From Tom Petruno: Financial-meltdown commission sets first hearings The panel set up by Congress to tell us why the financial-system meltdown happened — i.e., who and what to blame — will hold its first hearings Jan. 13 and 14 in Washington….Congre…
Corrupt Politics and Imprudent Bailouts are Two Peas in Same Pod
In a study that confirms what anyone with common sense already knew, Banks with political ties got bailouts.
U.S. banks that spent more money on lobbying were more likely to get government bailout money, according to a study released on Monday.Banks whose executives served on Federal Reserve boards were more likely to receive government bailout funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the study from Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura, professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Banks with headquarters in the district of a U.S. House of Representatives member who serves on a committee or subcommittee relating to TARP also received more funds.
Political influence was most helpful for poorly performing banks, the study found.
Banks with an executive who sat on the board of a Federal Reserve Bank were 31 percent more likely to get bailouts through TARP’s Capital Purchase Program, the study showed. Banks with ties to a finance committee member were 26 percent more likely to get capital purchase program funds.
President Obama said in October that despite the bailout, there was still too little credit flowing to small businesses.
Appearances Are Deceiving
The reason there appears to be “too little credit flowing to small businesses” is simple.
1. Banks are undercapitalized
2. Demand for loans is down
3. What demand does exist is from questionable risks
For details on those points please see Fictional Reserve Lending And The Myth Of Excess Reserves.
Politicians For Sale
Some of the comments to the article hit the nail on the head.
In response to a statement in the article “The banking industry has long been criticized for using political influence to obtain bailouts.” here is this gem of a comment:
How about, “The politicians have long been criticized for granting political favors in exchange for campaign contributions.”If the politicians weren’t for sale, they couldn’t be bought.
Indeed, politicians are for sale and the results prove it, in spades, with disastrous consequences.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.
Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.
Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.
Are Americans a Broken People?
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further?
What forces have created a demoralized, passive, dis-couraged U.S. population?
Can anything be done to turn this around?
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them?
Yes. It is called the “abuse syndrome.” How do abusive pimps, spouses, bosses, corporations, and governments stay in control? They shove lies, emotional and physical abuses, and injustices in their victims’ faces, and when victims are afraid to exit from these relationships, they get weaker. So the abuser then makes their victims eat even more lies, abuses, and injustices, resulting in victims even weaker as they remain in these relationships.
Does knowing the truth of their abuse set people free when they are deep in these abuse syndromes?
In the United States, 47 million people are without health insurance, and many millions more are underinsured or a job layoff away from losing their coverage. But despite the current sellout by their elected officials to the insurance industry, there is no outpouring of millions of U.S. citizens on the streets of Washington, D.C., protesting this betrayal.
Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the taxpayer bailout of the financial industry, yet only a handful of U.S. citizens have protested these circumstances.
LINK HERE
New Taxes for New Hampshire Small Businesses
LINK HERE
Prepare for the Great Depression.
Survival Seeds
