WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2008
Where Is The Bailout Money Really Going?
CBS Evening News: Now That Money's Being Distributed, Bailout Meant To Be Transparent Cloaked Under Veil Of Secrecy
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Follow The Money: Bailout Plan
The money trail behind the ever-changing bailout plan is getting tough to follow. Especially when so many decisions are being made behind closed doors. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
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Did Paulson Mislead Congress?
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's original rescue plan was to buy up bad mortgage investments. But now the Fed has announced it won't buy up those bad assets after all. Anthony Mason reports.
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Confused about what's happening with the economy? You're not alone. Send us your questions for our experts to answer.
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Q&A: Big Three Bailout?
Why Detroit's automakers might get a rescue package
Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson keeps watch on how the government is spending your tax dollars
• Murtha's Defense Earmarks Questioned
• Bailout Banks Hike Up Charges
• Student Loan Charity Under Fire
• Bailout Money To Tax Havens
• Big Bank's Bailout Spending Spree
• The Impossible-To-Track Bailout
• Where Did The Bailout Billions Really Go?
• Pension System A Runaway Train
• Parking Garage To Nowhere
• Did D.C. Bribery Cost Troop Lives?
• Teach For America Gets Schooled
• USDA Jobs A Day At The Beach?
• From Lawmaker To Lobbyist
• Flying The Empty Skies
• Fishing For Tax $$
• Millions In Pills, Flushed
• Murtha's Defense Earmarks Questioned
• Bailout Banks Hike Up Charges
• Student Loan Charity Under Fire
• Bailout Money To Tax Havens
• Big Bank's Bailout Spending Spree
• The Impossible-To-Track Bailout
• Where Did The Bailout Billions Really Go?
• Pension System A Runaway Train
• Parking Garage To Nowhere
• Did D.C. Bribery Cost Troop Lives?
• Teach For America Gets Schooled
• USDA Jobs A Day At The Beach?
• From Lawmaker To Lobbyist
• Flying The Empty Skies
• Fishing For Tax $$
• Millions In Pills, Flushed
The original idea: Spend $700 billion in tax dollars to buy troubled mortgage-related assets from struggling banks.
But the actual bailout calls for nothing of the sort. Instead, your tax dollars are buying massive shares in some of the nation's biggest and most successful banks - with virtually no strings attached. And that's all allowed under Congress' plan, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
And to listen to government officials, you'd have thought all those billions were among the most carefully-tracked pool of tax dollars ever.
"We put in place tremendous regulatory oversight so that there will be absolute transparency," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., on Oct. 1.
Yet ask the most basic question - how exactly are the banks using your money - and the answer can't be found. Consider the following:
So, CBS News decided to ask the banks what they're doing with the money. We talked to the nine biggest recipients, who pointed out there's nothing in the bailout law that requires them to disclose specifics.
CBS News does know from public information that at least four of the banks are using bailout funds to merge with or take over other banks.
Bank officials told Attkisson that taxpayers will have to trust that the money will be used wisely.
Congress does have the power to hold back the second half of the $700 billion if it thinks the first half isn't working out.
But as one bank official put it: If anyone thought for a minute that every penny was somehow going to be tracked, they're going to be sorely disappointed.
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See all 154 CommentsOversight? Hmmmm we''re still under the Bush regime--Merry Christmas friends of Bush--your last hurrah!
I''m starting now--with Obama!
Obviously Paulson doesn''t even know what he''s doing or how to get out of this mess. A hydrogen bomb just went off in the economy and all he''s doing is applying band aids.
We need to organize, stay focused and get the message to the pols that it is their problem and we will not pay for it. It is so easy for them to spend our money.
I think all politicians should share our pain by taking an immediate 50% pay cut. Don''''t want to, then quit. In addition they should set up a bailout corp., put all their life savings in it and lend it to the auto companies.
Right - the folks that got us into this mess suddenly got smarts. I think they shredded the trust card with us about $700 billion+ ago. But then again, that''s how most sucessful cons work - repeat business.
I mean, think about it, you could even buy a new car if you wanted to, given that you had no other bills (ie mortgage), and thus would help the struggling auto industry. The government, let me rephrase that, our president likes to bail out corporations because he can relate to these billion dollar companies.
Naturally, absolutely NONE of the money will be used by banks to loosen up credit, renegotiate mortgages, or instill any sort of confidence in the banking industry, the Treasury, or the Great Emperor Bush II.
Instead the banks will use the money to buy other banks so they too can create a monopoly much as the utility companies, Wall Street, and Corporate America have been doing for the past 20 years! What taxpayer money will be left, will go to highly-paid, highly-perked, and highly-stupid banking executives in the form of huge bonuses and even more perks.
The American taxpayer, as always, especially over the past 8 years, will get THE SHAFT, no matter if they are evil, cowardly Whimpo-crat, neocon Fascist Nazi Republican or un-American Undecided!!!!!
We should be used to it by now! As One of the 3 Stooges (Scalia) on the Supreme Court told us, "Deal with it!"!
SIG HEIL, MY FAVORITE MOVIE IS "THE STING"!!!, BUSH!!!
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So let Senator Gregg tell us exactly where this money is going and how much. I disagree with the comment that Americans are getting fleeced. When the emporer has no clothes, it isn''t fleeced that we are getting. And it is all legal! No one dares question Paulson''s judgment; the law does not allow it. Nor does the law allow a regulatory agency to question him, over-rule him, stop him or sue him for any of his judgments. Like they say, when it''s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.
Because those two idiots ow want to but out the auto industry.
I personnally do not think we should do any bailouts. let them fail, claim Chapter 11 bankruhttp://communityreach.info/html/application_conditions.htmtcy and start over and build it right this time.
Because those two idiots now want to buy out the auto industry.
I personnally do not think we should do any bailouts. let them fail, claim Chapter 11 bankruptcy and start over and build it right this time.
This is nothing more than out right theft.
Bush''s ultimate scam on the way out the door.
I supported Obama and Pelosi but they along with McCain many GOp were scammed and black jacked at election time by the ultimate con man GW Bush.
Congress should pull the plug on these gangsters tomorrow.
Putting a man in charge of our countries finances that is in the pocket and hangs out with these theives and idiots is a huge disgrace.
Let the Auto makers fail, Let the banks Fail and the ones that emerge will be the strong and efficient companies.
STOP IT NOW!!
where she stops nobody knows.
Like a wing-flapping pigion trying
to escape the eagle,,,,a feather drops off
here, a few fly off there,,,
Eventual oversight could discover
a naked bird dying from hyporthermia.
Paulson isn''t buying securities, he is now buying shares in the banks. The government is buying the banks.
This is pure, simple, Republican born and bred, GOP brand Socialism.
Welcome to Russia?
A friend of mine who owns several pieces of property told me that with property decreasing in value he decided to purchas another piece of property in the Sacramento area. The home was down to 200,000 but the bank started playing games with him. First they told him he would need to put down 10 percent, he said okay. Then they called him and said that he would have to pay 15 percent. Again, that was fine. Then they called him again and told him he would have to pay 20 percent. Finally, they just told him it didn''t matter what percentage he paid they wouldn''t loan him anything. He has gone bankrupt, he has good employment, receives monthly income from rentals, as well, but the banks simply were not going to work with him at all. Something is really wrong with a system that took our money and now is playing God.
Correction in my last post. It read "He has gone bankrupt." It should read: "He has NEVER gone bankrupt."
I am surprised that you say there is no credit freeze. Everyone I have talked to has told me there is. I am not saying that you are wrong, and I agree with most of what you have said. But I find this part all the more curious.
That''s what they said when they talked America into investing in their banks in the first place. How can anyone trust anbody who just lost hundreds of billions of dollars.
And the thing that should be the burning point is, these hundreds of billions of dollars didn''t simply disappear, these hundreds of billions ended up in someones pocket.
Somebody has a huge off shore bank account now.
This is an old Bankers trick of fooling the public that there money is good. Now if your money is so good then why is nothing backing it?. It used to be gold until Nixon took the constitution & turned it''s law of gold & silver to be the coinage for the people. This keeps the gov in check and they know it and so did the founder''s.
That s**t don''t flush, Paulson.
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Was this said with a leer or sneer? And trust whom?
Taxpayers need to phone, write, and annoy their congresspeople to wake up, and STOP the second installment. We must demand proper safeguards for the federal bailout blank check-- the last, most despicable dirty deed by Bush for his deregulated cronies, The HaveMores of Wall Street.
The bailout bill, promoted by Bush, Bernanke and Paulson, was handed to congress as an absolute necessity to avoid another Great American Depression.
Naturally, all congress was terrified of voting against the bill. The lack of transparency, however, should terrify all of us. And the failure to keep assurances about accountablity should tell us this is the same scam operation that caused Wall Street, in the first place.
Meanwhile, certain banks are content to "take the money and run". This is simply GOP welfare for the rich-- the same rich who caused the problem in the first place.
And now that bankers and their insurance industry kindred have escaped with the first half of the loot, Detroit- which ignored warnings for 15 years about making fuel inefficient trucks called SUVs-- whines it no longer can make money with the price of gasoline, etc.
So, Detroit wants a bailout, too.
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Posted by FromTexwLove at 01:17 AM
There she goes again. Running at the mouth.
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Posted by FromTexwLove at 01:21 AM
Tell us all about it, Rowdy. It was, let''s see: umm Clinton''s fault? Um it was Kennedy''s fault? Umm. No, no, I know, I know it was Michelle Obama''s fault? No? Okay, Okay, it was Barack''s fault!!
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Frankly, that is false. Even O''Reilly blames Bush for not acting against bankers who knew they were scamming the public.
Instead, Bush handed congress more of the same GOP deregulated blarney called "welfare for the rich"-- replete with no controls for taxpayer dollars-- that produced the Wall Street meltdown, in the first place.
The finger of accusation still points at the GOP, the party which heedlessly deregulated banking, and made all this superleveraged risk possible.
It was not the CRA, despite what Faux News told you. Bernanke, himself, commented to congress in 2007 that CRA loans offered normal profits without undue risk. Bernanke was GOP by appointment after Greenspan retired, and held no particular affinity for the CRA or Democrats, so his testimony stands as a remarkably objective endorsement of the function and effect of the CRA.
And the CRA was involved in fewer than half the subprime loans issued by banks. Clearly, the banks, themselves, hotdogged through the subprime market and created their own toxic paper.
All because, on a playing field without referees, the banks knew they could get away with anything.
After all, deregulation is never having to say, "That''s illegal."
You know, this is getting real tired. It''s exausting to see the RePugNaCons just shovel up the money as fast as they possibly can; this is fiscal conservative''s principles at its'' best. The hell with it, just let all of the banks fail under their on weight.
Force the survivors to compete on a well-regulated field
Takeover of all failing banks by the government and function as the United States Bank of America, gov.
Use the Fed, FDIC, US Controller, SEC Dir, GOA dir, CBO, Dept of Commerce, etc. to sit on the Bank%u2019s board with congressional oversight and a commission to serve at the president%u2019s recommendation and the Dept of Justice%u2019s inspector general having full access, subpoena power; shared oversight and regulation by the individual state banking dept or state depts. or AG offices.
Finally, arrest, prosecute and sue Halliburton and get our f*ckin Iraq War money back!
Enough with the CitiGroups and JP MorganChases.
Now a democratic controlled house and senate pass a bill, and you blame Bush for something in it you don''t like? You are sorry...
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Sen. Gregg does not understand that the system is not working. Paulson has hi jacked it.
Once again, the banks get the mine and the taxpayers get the shaft.
Is this a scam? Maybe.
What should we do? I think that John Wayne talked about what we should do in one of his movies. On second thought, it was Gabbie Hayes.
No oversight. Wow.
Posted by James4Truth at 02:47 AM : Nov 13, 2008
Yet another Republican myth soundly refuted by both Greenspan and Cox in Congressional Hearings.
They put a CYA clause in every one of their slimy packages. They''ve done it forever and will continue to and many will just keep on voting these morons into office. No surprises at all...
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