I have always maintained that there are three political parties in the US: 1.) Democrat; 2.) Republican, 3.) Capitalist.
The capitalists will be on which ever side is in power and use what ever means they can to encourage the party in power to adopt the best interests of the capitalists. Forget the labels of right, left, conservative, liberal, all that stuff makes people so confused. Labels don't mean anything. Look at actions.
A wise old politicians once told me, "Don't listens to whats I says, watches how I votes." Rhetoric is meaningless in politics. What do they do? What is their record?
The legislation which failed yesterday had some strange bed fellows. There were some pretty big holes in the bill. The bill was promoted by the Democrats who tout they are for the little guys while ultimately defeated by Republicans who are supposed to be pro-Wall Street.
Some thoughts on the failed legislation:
- It bailed out lenders, banks and Wall Street but did nothing for people facing foreclosure and personal bankruptcy. So the American consumers bail out but the financial elites but the American consumers, who just wanted a part of the American dream, are thrown out of their house, thrown under the bus and then stuck with the bill. That is truly getting ph*cked without getting kissed.
- The oversight “commission†to watch over or administer the most massive loan in history had no teeth, no enforcement powers. All they could do was watch because they were given no power to effect anything. Truly a toothless, declawed tiger. If there is no enforcement mechanism there is no law. What were they (we) supposed to do, just trust Wall Street lawyers and brokers to do the right thing with $700 billion?
- There were no consequences written into the bill in case Wall Street lawyers and brokers absconded with (stole) all or part of $700 billion. None! "Trust me, I am a lawyer and I am here to help you." Only a fool loans money without making sure there are ramifications, consequences and/or penalties in case the borrower fails to live up to expectations. For that matter, there were no expectations.
- The legislation suggested that the government could be paid back but there was no requirement. Suggest! That is as weakly written as: perhaps you can pay us back; we recommend you pay us back; maybe you could please pay us back, but only if you don’t mind. Would you loan your neighbor the sum of $700,000.00, with no repayment schedule, no collateral and leverage to get your money back?
That is not a loan! That is a gift. They ought to hire Tony Soprano to negotiate this deal. The contract language might have a lot of ph*cks in it but the expectations, repayment schedule and consequences for failure to pay would be very clear.
Prior to the legislative failure yesterday, over 200 well know economists advised Congress in writing that if the proposed legislation passed it could actually make the financial crisis worse. It could cause a complete economic meltdown.
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