I've been glued to my TV and computer all weekend watching the horrors unfold in Japan. I don't know very much about the Japanese budgetary situation, how much the clean-up is going to cost, etc. But I know that no one in Japan right now is worrying about the Japanese budget deficit, or whether there is any waste in the emergency services departments of local or national governments, or whether the emergency shelters holding millions of people could be provided any cheaper. At times like this, people are desperately hoping that someone can save their friends, family, and make sure that supplies move to people who need them.
And in all the footage of people being saved, I haven't seen one mega-bank rescue anyone. I saw help from a lot of volunteers, firemen, rescue workers, doctors, nurses, etc. But not one bank. And that was true during snowstorms in North Dakota, the floods in New Orleans, and the earthquake in Haiti. Oddly, though the banks are sucking up enormous amounts of our budgetary resources, they don't own rescue helicopters, they don't track earthquakes, they don't study tsunamis, and they don't deal with radiation poisoning.
According to Simon Johnson, roughly 40% of the increase in privately held government debt over the past few years is due to the financial crisis caused by these mega-banks. Yet, the Federal budget debate is centered on slashing spending on things that we actually need, things that, when a crisis happens, saves our lives.
Instead of taking back the money spent on these bailouts, the new "tea party" Republicans are instead trying to slash funds for the agency that warned our West Coast of the tsunami. How many millions of dollars did NOAA save by giving us due warning and letting us protect property? We'll never know, just as the Japanese can't know how many hundreds of thousands survived due to a strong infrastructure and well-funded preparations.
I don't mean to pick on the Republican leaders, though actually, yes, I do. Just cutting government programs sounds good, until your friend or family member is hanging on a rooftop somewhere praying for a rescue, a rescue that would have had to have been planned and pre-funded years before since helicopters can't actually be wished into existence upon demand. But let's be clear, the dynamic that is starving our government of revenue is one that the Democrats created from 2008-2010, when they allowed and encouraged the big banks to feed on the government trough. This bipartisan corrupt racket, where Democrats help banks loot and Republicans give the bill to the rest of us, needs to end.
What we are seeing, on our TV screens, is that dedicating resources to a government that works is the single best investment that we can make. And the idea that one single dollar more than necessary is going to the banksters is a giant fraud in and of itself.
Even though they think they deserve their millions in bonuses, no mega-bank does anything even remotely as noble as the people who study and prepare for the catastrophic events befalling our globe right now. If we saw something in, say, New York City, like a pandemic or a natural disaster akin to what is going on in Japan, I'm pretty sure that even these executives would change their minds, and wish that they had sucked up fewer of society's resources and allowed more emergency prep. Of course by then it'll be too late, and the best they'll be able to do is re-purpose some of their luxury helicopters to save their own hides.
As the debate in DC continues, remember what the Democrats and Republicans are agreeing to, in the form of spending cuts for us while banks continue to gorge on taxpayer subsidies and outright fraud. Their collusion isn't solving any of the actual problems in this country. It is, however, making sure that if or when we need our government, if or when any of us are ever in the situation in which Japanese citizens find themselves, it won't be there.
And that's the biggest fraud of all.
Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan
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A bank is all about making money and more money and even more money and ... . A volunteer is for just doing what's right in the given circumstance and if things work out, more people are helped than harmed.
If banks were in the service industry just to help people; why did Texas Jack Garner, FDR's first VP, say something like this about bankers: "They’ve a heart that fits inside a flea's belly button with room for a caraway seed."?
In the 60s and 70s we demonstrated for Civil Rights and we ended a war. It took endless, persistent effort.
All of us must JOIN a group that is demonstrating about the country's current inequalities and other life and death issues. MoveOn is just one of many that is organizing monthly demonstrations in cities and towns across the country. There are others. Pick one. Most of us can manage to show up once a month.
Here's to people and placards in the streets! ... and people who write their elected representatives on a weekly basis ... and people who send $5 to politicians who represent their interests ... and people who write to newspapers ... and people who make noise and will not ever shut up ... Here's to people who VOTE!
DEMONSTRATE your opinions, any way you can!
Actually the company line is that this was George Bush's fault, stick to it and assign no responsibility to others involved.
This is what you decided to write this week?
I usually enjoy your posts but why on earth would you expect a bank to head up rescuing operations or be first responders?
Banks could have donated a few billlion to rescue and clean up efforts. Wait and see what they do- they'll get their EMPLOYEES (non-union employees, no less) to donate, but won't give much as an organization.
Banks have learned what other corporations are now catching on to. They can create REALLY risky business strategies, push the cost of failure onto tax payers, all for the price of a few politicians. Who's paying for the cleanup of this nuclear mess? Tokyo Power? GE? Nope. Citizen Japan 'sgonna pay.
In case you didnt catch it, Ratigan's piece was about our collective ANGER at a bailout for big banks, while citizens are asked to pay MORE and MORE, and get less and less. Doesn't that make YOU angry?
I cant think of anything more outrageous. No wonder this country is so screwed up. And I have no faith that anything is going to change anytime soon. Who was it who said the best investment you can make is in politicians?
When he says that, "This bipartisan corrupt racket, where Democrats help banks loot and Republicans give the bill to the rest of us, needs to end," he ignores the root causes in Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act - both Republican bills, written by Republicans and slipped into a multi-thousand-page Omnibus Spending Bill. There is no doubt that many Democrats were cowardly or complicit in those "free-market" debacles, but one shouldn't be left with the impression that they were anyone but (the most liberal) Democrats who were trying to stand in the way. The same is true with we are, today.
That's of what your comment reminded me.
Just remember, conservatism is a mental disorder.
Really? Are you sure?
In 2010 Bof A spent just under $4 million on lobbying.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?year=2010&lname=Bank+of+America&id=
— Aldous Huxley (Island)
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. We must have better choices than the two corporate parties and we can't wait any longer. Some how, some way we have got to get more political parties and more people of integrity (with solid decision-making and successful problem-solving skills rather than ideologies) to run for office so we can have good leaders and good problem-solvers in office at all levels.
And yes, I wish I knew how to make that happen.
A good first step to get back what we are loosing, is for all of us to quit calling each other names based on political labels: labels that encourage cultural wars, economic divisions, and loss of voice.
I am a progressive but I know that some of my Tea Party counterparts do not like the size of the military budget - let's work together on that issue. Some Tea Party members want to reduce government waste through ridding ourselves of agencies with the same responsibilities completing and issuing conflicting regulations. We do disagree on most of the domestic agenda, but rather than focus on that, let's work together in areas that we agree. That is a great first step to impinge on the big duo: Dems and GOP.
I believe the majority of people in this country do want to work together to solve our problems -- but our politicians, especially those of the majority in the House this term, generally refuse to cooperate or compromise. Every vote that is entirely one party for and the other against saddens me and works against what our Founders wanted to create, in my opinion. The Tea Party, in particular, seems to abhor bi-partisanship and compromise.
People with "the answer" scare me and, at their core, are acting in anti-democratic ways. Guess all we can do is let them know we're watching and try to invite cooperation.
One thing we can argue against, with our remotes and with letters, is "news" that reports the horse race instead of analyzing the merits of the bills in Congress. They take the easy way out and do us all a terrible disservice.
No, the job is not to work with them. The job is to STOP them.
I don't really care if we can get something done. I'm more interested in STOPPING what should NOT be done.
Rod
1. Never renew the Bush tax cuts
2. National InfrastrucÂÂÂture Bank - run by engineers, not politicianÂÂÂs. Federal government invest $2 trillion over 10 years to create jobs now and increase productiviÂÂÂty later. Put millions back to work. Fund with a millionairÂÂÂe's tax
3. Reform Budget - balance the budget by raising taxes on the super-richÂÂÂ, contain the explosion of health-carÂÂÂe costs, end agriculturÂÂÂal subsidies, stop corporate welfare, cut the defense budget, end the wars (another form of corporate welfare)
4. Reform Health Care - add the public option. Allow Medicare to purchase drugs. Give MEDPAC wider authority. Allow drug re-importaÂÂÂtion
5. Create A Carbon Tax - to reduce consumptioÂn, increase energy efficiency and make alternativÂe energy more cost-compeÂtitive. Revenues generated should go to reducing payroll taxes to stimulate employment
6. Reform Education - make higher education free to families that can't afford it to encourage upward mobility in society. Fund with a financial transactioÂÂÂns and bank tax
7. Reform Wall St. - break up the big banks and strengthen the Volker Rule
8. Reform Federal Elections - enact the Fair Elections Now Act. Strictly voluntary. Matching funds. $100.00 maximum donation.
9. Reform Social Security - raise the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security tax to $180,000 to restore solvency in the out years
http://wwwÂ.thepetitiÂonsite.comÂ/18/demandÂ-that-thesÂe-bold-proÂgressive-pÂolicies-arÂe-includedÂ-in-the-deÂmocratic-pÂarty-platfÂorm---2012Â/
Yeah, run on this platform and 2010 will be revisited in 2010.
Anyone who trusts a govt institution that protects these investment firms is also insane..
They broke the law,,, and knew they were breaking it as they watched the American economy crumble because of it... Every presidential candidate knows the truth about what happen,, every firm that was involved in the great Wall st insurance scam needs to be put in jail---asap..
They know that,,,, so they send the republicans out to declare a class war on working ppl so we'll all be satisfied with the dems who are neck deep in protecting those illegal gains...
America has been taken over and the rule of law no longer applies.. We are coming up on elections that now represent a possible corporate dictatorship with republicans or a cleptocracy with the dems!
Choose wisely folks,,, good luck with that!
I say we hit the streets and demand justice,,, they robbed me and mine and I'm not going to accept either un til I'm re-imbursed for all losses due to the wall st crime of the century!
Rod