Comment on William Black/Bill Moyers interview and the handling of the S&L Crisis

[JDPriestly]

With regard to William Black's interview on Bill Moyers which is covered here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x292268

To resolve the S&L crisis, the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) bundled troubled properties that were on the books of the failed S&Ls sold them to big financial institutions -- cheap. It was a great big give-away to the buyer institutions. As we know now, the boom and bust cycle in the real estate market was allowed to recur, and some of the very institutions that bought the assets that were defined as troubled in the S&L crisis are now failing or have failed or merged into other banks since the S&L crisis.

It could be argued that the S&L crisis was a kind of rehearsal for the current crisis. This one is much bigger, but, in some ways very similar. And we are seeing exactly the same bail-out that is to be followed by exactly the same bargain sale of troubled assets.

The banks learned how to use the government to bilk taxpayers. When will we taxpayers learn.

How can we let Obama know that he needs to fire Geithner, Summers and the other Wall Street pawns and get some financial advisers who will do what is right for us, the American people, the ordinary American taxpayers?

There is a cycle. Through various financial devices especially manipulation of the interest rates, property prices or investments boom. There is a bust. Financial institutions become insolvent or close to insolvent. The government panics and bails out the troubled institutions with taxpayer money. The bailout enriches the already wealthy and impoverishes the rest of the country. The government declares that the crisis has been resolved, that the financial institutions and our economy are sound, and the whole cycle begins again.

When do we put a stop to it? And who can put a stop to it?

[chill_wind]

1. I like the direction this is going...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x438567

It's a small start, and maybe she's just warming up.

[blueworld]

2. Maybe we all can - yell loudly & repeatedly

If we keep posting info like you have, and others on DU and on other websites, and with Glenn Greenwald & Paul Krugman & Joseph Stiglitz...the only way to force the issue is to raise the populist volume. It can't be overstressed.

I watched that interview & I was stunned. I still am. Here's something else more than sobering:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

MIT's Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, has laid it out plainly and frankly, it's every bit as frightening as Black stated & Krugman has been writing about. But if we don't face the truth, we'll have no hope of recovery.

Hiding from the "X-rays" doesn't change the diagnosis. We have to yell loudly & repeatedly until the message is received.