the Great Depression.
The Nebraska Republican says the United States’ woes affect the rest of the world, so other countries need to shore up their finances. If not, Hagel says, there could be a global economic downturn. UNQUOTE

Ron Paul 18 September

You don't have to endorse everything Ron Paul says to understand that the man knows his monetary and economic policies. I used to love seeing small and medium sized competitors bashing it out with the big kahunas. These days you have so much national and global consolidation that it's almost impossible to compete with such companies.

They don't consider it a monopoly because these companies are buying companies in different sectors. Either way the system needs to be overhauled like, yesterday.

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Kucinich's Spin on The Sh*tstorm

Mr. Kucinich has an interesting idea. This is how the free market is suppose to work. This is what the neoconservatives wanted (in theory). When businesses do stupid and criminal things they are suppose to fail, and a company that does things right is left standing. That's a true free market. Of course the neocons don't even buy into their own economic theory - evidence that the uber-rich own this country.
From Op-Ed News.

QUOTE The Wall Street financial disaster is an opportunity to create a genuine ownership society. If Congress invests $700 billion in the market, then the American people must get something of real value for their investment.
"Simply purchasing bad debt, "cash for trash" and not receiving anything of value or giving $700 billion and not having a commensurate equity interest in Wall Street firms is unacceptable. No "cash for trash". UNQUOTE
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