We are listening to the news and see that Wall Street is set to be bailed out of there current problems, but what does the plan really say? Just thought, for those who want to know, here is the wording:
The text of the four-page “Legislative Proposal for Treasury Authority to Purchase Mortgage-Related Assets,” published Saturday by the New York Times, reveals the profoundly anti-democratic and open-ended nature of the scheme.
The first provision establishes the unlimited and unilateral authority of the Treasury secretary, an unelected official, to order the use of taxpayer funds to purchase whatever “mortgage-related” securities, at whatever price, at whatever amount and from whatever financial institutions he chooses.
It states that the secretary—currently Henry Paulson, the multi-millionaire former CEO of Goldman Sachs—is “authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution…”
This is followed by a provision stipulating that the Treasury secretary’s authority under the act is “without limitation.”
A further provision authorizes the Treasury secretary to enter into contracts with the banks “without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts.” In other words, to ignore established law concerning public contracts.
The proposal states that the government will designate “financial institutions” to operate the bailout program. This means that the government will hand over management of the program to some of the very corporations that are responsible for the crisis and which stand to profit directly or indirectly from the bailout.
Congress, under the proposal, will be relegated to receiving semi-annual reports from the Treasury Department. It will have no real power of oversight or control.
The proposal gives the Treasury secretary unchecked authority to resell assets the department has taken off of the hands of the banks. This means that the banks will profit on both ends of the deal—they will be relieved of massive debts and will then be able to buy back the securities at fire-sale prices after the housing market has restabilized.
The text states that the Treasury secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets will be limited to $700 billion “at any one time.” In other words, he will be able to buy more worthless assets after having sold back some of those previously purchased—rendering the supposed $700 billion limit fictitious.
Under “Termination of Authority,” the proposal declares a two-year limit, but includes certain exemptions that will, in practice, enable the Treasury to extend the duration of the program indefinitely.
The proposal calls for a $700 billion increase in the statutory limit on the national debt, raising it to $11.315 trillion.
It then defines “mortgage-related assets” so broadly as to potentially cover everything from trillions of dollars in bonds to the estimated $62 trillion unregulated market in so-called “credit default swaps.”
Perhaps the most extraordinary provision reads as follows: “Decisions by the secretary pursuant to the authority of this act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Now you have the wording of the plan….you decide who it benefits and who it screws.