By Kunal Khann
Published: January 30, 2009
In what can only be described as an episode of Orwellian modus operandi, the “Bad Bank” plan will save, not exterminate, flailing banks.
The financial chicanery works like so: The Treasury will form a holding company that will purchase troubled assets from banks. These include a variety of securities, from those linked simply to residential mortgages, to complex derivatives conjured by the minds of financial Frankensteins.
Banks will supposedly benefit from all this by having their balance sheets purged of nasty and unwanted assets. With their balance sheets freed up, banks can go back to making loans to consumers and facilitating the flow of money in the economy. Birds will sing, rainbows will spontaneously appear in the sky and Ben Bernanke will shave his beard. Or so the story goes… --NewsHammer 2/02/2009
Continue reading the Jan 30, 2009 article from Stanford University's The Stanford Daily.
Alan Gillis Comment in The Stanford Daily
February 3, 2009 at 8:33 am
http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=2401
Aren’t these banking, Wall Street, and auto industry failures, a failure of capitalism? Isn’t ‘government supervised restructuring’ with a gargantuan handout from the ‘unlimited money supply’ a giant leap into socialism? The joke’s on us, courtesy of the Bush administration and make only money Republicans.
Too bad all this Treasury money wasn’t used to help the poor and homeless, instead of financing the expansion of Citigroup into China and contributing to corporate slush funds, like the $18.7 Billion in bonuses last year for a handful of CEO’s that supervised the failure of their corporations and the public good. We can only hope that Obama will clean up the mess.
Worth a closer look.
I’d say there’s also been a media failure. They’re there after the fire, but they didn’t smell the smoke pouring out of the global economy. We had the same bewildered response to Gaza.
Students have always had a knack for running with social issues no one else has been astute or brave enough to burn into the public consciousness. Though the response from campuses has been tepid since 9/11, as though some cloud of doom descended. Comes from looking too, for a good job instead of a good education as well.
To ignite some debate for social justice in our society, we need your input. Into a media debate as well. Got to watch this news as entertainment we’re getting from the leader in the cable field. . . .