The American Government is bailing out the banks, the traders, the hedgers, and everyone in debt on Wall Street.
We, the people, are receiving a generational debt in the guise of dealing with an Act of God. As if it was just another hurricane. As if there were no good guys, no bad guys, just a horrible thing that happened one morning, and we are all victims. As if this were just a financial tsunami, which came out of nowhere, so let's all pitch in to clean it up, m'kay? Get the flags out. Have a parade. All will be well.
We are crossing a Bridge to Nowhere, and admiring the view.
This government will cost you, your children, and your grandchildren most of the quality in their lives. Living standards will be lower for the Americans who come after us, and after today, than you can yet imagine. They'll never miss it, because they'll never have it to lose. They won't lose it, because we lost it for them before they ever grew up.
If this taxpayer bailout of bad debts costs the Treasury the $1 Trillion it is initially being pegged at, that means a personal loan of about $4,400 to Wall Street from each living American.
A Trillion is the number 1 followed by twelve zeros.
Like this: $1,000,000,000,000.00
Divide that equally among the 290 million living Americans right now, and it is a $4,348 bill to each of us. Yes, even the baby in the crib gets a bite of this shit sandwich. Stick that bill right into the swaddling cloth, for it shall be a lifelong companion, a parasite never to be shaken.
Here's why.
One, because the first number out of Washington is never the last number, and never the real number. Remember how the Iraq war would be over in six weeks, and pay for itself? How'd that work out? Common sense tells us that this initial wild ass One Trillion guesstimate from Hank Paulson is way low. The top economist at Harvard says it will be closer to $1.5 or $2 Trillion just for starters, and then there will be the interest on it.
Two, because this new loan has to get in line to be repaid, and it is a very, very long line. This new $1.5 Trillion debt goes behind the $9.6 Trillion of National Debt that came before it.
So, Paulson's guesstimate of $4,348 from each member of your family is really more like $6,500 or $8,600 from each of you, if you go by all previous experience with the US Government. We'll go with the $6,500 figure then.
This $6,500 you each owe is added to the portion of the National Debt you already each owe, which is $41,600 from every one of you, bringing the total debt to parties unknown to $48,000 for every living American. Yes, the baby, too.
What the hell -- no one worries about the National Debt, right? Well, the government doesn't worry about it either. They know they won't be paying it off. It's the national credit card, and the taxpayers will foot the bill. Which means it's your debt. Paying it off falls to you, not your Congress person or Senator or President. To them it's all a giant monopoly game of power and privilege, except they get to keep the houses and bank accounts. It's la-la land every day in Washington.
It's no game for you. Paying off the National Debt will cost you your living standards, from here on out.
America's National Debt doesn't get smaller, and it doesn't get paid down, or paid off. Even paying the interest on it is no longer possible, by any laws of actuarial science known to man. It's simply and completely and totally out of control. The very concept of paying it off, or paying it down, no longer has any basis in reality. No, the National Debt just keeps adding each day's unpaid interest to the principal, at the rate of $1.84 Billion per day these days. So, don't get any cute ideas about paying off this new loan of yours, or the one you already owed before Hank Paulson brought you the good news this morning.
Adding $1.5 Trillion to the already existing $9.6 Trillion of National Debt comes out to $11 Trillion if we round it down a bit. That will increase by $2 Billion of unpaid interest every day, meaning that even if we cut up the national credit card tomorrow, we will still owe well over One Trillion more dollars from interest alone, a year from today.
Oh, I forgot -- this government of we, the people, puts over a half a Trillion a year on the national credit card, just to keep things going, so we have to figure that in as well.
Well, this doesn't look good.
In plain terms, an American family of five persons is carrying a debt load of a quarter million dollars, courtesy of this government. And you will pay, yes you will pay. It will come out of your pockets, or out of your living standards, one way or the other. It will cost you, and you will pay. You will pay by giving up what you have, or earn, and you will also pay by never receiving things you could have had if this National Debt were never created, never allowed to become the Unstoppable Thing.
This latest bailout goes entirely on the national credit card, and it is an outright gift to the bankers and gamblers on Wall Street.
Let's imagine the five of you traipsing down to your neighborhood bank tomorrow, signing the paperwork for a big cardboard box full of hundred dollar bills which you faithfully agree to pay back during your lifetimes, agreeing to the monthly payments, foreclosure and default terms. You got your box, and you're deleriously happy. The loan amount comes to something like $36,000.00 for your box of fresh, spendable greenbacks.
And you tape that box up, take it straight to the Post Office, and mail it insured to
N.E. Banker
Wall Street
New York, NY 10012.
With a nice card. And a ribbon.
And you all return home, and start crossing things off the Christmas list, shopping list, vacation list, and every other list you may have ever had in mind, because your lives are afterthoughts now, side effects of the added debt you have assumed. It ain't freedom for you folks, it's debt servicing from now on, from dawn to dawn. No college, no trips, no vacations, no house of your own, no higher educations, no good jobs, no upward mobility, no genuine political or social choices.
All of that shit is for N.E. Banker and his kids, not for you.
Because under Paulson's plan, he gets the box, and you get the loan. Got it?
The stupidest thing in the world is a thief who robs you with a gun, when he could have bought a nice suit and a fountain pen and done a better job of it.
So what about you? You say you can’t afford to do this? You don't see you and yours paying off the Unstoppable Thing, not in this generation or the next fifteen to come?
Well, up yours baby. It's happening on the TeeVee right now. Welcome to the USSA!
There will be a big jump in stocks for a week or two, since no one can lose money on Wall Street any more, and no one can sell short on the 799 insolvent, dying companies so boldly listed on CNN today. It will last a couple weeks at most, before people realize that Wall Street is history. It belongs to the government, and money is now made by who you know, not by investment at risk. There is no risk, there is only the Treasury, and the national credit card has that covered.
Wall Street, as this nation and the world economy has known it, will collapse before Christmas. Take the pillars out, and things fall down. The pillars of Wall Street are innovation, calculated risk, and fiduciary responsibility. Those are meaningless when Uncle Sam refunds all losses. If you can't lose, there's no play. The new game on Wall Street will be to lose money in innovative, risk free ways, so that you will be the first one to the Treasury doors to get yours while it lasts.
Congress will pass whatever law Paulson hands them this weekend, probably without discussion, probably without even reading it, as Congress is wont to do. The vote will probably be late at night, without a roll call, on a voice vote. No one wants their name attached to this thing if it can be avoided.
But this bailout will avail the national economy, and the world economy, nothing but greater troubles down the road. This putting the whole problem on the national credit card, 100% on the credit card, so that there is nothing but good news, no pain whatsoever right now. This is putting off the real situation, and the risk only grows larger. It doesn't go away, even for a second.
This is a Thelma and Louise solution, doing what looks necessary or feels good, and moving on with some music in your ears.
There's a precipice in that direction, even if you don't see it, or care to see it. It is there.
This government, and this nation, are full of people who don't worry about what's coming as a consequence of this bailout because they don't see themselves being around for the precipice part. They'll have their stash and be living on some tropical island. Or, they'll have passed on by then, and be history as Dubya Bush likes to put it. Or, Jeezus will have come back to sweep them off to the clouds after a thoroughly entertaining bloodbath wherein all the people what ain't like us get it right in the neck. No matter how they escape the precipice personally, apparently no American intends to actually be here for it. The music is in everybody's ears.
In a nation full of irresponsibility, moral absence, and kookery like that it is no wonder there are no rules anymore, no laws that actually apply, and it explains why there is no second American Revolution. We're all out for a free ride, and we're all leaving before the movie ends, so pass the popcorn, and check out Paulson and Bush on the tube. Yep, that's a shitload of money they're talking about, sure is.
Welcome to the other side of the mirror, to the far end of the rabbit hole. This may be described as plutarchy, kleptocracy, fascism, communo-capitalism, class warfare, or open anarchy. Call it what you like.
Just don't call this a Republic, or a democracy, or a government of the people. Don't ever call it any of that any more. That shit is over and done. The Republic Ben Franklin said we could have if we could keep it? Yeah, we couldn't keep it. We handed the keys, and the national credit card to some wiseguys, and they did what wiseguys do.
In the coming year, it will become illegal to hoard gold or precious metals, illegal to leave the country WITH your wealth intact (you can go, but the money stays here). Some form of national service draft will be put in place to put people to work at something, anything. Zoning laws about how many families can live in one house will fall by the wayside, as families do what they must to get in out of the rain, and have something to eat.
The population will have to be controlled, by every means at hand. If they are not well managed, they will get out of hand, and threaten the Ownership Society.