Posted on 12/03/2008 6:46:00 PM PST by randita
Some people think of Hank Paulson as our Treasury Secretary. I think of him as a 19 year veteran of Wall Street banking.
At every turn of this entire bailout he has specifically advantaged banks over taxpayers, banks over industry, banks over homeowners, and banks over the future health and prosperity of this country.
Is this surprising for a banking veteran? No, not really.
But the tactics he used certainly are. Consider this: [1]
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.) said yesterday that it was Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who personally told Congressmen that there would be martial law in America if they did not pass the bailout of the banks as demanded by the Bush Administration.
On Oct. 2, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said on the House floor that "Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."
Now, Senator Inhofe, speaking on KFAQ radio station in Tulsa, has confirmed who it was that issued this threat.
The interview host Pat Campbell asked Infhofe, "Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn't do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest. Who was feeding you guys this stuff?"
Inhofe replied, "That's Henry Paulson. We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think--a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been ... the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call and I guess there's no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said, he painted this picture you just described. He said, This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced."
I want you to consider that these threats of martial law were being bandied about in the final weeks before a national election. So the implied threat was that the elections themselves could have been jeopardized as a result. This is exceptionally serious. Paulson deserves to be brought up on charges of some sort.
Even leaving aside the implied election threats, such tactics were heavy-handed and unnecessary.This level of arm-twisting speaks of a certain desperation and I think the one hundred-to-one public opposition against the bailout was the impetus for raising the rhetorical stakes to such hysterical levels.
I'm just disappointed that our representatives were swayed by an administration that has proved itself over the years to be willing to use any and all methods to achieve its political aims, including lying and violating the public trust.
Speaking of which, yesterday Bush said this [2]:
As he leaves office, Bush said he felt responsible for the economic downturn because it's occurring on his watch, but he added: "I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so" before he became president.
But, of course and as always, reality is a different beast. This next bit is also from an article printed yesterday [3]:
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way. In 2005, faced with ominous signs the housing market was in jeopardy, bank regulators proposed new guidelines for banks writing risky loans. Today, in the midst of the worst housing recession in a generation, the proposal reads like a list of what-ifs:
- Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.
- Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.
- Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn’t be crippling.
- Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.
- Regulators urged banks to help buyers make responsible decisions and clearly advise them that interest rates might skyrocket and huge payments might be due sooner than expected.
Those proposals all were stripped from the final rules. None required congressional approval or the president’s signature.
What we are experiencing now was not some random accident. Plenty of people, myself included, could clearly see where this was all headed. But the entrenched interests, primarily bankers and their bought and paid for representatives, did not want any limits on their obscene profits and they got everything they desired.
We can draw two conclusions:
Folks, there's really no kind way to put this. Not only have we been subjected to the greatest theft of our wealth ever seen, but that looting operation is continuing today.
What can be done about a banking industry that has so thoroughly violated and abused the public trust?
Links:
[1] http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/4547/61/
[2] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCYtFu7zZc-ScV1AHeaf0uG-F7GAD94QC5R80
[3] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28001417/
And our president went right along. sickening... any other country, Paulson would be in front of a firing squad about now.
I would be in favor of using paulson as a light pole ornament for the Christmas season. Just as long as you got him down before new years, he may start to smell.
— Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1939)
ping
Pirates aren’t only found off the coast of Somalia.
When they are finished looting the government they will be coming after our life savings and retirements and then they will give us the best gift of all a DEPRESSION. Lets all sit back and let them have thier way, like good little lemmings!
bump for later
Congress must have been in recess for a few years!
Because it’s Bush’s Fault, of course.
>If true it indicates a far more serious problem in this country than most of us had ever imagined.
>Think about it, a non elected official threatening to impose something that the president himself would
>have trouble imposing.
That’s ok, we’ll soon get a president who WAS elected and though he may be unqualified, his Civilian Defense Force will put an end to such speculation as Martial Law! [/cynic]
BTTT
“When they are finished looting the government they will be coming after our life savings and retirements and then they will give us the best gift of all a DEPRESSION. Lets all sit back and let them have thier way, like good little lemmings”!
One word in your statement sums it up, care to guess which one?
In a robotic monotone voice:
I am so surprised. The government doesnt’ understand economics or the free market and was duped by a wall street insider...biddy biddy biddy biddy...
Look no further than the colusion of the treasury and FDIC in the seizure of the still very solvent and functioning washington mutual with 150 billion in investment grade deposits and giving it to JP Morgan Chase for practically nothing. And then on top of it, giving them, and 4 other of the biggest US financials, 25 billion each with 0 strings attached of tax payer money under the guise of it was supposed to be used to provide loans to businesses and individuals, but instead, they are hording it and mostly going to use it to takeout smaller competitors, pay bonuses, and maintain their dividend payouts.
Total ripoff at the expense of the tax payers and smaller businesses by the biggest US financials and the treasury which resembles a satellite office of Goldman Sachs these days.
Those advocating such violence are the ones who deserve it, themselves.
Paulson has done nothing morally wrong. His advice on Lehman was inexpedient, in the direction of appeasing people like you too much, that is the worst that can be said about him.
And all our representatives were duly consulted and constitutionally agreed, all exactly as it should have been done. You don't like it, tough freaking toenails, you lost. Period.
Martial LAw? By whose authority.
Americans have lost the ability to be freemen. Certain;y the Senators who accepted such a declaration have lost that ability.
No one declares martial law in the USA without an act of Congress.
This is actually a part of the leftist Coup on America.Soros is somehwere in the thick of this behind the scenes. Obama is not qualified under Article II of the Constitution.
It all adds up to "Coup".
The facists who Jonah Goldberg warned us about in his book have arrived. Yet we do not treat them as such.
Well , we need to treat them as the fascisti they are!
No Coup. No Obama, and certainly no Paulsen,who should be arrested and clapped in irons.!
If paulson actually made this statement, then we know for certain who is really in charge of this country. Even if this was a musing or an idle threat, it gives us an idea of what is going on in Paulson’s head. Just because he’s in charge of keeping the gold, he isn’t allowed to make the rules. The American People decide that. Anything more means pitchforks and torches for Mr. Paulson.
Thanks, Candor7.
Serious Ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.