Let's tell it like it is, folks!
On many issues, such as the Wall Street bailout and the push to implement a national healthcare program, it is time to start pushing back...harder!
It is what our President wants us to do.
It is what we must do.
When it comes to ensuring healthcare for all and government economic policy that--at the very least--provides a reasonable level of parity between our government's financially-biased support of Wall Street at the expense of a still-suffering Main Street, it is time for Progressives to pump up the volume.
Paul Krugman covers the
healthcare side of this in his NY Times Op Ed piece today, entitled: "
Blue Double Cross." As far as the
Wall Street versus Main Street bailouts are concerned, a story appears in today's Bloomberg, which is nothing short of a call to action, IMHO, to all self-respecting Progressives. It begs a paraphrase of Howard Beale's/Peter Finch's proclamation in the movie, Network: '...We are not going to take this anymore!'
HEALTHCARE: 'It's up to President Obama to prove the private health insurers wrong!'
A few days ago, in "New, Improved Spin! (A "Recovery" w/20% Jobless?),"
I called out the the White House spin machine on last week's overly-hyped, utterly disappointing, so-called healthcare reform press event. Yes, on May 10th, it was all over the blogosphere, starting with Ambinder's hype: "Health Care Deal In The Works?" Not much more than 72 hours later, it proved to be little more than...nothing! See: "Health Care Leaders Say Obama Overstated Their Promise to Control Costs." And, if you won't take my factual diary on this matter as a wake-up call, then read what Krugman has to say on this today: "Blue Double Cross."
Blue Double Cross
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 22, 2009
That didn't take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform -- and the double-crossing is already well under way. Indeed, it's now clear that even as they met with the president, pretending to be cooperative, insurers were gearing up to play the same destructive role they did the last time health reform was on the agenda.
So here's the question: Will Mr. Obama gloss over the reality of what's happening, and try to preserve the appearance of cooperation? Or will he honor his own pledge, made back during the campaign, to go on the offensive against special interests if they stand in the way of reform?
Yes, dammit, Krugman's right-on.
But just three days later the hospital association insisted that it had not, in fact, promised what the president said it had promised -- that it had made no commitment to the administration's goal of reducing the rate at which health care costs are rising by 1.5 percentage points a year. And the head of the insurance lobby said that the idea was merely to "ramp up" savings, whatever that means.
Meanwhile, as Krugman tells us, the insurance conglomerates are lobbying Congress to block the public option. He also tells us the some of these insurance firms are now gearing up for a "major smear campaign."
The medical-industrial complex has called the president's bluff. It polished its image by showing up at the big table and promising cooperation, then promptly went back to doing all it can to block real change. The insurers and the drug companies are, in effect, betting that Mr. Obama will be afraid to call them out on their duplicity.
It's up to Mr. Obama to prove them wrong.
THE WALL STREET BAILOUT, a/k/a "TARP": 'Geithner lets banks reap "ruthless bargain".'
Also this morning, we have this from Bloomberg: TARP Warrant Sale Shows Banks May Reap `Ruthless Bargain.'
TARP Warrant Sale Shows Banks May Reap `Ruthless Bargain'
By Mark Pittman
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Banks negotiating to reclaim stock warrants they granted in return for Troubled Asset Relief Program money may shortchange taxpayers by almost $10 billion if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's first sale sets the pace, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
While 17 financial institutions have repaid TARP funds, only one has come to terms with the U.S. on the value of the rights to buy stock that taxpayers received for the risk of recapitalizing the industry. That was Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Indiana, which gave the Treasury Department $1.2 million for warrants that may have been worth $5.81 million, according to the data.
If Geithner makes the same deal for all companies in the rescue program, lenders may walk away with 80 percent of profits taxpayers might have claimed.
"For once we'd like to get a fair value when we come into contact with the banking system," said Representative Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of House Science and Technology Committee. "We don't want a ruthless bargain."
The story goes on to quote Linus Wilson, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, "Lenders shouldn't be trusted to make suppositions that would be to the advantage of taxpayers...Bank managers have stronger incentives than Treasury personnel to get a better deal for their constituents."
Earlier versions of this updated story had a quote from investment banker Michael Patterson, a recipient of TARP funds who purchased Michigan's Flagstar Bank, as part of that program,, earlier this year. Last week, in a highly-disputed dust-up in the British press, it was reported the Patterson called the government's TARP program "a sham!" Remember, this is someone who benefitted extensively from it? The UK Telegraph pulled their coverage of this story, but I was told it was later "un-retracted!"
Again from my diary on May 18th: "New, Improved Spin! (A "Recovery" w/20% Jobless?)..."
Here's Zero Hedge's coverage of Patterson's speech--slamming the TARP program--from a few days ago: Mark Patterson: It's A Sham. The Banks Are Insolvent.
"The taxpayers ought to know that we are in effect receiving a subsidy. They put in 40pc of the money but get little of the equity upside," said Mark Patterson, chairman of MatlinPatterson Advisers...
Mr Patterson said the US Treasury is out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable.
"It's a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public because they are down to the last $100bn (£66bn) of the $700bn TARP funds. They think they're doing this for the greater good of society," he said, speaking at the Qatar Global Investment Forum.
--SNIP--
MatlinPatterson said private equity and hedge funds were deluding themselves in hoping to go back to business as usual after the trauma of the last 18 months.
--SNIP--
"The US government has thrown 29pc of GDP at this crisis compared to 8pc in the early 1930s. The Fed's balance sheet has risen from $900bn to $2.7 trillion to bail out the system. America has to do it because the only way out is to debase the currency, but that is going to lead to some very high inflation three years down the road," he said.
So, adding insult to injury, in a program where taxpayers were to receive some reasonable level of stock compensation from these banks to whom we were dishing out trillions of dollars in direct cash benefits, backstops and government debt guarantees, we now learn that we're letting these same banks buy their stock warrants back from the Treasury Department for as little as 15 to 20 cents on the dollar, wherein the U.S. taxpayers stand to take yet another $10,000,000,000 hit, in a parting shot from Wall Street as they steal away into the night.
Today, as Paul Krugman also urges President Obama to forego failed efforts at demonstrating "cooperation," and to stand up and call out the health insurance industry, I say it's time for all of us to do the same thing with regard to this travesty known as the Wall Street bailout.
Fellow Progressives--before the money's gone--it is time to pump up the volume!