Politico:
In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department's mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night.
The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States.
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Anyone else see this as less and less as a bailout and more and more as a massive transfer of wealth between banking institutions, coordinated via the Bush administration? The banks we're talking about giving $700 billion to AREN'T EVEN INSOLVENT.
The CEO's/CFO's/COO's of those companies should be in JAIL, and Bush wants to give them millions in compensation out of taxpayer's pockets, before they head off to another cushy job, or their own private island?
As for giving compensation to foreign banks - BEFORE GIVING ANY HELP AT ALL TO THE US TAXPAYER FOOTING THIS BILL FOR CRIMINALS - even the SUGGESTION of complying with this should bring immediate jail sentences for everyone in the Bush administration who is compliant, and then impeachment and trial for treason and sedition.
EVERYONE - Republican AND Democrat, rich or poor - should be up in arms, because it not only shows an absolute lack of care or concern for not only EVERY US taxpayer, it strongly suggests that Bush et al are working for outside interests, namely international banks. All liability for the debt just got transferred from the banks directly to the taxpayer...that should tell you exactly where these crooks interests lie.
It is about time THE PEOPLE start pushing politicians - Republican AND Democrat - to explain to us EXACTLY WHERE ALL THIS MONEY IS GOING. And if they can't - or won't - show us, then we FIRE them and get us people who WILL, who do represent the
This man Paulson is out of his everloving mind if he thinks we are going to bail out the SWISS or CAYMAN ISLAND banks where everything is under the sheets.... If either system gave us 5 years of all of the activity, then maybe we might consider this...but then the profiteering would be out in the open and we don't want that do we....
Kevin Phillips and the Economist warned of all of this, this man is a charlatan.....and the sooner we clean them out of there the better... We can hold their feet to the fire before giving them another dime of taxpayer money.....
The shadow banking system is unravelling
By Nouriel Roubini
Published: September 21 2008 17:57 | Last updated: September 21 2008 17:57
Last week saw the demise of the shadow banking system that has been created over the past 20 years. Because of a greater regulation of banks, most financial intermediation in the past two decades has grown within this shadow system whose members are broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity groups, structured investment vehicles and conduits, money market funds and non-bank mortgage lenders.
Like banks, most members of this system borrow very short-term and in liquid ways, are more highly leveraged than banks (the exception being money market funds) and lend and invest into more illiquid and long-term instruments. Like banks, they carry the risk that an otherwise solvent but liquid institution may be subject to a self�fulfilling and destructive run on its �liquid liabilities.
But unlike banks, which are sheltered from the risk of a run " via deposit insurance and central banks" lender-of-last-resort liquidity " most members of the shadow system did not have access to these firewalls that �prevent runs.
A generalised run on these shadow banks started when the deleveraging after the asset bubble bust led to uncertainty about which institutions were solvent.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/622acc9e-87f1-11dd-b114-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
AW, HELL NO!!
WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE.
EVERYONE WHO READS THIS STORY NEEDS TO FORWARD IT ON TO OTHERS-
FOLKS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS!
NOW, I'LL GO GET THE TEA TO DUMP
Hell, all I need is $100,000 to erase my student loan debt. Where do I sign up for THAT?!
And I need at least 10% raise on my social security coming year to compensate for higher prices ....no more 2 ,3 , or even 4 percent raise anymore.
NO . NO . No . NO WAY> ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. ARE WE GOING MAD ? BIAL ME FIRST> Citizen.
No way! Absolutely not!!!! How can we do something about this other than writing to our congressmen?
Organize a bunch of friends, family, and complete strangers and go to Washington and protest?
I expect that there will be groups organizing protests on the Internet soon. Washington probably expects it, too.
No taxation without representation.
No.
Paulson created this monster while at Goldman Sachs
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/22/0152/90446/52/606082
Frankly, if there is a crisis that was brought about by the actions of individuals operating as leadership in companies, and the American people now need to "bail them out," then some people should be doing the perp walk. Seriously. McLameBrain says the SEC chair should be fired, which is scapegoating a public servant because he's a visible target. But where is the front page list with photos of the CEO, CFO, and COO of the banks and entities we're now expected to bailout? Bail is what you use to get out of jail. Those clowns should be going to jail, and we can then decide if we want to post bail.
The United States Government is capitalizing on a comprehensional failure of the human mind – the inability to fully grasp the magnitude of large numbers. Our brains interpret numbers beyond a few thousand as, “Wow, that’s a big number!” So, let’s start with a One Dollar Bill. We can understand $1.00, right?
The United States treasury states a One Dollar Bill has a thickness of 0.0043 inches. One thousand One Dollar Bills -- one thousand times thicker -- 4.3 inches.
One million is one thousand thousands, so the thickness of $1,000,000 is 4300 inches. Converted to feet is 358.3 feet, an American football field.
One billion -- $1,000,000,000 is one thousand times thicker still or 358,333.3 feet. This is 67.866 miles, the driving distance from New York City to Milford CT.
One Trillion is one thousand billions – one trillion One Dollar Bills stacked one on top of another is 67,866 miles. This would circumnavigate the globe 2.73 times.
The proposed 700 Billion Dollar bailout alone would be a stack of One Dollar Bills stretching 47,506.2 miles, or 1.90 times around the globe.
A stack of One Dollar Bills totaling the current national debt cap of 10.6 trillion dollars would go around the equator 28.93 times. The proposed cap of 11.3 trillion dollars would go around 30.85 times.
Is creating a debt that is the equivalent of a stack of One Dollar Bills rounding planet 31 times a responsible act?
Foreign banks included in bailout? For all the blathering after years of Reagan, Bushes, George Will, Fox, Trent Lott, all of them... after all these years of yapping hound noises about socilaist threat's to capitalism and America, especially when Dems suggest things such as insuring people like, oh, children, for them to sign on to this bailout calls them ALL out for raw hypocrisy. It's OK to spend unfathomable amounts money to protect the interests of entities at the top of the food chain. That's what their argument has always been about. This is just a naked example of their beliefs.
PHIL GRAMM - UBS
It's all about Phil 'emotional recession, whiney American' Gramm.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/218587.php
The New York Times reports this evening that "foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the [Wall Street bailout] plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic American mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as United States banks."
The Times further reports that two of the biggest foreign banks in need of such relief are Barclays and UBS. In fact, my understanding is that UBS is more on the line here than any other foreign bank.
Let's add this up.
John McCain's top economics advisor, who is widely believed to be his choice for Treasury Secretary, should he win in November, is former Sen. Phil Gramm. (Indeed, just last night his spokesman refused to say Gramm wouldn't be McCain's choice for Treasury Secretary.)
Gramm is both vice chairman of UBS's US division and a lobbyist for UBS.
If UBS successfully lobbied over the weekend to get in on the bailout, what was Gramm's role in the lobbying?
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First Posted: 09-21-08 09:27 AM | Updated: 10-22-08 05:12 AM