- "One bank to rule them all; One bank to bind them..."
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- These are dark times. While you were sleeping the cockroaches
were busy about their work, rummaging through the US Constitution, and
putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over
the nation's financial markets and the country's economic future. Industry
representative Henry Paulson has submitted legislation to congress that
will finally end the pretense that Bush controls anything more than reading
the lines from a 4' by 6' teleprompter situated just inches from his lifeless
pupils. Paulson is in charge now, and the coronation is set for sometime
early next week. He rose to power in a stealthily-executed Bankster's Coup
in which he, and his coterie of dodgy friends, declared martial law on
the US economy while elevating himself to supreme leader.
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- "All Hail Caesar!" The days of the republic
are over.
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- Section 8 of the proposed legislation says it all:
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- "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority
of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and
may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
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- Right; "non-reviewable" supremacy.
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- Congress, of course, is more than eager to abdicate whatever
little authority they have left. They're infinitely grateful for their
purely ceremonial role, the equivalent of Caligula's horse, albeit, with
considerably less dignity. Has even one senator spoken out against this
madness, which--according to informal internet polls--is resoundingly rejected
by the voters? Does it concern the members of congress at all, that the
present financial crisis was brought on by the proliferation and sale of
trillions of dollars of mortgage-banked garbage which were fraudulently
represented as Triple A rated bonds by the very same people who now claim
to need unprecedented and dictatorial powers to fix the problem? Or are
they more worried that the steady torrent of contributions which flows
from Wall Street to congressional campaign coffers will be inconveniently
disrupted if they fail to ratify this latest assault on democratic governance?
The House of Representatives is one big steaming dungheap that should be
leveled and turned into an amusement park instead of a taxpayer-funded
knocking shop. What a pathetic collection of cowards and scumbags.
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- Bloomberg News: "
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- "The Bush administration sought unchecked power
from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial
companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the
markets. Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert
a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world's largest
economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions
taken under its authority.
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- "He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said
Nouriel Roubini an economist at New York University. ``He's saying, `Trust
me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is
not a monarchy." (Bloomberg)
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- The banksters own this country, always have; only now
they've decided to strip away the curtain and reveal the ghoulish visage
of the puppet-master. It ain't pretty.
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- Paulson decided that the financial markets needed an
emergency trillion dollar face-lift just weeks before his former business
partners at G-Sax were dragged off to the chopping block. Was that the
reason? Everyone on Wall Street knew that the bulls-eye had already been
ripped from Lehman's bloody back and was about to be fastened on Goldman's.
Now, it looks like they will escape their day of reckoning due to Paulson's
eleventh-hour reprieve. Nice touch, eh?
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- From the proposed legislation: LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR
TREASURY AUTHORITY
- TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS
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- "(3) designating financial institutions as financial
agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties
related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required
of them."
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- Market Ticker's Karl Denninger summed this up best:
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- "This is the de facto nationalization of the entire
banking, insurance and related financial system..That's right - every bank
and other financial institution in the United States has just become a
de-facto organ of the United States Government, if Hank Paulson thinks
they should be, and he may order them to do virtually anything that he
claims is in furtherance of this act.....The bill gives Paulson the ability
to nationalize unlimited amount of private debt and force you and your
children to pay for it."
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- Denninger again:
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- "The claim is that this is intended to 'promote
confidence and stability' in the financial markets.
- It will do no such thing. It will instead strike terror
into the hearts of investors worldwide who hold any sort of paper, whether
it be preferred stock, common stock or debt, in any financial entity that
happens to be domiciled in the United States, never mind the potential
impact on Treasury yields and the United States sovereign credit rating.
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- I predict that if this passes it will precipitate the
mother and father of all financial panics." (Market Ticker)
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- Amen. The transformation from a free market to a centralized,
Soviet-style economy run by men whose judgment and credibility is already
greatly in doubt; does not auger well for the markets or the country. Anyone
with a lick of sense would cash in their chips first thing Monday and look
for capital's Elysium Fields overseas or as far as possible from the circus
sideshow now run by G-Sax ringleader, Colonel Klink.
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- Paulson's Chicken Little routine might might have soiled
a few senatorial undergarments, but let's hope the American people are
made of sterner stuff and will reject this charade. The conversation should
be shifted from conceding more authority to hucksters in pin-stripes to
indictments for securities fraud. Even the most economically-challenged
nation ought to be able to afford a few sets of leg-irons and a couple
hundred jail cells. That's all it will take. That, and a couple brisk dunks
on the waterboard. Glub, glub.
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- Paulson's plan to revive the banking system by buying
up hundreds of billions of dollars of illiquid mortgage-backed securities
(MBS) and other equally poisonous debt-instruments; ignores the fact these
complex bonds have already been "marked to market" in the recent
firesale by Merrill Lynch. Just weeks ago, Merrill sold $31 billion of
these CDOs for roughly $.20 on the dollar and provided 75 percent of the
financing, which means that the CDOs were really worth approximately $.06
on the dollar. If this is the settlement that Paulson has in mind, than
the taxpayer will be well served. But this will not recapitalize the banks
balance sheets or mop up the ocean of red ink which is flooding the financial
system. No, Paulson intends to hand out lavish treats to his banker buddies,
while interest rates soar, pension funds collapse, the housing market crashes,
and the dollar does a last, looping swan-dive into a pool of molten lava.
Thanks, Hank.
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- Economist and author Henry Liu summarized the current
maneuvering like this: "The Fed is merely trying to inject money to
keep prices not supported by fundamentals from falling. It is a prescription
for hyperinflation. The only way to keep price of worthless assets high
is to lower the value of money. And that appears to be the Fed unspoken
strategy."
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- Indeed. The Fed and Treasury have decided to backstop
the entire global financial system (foreign banks can access the Fed's
facilities, too!) with paper money which is rapidly losing its value. Watch
the greenback tumble tomorrow in currency trading.
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- Congress is getting steamrolled and the American people
are getting snookered. Consumer confidence--already at historic lows--is
headed for the wood-chipper feet-first. Something has got to give.
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- One minute everything is hunky-dory; the subprime meltdown
is "contained" and "the fundamentals of our economy are
strong".(Paulson) And, less than a week later, congress is forced
to surrender their constitutionally-mandated right to oversee spending
in order to forestall economic Armageddon. Which is it? Or is the real
objective just to keep the country on an emotional teeter-totter long enough
for all state-power to be subsumed by the Wall Street Politburo?
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- No one knows what will happen next. We are in uncharted
waters. And no one knows what the political landscape will look like after
the dust settles from this outrageous power grab. According to Paulson,
things are so dire, the entire nation will be reduced to smoldering rubble
and twisted iron. But can we trust him this time after his long litany
of lies?
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- Isn't it about time to send the cockroaches scuttling
back to their hideouts and bring in the cleaning crew to hose the whole
place down? It sounds like a job for Ralph Nader, a man of vision and unshakable
integrity. Give Ralph a badge and let him deploy his Raiders to Wall Street
armed with bullwhips and tasers. Let them post a guard in every CEOs and
CFOs office and every boardroom on the Street---and if even one decimal
is accidentally moved to the right or left on the corporate ledger; clap
them in leg-irons and drag them off squealing to Guantanamo. That's how
you clean up Wall Street!
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- Don't let the prospect of a national crisis trick you
into giving up your freedom, America. The people behind this scam are the
same landsharks and flim-flam men who polluted the global marketplace with
their snake oil and toxic sludge. These are the fraudsters who manufactured
the crisis to begin with. This is just the latest installment of the Shock
Doctrine; engineer a crisis, and then, steal whatever is left behind. Same
sh**, different day. Be resolute. Don't budge. Our economic foundations
may be crumbling, but or determination is not. This is our country, not
Goldman Sach's. The people who destroyed America must be held to account.
Their time is coming. Justice first.
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