As expected, insurers, automakers and US subsidiaries of international banks are lined up with their hands out for piece of the action from President Jo Jo The Idiot Boy and Henry the FrankenFinancier’s trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street.
In an Associated Press article the greed heads are lining up outside Henry the FrankenFinancier’s office, Paulson is taking meetings with groups including hedge fund managers that are petitioning for assistance.
To quote the CEO of something called the Financial Services Roundtable, in writing to the Treasury official running the bailout program, “…The institutions that are excluded play a vital role in the U.S. economy by providing liquidity to the market.”
As best as can be determined, the Financial Services Roundtable is a high-priced lobby group that has been beeping and mooing for bankers. Their motto is “Impacting Policy. Impacting People”, which can be translated from PRSpeak into “Hit them over the head until they do what we want, then jam it up the consumer’s ass.” Is that cynical of me?
Considering the CEO Of the Financial Services Roundtable is Steve Bartlett and Bartlett is the former mayor of Dallas, the Roundtable has some good hooks into the White House. We won’t mention his Congressional experience (‘83-‘91) or his fingers in the House Banking Committee, FHA deregulation, or his post-congressional work on Gramm-Leach-Biley, Sarbanes-Oxley, the 2001 Tax Cuts or the normalization of trade with China.
Also as best as can be determined, the Treasury official getting the pressure and running the actual bailout is named Neel Kashkari (“Cash and Carry”). I’m not making the guy’s name up. He exists and is the guy running the bailout for the Treasury Department.
Meanwhile the Masters of the Universe are under time pressures. As of January 20th 2009, President Jo Jo The Idiot Boy goes back to Crawford, TX and someone else, whose last name ends with a vowel, will be in the big chair. There is unstated concern that Obama might add some oversight to the Bailout The Base Plan, investigating the financial shell game a little too closely. This would be bad, at least for Wall Street as they might have to give up their Masters Of The Universe secret decoder rings.
Putting it back in perspective, President Jo Jo The Idiot Boy, via the Treasury Department, is rapidly stuffing more money into Bailout The Base than into the entire years’ funding for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Are you going to change your magnetic ribbon on the SUV from “Support Our Troops” to “Support Our Hedge Fund Managers!”?
Funny how nobody is talking about the war these days. Must be over, right?
RoadDave 