Kucinich On The Bailout:

[amborin]

<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/365657/an_appropriately_populist_anti_bailout_rant>

[amborin]

1. "what might work"

"What Might Work

You could simply take a leaf from the New Deal and do a bank holiday. That is, send bank examiners into all the institutions-- investment houses, and insurance companies and the other major players, as well as banks--to assess them. Insolvent ones are simply closed; everyone knows then that those that survive are solvent. Economic life restarts. The total cost is minimal. In the nineties, under Greenspan, the Fed ran away from its duty to oversee primary dealers in government securities. Voting it sufficient authority to do the job not just on Wall Street and the banks, but in any part of the system not covered by effective regulators would be far less expensive than the Men in Black's scheme.

Guess why Wall Street hates this one and why Bernanke (whose work on the New Deal is indeed distinguished, though many of his hypotheses have since been refuted ) and Paulson do not even consider it. In all likelihood much of the Street is insolvent, which is why short-sellers were going wild until the SEC banned restricted them.

The government could inject capital directly into financial institutions with a reasonable prospect of survival in the long run. This was the essence of Senator Schumer's proposal that surfaced just ahead of Paulson's announcement and that triggered the rally in world financial markets. The New Deal did this, too. It used the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which put severe terms on the banks receiving the aid. Wall Street, of course, would love the money, but not the terms. Somebody to inspect and certify the solvency of financial houses is also a requisite for this option, which, as already noted, is anathema to the Street."

< http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/ferguson_johnson>

[IndianaGreen]

2. "The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact."

Right on, Dennis!

[amborin]

3. or----use the regional banks:

"To get credit where it is needed--which is everywhere that business must get done--there are better ways, one of which is a legacy bequeathed to us by Andrew Jackson. The suspicions of a federally chartered central bank held by Jackson and the Jacksonian Democrats blocked the creation of such an institution for eighty years and, in its absence, brought with it eighty years of panics, confusion and monetary chaos.

When at last the United States created a national bank for itself in 1913, it came up with one that looks like nothing else on earth and certainly nothing like the Bank of England or the Bank of Japan or the European Central Bank. It came up with the Federal Reserve System.

In addition to the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, the system includes twelve regional, quasi-privately owned, quasi-independent banks, which in turn have twenty-five branches so that, taken together, they cover the nation. Their boards, which are required to have two-thirds non-banker membership, have their roots deep into the business communities of their respective areas of operation. Thus were the Jefferson-Jackson principles of decentralized, popular power incorporated into the banking system.

Because the regional banks are in direct and continuous contact with the more than 8,000 local banks and other institutions which take deposits from the public, they are an ideal vehicle through which credit can be made available to individuals and businesses quickly and directly.

With funds supplied by the Federal Reserve in Washington, the regional banks can negotiate the terms by which they can stuff the vaults of those 8,000 institutions with cash. With the cash comes the understanding that they must lend it, that they no longer need fear other banks will not repay them. The 8,000 banks can then contact their customers, car dealerships, factory owners, retail merchants, students looking for loans, real estate agencies and tell them that anyone with a good credit history will have no trouble getting a loan.

Such a scheme is not easily done, but it's doable. Thanks to the Jacksonian legacy we have the structure and the means to take care of the credit crunch or liquidity crisis on the local level. Some of those 8,000 banks will need propping up so that they do not go the way of WaMu. Many different arrangements with different banks will be necessary. Forcing that money into so many institutions so quickly will be sloppy and mistakes will be made but business and daily life can go forward.
"

<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081013/howl>

[ContinentalOp]

7. I really like that plan. It actually makes SENSE. -nt-

[Lord Helmet]

4. I voted for Kucinich and that shows why.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The bailout is such a good deal that neither McCain nor Obama are going to vote

They are going to miss the vote altogether!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3517090

[amborin]

6. that's very weird

I agree: i suspect some kind of trap

what if McCain says he was against the 'latest' version

and all the blame goes to dems?

McCain could pull that stunt and it would all happen before the election

it sounds like some kind of trap