Why Should We Pay for All the Bad Loans of All the Banks in the World?

There are three unconscionable parts of this federal bailout plan.

1. It now includes not just US banks, but nearly all of the major international banks. Why should the United States taxpayer single-handedly pay off all of these bad loans? If these foreign banks want our help, they should ask their governments to chip in. No deal until they do.

2. The lobbyists have already gotten their claws into this and the bill has been expanded from bad mortgage assets to all of their bad loans. That's insane. Wall Street is about to dump every bad mistake they have made in our lap and run for the hills. I guarantee you all of these companies, and the executives running them, will be back to making a tremendous amount of money very shortly. But we'll be stuck with their "toxic assets." This should be our response to this proposal -- Hell no!

3. The executives of these failed companies still want to make millions of dollars upon their exits from the companies they sunk. They're threatening not to play ball if they don't get to keep their millions. Great, go away. Deal with your own mess in your own way then.

They are in no position to threaten us. They're the ones coming for the bailout. If the Republicans want to make a stand on this issue, be our guest. Make our day. Please argue that these failed CEOs should get tens of millions of dollars as we spend $700 billion in taxpayer money to bailout their companies. Please make that case to the American people and see how that works out for you.

In the video below, I explain why we should say "No Deal" to these bankers, even if the Democratic proposals are completely adopted:

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Comments

[ihavenobias]

Excellent article. Two thumbs up!

[plebeianswillrevolt]

I wish you were talking about the world that I live in, and not some fantasy world that you have dreamed up and wish could happen. You are powerless, and you are going to dictate terms to the billionaires who have ALL the power????

Uhhh, I don't think so.

The US is like everyone who eventually goes bankrupt. You "charge and borrow" your ass off right up until the day before you call the lawyers.

[mcostello]

Yes, and the fall is hard

[DickTater]

Hi Cenk.

Could it be......Satan?

Really, Harry Paulson was Goldman Sachs head honcho, correct? Biggest of all donators to the ChimpGang? Goldman Sachs, and all the other dudes like them (they run in packs) are big into international banking and investments.....Voila! Our top echelon corporations are SO incestuous. It truly is a club and they do not make a move outside of their circles. Keep it in the club. Bludgeon the working class taxpaying american so you can payoff all your blueblood Good Buddies. They are REALLY sticking it to us....with both hands and a large stick.

[schatsie]

have to agree with you....

[standard]

"Why Should We Pay for All the Bad Loans of All the Banks in the World?"

(1) We won't.

(2) To the extent that we rescue any bad loans at all, it's to save our nation's economy, without which the U.S. would become extinct.

"The executives of these failed companies . . . are in no position to threaten us. "

Actually, they are. (I don't like it any more than you do, but let's not make up facts. Making up facts is precisely how those executives got us into this mess in the first place.)

That said, we need to direct our righteous anger at the Neo-Cons. They treated their fantasy of an entirely unregulated economy as if it were a viable possibility and a prudent objective. The damned fools nearly destroyed the United States of America in the process!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Cenk's three points are, as usual, crystal clear.

NO DEAL unless all three are addressed.

Anyone remember that scene from Blazing Saddles? The one where the sherrif puts the gun to his own head? "Nobody move or the n-GONG, GONG gets it !"

[Henry]

The salient point is that the foreign banks are a massive creditor to a wreckless consumer, America. Heard about the trade deficit. Heard about foreign central banks "monetizing" our debt. This is not covered in economics 101 and seems an absurdity, but none the less it exists. I believe that Paulson has been told that the "obligations" need to be backed or the American Paper..... some $3 trillion (which of course includes more than the mbs) will come floating home for the domestic economy to "absorb". This would crash the currency markets, explode interest rates, and violate the dollar. Paulson is a boy who can put two and two together and his efforts here are financial life and death. You borrow to much you eventually get a past due notice. Paulson has the past due notice and he is scrambling for the total $700 bill to guaranty all the securities that count, the foreign ones count the most. Finance is nasty business. (Little George thinks the solution to the problem is to take a vacation to Disney Land)

[jotunloki]

No, Paulson and the rest of the administration want to get all they can for their cohorts/masters before they leave office. None of this money will go toward paying off our debts to foreign creditors.

[vagabond78666]

I agree with you jotunloki!