Tuesday, September 23, 2008
In this report, I delve into the bailout plan and why it is destined to fail, no matter how it is configured. It is important that you at least consider the possibility that it very well could fail, with disastrous consequences for the dollar and the continued operation of the US government in its current form.
“See, you know the way a bailout works? Here’s the way a bailout works. A failed president and a failed Congress invest $700 billion of your money in failed businesses. Believe me, this can’t fail.”
~ Jay Leno
The recently proposed bailout of failed Wall Street banks represents the most brazen attempt at grand larceny ever in our nation’s history. Some have even likened it to financial terrorism, because Wall Street went so far as to repeatedly say; “Either we get this bailout or the entire system goes under.”
This echoes, more or less precisely, what happened in the years after Ronald Reagan deregulated the S&L industry in 1982. Within a few short years, excesses and fraud were rampant within the system, and taxpayers were forced to cover the inevitable bust that followed. Many well-connected individuals made out like bandits on sweetheart deals meted out by the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC).
But this crisis, which has been presented as if it caught everyone by surprise, was no surprise at all. It was years in the making, and the response was carefully planned over the past year. The bailout proposal, as originally presented (on Sat. 9/20/08), was shocking.
First, there was the sneaky language that the $700 billion figure was the most that could be spent at any one time, meaning that there was no limit on the spending at all. Second, the right of review by any court of law or other administrative body was to be stripped away, a distinctly unconstitutional and anti-American provision if ever there was one. Third, the Treasury Secretary was to be embodied with complete unitary power in selecting who was to be empowered with an open-ended taxpayer checkbook.
No review, no limits, no questions.
So what happens when you have vague language and an unlimited budget? Fraud and self-dealing, that’s what. Mark my words, this is the largest looting operation ever in the history of the US, and it’s all spelled out right there in the delightfully brief bailout document that Paulson and Bernanke are attempting to ram through a scared Congress.