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That Giant SUCKUP Sound in Washington
The Seemingly Unlimited Cash Kitty Under Paulson (SUCKUP) is essentially deposing free market capitalism. Where is the outrage? (Also, Roger L. Simon: What Do Al Gore and the Big Auto CEOs Have in Common?)
Let’s see. There’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s “bailout fund.” There’s also the AIG money that’s separate from the bailout fund. Then there are the “efficient car” loan guarantees already on schedule to be provided for Detroit’s Big Three automakers. And don’t forget the “cash injections” heading to the coffers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Oh, and do you see that long line stretching around the block? Those are all the entities, public and private, accompanied by their lobbyists, wanting in on the action. K Street has never had it so good.
It’s all one big SUCKUP — the Seemingly Unlimited Cash Kitty Under Paulson.
Monday, Martin Crutsinger of the Associated Press noted that over $158 billion has been disbursed so far to publicly held banks in the financial services bailout portion of the SUCKUP. Additionally, over 6,000 — you read that right — privately held banks have December or later deadlines for staking their claims.
Nearly totally lost in the flurry of activity is perhaps the biggest financial bait and switch in human history. The original bailout bill, with its made-up $700 billion cost estimate, was sold to Congress on the idea that Treasury would buy “troubled assets,” primarily mortgage loans on homes and other properties in serious delinquency or foreclosure. Yet less than two weeks later, in a move that was never even hinted at during legislative discussions, Paulson decided that the government would instead take ownership positions in U.S. banks. It is more than a little likely that many “yes” votes on the bailout bill would have been different had congressmen known how Treasury would really use the money. Too bad; now it’s too late.
It’s not only that Paulson changed his strategy almost immediately; it’s that he did so with such a heavy hand. A chilling October 14 exchange on CNBC, one that may someday be seen as a pivotal moment in the demise of the free market system as we know it, told us how it went down (bold is mine; the commentator cited is obviously speaking figuratively):
Paulson put all these egos in the room, and basically put guns to their heads, forcing them to take the money to bolster the banking system.
Some of the firms say they didn’t want the cash. … And Paulson at one point said, “Listen, if you don’t want it, it doesn’t matter, gun to your head, you gotta take it.”
Thus, Paulson even forced government ownership on banks that believed they didn’t need it. Where in the world is the outrage?
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Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.
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21 Comments
1. fear Obama:Barneys Ruble? – lol – lol
Barney will go down in history as either the worst sub-slime mortgage salesman, or the worlds biggest liar.
‘Remember,
we gave money to AIG and now we are discriminating against the Big three. Its not fair!
Well Barney!
AIG bought half a trillion dollars of your sub-slime mortgages and are still keeping those illegal houses warm until the illegals come back.
Barneys personal resume from his personal website:
Curb Abusive Sub prime Loans
Restrict Excessive CEO Compensation
Reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Expand Credit Card Consumer Protections
No Significant Accomplishments on These Issues During GOP Control (1995 – 2006)
What a joke-
Name any of the above that has worked?
CEOs are now begging for part of the money tree and hoping to keep their jobs and bonuses.
Our nations steel mills, Furniture manufactures and Textile workers sure missed the boat on the big Purple Barney bankburpcy bailout.
Barney I wouldn’t hire you as an Animal Control Breeding Specialists!
Here is hoping the voters from Mass. will fire you also.
/ just wonder when will the Chinese come asking for Money?
Nov 20, 2008 - 2:16 am 2. Terry Gain:The American public just elected as POTUS a socialist who advocated that Iraq be conceded to al Qaeda and Iran and you expect outrage over anything as prosaic as socialism on the instalement plan?
Nov 20, 2008 - 4:55 am 3. BizzyBlog » Latest Pajamas Media Column (’That Giant SUCKUP Sound in Washington’) Is Up:[...] It’s here. [...]
Nov 20, 2008 - 5:59 am 4. Ten:What Terry Gain said. Plus: Republicans loves themselves some Keynesian bubble economics and Democrats their outright Socialism. Hell, we spend a tenth the time writing our idiots in Congress we do issuing these comments.
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:08 am 5. Be Afraid:The Easy Money to Obama approved causes will only end when Private Control and Ownership of our Economy ends. Obama is using Our Money to Buy America…
Beware Obama!!!
Be Afraid!!!
Be VERY Afraid!!!
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:36 am 6. Roger Godby:Don’t blame me: I donated to Bob Barr (which isn’t to be interpreted as a grand endorsement).
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:49 am 7. The Historian:OBAMA WILL ABANDON LEFTISTS
What is Moveon and Kos to do given political reality in America and the practical nature of their savior:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/democrats-and-radical-left.html
Nov 20, 2008 - 7:22 am 8. anton:1. fear Obama: They already got theirs, Old Billy Clinton gave them most favored nation status and then allowed them to use their slave-labor to undercut our industries and suck our economy dry.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:45 am 9. David Thomson:The United States is becoming a fascist dictatorship. Barack Obama is our Benito Mussolini. Elections are going to be stolen. A number of us will be bankrupted and/or in jail in less than two years. You have not seen anything yet. It’s going to get much worse.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:52 am 10. Will Becker:Are you folks ready for SOCIALISM?
Nov 20, 2008 - 11:04 am 11. JK:I’m not certain that this would qualify for the “Well, They Would Say This Now” department or not. They might though. Dugan (Comptroller of the Currency) was appointed by GW-having served under HW.
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2008-136.htm
Nov 20, 2008 - 11:57 am 12. Paul from Florida:Involuntary servitude. Do as you are told, and if you are nice, and say you like The Boss, The Team or what ever it is being called, well then, you’ll get some money, or credit, or we will buy your bad paper, and you’ll have enough for your kids to go to good schools, and you to retire to the coast of North Carolina with the second wife and golf a bit.
You’ll have plenty of time to think up a story to tell when asked what you did in the great collapse. You did your best. Lots of mistakes made. Sad bit of business.
Nov 20, 2008 - 5:30 pm 13. AnonymousPatriot:Cooking the books for fun and money! See your local US Congressperson for details. And kids, do not try this at home unless you have friends on Capitol Hill, otherwise you’ll probably go to jail.
All consumers should blacklist forever any entity that is in line for the SUCKUP taxpayer money. Put the jerks out of business.
Nov 20, 2008 - 9:36 pm 14. Rachel:Here we go blaming the President Elect who isn’t in the white house yet and thinking we are going socialist. We’ve been there. Too much government for years now. Just finding out? Hold onto your hats!We can only hope the likes of Barney Frank will soon be a past tense.
Nov 21, 2008 - 11:52 am 15. Chris:Lots of loser whining here. The chimp suckered so many of you into supporting him, and you still haven’t learned anything from the damage he’s done to this nation.
Nov 21, 2008 - 2:19 pm 16. EW:the lefty illuminati is forgetting that if you start here.. where do you end?
Nov 21, 2008 - 3:25 pm 17. BizzyBlog » That Giant SUCKUP Sound:[...] This column originally appeared at Pajamas Media on Thursday [...]
Nov 22, 2008 - 5:44 am 18. Nancy L. Jarvis:I am miserable-and I don’t know what or how to do it.
Nov 22, 2008 - 2:25 pm 19. Concerned Citizen:Just be quiet and sink into the slime with that Man.
When will the giant suckup end?
Simple, when markets realize we don’t have just a credit crisis, but a CURRENCY CRISIS and the U.S. treasury has a debt auction that fails. Until then, the politicians will spend like drunken sailors.
Some simple math: Uncle Sam is going into debt another $1.2 trillion in 2009. That plus the rollover of probably another half a trillion of existing debt. This doesn’t count any additional bailouts of credit card debt or FDIC that will have to happen to keep the house of cards from collapse. Call it $2 trillion we’ll need to come up with for next year alone.
Where is this going to come from? The Chinese are going to be busy spending their $2 trillion in reserves on their own country, trying to prevent the inevitable revolution from happening — one more stimulus package the size of their current one and they only have $1 trillion left. Don’t count on oil rich countries either, they are getting hammered now that oil is back to reasonable prices again. The Europeans are busy fixing their own banking debacle. Everyone’s in trouble.
That leave the U.S. stock market, which will probably fall another 30% and some of that cash will no doubt go into treasuries.
Expect double digit interest rates to attract the money out of the market and mattresses to pay for all this fun. Our spendthrift politicians are losing control of the pursestrings to the bond market. This will likely be the last hurrah of this kind of spending, at least with the dollar as we know it. Get ready for a new currency and a good screwing that makes a 10% income tax look light. When the politicians can’t tax your income any more, they will start to tax your savings and wealth. You’ve been warned.
Nov 24, 2008 - 7:34 am 20. BizzyBlog » Obama’s Dangerous Appearance As Community Organizer in Chief:[...] failures at Fan and Fred marked the beginning of the bailout mania, otherwise known as the SUCKUP (the Seemingly Unlimited Cash Kitty Under Paulson), that appears to have no end in sight. It is no [...]
Dec 14, 2008 - 4:09 am 21. BizzyBlog » The Top 10 Disturbing Aspects of Obama’s Geithner Nomination:[...] for the schizophrenic, misleading, and confidence-shaking mishandling of what I have been calling the SUCKUP (Seemingly Unlimited Cash Kitty Under [...]
Feb 17, 2009 - 10:12 pm