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/
read later
But,, since nothing has been fixed other than throwing money down the hole,, it will all come around again.
Obama is not qualified. This was an economic crisis created by government. Now we are all supposed to give up the constitution and our freedom in order to “solve problems?”
On whose say so? Not the American people.
I am a feeman. How many others are there left?
Our public “servants” in Congress are presumably there to make the tough calls and to cut through the BS. This is a bit like saying “I though the rock through the window because Jimmy told me to”. If the congresscritters think that they were bamboozled by Paulson, it doesn’t say much for them, does it?
“What can be done about a banking industry that has so thoroughly violated and abused the public trust?...”
I have a simpler solution: dismantle the Federal Reserve System. Cut off the government’s ability to conduct monetary policy. It’s long overdue.
marker
Git A Rope!...
Bump!
We owe Ken Lay’s ghost an apology.
Thanks, LucyT
The economy started to tank six weeks before the Election.
Unbelievable.
Ping.
I’ve been saying since this crisis first broke that Paulson orchestrated an OCTOBER SURPRISE, working with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. McCain was kept out of the picture and made to look like a fool. Bush didn’t have a clue what was happening.
It was timed to throw the election to Obama, and it succeeded completely.
Bush has made numerous bad appointments during his eight years in office, and this one has proven to be the worst of them all. He got betrayed and screwed, the country got betrayed and screwed, we all got betrayed and screwed, and Bush didn’t have a clue what was happening.
Please put on your tin foil hat for my next statement:
I find it interesting that at the same time socialists are having a coup in Canada we have the same thing going on here.
Okay, you can remove your tin foil hat.
"I agree we need more probes and arrests."
What happened to shooting looters on sight or at least having a quick trial and a hanging? I’;; be glad to tie the knot for Hank.
Thanks for your reply, TomGuy
What happened to the 2 Trillion? Paulson isn’t telling.
Bookmark.
Wow, just wow. I really don’t know how to respond to your post Herr JasonC.
Help a brother out and gimme a few dozen of those hits..........
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