The bail out has already failed. Hundreds of billions dollars of tax
payer's have already
been poured in the US banking system and what have been the results?
Acquisitions
Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase
Countrywide Financial by the Bank of America
Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America
American International Group by the US federal government
Lehman Brothers by Barclays plc
Washington Mutual by JPMorgan Chase
Lehman BrothersC by Nomura Holdings
Bankrupt, filed for bankruptcy protection, or closed and received by
the FDIC Company
Metropolitan Savings Bank, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
NetBank, Alpharetta, Georgia
Miami Valley Bank, Lakeview, Ohio
Douglass National Bank, Kansas City, Missouri
Hume Bank, Hume, Missouri
ANB Financial, Bentonville, Arkansas
First Integrity Bank, Staples, Minnesota
IndyMac Bank, Pasadena, California
First National Bank of Nevada, Reno, Nevada;
First Heritage Bank, Newport Beach, California
First Priority Bank, Bradenton, Florida
The Columbian Bank and Trust Company, Topeka, Kansas
Integrity Bank, Alpharetta, Georgia
Silver State Bank, Henderson, Nevada
Lehman Brothers
AmeriBank, Northfork, West Virginia
Washington Mutual
That’s 7 acquisitions and 17 bankruptcies
The only difference the bailout makes is that Paulson can raid the
Federal bank, precluding the necessity of having to go through
congress every time a Bank needs bailing out.
This practice of throwing money at the banks has already proved to be
futile, but that won’t stop them throwing good tax payers money after
bad to rescue the interests of the ruling plutocracy
Want to know who is responsible for the mess? Look no further than the
400 richest men in the United States who are taken 300,000,000
Americans for the ride of their lives.
Forbes publishes list of 400 wealthiest Americans
By Tom Eley
24 September 2008
Even as the US careens into its greatest economic calamity since the
Great Depression, the financial aristocracy whose parasitism and
criminality has brought on the crisis has held its own—and then some.
The recently released Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans shows
that the combined wealth of the aristocracy has increased 2 percent,
even amidst the financial breakdown and recession of the economy. “In
this, the 27th edition of the list,” Forbes glumly notes, “the
assembled net worth of America’s wealthiest rose by $30 billion—only
2%
—to $1.57 trillion.”
Readers will be forgiven for tripping over the word “only” in
relationship to a $30 billion increase in wealth for 400 spectacularly
wealthy individuals. This “modest” figure—the increase in wealth for
the oligarchy in a bad year—is only slightly less than the federal
government has budgeted for unemployment insurance for all of 2008.
The overall wealth of the 400 richest Americans is staggering. There
are no multimillionaires on the list; a minimum of $1.3 billion being
required to gain admittance, while the average net worth is $3.9
billion.
The combined wealth of the richest 400 individuals is $400 billion
more than the entire discretionary spending budget for the federal
government. It is more than $300 billion larger than the combined 2008
outlay for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It is more than 15
times the combined appropriations for education and highways and mass
transit.
The personal wealth of the top 400 Americans is more than twice the
combined annual GDP of all of sub-Saharan Africa, home to nearly 800
million people, the vast majority of whom live in dire conditions. It
is also several hundred billion dollars larger than the GDP of the
world’s eighth biggest economy, that of Spain.
The club’s richest member is Microsoft magnate Bill Gates, whose net
worth, $57 billion, is greater than the annual GDP of about 120 of the
world’s 180 nations.
The year’s biggest winner is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
whose personal wealth increased by $8.5 billion to $20 billion, making
Bloomberg the nation’s eighth richest individual.
On Tuesday, without a hint of irony—much less shame—Mayor Bloomberg
proposed brutal across-the-board budget cuts for the city of New York.
He is calling for cutbacks totaling $500 million for the current
fiscal year, to be followed by much steeper cuts in the coming years.
Meanwhile Bloomberg, in the course of just one year, pocketed 17 times
what he is now demanding that millions of working people in New York
City forfeit in terms of vital services and jobs. Only in America!
However, owing to the turbulence of the stock market, great fortunes
were being both made and squandered even as Forbes published its list.
“The Forbes 400 is a snapshot of estimated wealth on Aug. 29, 2008,
the day we locked in prices of publicly traded stocks,” the magazine
wrote. “Given how unsettled the stock market is, some of those on our
list will become significantly richer or poorer within weeks—even days
—
of publication.
Many, including AIG shareholders Eli Broad and Steven Udvar-Hazy, have
lost hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Becoming poorer is of course a relative process; we can be certain
that none of the demoted oligarchs faces hunger.
Among this year’s biggest “losers”—and there is a degree of poetic
justice in this—are casino moguls. Kirk Kerkorian has managed to
squander $6.8 billion of ill-gotten social wealth, while the fortune
of his rival Sheldon Adelson “has fallen $13 billion in the past 12
months—$1.5 million per hour.” Adelson has managed to lose more in an
hour than most US workers will earn in a lifetime.
That the nation’s financial aristocracy continues to gorge itself even
as the economy stagnates demonstrates the increasing parasitism of the
elite. The wealth of the super-rich is no longer bound up with the
growth of the real economy, as it was in the days of Carnegie,
Rockefeller, and Ford. Just the opposite is the case. The wealth of
the aristocracy is based on the plundering and destruction of the real
economy.
A perusal of the basis of the Forbes 400 members’ wealth illustrates
the parasitic nature of US capitalism. The largest two categories on
the list are “finance” with 65 members and “investments” with 51.
Among the “sources” Forbes lists for these categories are “leveraged
buyouts,” “investments,” “hedge funds,” “money management,” and
“banking, insurance.”
The next largest category is “media/entertainment,” with 36
representatives among the Fortune 400, followed by the 35 members in
the highly toxic “real estate” category. There are 30 members of the
Fortune 400 who have reaped their fortunes from “technology,” almost
all from Internet ventures or computer technology. Twenty-eight more
are found in the “oil/gas” category.
Among the Fortune 400 there are 20 in the “retail” group, among them
seven members of the Walton clan, owners of Wal-Mart, who collectively
have assets of over $100 billion.
It has to be asked: Are there any members of the Forbes 400 actually
associated with producing commodities or creating wealth of some sort?
There are only 19 members of the 400 in the category called
“manufacturing.” However, upon inspection we see that this group is
comprised of corporate raiders, oil refiners, inheritors, and
controllers of holding companies. Only five members of this
classification are actually associated with producing a commodity—and
four of these produce light consumer goods.
Likewise, there are only 11 members of the financial aristocracy whose
wealth has been associated with commodity production in the
agricultural sector. But among these, nine are inheritors of the
Cargill fortune. Of the other two, one has gained his fortune selling
discount cigarettes; another by producing pesticides in Argentina.
There are nine members of the group in the “apparel” category, which
is split between those whose wealth has come from retail sales, such
as the owners of the Gap clothing stores, and those who have made
windfalls by producing consumer goods in low-cost countries and
selling the products for inflated prices in the US, such as Phil
Knight of Nike.
There is only one member of the “construction/engineering” category,
the 321st richest American, Alfred Clark, who has made his fortune by
building sports stadiums. The “food” category, of which there are 21
members, is divided among retailers, inheritors, and the owners of
single product lines, including the owner of the Slim-Fast empire.
There are only three members of the “shipping/trucking/transport”
category, and one member of “mining/lumber” (whose wealth came from
overseas ventures).
In short, the incredible fortunes accumulated by the American elite
have precious little to do with socially useful production. On the
contrary, the financial aristocracy has reaped its obscene piles of
wealth from the gutting of infrastructure, the shuttering of
industrial production, and the impoverishment of working people, the
broad mass of the population.
Reply Reply to author Forward
On Sep 29, 5:52 am, VT Sean Lewis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The Economic Rescue/Bailout for Dummies 101
> September 28, 2008
> Sean Lewis
>
> Think of it this way.
>
> Your business needs money to pay the bills, but your
> creditors demand payment NOW! Your suppliers demand
> money before they ship and the guy next door is going
> out of business so he is giving the same goods you
> have for half price with a 50% lost.
>
> You can get a short term business loan from the government.
> Resume regular business after the fire sale ends
>
> Or you can get a Vulture Capitalist buy your business for
> $.10 on the dollar, Which will mean the laying off of 90%
> of your employees and a reduction of services to the
> customers
>
> Or the Venture Capitalist can take out insurance on your firm
> stating you will stay in business and he is good for your debt
> and he receives a portion of your future profits. But the
> Venture Capitalist gives you no money to run your business
> pay your creditors of suppliers
>
> The Republican insurance plan is this one..
>
> he can take out insurance on your firm
> stating you will stay in business and he is good for your debt....
>
> The White House Plan is this one....
>
> You can get a short term business loan from the government.
>
> What is happening without a Rescue/Bailout....
> Or you can get a Vulture Capitalist buy your business for
> $.10 on the dollar,
>
> Would you put money up betting this guy will not go out of
> business?
> Can this guy buy insurance with money he does not have that
> he will not go out of business?
>
> These are the scenarios, which one makes sense?
>
> The Bank is the Business.
> The Product are home mortgages
> The Competitor is foreclosed properties.
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