We hear daily conflicting reports on how the economy is doing….first it is good, then after adjustments, not so good….we hear that banks are paying out massive bonuses and still using taxpayer cash…..we hear lots of manure daily, weekly and monthly on the condition of the American economy……investors are thrilled at the news…but the rest of us wait for our turn for attention…
Neil Barofsky of the TARP Fund office sees something a little different than the media:
Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the US bank bailout, released his quarterly report to Congress Saturday, saying, “It is hard to see how any of the fundamental problems in the [financial] system have been addressed to date.”
The document claimed that the financial system is more dangerous now than ever before because banks have reason to think the government will step in again when their speculative bets go bad. “Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car,” Barofsky wrote.
Following the financial meltdown, the biggest banks grew even bigger as they bought up their failed rivals. As Barofsky put it in his report, “To the extent that huge, interconnected, ‘too big to fail’ institutions contributed to the crisis, those institutions are now even larger, in part because of the substantial subsidies provided by TARP and other bailout programs.”
The report emphasized that, despite the trillions of dollars provided by the bailout, the banks have continued to decrease lending. Barofsky stated, “Although there was this public disclosure that the purpose of these programs was to increase lending, very little, if anything, was done to encourage or direct lending.”
The report does not sound too cheery about the future of the economy…….it seems that the same conditions that caused the economic problems are still there and waiting for the next chance to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of the economy…..no amount of cash thrown at a problem will solve it if the underlying conditions remain…it is NOT rocket science….it is common sense….
Of course! The trouble with all of us, in the West at least, is that we’ve listened to the shit and hype from the ruling elite.
There is nothing wrong with capitalism for the ordinary – as long as you don’t listen to the bullshit, sorry I mean advertising, they put out. It’s lies – of course it’s lies – what else would you expect.
Look, the problem is that we all buy into the system – the hype – the shit! We don’t HAVE to borrow money! We could start living within our means. If we don’t borrow money from the banks, or if we’re TOTALLY cynical with regard to all the bullshit they tell us if we occasionally do, then we won’t have a problem.
People have POWER, but they need to apply it for their own personal benefit – we’re the CUSTOMERS for chrissake! It’s just plain silly to keep on saying the banks should do this or that! We should NOT have borrowed so heavily from them and then we would not have been trapped by our own gullibility and forced to bail them out. If we treat the banks and what they can do for us as useful when it suits US, but unreliable and self serving (which they are and, in fact probably should be since they are corporations) then they will be forced to beg us to borrow as they once did – but we should be wary, canny and cynical in our decisions to accept those offers, or NOT!
My view is that banks are fine, but we don’t owe them a fucking thing, we should not have bailed them out and what we are getting back now is simply the self-seeking cynical shit we deserve for ever trusting them in the first place!
My advice, for what it’s worth, is… be a customer, be financially wise, be canny and cynical, look after your OWN interests for yourself and don’t rely on the government or anyone else in the system because they are mostly in the pocket of the wealthy and it is in THEIR interests (not YOURS) for you to need them. Remember, THEY need YOU, because without the people to manipulate they are nothing!
Great advice…the problem is few will hear and even fewer will listen….
I’m afraid you are all too right.