Thursday, October 2, 2008

YOU THINK THIS IS A CRISIS? ... then wait for the real one. If there is no far reaching regulation of the financial world and a reclaiming of the money spent on bonuses for failing CEOs, then the crash is still ahead of us; maybe a revolution is needed. IPS: "As Congress debates the particulars of the inevitable bailout, one key question has gone largely unexplored: Who will pay for this mess? Lawmakers in Congress appear to have assumed that the federal government will simply borrow more money to foot the bill for the bailout. The national debt ceiling will rise to a whopping $11.3 trillion, up from $8 trillion a year ago. But this rush to borrowing merely shifts the bailout burden onto the backs of future taxpayers. Congress needs to change course - and develop a 'pay as we go' plan that makes Wall Street pay. The lion's share of bailout funding should come from the high-finance gamblers and the wealthy CEOs who have so profited from our casino economy. Funding the Bailout: Basic Principles - Wall Street and speculators should pay now for the mess they created. - Instead of borrowing from the super-wealthy beneficiaries of the casino economy, we should tax them. - Any bailout should stimulate the real economy with investments in Main Street, not just Wall Street." EUObserver: "The billions of euros the European Central Bank has been injecting into money markets since the start of the crisis in an attempt to get banks to start loaning money to each other and other businesses is not working. Instead, banks are redepositing some of the monies back with the ECB itself - over 100 billion Euro overnight as of Tuesday (30 September - the latest available figures) - as they are worried that the central bank is the last safe place left to stash their cash. As of last Tuesday (23 September), banks had 'parked' 1.4 billion Euro with the ECB's 'deposit facility'. By Thursday, the figure had climbed to 4.2 billion Euro and jumping to 28 billion Euro the next day. On Monday, banks were now depositing 44 billion Euro with the ECB and as of yesterday, the latest figures available, the cash placed with the bank for safekeeping had more than doubled to 102.8 billion Euro. An official with the ECB told the EUobserver that 'never before' had this happened. 'It's very strange that banks are doing this.'" Why the banks are doing this? Well, the banks know more than we do. They know what is really wrong with the whole system, they know there is a huge financial bubble still waiting to burst, and that it is bigger than what we ever expected. It's the financial wheelers and dealers who are ruining the system; they have no trust in it, that's why they are taking their real money out of insecure banks and deposit it in safe places. 2:14:40 PM

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