Opinion Editorials, September 2008

Bail out of Wall Street: Economic Terrorism

By Ben Tanosborn

ccun.org, September 25, 2008 


 
American economic terrorism: love it or leave it!
                               
How many times have those of us of the non-conformist breed been told… if you don’t love America as it is, why don’t you leave it?!  Well, let me turn the tables in a different way… why don’t most of us become true patriots, instead of ugly jingoes, and say no to economic terrorism as it is being perpetrated in the United States?  Not just say love it or leave it; but instead, reform this predatory capitalism under whose thumb we exist.
 
Bail out of Wall Street?  Are we nuts?  Is this Bush’s final chapter of “Fear for America”? 
 
The choice for Congress is clear: accede to the wishes of a greed-infested and corrupt Wall Street or let the present system implode and set up a new, regulated system, in its place.  A trillion dollar oxygen tank will only make the clean-up later more difficult, and probably ensure capitalism’s demise; maybe next year, perhaps five years from now.
 
As dire as the consequences may be in the short term, they are much more preferable to the no-cure cure which is being offered by both a dishonest Fed, which knowingly allowed the bubble to grow without sounding the appropriate alert, and an inept – and definitely unscrupulous – administration, the most “anti-people” government this nation has ever known.  Bush, Paulson and Greenspan II (Bernanke) are as trustworthy as the progeny engendered by the village idiot and the Main Street whore. 
 
Congress must not get caught in the trap of passing unwarranted regressive legislation just because of some changes, compromise masking the problem; or to accommodate a few special interests, even if some of those changes appear as just and punitive (such as forcing compensation limits for CEO’s of bailed-out firms)… or be helpful to the lower rungs in the economic ladder, such as people who bought houses they couldn’t afford.
 
If legislators are scared into believing that we have a do or die situation, that Wall Street (its financial sector) cannot be allowed to collapse, may God save us from their idiocy.  If Main Street needs credit to keep the economy going, one does not need to be a genius, or much of an innovator, to know that a parallel banking system for passing on funds to the non-toxic, smaller banks can be created in a short time.  Let all the corrupt financial houses, and their worthless derivate excrement, go under!  If the Oracle has great faith that Goldman is worthy enough to bring good profits to his five billion dollar investment, without taxpayers’ help, good for Warren Buffett… more power to him!  Personally I think he is counting on the bailout, or he wouldn’t be investing a red cent.
 
No, it isn’t Main Street that our elite are thinking about; it is saving the system in its present state, or close to it; save the predatory capitalist system, and not just save face.  The fishing nets must be kept in good repair!  A great system to impoverish the lil’ guy!  
 
After a quarter of a century of economic terrorism initiated by Reagan Bin Laden, we would be fools not to admit that such terrorism is far worse than that brought about by Osama’s jihadist response to our insane foreign policy in the Middle East.
 
American economic terrorism… wouldn’t we be better off by burying it once and for all?  The choice for Congress is clear: regulate a predatory capitalism which is out of control or let it perish on its own.  Capitalism, at least as practiced in these United States, has shown us little virtue and much vice at the top corporate echelons.  It’s not a few apples that are rotten, the entire barrel is!  It’s the system, stupid!  And the status of our present economy is just the result.
 
True fiscal conservatives repudiate a bailout for Wall Street just as much as the true progressive left does, or even the populist sentiment.  We need to let the house of cards fall as a new system is built, one that people can believe in... with the appropriate safeguards to keep greed in check.  And as we design and put a system in place, simultaneously, we need to create and empower a prosecutorial office to bring to justice the criminals principally responsible for this utter economic disaster.
 
No, not the penny ante greedy crooks in housing: Realtors, mortgage brokers, appraisers, title companies, house flippers or greedy homeowners.  A proper capital gains tax system would have taken care of that.  [I proposed one some years ago based on how long property was held so as to curb excessive speculation in residential housing.]  No, those that need to be prosecuted are the government policy-makers, the Fed Board of Governors and the Wall Street patrons to “creative financing.”
 
As George W. Bush appeared last night on television to sell the American public on the corporate bailout, one couldn’t help but see the greatest irony of all: Here is the greatest economic terrorist in the world since Reagan, calling Americans idiots; just as he did prior to the invasion of Iraq, using good old reliable fear-mongering.  Congress bought into that fear in 2002… will it be fooled by another dosage of fear six years later?
 
Ben Tanosborn

www.tanosborn.com

ben@tanosborn.com