Well, it's been a while since I've written on this site. Last time Lehman had recently failed, Obama and McCain, and the whole of the government were pushing for the Bank Bailout.
Since then it has become obvious that the initial bailout was ineffective in curbing any of the downturn, every aspect of the economy is worse off now than then. Now, those responsible for giving huge bank bailout out, are now trying to distract the populace they took the money from, but focusing on bonuses, which are really such a small amount compared to the huge amounts (trillions), siphoned off to the financials.
Obama from everything I've heard plans on continuing in the spirit of what Bush did in terms of economic policy, apparently he believes more bailouts are the solution even though all the previous ones have effectively been a bust.
Bank of America after consuming Merrill Lynch was suprised that they had more losses than they thought, which is laughable seeing they only examined Merrills books for 1 weekend, which represents fraud as far as I'm concerned when Ken Lewis and the rest of Bank of America ensured the share holders that due diligence was performed in examining the condition of Merrill. Essentially, Ken Lewis flushed a lifetime of credibility in one deal, exposing himself to not be a trustworthy CEO, having pushed a deal that may very well lead to the end of his company and very well may cause a banking catastrophe based on 2 days of examination of Lynchs books. Quite frankly it is laughable.
Madoff proved, that the rules of the extremely wealthy are completely different than for the average citizen as he had been reported as yearly as 2000 to the SEC and no investigation was performed out the 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme ran its complete course, which proves again, that government oversite is as disfunctional and probably outright corrupt as any corporation could dream to be.
All in All we are on the brink of fullout nationalization of banks in this country, if that happens the government will directly control everything, as they already control the creation of high powered money, they set interest rates, with the consumption of the banks officially on the governments role of holdings, they would control the rest of the money creation process, including who does and doesn't get loans, which translates to complete and total control of all major businesses in the country as all large businesses rely on loans to function, not to mention farms etc.. Effectively its the end of anything resembling private ownership, or private business in this country. As with that complete control over money, they can make or break anyone or any business they want at will.
Fascism is hair away from arriving officially.
Definition Fascism: A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism." (From The American Heritage Dictionary)
Sad days.
