Paulson, Bernanke, Bush and Wall Street bankers - no strings attached

25.9.2008 12.43 | hakki47 | Työelämä, Business, Politics, Corruption, Crises

When the present administration made the decision to invade Irak it estimated the cost to be 50 Bn dollars. The best estimate is somewhere over 600 Bn. Today. If the same expertize prevails, what will happen to the 700 Bn? This is one of the facts one better bear in mind when considering the alternatives to avoid a global financial meltdown starting in the US.

In Irak the final sting that caused the stampede was twofold. “The weapons of mass destuction” and the outright and intentional lie that “Saddam Hussein harbours and arms Osama Bin Laden”. Now the key argument seems to be “The entire Economy is at danger” according to NYT. Allthough the president does not underline it, it´s not a only a question of the US economy but also a question of future US global dominance.

The US public and Congress seem, rightly, to focus on the two key issues of the bailout plan. “Mr. Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached — no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out.  Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

Here in Finland we went through this kind of a process in the early parts of the 1990s. And with a Paulson-type bailout plan. The consequences; in early 1994 the actual number of unemplyed stood at 777.000 of a workforce of 2,4 million. That is 32,3 %. Over 20.000 entrepreneurs lost their livelyhood on top of which viable companies were forced to bankrupcy by the hundreds. This mainly due to the banks ruthlessly cashing in all and everything they wanted. And the reasons were not always economical. Not by far. That was the result of bailout with no strings attached.

I honestly hope that Congress will not reward themembers of the outgoing addministration and Wall Street bankers by stampeading, feeling forced to making a decision in panic and accept the proposel plan as such. In my estimation this would paralyze US economy and US international role for years. Possibly for good.

More food for thought:

http://hakki47.blogit.kauppalehti.fi/2008/09/23/the-700-bn-sting-and-the-art-of-the-big-con/

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