DETAILS OF THE "BANKSTER BAIL OUT"
or "RON PAUL WAS RIGHT, BACK in 2003!"
GUYS, I HATE TO TELL YOU BUT I PREDICTED ALL THIS IN
2003!!
FINANCIAL PCK
700 BILLION
BEAR STEARNS GETS
29 BILLION
FANNIE MAE, FREEDIE MAC NATIONALIZED 200 BILLION
AIG gets nataionalized
for
85 billion OUCHEY
FEDERAL HOUSING ADMIN
RESCUE BAILOUT 300 BILLION
MORTGAGE COMMUNITY GRANTS
4 billion
JP MORGAN CHASE I.E. the
ROCKFELLRS
87 BILLION
BANKS GET LOANS from FED
200 billion
LOANS FROM DEPRESSION ERA
EXCHANGE STABILIZATION FUND 50 BILLION
PURCHASE OF MORTGAGE
SECURITIES BY FANNIE MAE AND FREEDIE MAC 144 BILLION
___________________________________________________________________________
Twice that if tommorrow's
money. Five times that if a decade from now's money i.e. your kids, twenty
times if this goes unpaid to grandkids
FINAL COUNT? BAILING OUT
A LOT OF BOZOS WHO COULD HAVE HAD OVERSIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE if RON PAUL had
been listened to? ? PRICELESS!
That includes, as the New York Post pointed out, millions in tax
breaks and related pork for kids' wooden arrows, Puerto
The bill has become, in other words, something almost unrelated to
the business of bailing out Wall Street. The Beltway term for this is a
"Christmas tree bill," meaning everyone gets to hang their favorite
spending projects on it--though by the time Congress gets it through, it more
closely resembles a slop bucket.
"We will not Christmas-tree this bill," Sen. Chuck
Schumer, a New York Democrat promised a few days ago. "The times are too
urgent. Everyone has their own desires and needs. It's going to have to
wait."
So much for that idea. Here's a look the Michael Moore Rescue
plan. Here are some of the green-tech measures:
• One-year extension for wind and refined coal energy tax credits.
A production credit for electricity produced from renewable marine energy
sources (meaning through wave power and river power, or by exploiting the
differences in ocean temperature). Energy credits for "small wind
properties," geothermal heat pump systems, and energy-efficient
residential properties.
• New renewable-energy bonds. Up to $800 billion in energy bonds
may be offered to the public, with a third from "public power
providers," a third from governments, and the remainder from
"cooperative electric companies."
• Tax credits for "cellulosic biofuels" and for
"carbon dioxide sequestration." An extension of an alternative fuel
credit. Tax credits for "new qualified plug-in electric-drive motor
vehicles." Bicycle commuters get a nod, as do regulations aimed at
"residential top-loading clothes washers."
The bailout bill also gives the Internal Revenue Service new
authority to conduct undercover operations. It would immunize the IRS from a
passel of federal laws, including permitting IRS agents to run businesses for
an extended sting operation, to open their own personal bank accounts with U.S.
tax dollars, and so on. (Think IRS agents posing as accountants or tax
preparers and saying, "I'm not sure if that deduction is entirely legal,
but it'll save you $1,000. Want to take it?") That section had expired as
of January 1, 2008, and would now be renewed.
Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Chuck Grassley (R) have been pushing to
make it permanent for a while, claiming (PDF) in April that: "Undercover
operations are an integral part of IRS efforts to detect and prove
noncompliance. The temporary status of this provision creates uncertainty, as
the IRS plans its undercover efforts from year to year."
There's another section of the bailout bill worth noting. It lets
the IRS give information from individual tax returns to any federal law
enforcement agency investigating suspected "terrorist" activity,
which can, in turn, share it with local and state police. Intelligence agencies
such as the CIA and the National Security Agency can also receive that
information.
The information that can be shared includes "a taxpayer's
identity, the nature, source, or amount of his income, payments, receipts,
deductions, exemptions, credits, assets, liabilities, net worth, tax liability,
tax withheld, deficiencies, overassessments, or tax payments, whether the
taxpayer's return was, is being, or will be examined or subject to other
investigation or processing, or any other data received by, recorded by,
prepared by, furnished to, or collected by the Secretary with respect to a
return."
That provision had already existed in federal law and
automatically expired on January 1, 2008.
What's a little odd is that there's been little to no discussion
of the IRS sections of the bailout bill, even though they raise privacy
concerns. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said this week: "I will
continue to work with congressional leaders to find a way forward to pass a
comprehensive plan to stabilize our financial system and protect the American
people by limiting the prospects of further deterioration in our economy."
He never mentioned the necessity of additional IRS undercover operations.
The bailout: Details, controversy, and loopholes
Treasury Department can also eliminate a "reasonable"
amount of a home owner's mortgage debt, under section 109 of the new law, which
would likely delay the process of house prices falling.
Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne made $61.3 million from selling his
shares a day after the JP Morgan bailout. Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae, was
replaced last month; he made $11.6 million in 2007. Richard Syron was chairman
and CEO of Freddie Mac from 2003 until last month. He made $19.8 million last
year. Martin Sullivan was ousted as president and CEO of AIG this summer, and
was paid a $47 million severance package.
While salaries of failed executives will have no statutory limit,
TARP-participating companies will lose a tax deduction if they pay their top
executives more than $500,000 a year. The $500,000 limit only kicks in if the
company offloads over $300 million in assets through TARP.
Section 115 of the law says that the administration can, after
notifying Congress and waiting 15 days, purchase and hold $700 billion of
assets "at any one time." (It can buy and hold $350 billion without
waiting.)
This, too, is a potential loophole. It permits the Treasury
Department to buy up, say, $700 billion in 2008, sell those assets off
gradually over the next year at a (probable) loss, and repeat the same process
in 2009. Losses to taxpayers, in other words, could exceed $700 billion.
Although the Treasury Department is instructed to try to avoid losses, the text
of the law does not forbid that scenario.
If the TARP ends up costing taxpayers money, the president may ask
Congress to consider enacting a law to recoup "from the financial industry
an amount equal to the shortfall," presumably through higher taxes. But
Congress is under no obligation to do anything; a mechanism to cover the
shortfall does not exist in this law.
Even though FDIC coverage will be boosted from $100,000 to
$250,000 per account through December 2009, premiums to banks may not take
"into account" the higher account coverage. In other words, premiums
can't increase for that reason.
Also:
•This may be just the beginning of bailouts. California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that the state may need a $7 billion loan from
the U.S. Treasury, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. That's
because the state has spent more than it takes in through tax revenue, with an
annual budget deficit of $14 billion or more, even though its individual income
tax rate is arguably the highest in the nation.
•CBS News' John Bentley reports from Arizona that Republican
presidential candidate John McCain is taking some credit for the bailout's
passage: "I'm glad I suspended my campaign and went back to Washington to
bring, and help bring, House Republicans to the table," he said on Friday.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama described the law as
"absolutely necessary to prevent an economic catastrophe."
•Now here is the SEARING BULLET FOR YOUR MIND. (as there are no sadder
words than 'woulda, coulda' shoulda,' A man we should have GIVEN THE PRESIDENCY
TO, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, correctly predicted in 2003 that taxpayers would be
"forced to bail out investors," said in a speech on the House floor
that the legislation would "only further harm the economy" and was
actually worse than the previous version. In a CNN interview, the former
Republican presidential candidate said his colleagues are refusing to deal with
the underlying problems and spending more tax dollars even though "this
country's bankrupt."
•The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-22 percent year-to-date) and
the Nasdaq composite index (-27 percent) closed on Friday down 1.5 percent,
despite the bailout. Gold ended at $834.80 an ounce, slightly up for the day and
the year. Crude oil futures ended at $93.88 a barrel, slightly down for the
day.
•U.S. jobs fell by 159,000, a decline of 760,000 this year.
Technology firms have also contemplated hiring freezes and some, including
Hewlett-Packard and Dell, have already laid off employees, as my colleague Ina
Fried reports in a separate article.