Consider this: The amount of money we have spent on the bailouts

[woo me with science]

could have wiped out all consumer debt and paid off nearly every mortgage in the United States.

If the money had gone to bail out Americans instead - instead of being funneled to the bankers and corporations - where would our economy be right now? Think about it.

The goal of the oligarchs is not to get the American people out of debt and the economy moving. The goal is to make sure that the profitable banking and debt system they have in place is sustained and that the money goes to the right people.

Wake up, America.

_______________________________________________________________________

Sum of the Bailouts

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/04/business/20090205-bailout-totals-graphic.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/the-feds-secret-12-trillion-bailout-of-wall-street/243938/
"Through April 30, the government has made commitments of about $12.2 trillion and spent $2.5 trillion..." Add to that total the 1.2 trillion in "secret" Wall Street bailouts recently discovered.

Sum of Mortgage and Consumer Debt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage-backed_security
http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Debt-Consolidation/Consumer-Debt-Statistics/
"As of the second quarter 2011 there is about $13.7 trillion in total U.S. mortgage debt outstanding."
"The total amount of consumer debt in the United States stands at nearly $2.4 trillion" (excluding mortgages).
.

[Octafish]

1. Banksters stole it and We the People replace their fraud and pay them bonuses, to boot.

Kick me.
Kick this.
Rec this.

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, but we're stuck in this model that what worked in the 19th/20th century is

exactly what's needed in the 21st century. TPTB need to seriously attend some courses that examine rigid paradigm behavior, such as, that's what's always worked before, it's gotta work if we just try a little harder.

Many fine honest corporations have gone out of business following that model, for example.

[bvar22]

3. And there is The Problem.

The Corporations & Banks have become our government.
They OWN both Political Parties.


Now THIS is Bi-Partisanship.
Better get used to it, SUCKERS!
Hahahahahahahahaha!




Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
Jim Hoffa & The UNIONS WILL!!
Will YOU stand with Them?

You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Overseas]

4. K&R. Wonderful thought.

It would have been thrilling to see that kind of hope and change.

[econoclast]

5. Actually, consider this...

Your idea is based on a false premise. Most of the money actually spent in the various bailouts earned interest or dividends and was eventually PAID BACK. If memory serves, the 3 big TARP recepients who still owe are GM, Citi, and AIG

Most of the rest wasn't spent at all.

Paying off every mortgage in America means actually spending 13 or 14 trillion dollars and NOT getting paid back. Kind'a like just printing up 14 trillion dollars and handing every person in the US 48,000 dollars. Inflation through the roof!!!

[woo me with science]

6. "Paid back" = Smoke and Mirrors

1. No, the American people were not paid back. We remain on the hook. There has been no reduction of the debt or what taxpayers owe based on what the banks and the government have done. In fact, we are the ones they are coming for to cover these losses.

2. TARP was approximately 700 billion, but it was only a small fraction of total bailouts. Total bailouts have been at least 11 to 12 TRILLION, and probably a lot higher given that we keep finding evidence of secret payments. So when you and the administration argue that TARP was repaid, your argument is initially weak because you are talking about a small fraction of the overall bailout. The argument completely falls apart when you realize that the "repayment" was primarily smoke and mirrors.

3. Look at what we know already, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. GM repaid TARP bailouts with other bailout money. So did a host of smaller banks who used bailout funds intended for small business administration loans in order to repay TARP money. So not only did the people who could have actually benefited from that money not receive it, but the banks got to lend the money to themselves and claim to repay TARP, while also claiming credit for making small business loans TO THEMSELVES. They used bailout money to repay bailout money. No actual repayment there.. just juggling of books. There is HUGE fraud and conflict of interest here, if you care to look.

4. We now know that the big banks were secretly given massive zero- or nearly zero-interest loans from the Federal Reserve. Because of this, they have been able to profit from this entire bailout by lending the money back at a higher interest rate to the very same government and taxpayers who bailed them out in the first place. The icing on the cake in this whole thing is that the banks have continued throughout this debacle to brazenly misrepresent the value of their own assets, and the government colluded with them by allowing rigged "stress tests" that allowed the banks to claim that they were financially solvent when, in reality, the whole thing was a dirty shell game. How dirty became clear when the government decided in May of 2009 that repaid TARP money would go not to the taxpayers, but toward further subsidizing of the banks. The persistence of this shell game virtually ensures that more big bailouts are waiting for us down the road.

5. The administration likes to crow that the TARP money was repaid early. We are fed the line that doing so was a good thing, but in reality the big banks clamored for early repayment. Why? Because the dirty accounting I described above made it possible for them to do so, and because doing so got them out under the thumb of the US govt. With secret funding and by paying back early, they got their obscenely huge CEO bonuses back. They got to avoid government scrutiny and oversight. Most of all, they got to escape the regulations and restructuring that were proposed at the height of outrage over this scandal. They are essentially back in business as usual and free to operate with impunity as they did before. In fact, they are richer.

6. The banks have resisted any attempts at serious regulation from the start, and this administration and Congress have enabled them. It is no accident that recently passed banking reform was laughed at and labeled "milquetoast." All of THEIR debts are managed on paper, mirages that disappear in a computer accounting program. Bank profits and stocks are skyrocketing, and executive compensation is increasing by huge percentages every year. We, the American people, are the ONLY ones who end up paying for this theft in a material way. Americans are the ones whose debts are backed by collateral. When we don't pay, they come for our houses and our cars, and we are now hearing that they also need to take our Social Security, Medicare, social programs, and education and arts funding because of the financial mess that the corrupt banks caused.

The whole convoluted, toxic system is a scam to transfer wealth in this country from us to them. No, we were not paid back, and the theft is ongoing.