A brief reminder of where George W. Bush and the Republicans took us

And someone wants to vote Republican?

More proof: President Obama is not a Socialist

For anyone and everyone who has complained or who are still complaining about the TARP fund and how big it was and how it was going to cost us so much and how it was not going to do any good and how it was going to cost us so much and how it was not going to do any good and, after all, how rotten President Barack Obama and his administration are, check this out:

Exclusive:  Treasury’s TARP, AID Bailout Costs Fall to $30 Billion

The price to taxpayers of the bailouts and financial rescue of 2008 and 2009 continues to fall sharply.  In figures to be released later today, the Treasury Department will report that the final net cost of the TARP is expected to be about $50 billion, Yahoo! Finance has learned.  Add in expected returns from Treasury’s interest in insurance company AIG, and the final net cost will be closer to $30 billion.

So, let’s see, that would be—“it worked!”?

And keep in mind that it was the previous President, George W. Bush who started the TARP fund, too.  President Obama merely continued it because we were in severe and serious trouble, financially and economicaly.  He was trying to save our collective asses, so to speak, collectively, from a second “Great Depression.

Another bonus:  Apart from the funds spent on housing, Treasury now doesn’t expect to lose money.

Oh, and that money to save GM?  It worked to, don’t forget.  The company and all that manufacturing and the associated jobs are still right here in the US.

Conclusion?  The TARP program has been an enormous success from a policy perspective—it saved the financial system and averted a second Great Depression at a very low price to taxpayers.

But do you think the Republicans, Conservatives, Tea Party members or anyone on the Right will acknowledge this good news?

Certainly not.

I think this is where we jump in and say a) we told you so (he didn’t do it to be a “Socialist”) and b) we now need you to go back, shut up, stop complaining and start to work together, all of us, so we can solve more (eventually all?) our problems.

Especially you, Mr. Beck.

Link to original post:  http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-/article/110920/exclusive-treasurys-tarp-aig-bailout-costs-fall-to-30-billion?mod=bb-budgeting

8 Surprising facts about the shrinking Middle Class in the US

--Income Inquality Is Soaring: In 2005, the bottom 20 percent of household earners had an average income of $10,655 while households in the top 20 percent made nearly 160,000 – a disparity of 1,500 percent, the highest gap ever recorded, Arianna notes in Third World America; --Cash-Strapped States Are Cutting Crucial Services: "According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least twenty-nine states have made cuts to public health programs, twenty-four states have cut programs for the elderly and disabled, twenty-nine states have cut aid to K–12 education, and thirty-nine states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities. America’s states faced a cumulative budget gap of $166 billion for fiscal 2010. Total shortfalls through fiscal 2011 are estimated at $380 billion—and could be even higher depending on what happens to unemployment. These are massive numbers. But when you remember that we spent $182 billion to bail out AIG ($12.9 billion of which went straight to Goldman Sachs), you realize that this amount alone would be more than enough to close the 2010 budget gap in every state in the Union. Toss in the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Bank of America and the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Citigroup, and we would be well on the way to ensuring that no state’s vital services are cut through 2011." --Corporations are skipping out on taxes: "According to the White House, in 2004, the last year data on this was compiled, U.S. multinational corporations paid roughly $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign active earnings— putting their tax rate at around 2.3 percent. Know many middle-class Americans getting off that easy at tax time?" - Arianna Huffington, Third World America; --The Financial Services Sector Is Dominating Our Economy: "As MIT professor Simon Johnson recounted in the Atlantic, between 1973 and 1985, the financial industry’s share of domestic corporate profits topped out at 16 percent. In the 1990s, it spanned between 21 percent and 30 percent. Just before the financial crisis hit, it stood at 41 percent. The share of our economy devoted to making things of value is shrinking, while the share devoted to valuing made-up things (credit-swap derivatives, anyone?) is expanding. It’s the financialization of our economy." --Health care costs are bankrupting Americans: "The vast majority of people who file for bankruptcy are middle-class folks who can’t pay their bills because they’ve lost their jobs or been hit with high medical bills. In fact, a 2009 study by researchers at Harvard and Ohio University showed that health-care problems were the root cause of 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in America in 2007. When the same researchers did this study across five states in 2001, health-care problems caused only 50 percent of bankruptcy filings. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, America had 1.4 million personal bankruptcies in 2009, a 32 percent increase over the previous year. Put another way: Every thirty seconds, someone in this country files for bankruptcy in the wake of a serious illness."; --The Foreclosure Crisis Is Not Abating: “Barry Bosworth and Rosanna Smart of the Brookings Institution found that the catastrophic collapse of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage market resulted in the disappearance of $13 trillion in American household wealth between mid-2007 and March 2009... on average, U.S. households lost one quarter of their wealth in that period," cites Huffington. She continues, “We are facing nothing less than a national emergency: 2.8 million homes faced foreclosure in 2009, and an estimated 3 million more are expected to be foreclosed on in 2010. If there was ever a middle-class Katrina, this is it." --America's Education System Is In Crisis: America's educational system is failing: "Eight years ago, amid much fanfare, the D.C. establishment passed No Child Left Behind...but it turned out to be reform in name only," Arianna explains Third World America . "Despite a goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading and math, eight years later we are not even close. In Alabama, only 20 percent of eighth graders are proficient in math. In California, it’s just 23 percent. In New York, it’s 34 percent." --America's Infrastructure Is Crumbling: "In studying car crashes across the country, the Transportation Construction coalition determined that badly maintained or managed roads are responsible for $217 billion in car crashes annually – far more than headline-grabbing alcohol-related accidents ($130 billion) and speed-related pile-ups ($97 billion)", Arianna writes in Third World America. But Americans are paying an even higher price for our deteriorating roads. Of the 42,000 road fatalities each year, 53% are at least partially the result of poor road conditions. "We are currently spending $70 billion annually on improving our highways, but that’s nowhere near the $186 billion a year that is needed. It's a collision of need versus resources; for far too many of us, it can be fatal," she adds. It is the point of Arianna Huffington's book, Third World America, that some of us, here in the US, are, in fact, members of the "Third World", that is, in poverty equal to undeveloped countries. Did you think we were better than that? Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/8-surprising-facts-about_n_675545.html#s121657

No one burns through money like Americans, Part Two

Okay, here's another story you may or may not have seen.

While all the big banks were in big trouble and needing millions and yes, billions of dollars of our government, tax dollars to save their collective butts, these same banks--Goldman Sachs, AIG, Citibank (as Bill Maher refers to them--and that they've earned--"Shittybank"), Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, etc.--they were also handing out many, many million dollar bonuses to their employees.

Check this out:

"At Goldman Sachs, for example, bonuses of more than $1 million went to 953 traders and bankers..."

Do the math.

One million dollars times 953 traders is perilously close to one trillion dollars, folks.

For one company.

One company.

953 employees.

One million dollars each.

Can you even imagine?

One million dollars as a bonus?

On top of your salary?

Where is the perspective?

To continue:

"Even at weaker banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, million dollar awards were distributed to hundreds of workers."

How nice.

"...Morgan Stanley awarded seven-figure bonuses to 428 employees."

Let's see. 953--million--plus 428--million--and pretty soon you're very near one and a half billion dollars in bonuses.

Even though you're company is going to heck in a handbasket, largely due to how the company was handled and choices made in the organization.

This is insane.

This is insanity.

The banks screwed up, big time, by screwing their clients, largely in mortgages and other really ugly vehicles, then they were going down and losing money but they then handed out million dollar bonuses to hundreds and hundreds of employess--after receiving government money to save their butts.

Oh, yeah.

Americans burn through money like no one else.

We've given billions, maybe trillions of dollars, to these banks, to save their collective butts and they turned around and gave million dollar bonuses to hundreds and hundreds of their employees.

As though they'd done a good job.

Link to story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

So let's change it

CBS' show tonight, "60 Minutes" mentioned that we have given AIG $160 billion dollars, in an effort to prop them up and continue their organization because it was "too big to fail."

$160 billion.

Yow.

Can you imagine what we could have done with that for our schools?

Since we've come to the conclusion that they were this vague "too big to fail", it seems important to state that, when and if we come out on the other side of this financial crisis--God willing--then it's going to be time to break up AIG.

No organization should be "too big to fail."

If their size weakens our country, then this conclusion is surely unavoidable.

Let's dismantle AIG, and as soon as possible.

The auto industry?

So we're tough on the auto industry and we get the head of GM--Rick Wagoner--to quit but how about the much larger banking and investment industry?

How about them?

The guys who "screwed the pooch" on banking, home mortgages, investments, stocks, almost everything, to the tune of trillions of dollars--where are they?

Why, they're still running those very same industries, of course.

Sure, we'll beat up on the much smaller and weaker car companies but when it comes to investment banking, why isn't the government tough on them?

AIG alone has cost us about 200 billion dollars, to support them.

Any talk on revamping how they work? How about shrinking that company a bit so it's not "too big to fail" for the country?

What? No word?

I thought not.

It's like in elementary school when two or three bullies would beat up on one weak one.

Link to story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/30auto.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Our spending total

According to the McGlaughlin Group this evening and the figures they show, the United States' total taxpayer outlays since March 2008 for the financial crisis we're in is 5.32 trillion dollars.

Holy cow, people.

All of a sudden, we're talking about a ton of money.

Are we sure this isn't going to cause inflation?

LBJ's deficit spending for the Vietnam War sure did.

Outrage?

So a letter of resignation was sent on yesterday by one Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. and is also printed in The New York Times today on the op/ed page.

It seems Mr. DeSantis is outraged (outraged!) that he has to give up his nearly $750,000.00 bonus through AIG because it came from the American taxpayers and our tax money.

Well bully for him.

He may even be right to be outraged because Chief Executive Liddy and all the rest of the bosses lead them down the wrong path, sure.

But the fact is, this is the ugly situation--AIG is bankrupt and the American taxpayer was getting screwed for all these billions of dollars. Unfortunately, he and a lot of others aren't getting what was promised them.

But you know what? There's a whole lot of wrong things happening and handing out these millions to the AIG staff doesn't make it right.

And if Mr. DeSantis can afford, as he obviously can, to give away the rest of this, he must not be doing badly himself.

Welcome to the real and ugly world, Mr. DeSantis.

Maybe someone at AIG should have stood up to the people in charge at AIG a long time ago.

Maybe then we wouldn't all be getting the big screw right now.


Link to full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

The original "Piggies", from the Beatles, dedicated to the new "business piggies" of today

Dedicated to AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their former leaders, Angelo Mozilo (former head of Countrywide Home Loans), Bernard Madoff, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, John Thain (former head of Merrill Lynch) and all the Wall Street fat cats who've been cleaning this country's clock, financially, unregulated, for so long. This includes, of course, all the Republicans, in office and out, who've also made this all possible.

Again, have a great weekend, y'all.

Are we done yet?

Could we now, once and for all, put to rest the ridiculous, short-sighted and irresponsible idea that the banking industry in the United States doesn't have to be regulated by government?

Please?

That same deregulation of banking in the US allowed for the huge scale of unsupportable, irresponsible loans to people who should never have had them and couldn't afford them in the first place. While it got these institutions absurd, large and, again, unsupportable short-term benefits and false profits, it has brought about the largest collapse of the international banking system since the Great Depression. This is no longer debatable.

The government, while we do want it small, efficient and responsible, is extremely important for its role as watchdog, particularly against corruption within corporations and multinational corporations.

We are now paying the price for not having scrutinized our banking sector. Indeed, the world is paying this price, really, due to the collapse in confidence of the credit markets.

Can we agree that government has its role in the world and move on?