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A Populist Opening?

by BooMan
Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 02:29:22 PM EST

ABC News reports:

In 2007, Wall Street's five biggest firms-- Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley - paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.
That's $10 billion more than the $29 billion loan taxpayers are making to J.P. Morgan to save Bear Stearns.
Those 2007 bonuses were paid even though the shareholders in those firms last year collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines --their worst year since 2002.

Bear Stearns was bailed out, Lehman Brothers went broke, Merrill Lynch was bought up by Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley received an emergency waiver from the Federal Reserve last night to become bank holding companies in a desperate attempt to obtain credit. The loan guarantees the Federal Government extended to J.P. Morgan could be entirely repaid by simply confiscating the 2007 bonus checks of the employees of the five biggest financial services firms in the country (or, what's left of them).

You have to wonder if the landscape is not ripe for a new form of genuine populism. I'll admit, it would require quite a transformation in the thinking of the Democratic Party's elected officials. But with zero percent of the general public feeling that the economy is improving, anything can happen. Right?

A Populist Opening? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: A Populist Opening? Fat Cats (none / 0)

Fat Cats including bi Oil can't catch a break with the markets.

Concerned about the Paulson bailout, the dollar is battered and just now as I write -

Breaking News: WSJ: Crude oil for October delivery surges $25 to $130, helped by falling dollar amid flight out of U.S. assets and shift to safe-haven.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 02:38:19 PM EST

Populist Opening? aka: Rat Hole (none / 0)

chimpy's now at a 19% approval rating, and he's still in office for one reason..."impeachment's off the table"...thank you madam speaker.

who ya gonna call?

it damn sure ain't the demoRATs, they own this as much as the RATs...the red carpet's out in the gutters of wall street.

Banksy

the revolution will not be televised...Peace

by dada on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 02:57:44 PM EST

Populist Opening? aka: Rat Hole (none / 1)

and if you haven't yet seen wm. greider's piece at the nation, it's highly recommended:

a sample:

Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle
Financial-market wise guys, who had been seized with fear, are suddenly drunk with hope. They are rallying explosively because they think they have successfully stampeded Washington into accepting the Wall Street Journal solution to the crisis: dump it all on the taxpayers. That is the meaning of the massive bailout Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has shopped around Congress. It would relieve the major banks and investment firms of their mountainous rotten assets and make the public swallow their losses--many hundreds of billions, maybe much more. What's not to like if you are a financial titan threatened with extinction?
If Wall Street gets away with this, it will represent an historic swindle of the American public--all sugar for the villains, lasting pain and damage for the victims. My advice to Washington politicians: Stop, take a deep breath and examine what you are being told to do by so-called "responsible opinion." If this deal succeeds, I predict it will become a transforming event in American politics--exposing the deep deformities in our democracy and launching a tidal wave of righteous anger and popular rebellion. As I have been saying for several months, this crisis has the potential to bring down one or both political parties, take your choice.
...
A serious intervention in which Washington takes charge would, first, require a new central authority to supervise the financial institutions and compel them to support the government's actions to stabilize the system. Government can apply killer leverage to the financial players: accept our objectives and follow our instructions or you are left on your own--cut off from government lending spigots and ineligible for any direct assistance. If they decline to cooperate, the money guys are stuck with their own mess. If they resist the government's orders to keep lending to the real economy of producers and consumers, banks and brokers will be effectively isolated, therefore doomed.
...
More important, if the taxpayers are compelled to refinance the villains in this drama, then Americans at large are entitled to equivalent treatment in their crisis. That means the suspension of home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies for debt-soaked families during the duration of this crisis. The debtors will not escape injury and loss--their situation is too dire--but they deserve equal protection from government, the chance to work out things gradually over some years on reasonable terms...

what he said.

the revolution will not be televised...Peace

by dada on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 03:27:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Populist Opening? aka: Rat Hole (none / 0)

Oil up $16.37 closes at 120.92

Gold up $44.30 closes at $909 an ounce.

When your currency is worthless your prices go up.

Lousy lying jerk offs they pushed 401K plans like mothers milk. They wanted to invest our social security money the incredible greedy dirt balls wanted to invest and rake off commissions from the ederly. Then line their christmas stockings with billions in bonus money.

BTW- The market is down 328 DOW --- 81 Nasdaq at this point. If your not a populist your not going to be around. The stupid trickle down clowns will not be seen again for another 50 years.

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; now we know that it is bad economics;" - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

by Salunga on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 03:39:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A Populist Opening? (none / 1)

You have to wonder if the landscape is not ripe for a new form of genuine populism.

The landscape's been right for a little while now.

But the Democrats refuse to bite. Because they're the "sensible liberals" and their buddies on Wall Street might have their feelings hurt (and their wallets) if they gave the country some genuine populism. I'll believe Obama is ready to run on populism the day I hear he's fired a huge chunk of his economic advisory team and hired a few more left-leaning economists.

McCain is there to give the country some faux populism, though. He'll lie his ass off for the next few weeks spouting off stuff that sounds populist, but even if he makes actual promises, he won't be worried about making good on them when he gets to the White House.

A chunk of the country will probably buy his populist "flip-flop" too. And if he gets denounced by folks like George Will (who called him out this weekend), well, that just helps with his "populist cred."

by nonynony on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 03:03:44 PM EST

Clawback (none / 1)

People are rightfully pissed off at the Cash for Trash blank check that Hank wants for his Crony Bailout Bill.

This is just amazingly brazen. An unlimited blank check with no accountability or review by courts or Congress for Hanky Panky to dole out his cronies.

Why is it that the Dems and Obama play ball with this? This is hit it out of the ballpark home run opportunity! A wedge issue to show how corrupt these guys are looting middle class Americans so that the Wall Street fat cats can walk away with even more money. Their hundreds of billions in bonuses over the past several years is not enough?? OK.

I say - go after them - CLAWBACKS on all those bonuses. They were paid based on fraudulent financial statements.

Congress should demand the immediate resignation of Paulson and Bernanke. Then they should pass legislation that forces all the publicly traded financial institutions to open their books completely so that public investors and taxpayers can see what exactly their assets and liabilities are. They should then be forced to restate their financial statements for the past several years so that they are accurate and truthful. Bonuses should then be recalculated. All excess bonuses should be clawed back!! That should happen before any bailout dollars are provided these crooks.

by ab initio on Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 at 03:52:43 PM EST

A Populist Opening? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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