It's a coup

[pecunium]

Not that Treason in Defense of Slavery gets it (he it seems, hates America more than one might have previously thought. Certainly he doesn't understand the principles on which it was founded).

I was aghast when they made the SecHomSec a virtual dictator (in the pursuit of building a version of the Berlin Wall on the Mexico/US border he can do pretty much anything he wants and the only thing which can be done is for the President to fire him; it's a really badly written thing).

But the new version of the S&L Bailout is huge. It's not really a bailout. To be, I hope, over the top, the insanity of the system (one in which credit beyond our means is the way we keep our economy afloat; the sort of nonsense where we let creditors who extend loans to people who have no hope of repaying them have laws creating debt peonage passed, so the overextended spending can continue... but I digress) is being used as if it were our very own Reichstag Fire.

I desperately hope this is over the top, but I am terribly afraid I'm not.

Look at what the bill (a really short bill; of the sort where hard choices make for bad laws) says (I am also amused [in a twisted, and cynical, way] to hear the Adminstration [and it's fellow traveller McCain], pleading for gov't to intervene, lest the "Free Market" they've been working to establish, should do what markets do, esp. because they say there is nothing Gov't can to well, and that the solution to all problems is to Let the Market Work, but, again, I digress).

Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary 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 having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

Don't worry though, this more than 700 billion dollar (because that's the limit of debt they can incurr... nothing stops them from respending anything which comes in from the things they buy and sell) will be managed well.

Sec. 3. Considerations.

In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for–

(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and

(2) protecting the taxpayer.

That's right, they are going to protect you by buying high and selling low..

Don't worry, the bankers will still make money.

Just in case you were afraid the more recent excesses might be left out (you know, the one's related to the problems the financial world has been talking about for at least two years. I know I was talking about it 2005, when I say negative amortization loans being touted on TV in 2005; as means to buy a first house, for those who couldn't get a regular mortgage, not to worry,

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.–The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008

So every bit of bad paper, right up to last week, will be covered by the wallet of the taxpayer.

All of that is bad enough (spend too much on a credit card, owe for the rest of your life. Extend credit on punitive terms to people you know can't pay... The gov't will let them starve, but see to it you can still make millions. It wasn't the whores and petty thieves Jesus upended at the Temple, it was the money changers who robbed the poor), but it's not the part which chills my bones and makes me think the Larissa Alexandrovna was right.

Sec. 7. Funding.

For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.

Sec. 8. Review.

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.

Non-reviewable, not by any court, nor by any agency. In theory one could argue Congress could exercise oversight. It's a nice theory. And today it was announced that they want to change it to let the assets to be purchased also be those putting foreign banks at risk.

Add a couple more pieces to the problem (I did mention facism).

AIG is about to become an arm of the Executive Branch. AIG is a huge insurer. Lots of things, all over the world are done only because AIG insures them, "Nice Hydro-electric plan you have there, hate to see the insurance covering it go away..."

Not that economic extortion would be new (want to get aid for health care? No problem, but don't mention birth control or family planning), but this makes it something more flexible. We have the gov't taking over private businesses. Businesses whic expand the power of the executive. We have a officials who have been given huge powers, divorced from oversight.

And it's all in the support of a house of cards. We are asked to give the Secretary of the Treasury huge powers so he can rob Peter to pay... Peter.

Call your Senators. Call your Representative. Write the local papers. Go to the online papers and write a comment. Make a noise. This is bad law. There are better ways to do it (and there are examples of it. Britain did a bailout of insolvent companies, in exchange for stocks. In short the companies were held accountable... just as a private person would have been).

This shit matters.

Comments

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Yup, and it probably matters even more than you and I realize.

I'm tending to echo Rob Hansen's comment: "One final, monstrous smash-and-grab raid on the treasury before they leave office."

And if this bill or anything much like it passes, Congress will pretty much have demolished the U.S. Constitution. They've abrogated (I think that's the word) their responsibility for declaring war, they've allowed the President to ignore Laws and have given him dictatorial power that includes indefinite imprisonment without trial for political crimes, and now they're handing-over their right and obligation to control the expenditure of the taxpayers' money.

To modify a famous _haiku_: I always feared this day would come, but I didn't expect it so soon.

You know, I really hate the prospect of spending my twilight years in a waking nightmare.

[zeeth_kyrah]

* abrogate: to deny by authority; to cancel or repeal by authority; to revoke formally
* abdicate: to formally give up power; to disown, renounce, or revoke one's own authority

I think they did both.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I meant to comment. They abdicated, Bush abrogated (the AUMF had some specific requirements, Bush ignored them and used the predicate language as if those delarations of reasoning were the actual law).

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

And you expected what? Fiscal responsibility from the most rapacious thieves whose first act was to steal the White House? Optimism is an admirable trait.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

This isn't optimism. It's pissed off. It's activist. It's as close to pessimism as I am willing to go (short of washing my hands of it and retiring to foreign climes, which I am not willing yet to do).

But saying, "what else can you expect" is worse than optimism. It's apathy, which cedes the field to the rapacious thieves.

In retort I offer up Cynical ≠ Helpful.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

There's not a lot I can do where I am, except sit and wait for the tsunami with the smile of one who knows there is no escape. I guess it is the other 6bn of us who have to be optimistic that enough of you will get your arses in gear to ensure the rapacious thieves do not replace themselves with hypocrites and Pharisees while leaving their fingers very firmly in the till.

Till=cash register.

Should I see any cause for optimism?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Should you make those who are trying to stem the tide less motivated?

Should you tell them it's the way the world works, and they should expect no better?

Should you be, in effect, telling them to hang it up?

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

No. Just be aware that you can never, ever trust the ruling class. Doubly so when you have a ruling class who not only don't care what happens after they have had their turn but also appear to think there should be anything remaining after they have had their turn.

You're a military man. You know the first lesson of war is to know your enemy. Realism. You have a ruthless enemy who despises you and everything you believe in. Do not expect reasonable or rational behaviour from them. Plan your campaign accordingly.

Optimism is a necessary condition for the human animal, the belief that tomorrow will be better than today.

I truly believe that your country is at a turning point. It can either accept that change is inevitable and flourish, or choose more insanity and decline. I hope. I remain optimistic because I listen to guys like you rather than the Cancer's mouthpieces (the Cancer - Rupert Murdoch)

[izzylobo.livejournal.com]

You may not be able to trust them.

You may be able to force them to regulate themselves. You can replace them. You can clap them in irons when they step too far over the line. It has happened before. It worked here (for greater or lesser values of worked) for a good two hundred-odd years.

Failing that, the Founding Fathers did, in fact, find other options than shrugging their shoulders and saying "such is life, such will be death", or relocating farther West. Further depondent sayeth not.

(Relocation, in the modern world, seems a mugs game to me - it, at best, delays when you will have to end up pursuing other options, because if this is not stopped - it will not stop. Once the plutocrats have finished flensing the bones of the American populace of everything worth stripping (or that they think they can strip without hurting the precious services and support they like to have), they will turn their eyes afield. Countries that have substantial natural resources, but do not have nuclear weapons will be first... Canada, this means you. After that...).

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

One of my heroes is Oliver Cromwell, a man who reluctantly came to the notion that a ruler who considered themselves anointed be God to be above those he ruled and saw no reason to speak the truth to those he ruled, or keep any agreedment he made with them, could only be cured of their delusion by a very brief encounter with a sharp edge.

The trick, of course - once you have bypassed the many thousands of armed men and women who believe what the anointed ruler tells then - is not to replace the deceased with more of them same.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

I posted something in the vein (http://shunra.livejournal.com/170060.html) last night (it's friends-locked, but I friended you a while back; you are welcome to read it.)

I have had no comment so far. I have (in theory) 41 readers. Not one of them found this worthy of comment or communication. I don't know what to think about that.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to add something important. You know how Naomi Wolf has been writing for the popular press about how American society is in the process of closing down and becoming a totalitarian dictatorship?

Yesterday I sought (googleseeking) her comments on the current situation. And what did I find? She was lauding Nathan Sharansky's view of democracy and freedom! Now, Sharansky was imprisoned in the USSR for a long time, purportedly because he was working for the Israeli government and sowing dissent among the Soviet Jews. That charge may or may not have been true, but Sharansky's actions since his arrival in Israel are in the realm of hard-line Jewish supremacist. (His party was merged with the infamous Likud. Here's more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yisrael_BaAliyah - and that article tones down the record.)

Wolf's reliance on him for inspiration calls her credibility into question in my mind, because she's promoting a man who works for freedom-for-one-ethnic-group-only. That is emphatically not the kind of inspiration I want to see for the future of the U.S.

[swingland.livejournal.com]

I'm excited to see somebody do something tangible. Until that point, I'm working on plans for wind turbines, a coal forge and a wood oven on my relatives' land in New Hampshire. Live free or die. Or live free AND die. My folks aren't the libertarian sort, but they're stocking up on their timber and when summer rolls around, I'll be up there helping. Chemistry is really great for finding ways of producing energy from abundant resources and with the imminent collapse of our economy swiftly underway, it only makes sense to set up the home before the looters arrive.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

pecunium, meet hawver. He has some links, and some stuff on direct action, you might want to take a look at. I've also pointed him at your post.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to criticise in that proposal, but the lack of explicit oversight provision is pretty damnable. And the cut-off date is way too late.

If your congressional reps can't support explicit oversight by Congress, after all the stuff they've chosen not to do in the past, they're not worth voting for.

And I reckon there's a lot of dodgy paper been issued, even as the collapse was happening. These are the guys who will sell you deck-chair derivatives on the Titanic.

[yuripup.livejournal.com]

Hey what is your sourcing for the language of the proposal?

I mean that is so out there in unitary executive land that it almost seems to be a parody.

You sure you didn't get it from the Onion or something?