Don't Bailout Banks, Buy Them!

Kudos to Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) for taking Citibank to task for their so-called "insurance policy" -- giving US taxpayers $7 billion in shares in exchange for some $250 billion in guarantees. Grayson is thinking with at least half his brain, which is more than can be said for the majority of Congress.

Here's what you need to know about the bailouts. It's very simple. October's TARP spent $350 billion with another $350 billion left to Obama to disperse. February's bailout is $787 billion. The Federal Reserve loaned another $2 trillion between September and the end of 2008, but refuses to say to whom or what for. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got guarantees of several trillion.

According to Bloomberg News, the total cost of the bailouts thus far is 9.7 trillion dollars.

Congress called the CEOs of the eight major banks for a collective pee pee whack. They rolled their eyes and admitted that not only had they wasted the original $350 billion TARP, but they used the money to pay bonuses and buy up the competition.

Well, I took a quick look at Yahoo Finance and came up with a total market capitalization of these eight banks of $278 billion. That's right. We spent $9.7 trillion on banks worth $278 billion.

I'm not making this up. According to Wall Street investors, you can OWN ALL EIGHT BANKS for $278 billion. If you own something, you get to make all the rules. You set how much CEOs make. You set lending terms. You control everything. Of course, you're on the hook for any losses but we appear to be on that hook without any upside, anyway. And we are trillions in debt to boot.

Here's an idea -- give the shareholders a 25% profit -- pay $350 billion for all eight in a hostile takeover. The money is already allocated by the unspent second half of the original TARP. Buy them out and set new lending terms of ZERO percent interest with a small fee. Appoint new directors at pay rates no higher than the Vice President of the United States ($208,100) and make them government employees (GS-Whatever.)

Once the eight major banks start lending at zero percent, it won't be long until their competitors get with the program. If they don't, buy them out as well. Yes, nationalize the banks.

Once this idea hits the mainstream, it won't be long until the public understands the scam the Federal Reserve has been running and demands its dissolution. The IRS can't be far behind.

We have the opportunity, right now, to solve the economic crisis and create a new monetary system that rewards value producers instead of parasites.

Let's do it!

Goldman Sachs 39.58B
JP Morgan Chase Co 80.82B
Bank of New York Mellon 26.56B
Bank of America 24.59B
State Street 10.02B
Morgan Stanley 21.23B
Citigroup INC 16.68B
Wells Fargo 57.89B

Total $277.37 billion.

The People versus the Banks

"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks." Lord Acton

We teeter at the precipice of the largest economic depression since the Dark Ages. Nothing in modern history compares with the current threat of a return to feudal society.

As horrible as was the War to End All Wars and the war that followed, the suffering we now face threatens worse than even Hitler imagined.

There are no jobs, but plenty of work. Lacking money provided by jobs, the people will starve.

Don't look to the governments for handouts, they've been broke for years. Only inflated home prices kept the financial world turning, the people borrowing to eat, but now the equity is gone and so the game is over.

America outsourced its production to the rest of the world and the rest of the world depended on Americans to buy their goods. But without real work, American wages were stagnated and the people were forced to use their homes as cash machines. With every refinance, the banksters profited more.

With the last dollar of equity gone, the financial scam is exposed as a Ponzi scheme. The suckers have been completely fleeced and there's no future left to hock. The game is over.

I think the time Lord Acton spoke of has now come. We are unable to pay the interest, much less the principal -- not that the principal was ever more than entries in a ledger book.

Government is as much to blame for this crises as the banksters, after all, government is owned and operated by banksters. Another quote from Lord Acton will help explain:

“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Our governments were corrupted long ago and their power long absolutely corrupted.

Ezra Pound, the father of modernist poetry, spent twelve years in a mental institution for expressing the common sense argument that usury kills: (listen)

Canto LXV

With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting
that delight might cover their face,

with usura

hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luthes
or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,

with usura

seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines
no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly

with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour

with usura the line grows thick

with usura is no clear demarcation
and no man can find site for his dwelling
Stone cutter is kept from his stone
weaver is kept from his loom

WITH USURA

wool comes not to market
sheep bringeth no gain with usura
Usura is a murrain, usura
blunteth the needle in the the maid's hand
and stoppeth the spinner's cunning. Pietro Lombardo
came not by usura
Duccio came not by usura
nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin' not by usura
nor was "La Callunia" painted.
Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio Praedis,
No church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.
Not by usura St. Trophime

Not by usura St. Hilaire,

Usura rusteth the chisel
It rusteth the craft and the craftsman
It gnaweth the thread in the loom
None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;
Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi is unbroidered
Emerald findeth no Memling

Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man's courting
It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth
between the young bride and her bridegroom

CONTRA NATURAM

They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet

at behest of usura.

Toward the end of Pound's life, he said he mistook the symptom (usury) for the cause (greed).

Unbridled greed does cause usury, but self-interest is why we get out of bed. There is some virtue in profit but Reagan overstated the case saying, "Greed is good."

If value is added to a product, it follows that the value-adder should be rewarded for his efforts. Earned profit is good, even if driven by greed. Unearned profit is just stealing.

Some resources to help you understand the current crises:

Money as Debt

The Earth Plus 5%

The Story of Stuff

Freedom to Fascism

Freedom Road

Concise History of Usury

By now you're saying, "Steve, I get it. Greed begets usury and usury is legal only because governments are controlled by banksters. Usury begets debt and debt begets inflation. Inflation begets hyperinflation and hyperinflation begets death. SO WHAT DO WE DO???"

Governments (controlled by banksters) are the enemy. This enemy controls vast resources and still has the faithful cooperation of many, many stooges. They have written the laws, they control the armies and the police. We have the allowed the psychopaths control over our lives.

Today's governments are operated by psychopathic lying thieving killers. Open your eyes and see the truth. Why should half the world starve and most of the rest struggle while a very few assholes live in luxury? This is a big planet, there's more than enough for all of us.

It's a matter of attitude. We need to adopt an attitude of abundance instead of scarcity. Look at all the food thrown away -- it could feed the world. We could grow more if we wanted. The only reason things are as they are is the economic system enforced by (controlled) governments.

Since we have very few resources and virtually no weapons, our ONLY recourse is to deprogram the people we know. Information and re-education are our only hope. There is no hope for violent revolution just as there is no hope for voting change while banksters control the count.

As horrible as the economic crises is, as much suffering as it will bring, it will force our friends and relatives to pull their heads from the sand and ask, "Why the hell is this happening?"

You now know the answer is usury, so explain it to them. Only when the majority understands how we got into this mess in the first place can we hope for a better world.

Talk to your friends. Preach to them. Ask them to tell others. Truth is the only hope.