 Well, at least they're being honest about the kleptocratic goals of the new bank bailout plan:
The new financial industry rescue plan, to be outlined in broad terms on Monday in a speech by the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, will not require banks to increase their lending. That is despite criticism that institutions that already received money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, either hoarded it or used the funds to acquire other banks.
The incentives to investors could be in the form of commitments to absorb some of the losses from any assets they purchase, should their values continue to decline. The goal is to relieve the banks of their worst assets so that private investors might then provide more capital.
So, in a nutshell, banks get more taxpayer cash, but taxpayers will not force the banks to lend more, nor will taxpayers have the leverage to throw out the economy-destroying management of the banks that we now own. Instead, our money will be used to ensure that huge private investors that put money into those banks don't lose any money on their risk.
You know, during the Bush administration, people threw the term "kleptocracy" around a lot. But back then, at least taxpayers were getting something for our money. For example, sure - we wasted a shit-ton of cash on Halliburton contracts, but at least Halliburton pretended to fulfill lots of essential services, even if they were ripping us off in the process.
Now, there's no pretense. Taxpayer money is being handed over to the Manhattan millionaires who created this crisis, and we get absolutely nothing in return - not even the illusion of anything, really. In that way, the Masters of Wall Street and Washington have done what no one thought would be possible: They've turned this moment of political change and economic meltdown into an opportunity to distill kleptocracy into its most pure form. |
