Tell Congress to WAIT to pass ANYTHING.
- Not $700 Billion anything.
- Start slow -- $150 Billion... $50 Billion a month * 3 months.
- 30% haircut, but really it needs to be based on the neighborhoods.
- The government OWNS the process, not the crooks who screwed us already.
- No more payouts to CEOs. No way, no how, never again.
Ian Welsh has the plan. READ IT ALL.
FiredoglakeRead it ALL please. Ian is always worth reading.
Why the Dodd Bill Won’t Bail the Economy Out And How To Make It Do So
Why? Well, first of all it's paying too much for mortgages. 15% off current prices is less than most properties are going to drop. I know folks don't want to hear that, but a return to trend is more than that. 30% would be a reasonable number, but the proper way to do it is to figure out what housing prices in an area would have been without a bubble and pay slightly less than that, though that's slightly punitive. But then, why not be slightly punitive? No reason why the government shouldn't make a bit of a profit on bailing out banks. They already booked their profits and gave them to their executives, after all.
To work, a bill has to establish a reasonable floor for house prices. If it doesn't 700 billion won't be enough, there are trillions of dollars of securities based on mortgages out there, and as prices continue to decline, they will go under and have to be bought. Either the government blinks and refuses to borrow and spend trillions to do it, in which case all the 700 billion did is buy a bit of time and bail some CEOs out, or it goes all in and winds up borrowing trillions. Not only does this money go straight to oil inflation and probably general inflation, and crash the dollar, but if it succeeds in holding housing prices higher than they really should be it leaves the US with a cost structure that is too high, and thus not competitive. Ie., expect offshoring to resume, and get ready for that vacuum cleaner to suck your job overseas.
On top of that since every dollar of spare money is being used for nothing but holding up housing prices, there will be no money for business borrowing by real businesses (those that make things), which means there will be no job recovery and no real export recovery. There will also be less and less credit for consumer spending, which will reduce demand (though, what the hell, you won't have any money anyway.)
There's more...
Now that it looks as if we're not going to rush to a vote any second, start printing Ian's articles and MAIL THEM to your Senator and Congress Person. Even consider hand-delivering them to their office if you can. FedEx them. Get them there marked "PERSONAL".
If you have any in, now is the time to use it. This is simple stuff. Don't let the Rich Kewl Kids make one last grab for the money. That is precisely what those fuckers are trying to do; screw us with our pants on, taking money from the Middle Class (the working class and poor don't have enough money to make it worth it) -- our homes and what's left of our 401K's) -- and hand it directly to the Owning Class. Pack it in place with laws, and ka-WHAMO, it's done. Bush retires and the Owning Class has Fucked everyone else for the next 30 years.
We would need a full-scale revolt, another Boston Tea Party to fix things if this gets by. Which can be done, but oh wow, costly. Better to get it right the first time, as Roosevelt did over Hoover.
As Sara Robinson keeps pointing out... as futurists and historians ALL keep pointing out... as Minstrel Boy keeps pointing out... Roughly once every human life cycle -- that's a saeculum, or "a natural century", approximately one hundred years -- the conservatives get full control of our money. THIS is what happens.
The Great Depression is still within memory for many of us through our parents and grand-parents. The Civil War is even within memory through the stories our grand-parents and great-grand parents told our parents which they passed down to us orally and in family histories and books which meant something personally. If we remember and pay attention, we KNOW what happens when we let the conservatives, the "Republicans", whatever name they are calling themselves this fracking time around, we know what happens when the OWNING CLASS gets their hands on Middle-Class money.
The steal it. They flat out steal it, because they believe they are the SONS (never daughters) of KINGS, with the right to rule. Our place, they believe, is to do what we are told and to serve them. They own everything by right of Kingship, therefore anything they do is always okay.
Truly they believe this.
They believed this before the Civil War.
They believed this before the Great Depression and World War II, when Prescott Bush was selling pig iron to the Nazis.
They believe it now when George W. Bush is selling American jobs to India and Mexico, and American dollars to China and Japan, while giving our real estate and 401Ks to the Owning Class in exchange for what? For requiring us... as we approach Middle Age and Elderhood, the Middle Class and our children and grand-children in exchange for losing all our assets, have the privilege of working our asses off for the next 30 years to pay the bill and interest to Bush's children and grand-children.
Because Bush is the Grandson of Prescott Bush, he is Owning Class and we're not, and this is How the World Works. Money trickles UP; Work trickles DOWN. Don't like it? There's always the Army. Trust me, we're going to be using it a lot.
We should be happy we're being allowed to even work to pay off what we owe. We only get that much because we're white, i.e.: human.
The colored are being kicked out of the country or tortured. 'Cause as the former First Lady says, the only good brown person is in the fields. And don't even get her going about the blacks (that isn't the word she used.) Unless we're talking Golf. Or shoe shines. Or maybe music. What with that natural rhythm.
Anyway.
Call your Senator/Congressman today. Before George W. Bush asks James Dobson to have God destroy another great American City because of the ho-mo-sex-uals. Hey, be glad it's Dobson he's asking, not the Bin Laden family.
(NO, I'm not a fracking 911 conspiracy theorist; I'm just having fun. Jeezze. Zero possible way it could be kept a secret. No way, no how.)
Unless of course, you want to work for the Bush family for 30 years. Assuming you are white. If you're a person of color, feel free to ignore everything I said. Because your ass is gone anyway. Unless Congress stops this bill.
Call your Senators.
Call Congress (general number.)
Call your Congress person.
Here's Roll Call (with look-up for Senate/Congress.)
Rock and Roll. Don't let this go down as set up.
Just do not.
|