Tag Archives: Money/Economy/Taxes

A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout

from nytimes.com

Thank to the bailouts, the line between government and industry is perverted. Banks have good reason to continue being irresponsible, as government will cover their losses with taxpayer money, and politicians have good reason to stick their selfish, stupid paws all over the decisions of private companies, as it’s politically expedient to create the impression of control and punishment.

“We need more earmarks”

Once again, Ron Paul is right. If the money must be spent, better to earmark it and spend it publicly, than shroud it in secrecy. Without earmarks, the money still gets spent.

Listen to how Cavuto goes after Ron Paul, trying to spin him as a porker – the very thing Ron Paul has made a career of fighting. Ron Paul crushes him with logic and reasoning, as he does most propagandists.

“Real Capitalists Nationalize”

“Sorry, zombie banks. The laws of the market dictate that we should own your ass,” write some socialist at motherjones.com.

Laws of the market??? The laws of the market would cause the value of the banks to plunge until it’s worthwhile for some businessmen who’d been saving responsibly to take over. Here’s a hint: if it’s not worth it for private money, it’s not worth it for public money. And if such a value doesn’t exist, then the world doesn’t want any more banks, and they’ll simply vanish.

The market NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER recommends a public take over. The government can’t even run the post office well. Now they’re going to take over the banks?

If private investors (spending their own money) can’t make something work privately, then it’s a guarantee a bunch of political bureaucrats (spending my money) can’t do it either.

This is an affront to liberty. The best thing would have been to let them go bankrupt. In a free society, incompetent companies go bankrupt. Instead, we’ve taken money from the competent, given it to the incompetent, and courageous-sounding article like this one pretend that we’ve stuck it to the man. (They still got the money.)

Four largest TARP recipients spent billions on ‘questionable transactions’

Corruption is an inevitable and predictable consequence of the marriage between government and the private sector. The hands-off approach would have simple, and simply effective. Irresponsible companies would go bankrupt. Responsible ones would survive.

“Rather than using federal bailout money to reinvigorate lending to consumers, some banks that received funds from TARP have spent it on questionable items that have done little to improve the health of the country’s financial sector but have certainly helped out foreign economies such as Dubai and China.

For instance, Citigroup Inc, which received $50 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, made an $8 billion December loan, not to an American entity, but to a Dubai public sector company, according to a newly released Monday memo by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), chairman of the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee.

The Goldman Sachs Group, which received $10 billion in TARP funds at the end of October, saw fit to spend $2 billion earlier in the year on the repurchase of company stock, which resulted in an increase in company share price.” (Read more from rawstory.com)

See Also: More Evidence Feds Don’t Know What the Hell They’re Doing in Bank Bailouts

Bernanke: Recession’s end ‘probably’ this year

I guess lying is their latest tactic.

“America’s recession ‘probably’ will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said” (from msnbc.com)

I’d say we should fire this son of a bitch, but the Federal Reserve doesn’t work for the U.S.A. The U.S.A. works for the Federal Reserve. Tarring and feathering might be a better option.

H.R. 1207 – Federal Reserve Transparency Act

H.R. 1207, the bill introduced by Ron Paul to investigate the super-secretive private organization which controls our money, now has 28 co-sponsors. Write your representatives today!

Rep Abercrombie, Neil [D, HI-1]
Rep Alexander, Rodney [R, LA-5]
Rep Bachmann, Michele [R, MN-6]
Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [R, MD-6]
Rep Broun, Paul C. [R, GA-10]
Rep Burton, Dan [R, IN-5]
Rep Chaffetz, Jason [R, UT-3]
Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [D, OR-4]
Rep Duncan, John J., Jr. [R, TN-2]
Rep Foxx, Virginia [R, NC-5]
Rep Garrett, Scott [R, NJ-5]
Rep Grayson, Alan [D, FL-8]
Rep Heller, Dean [R, NV-2]
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [R, NC-3]
Rep Kagen, Steve [D, WI-8]
Rep Kingston, Jack [R, GA-1]
Rep Marchant, Kenny [R, TX-24]
Rep McClintock, Tom [R, CA-4]
Rep Petri, Thomas E. [R, WI-6]
Rep Poe, Ted [R, TX-2]
Rep Posey, Bill [R, FL-15]
Rep Price, Tom [R, GA-6]
Rep Rehberg, Denny [R, MT]
Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [R, CA-46]
Rep Stearns, Cliff [R, FL-6]
Rep Taylor, Gene [D, MS-4]
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [D, CA-6]
Rep Young, Don [R, AK]
(Read more from DailyPaul.com)

Watch Sen. Bernie Sanders (I – VT) fail to get answers from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. The law, in fact, protects the Fed’s secrecy, which is why a bill is needed before we can know anything about this secretive organization.

Confusion helps the powerful

“Boris Fyodorov, the late Russian Minister of Finance who struggled for many years against corruption and the abuse of authority, could be blunt. Confusion helps the powerful, he argued. When there are complicated government bailout schemes, multiple exchange rates, or high inflation, it is very hard to keep track of market prices and to protect the value of firms. The result, if taken to an extreme, is looting: the collapse of banks, industrial firms, and other entities because the insiders take the money (or other valuables) and run. This is the prospect now faced by the United States.” (Read more from tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)

The last act of any government is to loot the treasury.

America’s biggest industry: Government

A couple graphics at newgeography.com caught my eye:

National employment peaked in Dec 2007 at 138.2 million. As of Jan 2009, it’s 134.6 million.


The number of people employed by the government is 22.6 million.


Here’s a little trick I call math: 134.6 &#247 22.6 = 5.96

More than one out of six employed Americans working for the government. The economic activity of five Americans pays the salary (and benefits) of the sixth. We cannot afford so much government.