Posts Tagged bailouts
Obama Does Not Begrudge Wall Street Terrorists’ Robbing the National Treasury to make a Profit?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 10th, 2010

President Obama – you cannot be serious?!?
These Titans of Socialist Capitalism take the money we bailed them out with – including “rigging” the system with the help of Paulson and Geithner so that AIG’s TARP money was re-directed to them – go on to make an enormous profit by trading with that money (which was not the purpose of the bailouts), and you call them savvy businessmen?
Now almost a year ago to the day, you gave the following remarks at the White House:
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”
So are they failures? Or savvy businessmen? Or both?
This author recently pondered your failure to immediately regulate and reign-in Wall Street after your election when they were still on the ropes. Here is the bottom line: They screwed up, then they screwed us, and then you screwed up?
Do you see the problem here, Mr. President. The cognitive dissonance regarding your words and deeds towards Wall Street is deeply disturbing to those who supported you in 2008, especially when you had the perfect combination of opportunity, power, and the political capital to reign in these financial terrorists right after you took an oath to protect the American people. You did nothing, and now it is too late. Was it intentional? Or are you being obtuse?
When political rhetoric collides with inaction, people become dismayed. Maybe the young voters who are stepping to the sidelines are correct?
Disillusionment is too mild a word for such a betrayal if it was just the “same old wine in a brand new bottle“, President Obama.
“Meet the new Boss . . . Same as the Old Boss . . .We Won’t Get Fooled Again!”
Shame on us for ever having the audacity to hope? I hope not.
OK, President Obama, “Where’s The Beef”?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, economy on February 6th, 2010

You are making all of this noise about refocusing TARP (bailout) funds towards small business.
President Obama, this blog noted that you said the same thing 100 days ago . . . read it right here.
So Where’s The Beef?
All Proposed U.S. Budget Deficit Reduction Plans Are “Nothing Burgers”
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Budget Deficit, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on January 24th, 2010
![]()
“Nothing Burger“: Two pieces of bread slapped together with nothing in between. Usually eaten when you have nothing in the house except bread or are too lazy to spend 2 minutes making a decent sandwich.
- definition in the The Urban Dictionary
This is utter laughable.
Senator Gregg Judd (R-New Hampshire), the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, claims the Democrats are not serious about cutting the deficit. He first offered a plan co-sponsored by Democratic Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D – North Dakota), that would require Congress to establish a bi-partisan commission to study deficit reduction recommendations, and if a fixed number of its members could agree on specific budget cuts, Congress would then be compelled to vote on those measures before the 2010 mid-term elections this Fall.
President Obama and the Democrats endorsed a similar deficit-reduction plan, but without the requirement of a mandatory vote in the Senate on the issue. Senator Gregg then criticized the Democrats, calling their plan a “nothing burger“, insinuating that they were not serious about deficit reduction. And the Republicans are?
Senator Gregg, you need a little lesson in transparency.
First, there is serious doubt about whether you can even get the support of your own party on this issue – both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (D – Ohio) stated they will not back the plan because the Republicans are philosophically opposed to tax increases. In other words, Republicans tacit acknowledge that deficit cutting would likely involve raising taxes, and they would rather let the country go bankrupt before they would make it pay its own way – now that is fiscal responsibility at its finest.
Second, that nasty little chart just below indicates that the real explosion in the government debt started in 1981 – after Ronald Reagan took office and the Neo-Conservative movement began. The largest deficit increases (as a percentage of the previous deficit) occurred from 2003 to 2006, not ironically when President Bush and the Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress. Moreover, that does not even account for the estimated $600 Billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we borrowed from China through 2007, – projected to increase to $1.6 Trillion before Obama took office - and which was “kept off the books” by the Bush Administration, Enron style.
Ouch!

Third, no Washington politician is ever going to be serious about fiscal responsibility, regardless of which party they belong to – it just does not make political sense if you are an incumbent running for re-election. Besides, Senator Gregg, proposing mandatory deficit reduction is easy when you are being disingenuous about the political realities of the issue.
One final word on that lesson about transparency, Senator Gregg: While serving as the Senate Republican’s lead negotiator and author of the TARP program (Wall Street bailouts) in the Fall of 2008, you recommended that Bank of America receive $45 Billion from the TARP funds – at a time when you owned millions of dollars in Bank of America stock. After your Bank of America stock recovered rather nicely this past year, you are now proposing that the TARP fund be terminated so as to not create a “piggy bank” for politicians.
And you have the audacity to criticize the Democrats, Senator Gregg?
Maybe Rome (America) Really is Burning
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Economics, Ethics, Financial Crisis, Government, Legal & Justice, Morality, Politics, Uncategorized, crime on December 8th, 2009

Do you think that maybe America shall reap what what she has sown?
This is not some biblical or religious condemnation nor commentary. It is obvious that the country is at a watershed moment in it’s history, and it does not bode well for the future. A speech given by a Senior FBI Special Agent in Charge John Gillies in Boca Raton, Florida noted that the seeds of widespread corruption in this society were sown by failures in personal ethics and integrity, and he further insinuates that greed is the driving force.
Agent Gilles said that cheating and corruption in it’s multitude of forms, whether by law enforcement and public officials, wealthy tax cheaters, sports stars like Tiger Woods, or business “fraudsters”, only undermines the moral fabric of our society, and is “the number one criminal threat” in the United States.
It is reasonable to argue that this social paradigm shift has occurred in an atmosphere of unrelenting hubris that this country has displayed in attempting to force the rest of the world to kneel to it’s whims and philosophies – particularly the notion that the United States is the standard-bearer of economic and moral values that all other nations and societies should emulate.
Nonetheless, some will continue to blame the lack of conservative values and the influence of liberalism as the root cause of this condition. If that is the case, then can anyone provide a logical explanation for the dominance of Conservatism from 2001 through 2008, and the concomitant rise in these problems? Special Agent Gilles noted that there was a 25% rise in corruption and fraud during the past five years – and that the scale of these crimes was unprecedented. Remember: Bush and the Conservatives had virtual control of the political structure throughout that period, and had gutted the regulatory and legal systems of the means to uncover these crimes.
Just food for thought.
Do Wall Street Vampires Really Need H1N1 Vaccinations?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Health & Diet, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on November 9th, 2009

It is a fair assumption that people without hearts and souls are immortal, and not subject to the vicissitudes of Mother Nature’s nasty flu viruses that she visits on us annually. So why does Wall Street get first crack at these vaccinations?
I guess women, children, and the elderly are dispensable in comparison. Now that is real evidence of rationing health care and Death Panels - - just not quite in the form that the Tea Baggers envisioned. And it only cost Wall Street $5 Billion in campaign contributions over the past decade to the Washington politicians in order to buy protection from their own malfeasance, and the random cruelty of Mother Nature.
As well as unjustifiably obscene bonuses, to wit.
What a bargain.
Greed is Good!
Posted by Lance Haley in Uncategorized on October 22nd, 2009
![Greed is Good [1] Greed is Good [1]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Greed-is-Good-1-222x300.jpg)
Remember the mantra ”Greed is Good” ?
Thank you Brian Griffiths for resurrecting the ghost of Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) from the movie Wallstreet.
Mr. Griffiths is an international advisor for Goldman Sachs (at least he is as of this moment – tomorrow is another story). He spoke at an economic conference held in London yesterday where the topic of discussion was . . . oh this is really good . . .
“What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”
From there, it gets even more surreal.
Mr. Griffiths defended this weeks report coming out of Goldman Sachs that record compensation packages of $16.7 billion were being paid out to the company’s employees for the first nine months of 2009, an increase of 46 percent from a year earlier. If you think that obscene information just made your blood pressure go through the proverbial ceiling, his comment justifying these compensation figures will absolutely cause you to ”blow a gasket”.
“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
Yes! That is how he rationalized this unconscionable decision from a financial institution that the U.S. taxpayer just bailed out.
But Mr. Griffiths is not done. He concedes that “[i]t was the failed moral compass of bankers which was primarily responsible for why we had this crisis. The question is: what can we do in the culture of institutions to make them behave in a more socially responsible way?”
Ahhhhhhh . . . Give them more money???? Yea, that’s the ticket! That should stop this ever-escalating climb into the stratosphere of economic insanity. Right?
But he ends on a very positive note, telling the audience that “To whom much is given much is expected,” he said. “There is a sense that if you make money you are expected to give.”
Yes. That’s what they will do. Engage in an ignoble and altruistic charitable act in order to wash away the sins of avarice, greed, and excess so that one can tolerate the inequality of his lifestyle compared to those less fortunate so as to inspire prosperity and opportunity in them, that they might become like him and do the same for others in a long cycle of never-ending prosperity and go on tolerating this inequitable way of living so that even more will prosper, all in the hopes that someday we will all be equally filthy rich and working ever harder each day to make more money to show the opportunities that await others who aspire to our level of greed and avarice.
I like it. I think I can handle the job. Let me check . . . no pulse, no heart, ice in my veins and in my glass of 20 year old scotch, no conscience, not a moral fiber in my body. Please hand me a cigar. When can I start?
PopuCon Teabaggers Give Whole New Meaning to Getting Teabagged
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Congress, Conservatives, Financial Crisis, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Tea Party, Uncategorized, Wall Street, taxes on October 21st, 2009

There is an interesting disconnect between what the current populist-conservative Tea Party movement pretends to represent, and certain historical facts that undermine their agenda. The idea for this nascent PopuCon (Populist-Conservative) phenomenon which first appeared in Spring of 2009 is modeled after the Boston Tea Party, which was a protest against a tax levied on tea imported from England’s East India Tea Company to the American colonies.
Just one problem . . .
There have been no new taxes levied on Americans since the very day that President Obama was inaugurated.
Moreover, according to the group’s newest YouTube video promoting their Tea Party Express II tour, they are also protesting bailouts, out-of-control spending, and government-run health care.
Hey Teabaggers, did you also know . . .
1) that the bailouts (TARP funds) were approved, and the first $375 Billion were dispersed by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, when George Bush was President and the Republicans controlled Congress?
2) that George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress took power in January 2001, outgoing President Bill Clinton had left them with a balanced-budget – which they subsequently decimated in six years, running up over $500 Billion in deficit spending (not including the $750 Billion allocated and spent on the Iraq War – which is borrowed from the Chinese government)?
3) Medicare, a government-run health care program for the American elderly, has been in existence for approximately 45 years, and some of your members would have no health care if not for this United States government-run agency.
I am still having a difficult time finding any pictures of protests regarding these very important facts (at least, according to your agenda) back in October, 2008. Can anyone help me?
This cup of tea is rather tepid and awfully watered-down.


