Laurel & Hardy Go To Congress

"Other than that-how was the play Mr. Lincoln?"

If you think this is interesting...send it on...

Laurel & Hardy go to Congress...."Ollie, I think we have a problem..." , "Certainly not Stanley, everything's going to be JUST fine!"

The Players:
Stan Laurel- Treasury Secretary ( & former Goldman Sachs CEO) "Hank" Paulson" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paulson

Olliver Hardy- Fed Chairman Ben Bernake (actually never worked in real life business- an academic) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke

Why do either of these guys still have jobs? The Fed has been pumping BILLIONS into the stock market for well over a year- that simply kept the market artificially high (free market? Blow me!) and allowed the big banks to continue down the road to destruction. Oh.... and to transfer hundreds of billions to the speculator-plunderer-looter traders....

Watch the video below-Bernake is scared shitless (listen to his voice). He has no idea what's going on (or maybe he does). Hank Paulson is a typical political appointment- incompetent, has this position as a Thank You for his party loyalty...

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=9866762

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Now read the story below. Bernake thinks the government should pay near full maturity value for "assets" it would be buying. Right, pay 100% for something that's nearly guarenteed to be worth only a fraction of that. here's an excerpt. How can these guys keep a straight face.....

"One of the tricky issues confronting policymakers is how to price the distressed assets that the government would ultimately buy.

Bernanke suggested buying the assets at a "hold-to-maturity" price, which would be based on an estimate of what the securities would eventually be worth as payments came in over the years.

"If the Treasury bids for and then buys assets at a price close to the hold-to-maturity price, there will be substantial benefits," Bernanke said. "First, banks will have a basis for valuing those assets and will not have to use fire-sale prices. Their capital will not be unreasonably marked down."

These banks are desperate so the logical thing to do is to give them 100% of the "book" value knowing this toilet paper is worth only a small fraction of that. BAD BUSINESS. The taxpayers should get this stuff at fire sale prices for bailing them out.

The reason he wants to do this is because if the banks are given the true value, the losses go on the books and you'll see a bunch of banks fail as they have near cash nor equity to take that kind of beating...Oh...and by the way the FDIC is in seriously bad shape- a few more failures & that's going to have to be bailed out too...and you're not hearing about that...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

These guys are running something akin to a ponzi scheme....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

Realize this $700 BILLION is NOT going to fix the problem. What's next- drop the discount rate again? That's good for about two more good days in the stock market and a whole lot of inflation. The Republicrats ( I use that term because there really is only one party- the Dems & Republicans are equally responsible) will bail out their campaign donors again as usual. We'll get the bill...

The only answer is a third party BY AND OF THE PEOPLE and a flat tax plan. Flat tax- Congress has no power to give taxbreaks & favors- watch the campaign money go away. Campaign money goes away these clowns won't want to stay in office for 20-30 years..

Do this and I will allow the govenment to spend a few billion on retraining all the out-of-work lawyers, accountants & politicos into new useful careers- perhaps the food service industry.."Would you like fries with that?"

Quote from a Bill Moyers interview with David Cay Johnston:

"There's one party in Washington. It's the party of money. It has
different wings and factions. But Washington is the party of money. And
the wealthiest people in America, the large corporations in America, are
busy milking the government for everything they can get. And you are
paying the price of their free lunch."

Hey it's only my opinion (and a crap-load of what little money I have)