It is a sad day for regular Americans. The only thing they have done do date is protect the elite. I wonder how many americans are still going to be homeless while the rich get all of their assets protected?
Not knocking “the rich” but these markets have been manipulated for the benefit of a very few and now the taxpayer is expected to pay for it.
They built a house of cards with financial instruments so obscure that no one knows for sure what assets they represent.
Where is the outcry like there was in the case of Enron and Ken Lay?
Enron and the S & L crisis was very small potatoes when compared to this $Trillion mess.
The government had very few options at it’s disposal by the time it got this far.
The warnings of this impending crisis have been around for a long time and most every attempt at reasonable reform was rejected by those that have directly benefited from lack of reform.
So now all American citizens own the largest insurance company(AIG 80%) and is about to own millions of under preforming mortgages that may never be paid. This is a huge write down of those assets and it’s the taxpayer that gets the bill.
This could be a long way from over as we enter the time when the politicians have to agree on how to handle the details of this proposed bailout. Being an election year, what are the chances that the partisan wrangling will end?
It’s more likely that the fingers will be out pointing to everyone else but those that created this mess.
This whole debacle only increase the cynicism that many have about their leaders in government.
But it’s a small handful of manipulators who have bilked the taxpayer in these issues. Certain persons want to make those who worked hard and became successful in the good ol’ American way to foot the bill for the indiscretions of Congress and the guilty parties. Of couse, there will be no trials for these guys–they have too many friends where it counts.
The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars or balance its budget. Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.
What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.
Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.
Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U.S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves.
An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.
Under New Policy, FEMA Says Ice is Not Its Responsibility
In fact, while the federal government can deliver ice to disaster areas, it’s chosen not to, under newly-revised FEMA rules. Instead, individual states and local governments are now tasked with purchasing, delivering and storing ice, even though they face tough logistical challenges in doing so, according to critics of the new policy.
“It’s frustrating that the government can deliver $85 billion to bail out AIG, and they can’t deliver ice in Texas,”