The continued looting of the U.S. treasury

I've just got done learning about how this whole Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac crisis started and, again, it turns out to be little more than the looting of our treasury by another bunch of asshole bankers, lawyers and accountants. Bunch of greedy mother-fuckers who gamed the system so they'd come out ahead and fuck everybody else in the process. And now we're supposed to bail out these motherfuckers who put us in a horrible financial crisis - thanks to their greed and disregard for anybody else.

They spend much of their time, energy and money preaching the wisdom of the free market and demand the government stay OUT of their business, arguing that American business and the American people will flourish if left to their own devices. The Market, they preach, will self-correct.

Then when the shit hits the fan because of their own greedy practices (namely lending money to people who don't really understand the terms and who couldn't possibly afford the loans they were getting) the once market-wise bankers want to be bailed out by the American Tax Payer. That's right, you and I get to underwrite the failure of their predatory lending practices to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars.

I heard it described today as "...the Capitalism of Profit and the Socialism of Debt." Use that line the next time some asshole right-winger wants to argue about the burdens of oversight and regulations.

Dear Working-Class America

....please take a look at your future. That is, unless you're willing to take your rage out on those who are responsible for your slide into poverty.

What happenss when banks have too much money?

In the last few years around where I live there has been a glut of new banks opening. Every available corner and shopping complex has one if not two banks located there - and most within five miles of their nearest branch. It's getting pretty ridiculous and every one I know has commented on their viral spread.

Then, as you may have heard, the mortgage crisis came. The real crisis was, from the perspective of those with truckloads of money to invest in real estate, was that there was more money available than there were loans to invest in. That's when the banks started underwriting some pretty sketchy loans to anyone fool enough to take one - and eventually the default of the same master plan.

You and I, as taxpayers, will bail them out undoubtedly.

Douglas Rushkoff, author and futurist, has written an interesting piece on his blog about this whole mess. Check out
WILLING DUPES: Douglas Rushkoff on the credit crisis at Arthur Magazine.

Shake That Piggy Bank, There's Something Rattling In There!

What a cuntry.

Not only has the Bush administration emptied the U.S. taxpayer's treasury for the benefit of their war profiteers (even the big Dick hiding behind the little Bush made off with a cool 31 million in Halibucks, I'm told), but now it's evident that the mortgage bankers will make off with whatever is left.

The Federal Reserve not only has taken action unprecedented since the Great Depression — by lending money directly to major investment banks — but also has put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in questionable trades these same bankers made when the good times were rolling.

....and Republicons and Wall Street bankers have the audacity to whine about proposals for new regulations to prevent another near-collapse.

But both President Bush and Mr. Paulson, a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, remain philosophically opposed to restrictions and requirements that might hamper economic activity. NYT link

..."economic activity" no doubt defined as money flowing out of our treasury into private bank accounts. Personally, I'm "philosophically opposed" to illegal wars and getting ripped off by bankers and their predilection for fine print. Somebody needs to watch over the hen house because congress sure as hell isn't doing it.