Robert Reich's Proposal
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| Sun, 09-21-2008 - 3:10pm |
What Wall Street Should Do To Get Its Blank Check
The frame has been set, the dye cast. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, presumably representing the Bush administration but indirectly representing Wall Street, and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, want a blank check from Congress for $700 billion or possibly a trillion dollars or more to take bad debt off Wall Street's balance sheets. Never before in the history of American capitalism has so much been asked of so many for (at least in the first instance) so few.
Put yourself in the shoes of a member of Congress, including our two presidential candidates. The Treasury Secretary and Fed Chair have told you this is necessary to save the economy. If you don't agree, you risk a meltdown of the entire global financial system. Your own constituents' savings could go down with it. An election is six weeks away. Besides, in the last two days of trading, since rumors spread that the Treasury and the Fed were planning something of this sort, stock prices revived.
Now - quick -- what do you do? You have no choice but to say yes.
But you might also set some conditions on Wall Street.
The public doesn't like a blank check. They think this whole bailout idea is nuts. They see fat cats on Wall Street who have raked in zillions for years, now extorting in effect $2,000 to $5,000 from every American family to make up for their own nonfeasance, malfeasance, greed, and just plain stupidity. Wall Street's request for a blank check comes at the same time most of the public is worried about their jobs and declining wages, and having enough money to pay for gas and food and health insurance, meet their car payments and mortgage payments, and save for their retirement and childrens' college education. And so the public is asking: Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I'm getting screwed?
So if you are a member of Congress, you just might be in a position to demand from Wall Street certain conditions in return for the blank check.
My five nominees:
1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.
2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year's other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?
3. All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers. Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street's outsized political power - especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?
4. Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess.
5. Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?
Wall Streeters may not like these conditions. Well, you should tell them that the public doesn't like the idea of bailing out Wall Street. So if Wall Street doesn't accept these conditions, it doesn't get the blank check. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/21/what_wall_street_should_do_to/index.php

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Sopal
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Gee Robert, wasn't this guy
My prediction is that Paulson will nationalize the losses of the Carlyle Group as quickly as he can.
Edited 9/21/2008 4:14 pm ET by glitter_girl_5000
Well, this story might put some lift in your step:
Carlyle Capital bankrupt, to wind up fund
NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Investment company Carlyle Capital Corp CARC.AS said on Sunday its shareholders have voted unanimously in favor of a compulsory winding up.
The company said it will now start winding up and sell its remaining assets under Guernsey law, and NYSE Euronext said that the fund's shares would trade under a separate category as it goes through the process.
Carlyle Capital Corp (CCC) is a separate legal and business entity from U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group, and the group said last week that the listed fund would not have a measurable impact on Carlyle's other funds, investments and portfolio companies. The fund is 15 percent-owned by Carlyle Group executives.
Caryle Capital's share price plunged 58 percent on Monday in light trade to $0.30. The initial public offer price 10 months ago was $20.
Carlyle Capital, an affiliate of U.S.-based buyout firm Carlyle Group CYL.UL, said it has received default notices from its last two remaining lenders and believes that its lenders have now taken possession of substantially all of its U.S. government agency AAA-rated residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).
It said it recommended to shareholders to vote in favor of the winding-up after extensive analysis of its prospects.
Carlyle's administrator and lawyers in Guernsey, the British offshore dependency where it is based, did not return calls seeking comment.
Carlyle Capital was hit severely by the impact of the credit crisis on leveraged investors and comes as JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) moves to buy stricken rival Bear Stearns BSC.N for a rock-bottom price while the U.S. Federal Reserve set an emergency interest rate cut and opened direct lending to Wall Street. ID:nN16500718
The crisis was triggered last year when risky mortgages made to U.S. borrowers went sour putting pressure on lenders to tighten credit and making it difficult to value collateralized debt, mortgage portfolios and other fixed-income securities.
The Carlyle Group....Now that's ringing some old bells:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NEW304A.html
http://www.culturechange.org/CarlyleEmpire.html
Carlyle Empire
Wonder why Reich didn't propose all these reforms when he was in Clinton's cabinet????
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