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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
December 22, 2008
The Banking Industry says, "Screw You,
America!"
(although slightly less eloquently)
It's infuriating. It's just infuriating! Why is it that $335 billion worth of
taxpayer money doesn't have to be accounted for? why is it that where the nearly
half of the scheduled $700 billion's use - and the other dollars doled out to
the likes of AIG and Citigroup (at least $150 billion) - are allowed to be kept
a secret by those who have lost billions of investors' dollars in the first
place?
"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any
accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it.' We have not disclosed that to the
public. We're declining to."
-JPMorgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly
In case you were wondering, JPMorgan Chase has received $25 billion in TARP
(Troubled Asset Relief Program) funding, an amount the Big Three US auto
manufacturers wanted available for all three of them, just for themselves. In
case you were wondering, as I'm sure some of you are, that would employ some
5,555 people nationwide at an annual salary of $45,000 per year.
$25 billion also represents about twenty percent of the cost of providing health
care to every American.
What happened to the oversight? What happened to review? I anyone in DC-Land
paying attention?
"We're choosing not to disclose that,"
-Bank of New York Mellon spokesman Kevin Heine on what his employer was using
their $3.5 billion for
It should be noted that something needed to be done in the aftermath of Lehman
Brothers' collapse and that the jobs lost by a number of other Big Finance
Giants, added to the $25,000 jobs lost at Lehman, would have been catastrophic.
Still jobs were lost, but not at the top where heads should have rolled. The
only reason, in my opinion, to distribute such large sums of US taxpayer dollars
was to save those middle-class jobs.
And to throw it in our faces in the manner they are now doing leaves my blood
boiling!
"We're not sharing any other details. We're just not at this time,"
-Comerica spokeswoman Wendy Walker, a $2.25 billion TARP recipient
All financial institutions which received at least $1 billion were contacted by
the Associated Press. The questions they asked were the questions on everyone's
minds:
How much has been spent?
What was it spent on?
How much is being held in savings?
What's the plan for the rest?
Shouldn't Congress be asking Big Finance those same questions? Wasn't that a
part of the final deal?
Try to remember back to those days when John McCain suspended his Presidential
Campaign and Treasury secretary Hank Paulson offered up a two-and-a-half page
rescue plan that made him (Paulson) the judge, jury and only advocate for
distributing $700 billion to the industry which made him a multi-millionaire.
Remember yet? Congress made the right decision and forced the white House to put
in provisions for checks and balances and a division of the money into two
parts.
What happened?
It's obvious that Big Finance, with money in pocket, has no plan to use it for
the stated purposes of saving our economy... and they don't even want to talk
about it.
"I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those
details,"
-Comerica's Walker
I bet you wouldn't, but it's now incumbent upon Congress - OUR US Congress - to
ask those questions.
So as we wait for the Big Three US Auto manufacturers to offer up their "plan",
complete with details and with a design that is sure to take more and more from
the Labor Unions but not their CEO's, we're left to wonder where is Big
Finance's "plan"?
-Noah Greenberg
In response to, "The writer applauds the shoe thrower and calls the President of
the United States a chimp . . . cute! I would hope that if she decides to come
up with a cute name for the incoming President she chooses something other than
chimp. She does prove one thing, not all of the a--holes live in Iraq!" Robert
Scardapane writes:
Nice Noah, so now you let people call each other a-holes on your newsletter?
Please unsubscribe me.
And David W. writes:
And the only thing wrong with referring to The Smirking Chimp as a "chimp" is
that it degrades actual chimps.
As for Bob's concern over what name will be applied to President Obama... it's
fairly obvious that after America showed such "magnamanity" in electing our
first black president, the nigh 50% of the country that would never vote for a
black man--no matter how inept the white man running against him -- will no
doubt find some oh-so-clever moniker...
In response to Caroline Kennedy for Senate, Victoria Brownworth responds:
Since when can only the rich be in federal government? Why can't we actually
appoint someone who is qualified and a has all those same credentials as
Caroline Kennedy? New York is literally overflowing with women who are
attorneys, activists, authors and mothers. I have at least 20 friends who fit
that bill. So why choose Caroline Kennedy? I find the buying of Senate seats,
whether in a covert deal like Blagojevich's or in an overt power grab with
personal wealth NOT EARNED BUT INHERITED to be equally reprehensible. Gov.
Patterson should choose someone with acumen and credentials that do not include
"but my uncle held that seat 45 years ago for three years so now I should have
it!" As for the so-called criminal class of lobbyists, that's what union leaders
are, too. Something tells me no one would object to a labor organizer--you know,
like Hilda Solis who was just chosen for labor secretary by Obama--being
appointed.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg