Once In A Century Rip-Off: New Kleptocracy of Billionaires

Once In A Century Rip-Off
Economist Michael Hudson: the bailout is a giveaway that will cause hyperinflation and dollar collapse.

WASHINGTON - September 26 - President George Bush pressed for multi-billion dollar Wall St. bail out plan in a historic meeting attended by the two men fighting to succeed him. But at the end of the meeting the top republican on the senate banking committee, Sen. Richard Shelby said that no agreement on the deal had been made.

In a joint statement from the McCain and Obama campaigns they both agreed that the Bush administration proposal is flawed but would work together to find a solution. Germany's finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said, " The long range effects of this crisis are not foreseeable at the moment, but one thing seems to be very likely to me; the US will lost its status as super power in the world financial system. Not abrupt, but eroding." French President Sarkozy speaking at a meeting called for capitalism to be more regulated.

The Real News Network spoke to economist and author Dr.Michael Hudson. Hudson emphasized that there is no need for this bail out at all. "Its not a bailout, it's a give away and it's a give away that will create a new Kleptocracy of billionaires. It lets all of the billionaire who have leveraged their capital cash out, take their cash and move it all into Euros, Sterling, move it all abroad and that clash the dollar, so they should just say don't do it. Wait till the elections take place. Do it over time. You don't have to protect all this money at the very top of this pyramid, because all this money that is being protected are other peoples debt"

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/09/26-2



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdsnIYurpSM

I would argue, for capitalism's sake, that it worked a lot better when it was better regulated, as it was better regulated during the period following the depression and leading up to the period of deregulation in the 1980s. Only after deregulation did the savings and loans failures of the 1980s occur. Since then we have deregulated even further... most of our economic crises which have occurred since the 1980s couldn't have occurred in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s because they would have still been illegal... regulated... they would have been stopped before they could go so far. Well-regulated capitalism is still a viable alternative to unbridled, out-of-control, greed-driven capitalism, IMO, and still far preferable to socialism or communism in more ways than one can easily count or list.

In the current environment, the big-bucks bandits are still in control of everything... this isn't about bailing out our economy, this is about bailing out a handful of people, who, without such a bailout, would be forced to simply FORGIVE the bad loans which they never should have approved in the first place... they could suffer the losses better than the already-strained US economy can suffer them... it would set a better precedent for the future... greedy capitalists will continue to push their luck and make bad bets for as long as they can feel reasonably sure that our sold-out politicians will protect them by picking the pockets of the US taxpayers in order to re-compensate them for their bad business practices and their proclivity to take high stakes with bad risks on other people's money.