Time to blow the whistle

The Bush Administration, not satisfied with ruining the economy, starting an illegal and costly war, and trashing our reputation with the other nations of the world, is putting in motion a super-shaft of unparalleled portions. For the sake of acting expediently to stem a financial crisis of the Administration’s own making, Bush is trying to usurp the Legislature’s function of watching out for the citizens and their money. He has proposed that the Secretary of the Treasury become a financial czar with no checks and balances in place. The lack of counter-balancing control mechanisms got us into this crisis in the first place. Opting for another uncapped funding source is lunacy.

Furthermore, this “bail-out” is the equivalent of paying off someone’s gambling debts. Markets are balanced. When you lose money, someone else gains money. Investment bankers, insurance companies, and others have made fortunes trading mortgage-backed securities and funny-money financial derivatives. They scored; they cashed their checks. Then the tide turned against them. Guys, that’s why you’re paid a premium: to take risks. High risk, high reward, high potential for loss. Instead of letting the gamblers take their losses, the Administration proposes a reverse Robin Hood number: steal money from the taxpayers and give it to the super-rich.

Our elected representatives are not acting in our interest by going along with this scam. Step back a moment. The Secretary of the Treasury riding to our rescue is not like you and me. He used to run Goldman Sachs. His personal net worth exceeds $500 million. Taking the taxpayers to the cleaners is not going to dent his personal budget for champagne and caviar.

You, on the other hand, are going to feel this big time. The amounts are beyond belief. I figure my share of the bailout is about $16,000. That’s for openers. Heaven knows what sort of handout comes next. I won’t feel it as much as my children and grandchildren; we’re mortgaging the next generation’s future to pay off the fat-cats and companies that bet wrong. The continuing “solution” is to give the Executive Branch a book of blank checks for “correcting” future screw-ups.

We still call IOUs issued by the U.S. Government “the gold standard,” even though Nixon took the gold out of the picture in the early 70s. The world financial system is built on faith. Paper money backed with “the full faith and credit of the United States” was as good as it got. Imagine what happens when global financiers decide it’s more prudent to keep their funds in Euros and Krugerrands because the U.S. is acting stupidly.