Greenwald: 'If there is any "pitchfork moment", ... it would be this.'

[seafan]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/20/bailout/print.html">Glenn Greenwald, among many others, takes note: The most traumatic events in the Bush era produce almost no debate.


The Iraq War Resolution.

The federal surveillance (FISA) bill.

The USAPatriot Act.


And now, the bailout of the US financial system, pushed to a rapid crescendo by the Bush Administration.



Greenwald writes:

.....

Leave aside for the moment whether this gargantuan nationalization/bailout scheme is "necessary" in some utilitarian sense. One doesn't have to be an economics expert in order for several facts to be crystal clear:


First, the fact that Democrats are on board with this scheme means absolutely nothing. When it comes to things the Bush administration wants, Congressional Democrats don't say "no" to anything. They say "yes" to everything. That's what they're for.

They say "yes" regardless of whether they understand what they're endorsing. They say "yes" regardless of whether they've been told even the most basic facts about what they're being told to endorse. They say "yes" anytime doing so is politically less risky than saying "no," which is essentially always and is certainly the case here. They say "yes" whenever the political establishment -- meaning establishment media outlets and the corporate class that funds them -- wants them to say "yes," which is the case here. And they say "yes" with particular speed and eagerness when told to do so by the Serious Trans-Partisan Republican Experts like Hank Paulson and Ben Bernake (or Mike McConnell and Robert Gates and, before them, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell).

So nothing could be less reassuring or more meaningless than the fact that the Democratic leadership has announced that what they heard scared them so much that they are certain all of this is necessary -- whatever "all this" might be (and does anyone think that they know what "this" even is?). It may be "necessary" or may not be, but the fact that Congressional Democrats are saying this is irrelevant, since they would not have done anything else -- they're incapable of doing anything else -- other than giving their stamp of approval when they're told to.

.....

Second ..... What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism -- where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We've retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses. Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded.

More amazingly, they're free to walk away without having to disgorge their gains; at worst, they're just "forced" to walk away without any further stake in the gamble. How can these bailouts not at least be categorically conditioned on the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains from those who are responsible? The mere fact that shareholders might lose their stake going forward doesn't resolve that concern; why should those who so fantastically profited from these schemes they couldn't support walk away with their gains? This is "redistribution of wealth" and "government takeover of industry" on the grandest scale imaginable -- the buzzphrases that have been thrown around for decades to represent all that is evil and bad in the world. That's all this is; it's not an "investment" by the Government in any real sense but just a magical transfer of losses away from those who are responsible for these losses to those who aren't.

.....

What's most vital to underscore is that the beneficiaries of this week's extraordinary Government schemes aren't just the coincidental recipients of largesse due to some random stroke of good luck. The people on whose behalf these schemes are being implemented -- the true beneficiaries -- are the very same people who have been running and owning our Government -- both parties -- for decades, which is why they have been able to do what they've been doing without interference. They were able to gamble without limit because they control the Government, and now they're having others bear the brunt of their collapse for the same reason -- because the Government is largely run for their benefit.

.....

More of this critically important Greenwald post to follow.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. pitchfork and torch futures going up! nt.

[iamahaingttta]

5. Word!

[lonestarnot]

7. double word!

and stealing that pic!

[alterfurz]

13. tar & feathers, too!

and tumbrels!

[bjobotts]

53. If their were a revolution and we started our democracy all over again

[bjobotts]

54. These wall street profiteers would be the enemy and not included in our democracy

[malaise]

2. Thank You Glen Greenwald

I hope Democrats have learned.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Bookmarked!!!

[seafan]

4. Paulson's decisions "may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" .

Sound familiar? Reminds one of Bush v. Gore in 2000, and the ensuing eight catastrophic years of George W. Bush.


Greenwald continues:

Third, what's probably most amazing of all is the contrast between how gargantuan all of this is and the complete absence of debate or disagreement over what's taking place. It's not just that, as usual, Democrats and Republicans are embracing the same core premises ("this is regrettable but necessary"). It's that there's almost no real discussion of what happened, who is responsible, and what the consequences are. It's basically as though the elite class is getting together and discussing this all in whispers, coordinating their views, and releasing just enough information to keep the stupid masses content and calm.


Can anyone point to any discussion of what the implications are for having the Federal Government seize control of the largest and most powerful insurance company in the country, as well as virtually the entire mortgage industry and other key swaths of financial services? Haven't we heard all these years that national health care was an extremely risky and dangerous undertaking because of what happens when the Federal Government gets too involved in an industry? What happened in the last month dwarfs all of that by many magnitudes.


The Treasury Secretary is dictating to these companies how they should be run and who should run them. The Federal Government now controls what were -- up until last month -- vast private assets. These are extreme -- truly radical -- changes to how our society functions. Does anyone have any disagreement with any of it or is anyone alarmed by what the consequences are -- not the economic consequences but the consequences of so radically changing how things function so fundamentally and so quickly?

Other countries are debating it. The headline in the largest Brazilian newspaper this week was: "Capitalist Socialism??" and articles all week have questioned -- with alarm -- whether what the U.S. Government did has just radically and permanently altered the world economic system and ushered in some perverse form of "socialism" where industries are nationalized and massive debt imposed on workers in order to protect the wealthiest. If Latin America is shocked at the degree of nationalization and government-mandated transfer of wealth, that is a pretty compelling reflection of how extreme -- unprecedented -- it all is.

But there's virtually no discussion of that in America's dominant media outlets. All one hears is that everything that is happening is necessary to save us all from economic doom. And what's most amazing about that is that the Natural, Unchallenged Consensus That Nobody Questions can shift drastically in a matter of days and still nobody questions anything.

.....

The way it works is that Bush officials decree how things will be, and then everyone -- from Congressional Democrats to the Serious Pundits -- jump uncritically and obediently on board, even if they were on board with the complete opposite approach just days earlier, and then all real dissent vanishes. That's how the country in general works. As Atrios says: "We've seen this game played before."

.....

UPDATE: Here is the current draft for the latest plan. It's elegantly simple. The three key provisions: (1) The Treasury Secretary is authorized to buy up to $700 billion of any mortgage-related assets (so he can just transfer that amount to any corporations in exchange for their worthless or severely crippled "assets") ; (2) The ceiling on the national debt is raised to $11.3 trillion to accommodate this scheme ; and (3) best of all: "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" .

Put another way, this authorizes Hank Paulson to transfer $700 billion of taxpayer money to private industry in his sole discretion, and nobody has the right or ability to review or challenge any decision he makes.

We need to pay Congress a little visit by phone, by fax, by e-mail, in person.

They must not capitulate to Bush's Great and Final Robbery of the United States of America.

[KakistocracyHater]

8. Openly insisting they are above the Law

Sound familiar? Reminds one of Bush v. Gore in 2000, and the ensuing eight catastrophic years of George W. Bush.

[druidity33]

10. i bet

that 700 million dollars will be gone in 4 months or so...


:(

[Snarkoleptic]

14. Try BILLION as in thousand-million.

[nikto]

43. Exactly! This $money$ is just to buy time!!

...Just enought time to get out of office

&
outa' Dodge.

:mad:



:puke:

[TankLV]

18. This is the LAST CHANCE folks...

I don't EVER, in the comming months, or year, hear the words that were uttered at the conclusion of the Patriot Act, FISA, etc, etc.

I don't want to here:

If I had ONLY KNOWN what was in there - I wouldn't have voted for...

I didn't KNOW it would be THIS BAD...

We really didn't HAVE A CHOICE...

Mark my words:

At some point in the future, we will find out YET AGAIN that bush* and his fellow band of WAR CRMINALS have LIED and MANIPULATED and MISSPOKE to GET WHAT THEY WANTED, and we will be left to DEAL WITH IT...

sorry, but I see no "pitchforks" as long as cable and the NFL and NBA MLB is still on the TV...

if you want REAL CHANGE - you've got to MARCH DOWN AND TAKE OVER - FORCEABLY - THE RADIO AND TV STATIONS. PERIOD.

nothing less will do...

sorry if this gets my post deleted...but ARMED REVOLUTION is looking pretty attractive about now...

[Dr.Phool]

24. And a few "French Revolution Severance Packages" for perpetrators.

It's supposed to be a deterrent, you know.

[screembloodymurder]

34. Yes, they must learn from their mistakes.

If they don't suffer the consequences of unbridled greed, how will they learn.

[Usrename]

6. Heads they win, tails we lose.

The perfect system.

[mzmolly]

9. Gee, I wonder if we'll be divided by next week?

We're damned if we do, damned if we don't .... again.

[bbgrunt]

11. Mr. Greenwald is so right---and most people have

no idea what all this means and no one but lefty bloggers are giving people a clue. It is truly truly outrageous. Sadly, I don't see outrage except from a few here. By the time it hits them-in fits and starts, they have the camps ready.

[Contrary1]

12. And it leaves me to wonder once again...

how much more before the citizens wake up and do something?

We all read in the history books as children about the Boston Tea Party. These brave people were willing to fight and die for what they saw as an unfair tax levied by England.

Look what the last eight years have brought. And here we sit, waiting for the next insult to our intelligence, the next lie, the next infringement on the freedoms that those men and women fought so valiantly for.

Every president from here on out will see how much more we will take. Bush has opened the door, and he opened it wide.

I am too old to do much. But the young people among us cannot let this go on.

[Dr.Phool]

25. Oh, shut up! Who's going to win Big Brother this week?

And the "Biggest Loser"?

US!

[Contrary1]

27. Damn! For a moment there, I lost track of what was really important.

However, I must confess. I do watch the biggest loser. I like to see people beat the odds.

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[seafan]

16. Marcy Wheeler (Emptywheel): "Here's all you need to know:"

Text of the bailout proposal is here.


Emptywheel:

.....

But here's all you need to know. Hank Paulson is asking for $700,000,000,000. That's $2,333 from every man, woman, and child in the United States.

In exchange for that money, Paulson is unwilling to accept any demands to make markets more transparent, limit executive compensation, or assist homeowners fighting foreclosure. The sole purpose of that $700,000,000,000 is to bail out Wall Street and only Wall Street, but not to fix it, or our larger economy.

He is asking to be absolutely unbound by any law when he spends that money.

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.

The only "string" attached is a semi-annual Congressional report--one in which they would have zero leverage to influence his choices.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

Paulson didn't even have the class to call this a "review"--which underscores the degree to which he wants to be unbound by any and all review, legal, congressional, or anything else.

Hank Paulson--one of the CEOs who got us into this mess--is asking each and every American to give him $2,333 to do with as he sees fit, with absolutely no strings attached.

No.

Bush's last October Surprise.

[TankLV]

19. I see another 'strongly worded letter" coming soon from our so-called "leadership"...

this is fucking unbelievable...

and what will you say to your grandchildren when they ask us why we did NOTHING!!!

and, no, posting here doesn't count at ALL...

[riverdeep]

17. The villagers are too busy voting on American Idol.

And consumed with the minutia of plotlines in Lost.

If someone came into your home and went into your coat closet and took out your wallet and snagged the credit cards and cash, and then headed upstairs for the jewelery, most people would at least make an effort to pay attention and stop them. They are effectively doing that here, and yet, we patiently sit.

I believe that we didn't just reach this stage today, it was a slow build up. Like the story of the frog in the pot, the drug war started this looting process, we were okay with it; the S&L scandal, it wasn't about sex, so we didn't understand it; the Iraq war, with billions of dollars disappearing and we just shrug our shoulders; too much more to count. Like pavlovian dogs, we just open our wallets on command.

[shanti]

20. K&R

!!!

[Pale Blue Dot]

21. K & R

This is exactly right.

[Subdivisions]

22. 'Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday

after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded.'

I was literally shaking with anger seeing them get away with the largest heist in the history of mankind and put it on OUR backs for generations to come.

And now, as I read the proposal, seems they're throwing bad commercial paper on there too. What's next, credit cards? Then to make matters worse, the way the thing is worded they can show a $700 Billion liability without limitation and for an indefinatel period of time.

And they'll get away with it unless there is a national strike.

[coalition_unwilling]

23. Practical question: how would one go

about organizing a general strike?

I have reluctantly cmcluded that only a general strike, coupled with mass tax resistance, will stop this sudden lurch to FASCISM.

[Dr.Phool]

26. I agree.

[Karenina]

28. K&R!

:kick:

[lostnotforgotten]

29. Pitchfork - Where The Hell Is The Rusty Guillotine!

Debt - 596 Trillion Derivatives - 58 Trillion Credit Default Swaps - 2.5 Trillion Credit Card

What the hell is 700B gonna do but provide Bush's cronies with Golden Parachutes.

This is beyond despicable!

[NoFederales]

30. Remember the movie "The Dead Pool", a so-called list of deaders that

wouldn't make to the end of the year as a central theme?

Who would be on a "Pitchfork" pool of corporate and political candidates?

NoFederales

[Kowichobee]

31. Politicians must first feel the impact of their decisions

The whole problem behind the rubber-stamping of the idiotic programs of the Bush Administration is that Republican and Democratic politicians both are insulated from the repercussions of their actions. How many members of Congress have lost their house to foreclosure? How many members of Congress have had a son or daughter killed in combat in Iraq? How many members of Congress have no money to buy gas for their car?

The answer, of course, is zero.

American citizens are the ones, who pay the price for such actions as the AIG bailout. The Federal government literally is borrowing money from wealthy Arabs via T-notes to bail out a poorly administered insurance company - AIG. So the crisis is being transferred yet again to the financial stress on American households.

[pleah]

32. K&R!

:kick:

[coalition_unwilling]

33. GENERAL STRIKE NOW! - n\t

[bjobotts]

56. Brilliant...how do we eat, pay rent, gas etc. General Strike???

[seafan]

35. Circling in for the kill: Paulson resists aid for homeowners or capping executive compensation

''We need this to be clean and to be quick,'' Paulson said in an interview on ABC's ''This Week.''


'Clean and quick.' The language of a major heist or a mob hit.



Paulson resists calls for added help in bailout

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 21, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is resisting a Democratic push to add additional help for households to the $700 billion bailout bill.

Paulson said Sunday that because financial markets remain under severe stress there is an urgent need for Congress to act quickly without adding other measures that could slow down passage.

''We need this to be clean and to be quick,'' Paulson said in an interview on ABC's ''This Week.''

Paulson resisted suggestions being made by Democrats that the program be changed to include further relief for homeowners facing mortgage foreclosures and to include an additional $50 billion stimulus effort. Some Democrats have also suggested capping compensation of executives at firms who get the bailout help.

Paulson said he was concerned that debate over adding all of those proposals would slow the economy down, delaying the rescue effort that is so urgently needed to get financial markets moving again.

.....

Congress, your answer to Bush/Paulson/Bernanke is "NO."




(Cross-posted from GD)

[seafan]

36. Most are unaware of Prescott Bush's attempted right-wing coup of FDR in 1933

BBC program that reveals the attempted right-wing coup in USA in 1933 is a MUST LISTEN: (Discussion thread)



I posted this comment previously in another thread, and it is very relevant to this bailout that Bush, Inc. are forcing on us:

If the American people learned of this event in our history, it would finally expose and blow the doors off the origin of the corporatist thievery and war profiteering led by descendants and associates of Prescott Bush, leading directly to the political and socioeconomic strangulation of our country's foundation today. People know now that *something* is horribly wrong in our country.

A listen to this program will open their eyes like no other.

And the answer would become clear, that we must completely repudiate the corporations' control over the infrastructure of our government and its ruthless, war-mongering control over our foreign policy.

Everyone, please listen to this BBC report. It arms us with the knowledge that this right wing attempted coup of our government has happened before. And the Bush family was in on it, in 1933.



Direct link to BBC program (29 minutes)

[judasdisney]

47. Now I'm sure you wouldn't dare suggest Republicans would stage a military coup just because of FDR

and I'm sure you'd dare not suggest that a faction from 70 years ago would still be trying to undermine Roosevelt's infrastructure.

And don't forget our "Republicans are too inept to pull it off" argument.

And don't forget that Democrats like Pelosi and Reid have our backs.

Rex 84? C.O.G.? Halliburton's detention camps? Puhleeeze.

[vanderBeth]

37. K&R!!!

[Kolesar]

38. Greenwald is an asshole

He can take his absolutist statements and shove them up his pucker.

He thinks he is so all-knowing, but he is too god damned lazy to actually organize or do anything about it, like work on building a movement. His over-wrought and overly-long columns are hardly a starting point for understanding the issues. Can anybody actually USE anything in this Democrat-bashing article to prepare a meaningful letter to Congress or the media?

No, that is not Greenwald's purpose. He just wants adulation...and a fee from Salon.com.

First, the fact that Democrats are on board with this scheme means absolutely nothing. When it comes to things the Bush administration wants, Congressional Democrats don't say "no" to anything. They say "yes" to everything. That's what they're for.

They say "yes" regardless of whether they understand what they're endorsing. They say "yes" regardless of whether they've been told even the most basic facts about what they're being told to endorse. They say "yes" anytime doing so is politically less risky than saying "no," which is essentially always and is certainly the case here. They say "yes" whenever the political establishment -- meaning establishment media outlets and the corporate class that funds them -- wants them to say "yes," which is the case here. And they say "yes" with particular speed and eagerness when told to do so by the Serious Trans-Partisan Republican Experts like Hank Paulson and Ben Bernake (or Mike McConnell and Robert Gates and, before them, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell).

[mhatrw]

40. Greenwald nails it, as usual.

And all you can do is complain that he nails some of your political "friends" in the process.

[trthnd4jstc]

44. Good Post, there are Democrats who seriously question this, like Sen. Sanders, and the House Speaker

[judasdisney]

45. "Democrat-bashing"? Greenwald & Naomi Klein are real Democrats, not Pelosi-Reid Vichy swine

[fascisthunter]

46. Sorry... I Hope any Democrat helping to Push This Through...

gets it right in their rear end..... phony politicians do what looks good, but when they do that, they fuck over their constituents and their own country. Enough with political expendiency... we need truth, not rah, rah political party line garbage. Stop being so damn defensive... it's time to clean up government.

[Bozita]

39. It's another "Shock Doctrine" moment. Naomi Klein's right. So is Greenwald.

[kath]

41. K & R

[nikto]

42. Whatever happened to the phrase: "IT'S OUR MONEY!"?

Uh, who's money IS it anyway?



IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!
IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!







All Konservatives will be quizzed on this repeatedly.

[tnlurker]

48. kick

[bjobotts]

49. Dem leaders in congress are not known for standing up for the people

[bjobotts]

50. This "bail out" should be delayed till after the election as this admin. can't be trusted

and will run like scared rabbits after leaving government.

[bjobotts]

51. The money party is composed of both dem and repub leaders.

[bjobotts]

52. I would rather confiscate their holdings than pay off their debts.

[gtar100]

55. The corruption is overwhelming. My heart just sinks.

That pitchfork should be thrust into every last one of these sick leaches. When will the earth be freed from such tyrants? For thousands of years this has been going on. Same old story, same results. Why is it that those with great compassion and great wisdom are so shut out from power? Is the way of compassion, understanding, and wisdom so ineffective against hatred, corruption, and greed that they stand no chance in the public arena?

Is this just another story of life failing its great hope yet one more time? There is more than enough to sustain even the populations we have now and the ways and the means to create prosperity for all are at our fingertips. We are so close to reaching beyond the boundaries of the Earth into the stars. But those with the means choose to cannibalize instead. Why?

Have the Bodhisattvas failed? The saints? The teachers and healers? Were they overwhelmed by the contempt? Did they misdiagnose? Or was all that a joke and the true spirit of life is sustained by our tears? There are a lot of us here now who, if given the chance, could heal the pain and injuries and build sustainable communities, clean the environment, and provide meaningful education and vocation for anyone who wishes to partake. But the sheik wants a bigger jet, the CEO a larger house, the investor a faster car, and the general a deadlier weapon. So they throw away real treasure for toys. All with money they take from us.

Madness.

[seafan]

57. What a heartfelt post, thanks, gtar100. This search for understanding is universal.

Yet, we press on.