The People Be Damned, President of Special Interests

[leftchick]

http://counterpunch.com/roberts02182009.html


By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. The ongoing theft has simply been recast. Instead of using fraudulent financial instruments, the banksters are using government policy.

Michael Hudson captures the nature of the heist in CounterPunch (February 12):

“When it comes to cleaning up the Greenspan Bubble legacy by writing down homeowner mortgage debt, the Treasury proposal offers homeowners $50 billion – just of the $10 trillion Wall Street bailout to date, and less than half the amount given to AIG to pay its hedge fund speculators on their derivative gambles. The Treasury has handed out $25 billion to each and every big bank, so just two of these banks alone got as much as the reported one-quarter of all homeowners in America suffering from Negative Equity on their homes and in need of mortgage renegotiation. Yet today’s economic shrinkage cannot be reversed without a recovery in consumer demand. The economy has lost the “virtual wealth” in higher-priced homes and the stock market, and must rely on after-tax earnings. But I see little concern for wage earners in the Treasury plan. Without debt relief, consumer spending and business investment will not recover.”

The big money men cannot conceive of anyone’s suffering except the mega-rich. If billions are not at stake, what is the problem? How can a family losing its house bring down the economy?

There was a time in America when the interests of elites were connected to those of ordinary Americans. Henry Ford said that he paid his workers good wages so they could buy his cars.

Today American corporations pay foreign workers low wages so CEOs can pay themselves multi-million dollar “performance” bonuses.

[leftstreet]

1. "How can a family losing its house bring down the economy?"

That's it right there.

K&R

[Barack_America]

2. "Bush/Obama" plans? That's what Gingrich says.

And pretty much tells me there is no need to read further.

[ixion]

4. yeah, that's right... keep your head in the sand

that way you won't see the world collapsing around you. Enjoy. :eyes:

[Barack_America]

6. And the "reality" is that there is no difference between Obama and Bush?

Please.

Talk about keeping your head in the sand.

[ixion]

10. Of course there's a difference... Roberts isn't saying that

he's saying they've both worked on bailouts, and the money is going to insiders, which is TRUE.

Hey, I voted for Obama just as much as you did, and I have NO DESIRE whatsoever to go through a second Great Depression. So let's stop playing politics and worry about really solving the issue.

And the current stimulus plan does not solve the issue, which is the point of the OP.

[Winterblues]

13. Exactly what is the difference between the two on TARP and money to Banking interests?

I have yet to see any difference. Bankers ask for hundreds of billions and they get it no questions asked, Auto Makers ask for ten billion and they are forced to jump through all kinds of hoops. The "People" are being ripped off "Big Time" and this is happening under Obama every bit as much as it did under the "Torture pResident".

[Barack_America]

14. I fail to see how writing down the interest rates on mortgages is a windfall for bankers.

:shrug:

[Kolesar]

3. so what form should this "debt relief" mentioned by Hudson take?

btw, I don't have any debt.

[HillRodWins]

9. Are these Lenders under this plan

Going to modify loans for homeowners that have lost their jobs and may not be able to get a job in the near future? I doubt it. You will have to have a job to even be considered for one of these loans. Seems like the JOBS that Obama is promising is going to be more important than bailing out the Banks.

People are losing their jobs by the thousands! Why should we AGAIN trust Freddie and Fannie?

[wryter2000]

15. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. "Father of Reaganomics" Paul Craig Roberts?

Wow.

People change, I guess.

[Barack_America]

7. Or not.

Referring to Obama's plans as "Obama/Bush" policies is Newt Gingrich's new attack.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. As far as his concern for "wealth redistribution"

Reagan's (this guy's) policies grew the income gap in this country at an alarming rate. So the fact that he is now concerned with said gap is...different.

[newtothegame]

11. As ixion mentioned, it's about recovery, not some word game out to get Obama.

I guess that'll be hard to convince you of that "Barack_America"

[Barack_America]

12. Courtesy of the "Father of Reaganomics"?

Do you not find it ironic that we are trying to "recover" from the very fiscal policies he advocated?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

[JuniperLea]

16. If they were truly "performance" bonuses...

There would be no bonuses, right?

We should revisit this post in about a year;)