Tonight, President Bush will address the nation to drum up support for his 700 billion dollar bail out of Wall Street at a time when 55% of Americans oppose government aid to failing financial firms, according to a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg.
I'm not a financial expert, so please forgive my naiveté, but $700 billion is not going to be enough according to many experts. The bill alone for AIG will consume a significant amount of this figure and many American financial institutions are still stuck with trillions of dollars of volatile mortgages.
Mr. Bush will not tell the U.S. taxpayer that America is drowning in debt to countries such as China and others. He will not mention the trillion dollars wasted in Iraq. He will not mention how he had personally asked the King of Saudi Arabia not to withdraw Saudi investments from the United States and not to demand payment in Euros for Saudi oil.
Meanwhile, as Americans remain in doubt about the future of their jobs, the security of their savings, and the value of their 401(k)s, Gulf Arabs are having a problem in finding ways to spend their money. Aside from the construction boom that is going on in Arabia, many of these oil-rich states have been snapping up properties and shares in U.S. corporations at bargain prices. Just recently, the tiny state of Abu Dhabi bought 75% of a New York City landmark, the Chrysler Building. The cash-flush emirate also bought shares in General Electric, Citigroup and will be pouring a billion dollars into Hollywood.
Will President Bush announce a "fire sale?"
Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV