WH Seeks NEW Power To Use Collapsing Economy To Make It Easier To Loot

[kpete]

White House Seeks New Power to Keep Markets Stable
by Magnifico
Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 06:38:51 PM PDT

From The New York Times:
White House to Seek New U.S. Power to Keep Markets Stable

The Bush administration will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the country’s hodge-podge of regulatory agencies, which many specialists say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they triggered what is now the worst financial calamity in decades. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/29regulate.html?pagewanted=all

I think this is precisely what Naomi Klein warned about in her book, The Shock Doctrine. I suspect the Bush administration is going to try to use the shock of the collapsing economy to quickly deregulate the entire economy to make it easier to loot.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/28/205053/045/710/486435

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Hmmm? - the Moon will be waning on Monday." - Ronald Reagan's Dead Republicon Astrologer*

"So the occultists at the top of the republicon-homelander cabal shitheap are plotting & timing their next Shock & Awe giant step against Americans with the Dark of the Moon. Heh, heh. Perfect."

- Ronald Reagan's Dead Republicon Astrologer*


* Courageously channeled by Spiral Hawk, who (as always) consumed 1/2 dozen cream-filled doughnuts as a prophylatic measure to protect the purity of his Precious Bodily Fluids before entering the vast republicon netherworld of occult, anti-American evil doing.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Smirk." - Commander AWOL, Skull & Boner Republicon Occultist-in-Chief

[salin]

3. The public has now accepted a complete disconnect between

taxpayers dollars and the idea that the govt spending those dollars are supposed to be using those dollars to the benefit of the taxpayers. There should be huge outcry - esp from so-called 'small government conservatives'.

The feds drop the interest rates again - and few taxpayers benefit (mortgages are not easier as is the purported explanation - just makes it easier for banks to recoup losses by paying lower interest on savings and charging still higher interest on loans).

Now - taxpayer backed loans to the very institutions that pushed these "complex" and grossly risky "investment vehicles" - and the tax payer gets what value, exactly? How does this trickle down to the public? Oh - it trickles back to us in MORE DEBT when the still unregulated investment banks default on these loans.

[librechik]

4. another sweeping blueprint like the Patriot Act?

How long has that been in the bottom drawwer? Did Mussolini write it?

[Lasher]

5. Now there's something new, the Bush white house wanting more power.

Democrats will give it to him, too. They'll be afraid that if they say no, Junior will say the wrecked economy is their fault.

We got into this mess with Reaganomics on steroids with inflexible Junior at the helm and appointed trickle-down zealots everywhere in the administration. More of the same won't help, but where is the Democratic politician with the courage to say so?

[Wednesdays]

7. Not just Junior will say it's the Democrats' fault

His words will be echoed throughout the M$M. After all, the meme going around already is that Clinton passed some deregulation thing in 1999, so the whole financial mess is Clinton's fault! :spank:

[Lasher]

8. I've even heard this mess blamed on the next president, I kid you not!

Just the possibility of having a Democratic president is spreading fear throughout the marketplace and that's what has caused the worst economic performance since the Great Depression. For example, have you noticed that the S&P 500 is lower in non-adjusted dollars than it was when Junior assumed office seven years and two months ago? That's so bad it's hard to summon the words to describe it.

Edit: I'm reading through the linked article now. Looks like Democrats might actually grow part of a spine on this one, we'll see.

[formercia]

6. It's a 'Free Market' as long as the boys are not losing money

It's rich peoples' money they are trying to protect. They try to leverage their loot so as to eventually own everything, now they want the taxpayer to bail them out when their massive Ponzi scheme begins to collapse.

The perpetrators of this horror should be arrested and charged with fraud, not bailed out.

[Stalwart]

9. Bush is a Failure? -- Not if

he goes out of office with an approval rating greater than a percentage equal to the number of extremely wealthy people and associated institutions that benefited greatly from his time in office. They took money on the run up. Now they are positioning for making it on the disaster.

Defined in those terms he stands to achieve everything he intended to accomplish for himself and his friends.

All he has to do is breech the levee at a weak spot then leave.

Heck of a job and its hard work.

The big tip off: What ever the program or organization is called, its intent will be the opposite.

We learn so late.

[midnight]

10. Don't let this gang touch/torch another thing.....

[snot]

11. I'm v. worried, too. We HAD a great reg. system; it's just been dismantled --

we should restore Glass-Steagall and the SEC's enforcement strength, among other things.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. I figured something like this was going to happen.

My post from the dungeon

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=198129&mesg_id=198129

[SpiralHawk]

15. Hmmm - interesting Dungeon (9/11) thread

helps weave the whole ugly republicon picture together.

Thanks, Ommmmm

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Unfortunately,

I don't think it can be called ugly republican picture alone. I have a feeling that you will find some democrats supporting this too. It has nothing to do with our two party system but has to deal with our corporatist government, that was started long before Shrub came into power.

BTW.. I am so happy that you took the time to read the thread there and you are very welcomed!

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. This is so funny,

In one place on DU this same article is being heralded as a return to regulation and an end to free market, and then you put GW's name on it and it suddenly becomes an article condemning bush's abuse of power. Two totally different reactions, same article.

Can someone call Paul Krugman and ask him to look into it and tell us exactly what this means so we can be on the same page with how we should feel about it?

[femrap]

14. I bet Paul is having a fit!

We are the Soviet Union. I have long thought that when we protest in DC that it should be at the Fed Reserve Bldg....not the WH or Congress.

It's the Rothschild/Rockefellers, Stupid!

[formercia]

16. To paraphrase a saying from the VietNam era...

Impeach them all and let God sort it out.

[kineneb]

17. whooo, ya. seconded. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. If only we had the power.

[gristy]

20. This was very clear to me when I read the NY Time article this morning

This paragraph is particularly alarming:

The plan would give the Fed some authority over Wall Street firms, but only when an investment bank’s practices threatened the entire financial system.

Apparently, things will be against the rules only when someone decides a given bank's practices threaten "the entire system". As long as you don't bring down the system, you can steal as much as you want.

[Yael]

21. The Cabal has their sights set on Social Security

They won't rest until they have unloaded SS into the open market.

[elleng]

22. Maybe, maybe not, kpete.

Its way down the road, won't happen soon, and is much too difuse to not be changed significantly, IMO. Watch Barney Frank on this and other such.

'Administration officials acknowledged on Friday that they did not expect the proposal to become law this year, but said they hoped it would help frame a policy debate that would extend well after the elections in November.'

[roamer65]

23. Sure...send in a Federal Reserve "SWAT" team and start a real panic.

The minute they invade an institution it will start a real panic on the markets.

[Laelth]

24. Impeach them now!

I'm tired to giving in to the Emperor's insane whims.

:(

-Laelth

[opihimoimoi]

26. Them Pubs have NO SHAME...besides Malfeasance...they have NEFARIOUS GOALS

The GOP are not there to Lead us, to protect us, to invest in our Society/Future...only...sadly,.....THEIRS...Their Future for Them...not us....

Not very INCLUSIVE is it?

[AzDar]

25. Kick...

:kick: