To Hell with Wall Street

If you give them the $700 billion, make them issue stock. Make every recipient of the bailout issue stock in return for our "investment." Don't give them the dough. Make them sell a stake in their companies. Banks, investment firms, insurance companies, you name it.

Put the money in accounts to fund Social Security.

Or, as my friend David said over dinner tonight, only give the money to small, local banks. Savings and loans. To rebuild the mortgage market on the local level. Borrow the money from a guy who lives in your town. To Hell with Wall Street. The current Wall Street. Why prop up a system that may soon devolve into Three Big Banks, only to watch one of those fold after the election?

Remember one of the most damning things about this government: they lie. All the time. There is likely more to come. And $700 billion will not cover it. So, they'll come back for more. A lot more.

Don't give them the money. Don't loan it. Make them sell us a piece of the action.

Comments

[sparklenshine]

08:02 PM on 10/15/2008

One problem is that we dont really know what agenda the asset management companies possess while they decide any financial institution's fate.

Another concern is that we have had so many catastrophies in such a short time - let's call Bush a "calamity Jane./George" that we dont know the difference between causes and symptoms anymore. A clever smoke screen devised by the Bush Administration, I must say.

Unfortunately we dont have a Dr. Frankenfurter to say "I'll remove the cause...but not the symptom."

[NYZA]

02:29 PM on 10/07/2008

Right on, they want something. they better give it back

Funny how the American people are the ones to bail them out, but assuming once things are good.. wheres our bail out?

[PapaJo]

03:05 PM on 10/06/2008

Hey Alec- Your comments and ideas are just right, they kinda awakened me up.
Well, I pulled out an old favorite album “The Royal Scam" by Steely Dan released back in 1976.
Must have listened to # 9 song in the Album (The Royal Scam" dozen times.)
The picture on the front cover of the Album tells it all “The hell with Wall Street"
Sky scrapers with blood suckers and cobras at the top. We wouldn’t be in a such a mess, If only the
lobbyist and supporters of the "SCAM" did seek and listen to the truth of the matter.
Guess too late now many will end up out in the cold and on a street bench, like the guy portrayed
in the picture of the album " The Royal Scam" by Steely Dan. Thanks keep up the good work.

Papa Jo

[eggcream]

11:25 PM on 10/05/2008

I love you Alec. You were GREAT on Bill Maher.
Why is it that there wasn't ONE person to stand up for the people that are flipping the bill for this Wall Street bullshit?
How stupid are the American people and how much more are we going to give to get NOTHING in return? [except the bill!]
I am so pissed that this billed passed yet WE THE PEOPLE were never included in the decision!
I'm disgusted with the status of this country and if McSame/Palin get elected it will be OUR FAULT and we will have no one else to blame for what will occur!!
One more thing, how come there has been NO MENTION of the amount of money Bush has pissed away on this war? Don't you think that has had A LOT to due with the economy tanking?
Peace to you and yours...

[libsechumanist]

11:05 PM on 10/05/2008

You said it, Alec. Give it to the little banks and shore the system up from the bottom up. Paulsen's friends will simply line their pockets with this money, too, as they did with all the other billions. They really think we're stupid, but since they keep getting away with it, why wouldn't they?

[kaski]

02:34 PM on 10/06/2008

Congress, which has the power to do so, must overturn the 1913 law that gave the Robber Barons control of our central banking system, the Federal Reserve. It is a privately owned banking corporation owned by families such as the Rockeffellers, Morgans, Warburgs... The Rothschilds basically took over our central banking system after our Revolutionary War thru their agents. Alexander Hamilton, the founding father of our current central banking system, owner of the Bank of New York and our first Treasurer, believed that our central banking system should be owned and operated by the rich elite and thus owning and controlling America and it's citizens thru debt owed them with interest. Many Presidents have known about this and some have tried to rid America of them and their strangle-hold on America, it's citizens, government, our foreign policies... Two of them were Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. I'll let you put two and two together. Woodrrow Wilson who signed the 1913 bill into law regretted doing so a few years later.
"The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed it's inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating." Thomas Jefferson
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance." James Madison

[racetoinfinity]

10:56 PM on 10/05/2008

After seeing the "60 Minutes" report tonight, I'd say that there are quite a few securities dealers and heads of failed large institutions that deserve prison time for tanking the U.S. economy.

[rox08el]

09:09 PM on 10/05/2008

As for mr. Alec Baldwin's suggestion of the government buying stocks of the institutions who opt for the handouts, Stock Injection, as proposed by several economists, actually got into the &700 B bailout proposal.

But, it is an option in the bill, and it is solely upto Mr. Paulson's discretion. Between the two choices, one, being the handout and, two, being the Stock Injection, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out which course Mr. Paulson is going to follow.

There are 600 plus lobbying groups for the banking industry with over a 1,000 lobbyists working for them. And that is how the Stock Injection ended up as an option in the bailout proposal.

Alas, there is no one lobbying for average citizens who fell victims of the wall street scams.

Who is lobbying for the 85 year old San Francisco widow who lost the home she had lived in for over 20 years because she refinanced (her 30-year fixed rate mortgage for a cash out to allow her to make some badly needed repairs, and did not realize that she had signed on to an adjustable rate mortgage with a teaser rate?).

I hope, together with people like Mr. Baldwin we will be able to generate enough consensus/signatures among the constituents so that the Stock Injection in the bill is changed from an Option into a Law.

[Nesdon]

12:58 PM on 10/06/2008

I sent this to everyone in my email contacts, please do the same.

"On Friday, just hours after the "rescue bill" was passed, Ira Glass, host of the wonderful This American Life, responded to a listener who had called on Ira, as the only media source he felt he could trust, to unravel the confusing and contradictory comments so rife in the press. Ira took the surprising step of devoting his whole program to analyze the issue in-depth, in a calm, balanced and rational way. It was one of the best pieces of journalism I have ever heard.

I too have a history with Ira and this program, and I too trust it to be honest and unflinching. I finally feel like a member of a well-informed citizenry on this, if you do too, please contact the Congress and urge them support the conclusion that Ira finally arrived at and demand that Secretary Paulson exercise the Stock Injection Option present in the bill.

Let us together make this Democracy work in the way it was designed to, and let our loud and legion voices drown out the din of the paid lobbyists who so selfishly and cynically helped to create this mess. Please pass this along to your contacts in your email folder as I have done. Join me, as e pluribus unum, in trying to reclaim the governance of our dear country from the dissemblers and burglars by which it has been beset."

[melpol]

07:36 PM on 10/05/2008

Fifty million Americans receiving social security retirement benefits fortunately will not directly be affected by the economic crisis. Their monthly checks will continue arriving while their bank accounts are insured by the FDIC. The presidential election has little meaning to a retired person under those safe circumstances. Both candidates despite their perception are middle of the roaders and will not interfere with the financially secure lives of old timers.

[Infokronea]

06:38 PM on 10/05/2008

I'd agree with this position 100% if everything involved in this situation was by the book. Mr. Baldwin’s observation’s are lucid and logical and based on sound business principles. But there is more going on here than meets the eye. In specific, look at the types of industries and concerns that put Bush and his McCain/Palin friendly associates into office. They are little more than a bunch of Cold War leftovers, most of whom forgot how to make an honest buck back in the 1950s. They simply cannot function without some form of corporate welfare…welfare Bush was more than happy to provide via deregulation, a bogus war in Iraq, corrupt intel (yes, I said corrupt intel…which is what you get when you outsource it), etc. Until we the people are willing to force Congress to move beyond this lucrative wallow they’ve made in this pile of Cold War excrement (that extra 100+ billion they added to the bailout was outrageous, was it not?), we will continue to find ourselves in financial difficulty, first from one sector, than another, until, like a people plagued by a swarm of hungry locusts, nothing remains. Nothing at all.

[sphinxy]

05:41 PM on 10/05/2008

Absolutely, Alec. Why is nobody else saying this! I've been saying it since the crisis started. They accepted the plan from Bush and spent weeks tweaking it. Did they consider some of the other much cleverer plans out there? NO! Well, it's a done deal now and we're screwed. That's that. Game over.

[NedLong]

05:27 PM on 10/05/2008

Alec Baldwin's 5-paragraph statement is the best thing I've read on the bailout, concise and with a real solution. It's so good that I swiped part of it to e-mail to my congresswoman, which didn't do a lot of good;
she must not appreciate good writing.

[LeeroyFDermit]

05:12 PM on 10/05/2008

We can't solve the problem if we don't understand the causes.

On issue after issue, every time I dig deeper and think for myself, I discover that government is the cause – not the cure, but if free markets are so great, then how have we come within days of another Great Depression? Is it really about free markets vs. regulation? Is it naked short sellers? How big a factor is consumer and business confidence? Do the media and politicians really understand economics? Could there be economic terrorism afoot?

I couldn’t stand it any longer. After a lengthy summer vacation, I had to resume my role as anonymous hero of the people. I had to find out WTF is going on, and the answers are not what you might think.

http://www.leeroyfdermit.com/2008/09/great-depression-of-2008.html

[duckfan00]

04:45 PM on 10/05/2008

The billions of dollars these Wall Street thieves have taken in bonuses the last ten years and as Alec says they now demand that taxpayers must bail them out....the greediest generation has struck again...they still insist on maintaining their positions and wealth...dont give them a dime....

[Binea]

03:51 PM on 10/05/2008

Ron Paul has been right all along..he's most likely correct now as well.Google "Campaign for liberty"
and see what he has to say about the vote.

[BandsofBlack]

04:16 PM on 10/05/2008

Except that Ron Paul wants to do away with the government and privatize everything just like these folks want to.

[lechatnoir]

03:38 PM on 10/05/2008

Alec Baldwin, you are dead on. Thank you for some well needed courage and common sense.