Isn't the timing of this bailout suspicious?

[johnlal]

When President Bush got into office, I was amazed at how little time it took for his corporate cronies to start grabbing money. Now, with just a few months left in the Bush Presidency, we're seeing a proposal for a $700 Billion Dollar payout to the Banking and Insurance corporations who have been stealing from us for 8 years now. The timing of these events, and the recipients of this largese can't be a coincidence. They are cashing out. They're getting their last big score before Bush leaves office. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is making it clear that he wants no strings attached to this gift. No Congressional Oversight. No Judicial Review. No punishment to the executives who run these companies we're about to bail out. It's just free money to be doled out to executives in whatever amounts George Bush sees fit.

This bailout comes a few months later than the big money grab perpetrated by Big Oil. With mere months to go in the presidency, gas prices inexplicably rose to over $4.00 per gallon. An oil industry that has been making record profits from uncontrolled price spikes over the last 8 years decided to go for it in the last months-- taking all it can grab on the way out the door. This is only a case of Banking and Insurance doing the same.

This is not to say that we shouldn't be worried about the consequences of failure of these giant firms. Their collapse could wipe out retirements, savings, and businesses globally. It could trigger a new depression. However, we should recognize this "crisis" for what it is-- a money grab. Those executives involved in this economic terrorism should be put behind bars. They certainly should not be given golden parachutes.

Many have said that this is just a case of the banks making bad choices in granting mortgages. These banks knew exactly what they were doing. Banks don't make money by charging interest anymore. They make money by assessing arbitrary and excessive bank charges and "costs". They extended loans to these people in order to get bonuses and commissions based on the number of loans made. Debtors limped along, making interest-mostly or interest-only payments to the bank, until they couldn't take it anymore. Now the tax payer is coming in to absorb the by-product of this very lucrative enterprise, the bad debt. Meanwhile, the Banks keep the good debt, the profit, and the costs and charges.

When the dust settles on this mess, the tax payer will be left holding hundreds of billions of dollars in the bank's bad debt. The executives will have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars. The same faces will be running Wall Street (although they may play musical chairs and move to different firms). Nothing will have changed. They will still be doing what they're doing, and taking their chances on the new president.

[ThomWV]

1. There are only moments left and the bank robbers have to grab what is left and run

[magellan]

2. It wouldn't be nearly so suspicious if the original draft weren't worded

...like a bank heist note. "Hand over all the money and don't make a sound or you're dead. Do it NOW."

As someone pointed out on another thread, Norway went through this in 1988.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4059977&mesg_id=4059977

Compare their solutions (which worked, btw) to what our Fed came up with. Now ask yourself why our Fed wouldn't even manage to get one thing right.

It's not coincidence. It's a stick up.