send you short and direct articles. A brief, cold shower, so to speak. Alas,
this one's short-ish, but requires attention. Save for later, if need be.
Ed
From: zhelp@zcommunications.org
Who Can We Bank On, Who Can We Trust, As Crisis Sharpens?
By Danny Schechter
Schechter's ZSpace Page: June 22, 2009
Washington Seems Tethered At The Hip To Wall Street and Does It's Bidding
Can it possibly be true that the Congress can't walk and chew gum at the
same time? This question is prompted by the announcement that financial
reform is being pushed back as health care becomes the priority.
This makes me nervous for two reasons. First, it portends a long drawn out
legislative battle on health care reform with more time for industry
lobbyists and the Congresspersons and Senate persons on their payrolls to
compromise away or wreck the change we so deeply need.
Second, it confirms that the lobbyists for financial institutions-the people
responsible for the collapse of our economy---have been scheming and
wrangling to gut the reforms that could stop anther economic breakdown.
Reviving this industry without restructuring and re-regulating it just
guarantees another disaster down the line.
Bear in mind that that disaster is already underway despite what you may be
reading about "green shoots" and signs that a turnaround is coming because
unemployment didn't go down as much as expected-only 500,000 plus a month.
In fact, many observers see a deeper crash still coming with a depression
quietly deepening, even if most us cling to our perennial optimism and trust
in the changemaker we can believe in. The Telegraph's Ambrose
Evan-Pritchard, who unfortunately has been more prescient than wrong,
whines:
"Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are
reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we
shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh
madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns. We learned
then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms, and
dissent from Goldman Sachs."
You may recall Dennis Kucinich asking his colleagues aloud if he was in the
Congress of the United States or the "board room of Goldman Sachs" as if the
former is a wholly owned subsisidiary of the latter. Or perhaps, there was
a merger between the two in the sense that Wall Street may be down but by
more means out. It is "clawing back" its influence with a new lobbying surge
which is allowing Goldman and the big banks to pay back their TARP Money and
get out from under the spectre of new regulations, compensation limits and
the like.
The Empire inside the Empire is striking back.
Meanwhile we still live with a fog of misinformation, disinformation and no
information. Basic information about monies from the Federal Reserve to
Banks and financial institution has not been disclosed. Bear in mind the
Banks control the Fed-and free marketers ran the economy, not the
government.
Writes Bob Chapman of International Forecaster:
"Not one banking or Wall Street executive owned up to what really happened
to cause the crisis. They are totally lacking in honesty, integrity and
decency. As it now stands we'll never know the true inside story of what
really went on. We have seen no civil or criminal charges against any of
these crooks. Not even investigations. Whatever happened to RICO.Over the
past 25 years our financial industry has descended into darkness and
corruption and the people who caused it are getting away scott free"
Wow, what an indictment! Example: do we really know the purpose or the TARP
program that gave money to banks that apparently didn't need it, but didn't
say no. (The other side of giving loans to borrowers who couldn't afford
them?)
The Ritholtz blog suggests:
"It was $700 billion dollar pile of money in search of a justification for
its existence.
Most people still look at TARP the wrong way. When trying to discern what
the true basis of it was, we eliminated what made no sense whatsoever, and
what was left were a few strange ideas. When you eliminate the impossible,
what's left, no matter how improbable, becomes the best explanation.
What was that explanation? In Bailout Nation, we discuss the possibility
that The TARP was all a giant ruse, a Hank Paulson engineered scam to cover
up the simple fact that CitiGroup (C) was teetering on the brink of
implosion. A loan just to Citi alone would have been problematic, went this
line of brilliant reasoning, so instead, we gave money to all the big
banks""
Oh, that explains it.
Shamus Cooke writes on Global Research: "History will likely show that these
bailouts involved the largest transfer of wealth ever - from the working
class to that small group of billionaires who own the corporations. This
fact is recognized by most people now and is such common knowledge that even
the mainstream media feels comfortable discussing it. . . matter-of-factly.
These corporations have also exerted tremendous influence in other realms of
politics, working towards destroying Obama's campaign promises of health
care, job creation, civil liberties, the Employee Free Choice Act, peace,
etc.
In each case, the promised reform was gutted of its essence, and
"compromise" versions of the bills are now being discussed: instead of
universal health care, we will likely be universally mandated to purchase
health insurance; instead of "job creation" we are told that the stimulus
has "saved jobs" (contrary to the evidence); while troops are "drawing down"
from Iraq, the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan is being escalated; instead of
allowing workers to organize unions easier, a compromise version ?uro;"
Employee Free Choice Act, minus card check - seems more politically
"pragmatic," etc."
At the heart of the crisis is the plight of homeowners who we know were
defrauded in large numbers, victims like the Madoff investors Yet the former
are getting reimbursed to some degree, the latter are not. Bills to help
them have been killed with Matt Renner on Truthout reporting:
"A new analysis from a government watchdog group shows senators who killed
off a consumer-friendly change in law aimed at addressing the foreclosure
crisis received more money in campaign contributions from the industries
their vote aided. Senators who voted against the consumer-friendly amendment
received $3.98 million from the financial industry during the 2008 election
cycle, while proponents of the bill received $2.65 million."
Could this be more corruption? Of course , but they call it politics as
usual. And, that's not the worst of it, is that foreclosures are still
rising and now affecting non-subprime lenders with little relief in sight.
Back to the banks: I have been reading complex web posts showing how the
stress tests of banks were rigged and more may be needed. I have been
reading about how the unemployment figures undercount folks out of work with
the real numbers probably doubled, with minorities possibly tripled. I have
been reading essays arguing that the notion that the government is "saving
jobs" is not quantifiable with no statistical back uo.
I have been followeing the campaign to get the Federal Rserve Bank to
disclose its showering of money on financial institutions-something it
refuses to do,
Who can we trust and bank on? The President wants to give us confidence but
seems to be playing a confidence game. The Banks are dissembling when they
are not lying. The most trenchant critics-may they be wrong-believe a total
collapse is in the offing,
And the rest of us, mostly puzzled and paralyzed, unable to comprehend the
severity of the situation, the billions, no make that trillions, gone. How
do we make sense of the game playing in State Governments like those in
California and New York a caricature of responsibility. The jobs are going
and the Banksters are still going for it, sucking up what they can in a race
to the bottom.
Who can we trust? Who Can We Bank on? You tell me.
Mediachannel's News Dissector Danny Schechter is making a film based on his
book PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity
(newsdissector.com/plunder) Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3902
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