Posted on 12/17/2008 8:30:18 AM PST by Melissa 24
Americans have begun an angry backlash against bailouts that could become a national revolt in 2009.
The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by some 500 basis points. Government agencies have poured close to $8 trillion into banking bailouts. The Treasury secretary has promoted massive government support of troubled, failed and corrupted institutions.
This program is a 100 percent top-down exercise involving the largest amount of money in history.
Virtually none of this money directly helps average Americans. Virtually none of it trickles down to the people who suffer the most and pay for the program.
After $8 trillion we are still debating whether any money should be used to directly help average Americans.
The Fed has cut rates dramatically. It is shameful that after all of these rate cuts and all of these bailouts, banks continue raising credit card interest rates, lowering credit lines, refusing to lend to creditworthy businesses and allowing the Grapes of Wrath-like foreclosure crisis to continue with minimal effort to address it.
The banks don’t trust the banks. The banks don’t trust their customers. Business does not trust the banks or the government. Taxpayers don’t trust anyone.
The only trust is from the Fed and the Treasury Department that transfer huge sums of money to the large institutions that caused the problem, often in secret, often involving complicated financial derivatives that neither Congress nor many CEOs understand, based on trust that these institutions will use this money wisely, which often they have not.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is discredited. The Federal Reserve has failed in its duty as banking regulator. Congress has failed in its duty of oversight. The most wise and citizen-friendly regulator, Sheila Bair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is treated with contempt by the Treasury secretary.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
-—and unfortunately, the free market-(the only solution and a politically impossible one) -is going to get the blame.
Really, if they were inevitably going to print and flush all of this money down the hole, they should have just sent us all a check for $1,000,000 or so.
Would have been money better wasted....
“The Fed has cut rates dramatically. It is shameful that after all of these rate cuts and all of these bailouts, banks continue raising credit card interest rates, lowering credit lines, refusing to lend to creditworthy businesses and allowing the Grapes of Wrath-like foreclosure crisis to continue with minimal effort to address it. “
This is absolutely true! We have never been late on one of our credit cards, transferred a balance to them under an offer of 1.9% for balance transfer. Rate is now at 29%!!!! We are paying it off as fast as we can, but they broke the contract they offered!
And 700 Billion for the credit/banks to still screw the population over?
“America needs new thinking and an informed national consensus — and we need it now. “
Keyword is informed.
The fact is we haven’t known what the federal reserve has been doing since 1913. Their charter is to stabilize markets, but they do anything but that. With recession after recession, depression after depression, inflation that has devalued the dollar to over 90% less than what it was worth before it began operations, they are clearly either a bunch of wholly incompetent idiots, or they are manipulating the situation.
With 8 trillion spent (that we know of so far), the result of which is we now have a banking monopoly funded by tax dollars, I think it’s getting pretty obvious it really isn’t all that difficult to be a banker. :)
And how will this so-called backlash manifest itself? Boycotts on the big 3?
Where do I go to lash back? As if those in power give a damn what I think.
How about closing your Bank of America account, paying off your credit cards as soon as possible and buying foreign, non uaw cars or used cars from now on if you must buy American.
Do business with the small regional banks that played by the rules and received no government bail out money.
Wow. What a great summary.
We’re screwed.
the backlash will likely be focused on the people who are raising interest rates even as the prime sinks to zero.....CapitalOne, Citigroup, Discover, etc.
I hear dDave Ramsey say a while back that the government may need consumers to go out and spend but you do NOT have an obligation to do that if it isn’t in your best interest.
You’re right. We need to turtle up and let them suck eggs.
I don’t have a B of A account, am paying off my cards as quickly as possible, live off the grid in a 35 y/o Winnebago, and the only regional bank here sold out to East-West Bank, and the founder fled town leaving no forwarding address.
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