I like the fact that I am right at times, but in this case I wish I had been mistaken.

Both the plan itself and the manner in which it is being imposed are deeply undemocratic. Exploiting the breakdown in US and global financial markets, the financial aristocracy, which is responsible for the crisis, is exercising its control over the government, both political parties, and the media to implement policies of the most far-reaching character without any genuine debate or discussion. As in the aftermath of 9/11, it is seeking to utilize the crisis to push through policies that would otherwise be considered entirely unacceptable.

I posted those words on 26 Sept 08 on this blog about the proposed bailout of the financial sector.  At the time I said that it was not a good idea and that the plan should be abandoned.  Why do I bring up this now?  An excellent question!

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

“We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking,” said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn’t know where the money was going.

“We manage our capital in its aggregate,” said Regions Financial Corp. spokesman Tim Deighton, who said the Birmingham, Ala.-based company is not tracking how it is spending the $3.5 billion it received as part of the financial bailout.

But the most arrogant response was given by JP Morgan.

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it,'” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. “We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

Now would someone please remind me why we bailed out these arrogant pricks?  We as a people were so concerned about how much an autoworker made, but on Wall St. we just shoved cash up the guys asses and told them to have fun.

We were told that a person working for $40 an hour was a threat to American manufacturing and that some guy making $50 million a year making bad decisions was somehow good for the American economy.  Someone please explain this to me…..never mind it would be a pile of crap anyway.