BAILOUT ALMOST A Done Deal -Public Opinion be Damned

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BAILOUT ALMOST A DONE DEAL--PUBLIC OPINION BE DAMNED
World Affairs Brief, September 26, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen.

I can't recall a more unpopular piece of legislation than the Treasury secretary's "Troubled Asset Relief Program" (TARP). The public is incensed and is venting their anger on the phone lines and computers networks of every member of Congress in the Nation. Congressmen who actually care what their constituents think are opposed to a bailout of the very financial institutions that caused this financial boom and bust. But they are under extreme pressure to bend to the party leaders in Congress and the financial Powers That Be (PTB) who are deeply entrenched in the highest seats of government. These same financial powers control much of the campaign money to both major presidential candidates and to top House and Senate leaders. All the top leaders have already agreed in principle that there is going to be bailout--only the details remain to be worked out concerning how to fool the public into believing that 1) taxpayer money will be repaid, 2) there will be "strong" oversight, 3) that executive compensation of bailed out firms will be limited, and 4) that this will solve the problem. All of these are lies. This week I'll discuss the real agenda behind this bailout.

I'll start with come cogent remarks by Ron Paul as he rebutted the President's address to the nation in support of the rescue plan (euphemism for Bailout): "We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

"The president assures us that his administration 'is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets.' Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation "spree were even mentioned? We are told that 'low interest rates' led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market... Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or 'wildcat capitalism' (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

"Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: 'Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous "September 26, 2008sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk.' Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the 'many' who 'believed they were guaranteed by the federal government' were in fact correct?

"Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary 'the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet.' Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

"It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year."

"To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end…… It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

[LHardy]

I wrote all my representation again this morning.

I'm certain I'll hear again how they understand my posititon but can not allow the US economy take such a hit.
Blah, blah, blah.....

They're all crooks and thieves.
Gotta love the fact that the idiots in charge of the oversight that failed to warn of the issues are still in charge and no investigations into the failures of government.
We all know that is due to the fact that the Democrats will be the largest offenders. If a republican had been in charge of this crap his head would already be placed on a pike in front of Congress as a warning to others.

[alaskan trapper]

Looks as if the house.gov website is down. Can't post any objection to the bailout bill.

[FMD]

how convenient.