It's time for America to open its eyes.
And our eyes are being opened, whether we like it or not.
Just like with the Iraq War, where the fact that we were going to invade Iraq was well-known to everyone prior to the 2002 mid-term elections, everyone in the know in our government knew that there was going to be a financial meltdown in 2008. The only question was when it would occur.
Some thought it would occur in February, some thought it might occur in August and others predicted that it would occur in the fall.
The key determinant here of the timing of this meltdown was again politics. And again, the American people were the losers, to the tune of trillions of dollars.
Following on Inky99's excellent top-rated diary I think we can draw some conclusions about the collusive activities of a number of players at central US banks. Unfortunately for our man in the White House, this could very well involve the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner.
Roll with my on the flip.
You may recall that the first failure of a large institution occurred in early 2008 with the fire sale at Bear, Stearns.
There can be little doubt that during the failure of the very establishment institution, Hank Paulson, the former Treasury Secretary, and Tim Geithner, then the Chairman of the New York Fed, were intimately aware of the reasons for the failure.
You can also bet that they were working to identify and evaluate other institutions, including AIG that faced similar problems.
In other words, in short order, we can fairly assume that they knew the magnitude of the problem.
Most commentators believe that they did nothing. However, there are several indications that they actually did quite a bit to ensure that this problem was kicked down the road a few months so that it could evolve into a truly intractable crisis right at the moment when everyone in Washington was ripe to be hit: election time.
You will recall that George W. did this to masterful effect in 2002, obtaining full support for the Iraq War Authorization, and that Karl Rove famously referred to this as "selling a product." A crisis was manufactured in a way that no one could oppose the "solution."
In this case, the "crisis" was the threatened meltdown of the financial markets just before a major U.S. Presidential election.
In effect, the bankers had the politicians by the cohones, and they knew it.
That is why billions flowed to the banks without any strings attached.
It was extortion, plain and simple.
And now, we are facing a continuation of the extortion. The mobsters have moved in, and made a big score, but that is not enough. Now they want to continue their enterprise.
It is time to say enough. It is time to go after the leaders of these institutions, and the web of enablers on RICO and other similar charges. It is time to find out what people knew, when they knew it, and what they did. It is time for justice.