TARP Plan is robbery of the masses to pay rich gamblers who lost their shirt betting on Derivatives.

[Postman]

....and credit default swaps.

How many times did we hear the boobs in the Bush Junta say "the fundamentals of the economy are strong"....then all of a sudden they come to us that economic Armageddon is upon us....WTF?

How do you go from everything is heaven one day to falling into the abyss the next? Sounds like bullshit to me.

If you made a bad investment decision, too bad. Where's all that "let the market decide" ideology?

Start busting up these institutions that are "too big to fail". If it's too big to fail then it can and will hold the American taxpayer hostage for it's losses.

I agree with Dennis Kucinich who lays it out beautifully in this news clip......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x267921

[Locrian]

1. agreed

There are two options:

A) Live by the market, die by the market. They think the free market regulates for the best? Fine. Let them eat it.

B) They want a bailout? Ok. We now OWN your ass. You're CEO's - gone. Your bonuses - gone, and pay em back if you got one in the last 2 years. Any btw that means the free market is fucked. So we regulate the FUCK out of it.



I get so sick of these corporate welfare queens. Did you see on TYT where the corporations want to "repatirate" the money that is kept outside the US for "tax dodges". They want to bring it into the US, but not tax at 35%. They want 5%. Just to give you a scope of what we are loosing by not getting $$ for this money: the 5% would be > 500 BILLION DOLLARS!!! The 35% would by 3.5 TRILLON!!!! Theres your F-ing bailout, stimulus, and healthcare right there!

[Vinca]

2. You're exactly right. It's a gambling debt.

As I recall, Ma Bell was "too big to fail" so they broke it up.

[karynnj]

4. Bad example - AT&T was a very healthy company at that point

AT&T was a REGULATED monopoly that provided excellent phone service at decreasing prices over time - the telephone component of the CPI was one of the few that consistently decreased. Regulators allowed AT&T a rate of return on their assets and the company invested heavily in research that made phone service better and cheaper. They also funded pure research - the are our new Secretary of Energy, Dr Cho, worked in. This work was not geared to build a better telephone system, but was basic science. Bell Labs regularly showed that that work paid off for the company itself by looking at how things done in some past year saved the company in the current year by the fruits of the discovery. (Bell Labs' transistor, which AT&T allowed everyone to use rather than using its patent to earn money, was critical to many things) It also benefited the country and world. For years, they headed the list in getting patents.)

Why was it broken up? POLITICS

MCI started as a junk bond company. AT&T was required by regulators to sell space on its cables to companies that wanted it. The price was determined by the actual cost inflated by a rate of return. MCI started by providing service mostly for businesses just between big cities. MCI bought capacity on the AT&T network to complete their calls. AT&T was regulated to charge customers based on the mileage for the call. This averaged the very high cost of a call from one small remote community to another with the lower cost of, say, NYC to Chicago. This led to the bizarre situation where MCI could take a big profit and still charge less for a NYC to Chicago call than AT&T was allowed to.

More frustrating was that some consumer advocates looked just at the rates and praised MCI for being more cost efficient! This and the blind application of the economic idea that competition would lead to cost savings and to more innovation led to the decisions by which AT&T was broken up to make the telecommunications industry more competitive.

In the process, Bell Labs as it then existed gradually became a shadow of its former self. This was a gem that could have been enlisted to pursue the type of research needed for alternative energy or other goals. Nothing has completely taken its place.

[FormerDittoHead]

3. I draw a HARD line with FOREIGN INVESTORS.

If you invested in the STOCK MARKET, then I don't see what the FUCK business it is of OURS to be reimbursing the unfortunate decisions of rich people (who own the vast majority of stocks) living in OTHER COUNTRIES.

WHAT THE FUCK are we giving are "hard earned dollars" to banks so they can pay dividends to English and German investors?????

CERTAINLY, if they invested in gov't guaranteed bonds, but this is NOT the case - they were looking for a high return in return they were willing to take a high R*I*S*K.

No one expects the government to pay their bills if they lose the rent at the casino. I don't remember the dot.com's asking for gov't money...

Thanks for letting me vent. I have to shovel some snow...