The House of Representatives rejected the $700 bailout yesterday. Distinguished economists across the world have stated it would not have solved the problem at hand. However, we can potentially solve this liquidity problem at little cost to the taxpayer. I am proposing that Congress drop the Paulson Plan, and instead pass the No BAILOUTS Act. The No BAILOUTS Act provides an alternative to the Paulson Proposal to address the current credit crunch. Once Congress addresses the liquidity shortfalls in our financial markets, a Democratic Congress can turn to Democratic solutions to address the broader economic crises we face today. Specifically, Congress can work to resolve the housing crisis across the country and pass effective job stimulus, which is the response Main Street America expects and deserves.
While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the underlying solutions to solve the economic crises we face, the No BAILOUTS Act – a regulatory based proposal – has the potential for significant bipartisan support.
The Paulson Premise Flawed
Simon Johnson, a former chief economist as the International Monetary Fund, stated today in the New York Times of Paulson’s plan, “It’s our view that this package, in a fundamental sense, will not solve the problem.” Other economic analysts noted yesterday that the credit markets around the world were almost entirely dysfunctional even when political leaders and investors assumed that Congress had reached a deal and would easily approve the bailout. There is no reason to believe Paulson’s plan will work.
Alternatives
We have credible alternatives to the Paulson/Bush $700 billion gamble. William Isaac, the chairman of the FDIC during the previous worst financial crisis in the United States during the 1980s, believes Congress can address the current crisis with simple changes to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules. Mr. Isaac points out that while we face serious financial challenges today, many banks are still in good shape. This allows Congress to take swift, uncomplicated steps to ensure the financial markets return to working order. After that, we can work to resolve the housing crisis and pass effective job stimulus.
Today I am offering an alternative to the Wall Street bailout that will correct the capital shortfalls experienced by many financial institutions and help protect the integrity and quality of the securities market. My plan could be implemented promptly meeting the demands of the Bush Administration to act immediately without putting the American taxpayer on the hook for billions of dollars.
No BAILOUTS Act
Bringing Accounting, Increased Liquidity, Oversight and Upholding Taxpayer Security
1) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require an economic value standard to measure the capital of financial institutions.
This bill will require SEC to implement a rule to suspend the application of fair value accounting standards to financial institutions, which marks assets to the market value, no matter the conditions of the market. When no meaningful market exists, as is the current market for mortgage backed securities, this standard requires institutions to value assets at fire-sale prices. This creates a capital shortfall on paper. Using the economic value standard as bank examines have traditionally done will immediately correct the capital shortfalls experienced by many institutions.
2) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restricting naked short sells permanently
This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks naked selling, selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or ensuring the shares can be borrowed. Such practices many times harm the companies represented in the sales and hurt their efforts to raise capital. There is no economic value produced by naked short sales, but significant negative effects.
3) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restore the up-tick rule permanently.
This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks short sales without an up-tick in the market. On September 19, 2008, the SEC approved a temporary pause of short selling in financial companies “to protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.” This rule prevents market crashes brought on by irrational short term market behavior.
4) “Net Worth Certificate Program”
This bill will require FDIC to implement a net worth certificate program. The FDIC would determine banks with short-term capital needs and the ability to financially recover in the foreseeable future. For those entities that qualify, the FDIC should purchase net worth certificates in these institutions. In exchange, these institutions issue promissory notes to repay the FDIC, counting the amount “borrowed” as capital on their balance sheets. This exchange provides short term capital, with not cash outlay. Interest rates on the certificates and the FDIC notes should be identical so no subsidy is necessary.
Participating banks must be subject to strict oversight by the FDIC including oversight of top executive compensation and if necessary the removal of poor management. Financial records and business plans should be subject to scrutiny while participating in the program.
In 1982, Congress approved a program, known as the Net Worth Certificate Program, that allowed banks and thrifts to apply for immediate capital assistance. From 1982 to 1993, banks with total assets of $40 billion participated in the program. The majority of these banks, 75%, required no further assistance beyond the certificate program.
5) Increase the FDIC Insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000.
The bill will require the FDIC raise its limit to provide depositors confidence that their money is safe and help eliminate runs on banks which are destabilizing to the industry.
Sincerely
Peter DeFazio
Member of Congress
Call your congress person and demand they support this instead of George The Robber and Nancy the Fluffer’s giveaway to the rich. It’s your’s and your grandchildren’s money they want.
…..yeah, the revolution will not be televised. Indeed, there looks to be no revolution. With Barky calling for a non-vote Democratic Convention, he won’t get that predicts I, and McSame being…well, more of the same I suppose you could vote for Nader or Barr but neither are viable let’s face it. Sister Beezlebub still has a shot moreso every time Barky sticks his foot in his mouth and hops around going Uh…Uh…Muh! Currently the Bark-O-Meter has him at 1.5 hops per week. But enough of the cheap shots.
The real problem sits on ‘The HIll’ like a horrific knot of toads in human form. 535 elected representatives of the people.
Or not.
Yep, in situation, after issue, compounded by crisis we see that the legislative branch of our government is stuffed to the gills with folks who are one of three things:
Corrupt…the biggest faction. Politicians are trained early that it’s all about the Benjamins as our ‘system’ rewards those who get elected and under the current system you need lots of B’s to get elected…
Stupid…plenty of those after all if you’re buying a Congressperson you don’t need one that’s smart. Just one that loves to follow orders.
Nuts….Yeah, barking mad. These are the ones found in a hotel room with hookers and coke or an underage boy. Significant fraction….
So what to do. First up is very simple.
Get real.
Understand that the level of corruption is now at unprecedented levels. Levels no mere change in ‘party’ will fix. The job is a wholescale clean up similar to Hercules and the Augean Stables. Ever read that one? You should it’s not really about what it seems. Yeah, get real. No one candidate is going to ‘save’ us folks. Most adults realize reality don’t work that way but….
People want to believe.
Well…
Believe this.
If you and I don’t get off our asses and take back our government the future will be very bleak. The tipping point on many problems affecting our very survival as a society is near. I assert that the tools to fix those problems which threaten us most are also hand. Requiring only affordable amounts of money and some intelligent leadership. But with a government composed of the corrupt, the stupid and the barking mad we are not going to be able to use those tools.
What to do?
Look around join up with like minded folks. Stop talking and start doing. You will be noticing some changes around here as I ‘renovate’ my new primary residence. And no I don’t care what the Congressional mortgage lending ‘bail out’ bill says, it’s amazingly stupid go look it up, about how to treat ‘primary’ vs. ‘secondary’ residences.
One signpost to a new way is the widget in the upper right sidebar called: ‘Accountability Money Bomb’.
This takes you to a spot where you can contribute to a fascinating group headed by Jane Hamscher and a bunch of right wing folks. Yep, wingers and progressives…together. Seems there is common cause to be made by all Americans in the face of the Congress’s gutting the 4th Amendment. Here is the link to the statement of purpose from StrangeBedFellows the ad hoc group just beginning to get some traction. I will be blogging about this more as the idea of ‘Accountability for the Asylum (Congress)’ resonates with me.
Hope you will hang around as I am planning some extensive remodeling here and I hope you will find it interesting.
….being treated as if I was some fool who’s opinion is of no import whatsoever. But whose money is good. Yeah…
How about you are you tired of the lies and the b.s. and the corruption? In the words of James Carville, ‘Had enough yet?’
I think you probably are. Many whom I have talked to have expressed these exact sentiments, and worse, about their
Democratic reps and the ‘Do-Nothings’ of the ‘Democrat’ Party. Oh! Did you think I was talking about Republicans?
Well, no…
After all the Dems have had a majority in both houses of Congress since 2006. Sure! You remember the worst liar, the most pathetic excuse for a human being, the woman who could if she so wished have stopped the occupation of Iraq in it’s tracks.
But who didn’t.
Remember her stream of lies about, ‘…..making the Bush administration accountable…’? Not to mention, and I’m not, the ‘…Impeachment is off the table…’ cave in. No, just evaluate Madame Speaker’s’ promises about what she would do against what she has done. Just looking at that against the background of the situation the nation finds itself in and I am prepared to assert that not only is the vile, heartless Pelosi the First Woman Speaker she may very well be the Worst Speaker we’ve ever elected.. That’s big job but Miss Nancy has been up to it sez I.
But for every action there is and equal and opposite reaction, physics yes but consider that everything is subject to the laws of that discipline, and we’ve got that reaction now.
Cindy Sheehan has qualified for the ballot. You’ve got a hardworking woman whom you know will not sell you out if elected and who is just the antidote our sick political culture needs. I intend to do whatever I can to help her send the vile Pelosi packing.
I’ll be keeping you posted on the Sheehan campaign’s progress and passing on every call for action from them. She is what progressives should be supporting a candidate who wants to shine the clear disinfecting light of progressive values into the fetid darkness our government currently works in.
This just in:
Cindy Sheehan Is On The Ballot!! Now Let’s Go For The General
Election Gold
Today we got confirmation that Cindy Sheehan has QUALIFIED for the
ballot as an independent candidate to challenge Nancy Pelosi for the
seat from the 8th Congressional district of CA. This required the
verification of the signatures of more than 10,000 of her
constituents, only the 6th time in history this has ever been
accomplished in the state of CA.
And it could not have been done without the heroic support of people,
not just in that one district, but from all over the country who
recognize that a successful challenge to Pelosi will do more to
compel real policy change than almost anything else we can do.
Pelosi, who has turned a deaf ear to the entire American people on
ending the war funding, impeachment and everything else, MUST be
defeated to start to finally hold the White House, and the rest of
Congress, accountable.
This is now a very winnable race, but only if we rally behind Cindy
Sheehan, who had the courage to call the recent non-impeachment
hearing the toothless sham that it was, and was thrown out of that
hearing for saying so. Let’s make her a member of Congress so they
can never throw her out again. Please make a donation now to help
Cindy Sheehan win the big one.
The faster we can give Cindy Sheehan a big head of steam, the faster
we can get the attention of each and every other member of Congress
who thinks they can just coast through their next election without
actually standing up for us. Let them know that there is a Cindy
Sheehan waiting in the wings in their district to take them down too
next time unless they do their job now.
The simple, cold fact is that unless and until Congress sees a
downside to their despicable cowardice there will be NO policy
change. We’ll repeat that. No policy change whatsoever. Their whole
self-justification is they point to the elections they are winning.
Unless and until we defeat one of their own, one of the biggest of
them all, we can send emails and make phone calls until we’re blue in
the face, and they will must keep lying to us and stalling. Yeah,
sure they’re just about to impeach. Sure.
Now some people (defeatists) will say, “Oh, you’ll never defeat the
Speaker of the House”. Well guess what, until we do they will never
take the voice of the people seriously. We HAVE to win. And we have
to do everything we could have done to make that a reality. So we are
calling on all of our participants to throw everything they have
behind candidates who will fight for the issues, the real issues.
And there is no better investment in time, energy or money we can
make now than to give Cindy Sheehan the biggest platform possible to
advocate for us.
Paid for by Cindy Sheehan for Congress
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.
If you aren’t prepared to help this woman hold Congress accountable then take you do-nothing ass over to OpenLeft, FDL or dKos and play with the children.
Thanks again for all your support so far. Tomorrow is election day! If you live in Berkeley, Albany, Kensington, Emeryville or NE Oakland, please remember to vote for me and my slate tomorrow for the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee (14th Assembly District).
Edie Irons Karen Weinstein
Andrea Laiacona Dooley Eleanor Moses Cecilia ‘Ces’ Rosales
Janet Flint
If you live in Oakland or Alameda, please vote for Sumi Paranjape and Mark Briggs for the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee (16th Assembly District).
Whether you can vote for me or not, please pass along this email to all your friends in the East Bay today! If you sent emails before, send them again!
Thank you,
Edie
—
Edie Irons
Candidate for the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee from the 14th Assembly District.
Vote June 3! www.grassrootsprogressives.org/edie
I endorse all these folks. Check out their site for their platform and decide for yourself.
Just as I blogged about President Death and the Treason of Rove & Co. I’m gonna keep on blogging about those threats I see to our way of life, fat and wasteful as we are, I believe the American way of life has much more good in it than bad.
But you out there.
You had better start doing more than just pay attention, although that will do for nice start. Jane, spine of steel that woman has to be posting these clips in this atmosphere, shows us a variety of opinions on yesterday’s actions by the Democratic Party to ‘fix’ what is now being called ‘The ClusterFuck’. This first clip is pretty much were I am at at the moment. Be sure, absolutely sure you watch the last one.
planning the next great big give away to your corporate pals, gonna be hard to top the farm bill that’s for sure, but…well, you see…What with:
Impeachment of the table….
Another 178 Billion for Bush’s excellent adventure….
No action on literally dozens of folks accused of everything from child rape to big time embezzlement to a guy changing legislation after it was sighed by your best pal Mr. Decider…..
Some have made up their minds like this lady:
That it’s time for you to go. Go away where you can no longer damage the Democratic Party, no longer damage our nation, no longer damage our society.
As mah cousin Pat allu sez: ‘Don’t let the door knob hit ya where the good Lord split ya!’ on your way out.
Click on thru the quote to read the rest. I am beginning to get a strong feeling that some in the Democratic caucus are or were a party to Bush’s illegal activities. He’s a smart enough thug to know that the best way to
immunize yourself is to get the police involved in your corruption. Why else would this keep coming up again and again if the Democrats were not just as nervous as Bush about going to jail for being involved in this.
This issue is not going away folks. You have spoken longly and loudly enough for me to say that I think this issue is the one that may help us destroy the hammerlock Corporate America has on our government. Our nation is a Fascist State make no mistake about it. We are in for a long struggle to change that and step one, two and three is gonna be: ‘Taking out the Trash!’
Thursday May 1, the ILWU is shutting down all west coast ports in protest of the continued occupation of Iraq.
Now that ought to get some attention! It will have an even bigger impact if you take a personal day off work and join them.
This is a California labor protest against an unjustified war. The ILWU and Immigrants rights groups need a huge turnout so that the media will have to stop ignoring the fact that most Americans want to end this war.
May 1, the ILWU, INTERNATIONAL LONGSHORE AND WAREHOUSE UNION is stopping work to protest the continued occupation of Iraq.
10:30 AM assemble at ILWU Hall in the Embarcadero area near Mason and Beach
NOON rally at Justin Herman Plaza
Bring good shoes, extra water, a hat and probably some lunch!
March for Immigrant rights in San Francisco
2 PM assemble in Dolores park and march to Civic Center
5 PM rally at Civic Center
March for Immigrant Rights in Oakland (and carry an Anti-War sign)
3 PM assemble at Fruitvale Bart, march to Oakland City Hall
6 pm rally and community celebration at Frank Ogawa Plaza
Can’t join us on May 1? Please write letters to the editor and support groups that are working to support veterans and get us out of this horrible occupation.
"Anyone seeking to preserve America’s fragile democracy must first understand the scope and magnitude of the powers aligned against it." -Jim Hightower
…clever scumbag that he is does not belong to the California Bar Association. Nor is he licensed to practice law in the State so my plan has no leverage. There is however on group of individuals whom have a say in all this. The most august Faculty Senate of the University of California at Berkeley, my cherished alma mater. They can cast the insane Woo from his perch as Professor at UCB’s Boalt Hall School of Law should they so choose. There is a link to email the chair. If you do so be polite and marshal some arguments for them to use. Bloviating ain’t gonna get it done.
There is one individual member of the faculty who has expressed his internal conflict about Woo’s presence at Berkeley. This would be Professor of Economics Brad DeLong whose blog Grasping Reality is an excellent example of the academic blog.
I recently commented in a thread about Greek plays, that’s where the opening quote comes from as follows:
Some mindfulness A man should surely keep, of any thing That pleased him once.
Yes, I have that ‘mindfulness’ of my days at Berkeley circa 1965 to 1971 when such a one as ‘Professor’ John Woo would have been driven from the hallowed vale that is Berkeley by an enraged community.
Sadly, as the ancients so correctly lamented the men of today are but pygmy’s compared to the giants of yesterday.Lost to them, it would seem, the moral outrage that gave birth to our nation, our society.
Is there no one on the faculty who feels the sting and shame of associating with the creature Yoo?
Is there not one amongst you who will stand up and demand he be cast forth?
Sadness……
A. Citizen
This man is struggling to be on our side and if you do contact him please be nothing but polite.
I have not and will not give up on my campaign to send Yoo packing. Next up is research on whether his work can get him expelled under Faculty Senate rules. If you have any ideas…send ’em along.
As a life-time Alumni of the University of California and law-abiding ciitzen of the the United States I’ve had more than enough of ‘Professor’ John ‘WaterBoard’ Yoo. This latest post at TPM shows I am not alone. Loosheadprop of FDL posted about his take on the recently released Yoo ‘torture memo’. I have repeatedly emailed the Dean of Boalt about how the presence of this admitted war criminal makes the very idea of studying the law at Boalt a sick joke. To no avail. I am writing this post to put forward the idea of filing a complaint with the California Bar Association asking that Woo be disbarred.
Take a look and make any suggestions you might have as to what approach might prove the most fruitful
I am absolutely serious about this. Even if, as seems likely, the California Bar refuses to accept my complaint it should add to the growing demand that Woo leave UCB and never return. I’ll leave the issues of war crime up to the flint-eyed investigators in The Hague.
Note: If you are interested in participating in this effort please make every effort to make our next meeting on 23rd April and Luka’s Taproom and Lounge, our usual venue, starting at 6:00 pm.
Clik on the banner about to help rid the nation of
Democrats who don't know what the word
'Democrat' means.
Are you Good Enough for Obama?
Barack is very disappointed with me!
I only scored 31 on the Obama Test
For a Blue Majority Now!
I, A.Citizen, believe candidates with strong, sound progressive stances deserve our support, particularly in primary races where they are opposed by folks who have been proven to be the opposite of progressive. Your early dollars can make the difference. Please make a contribution to this critical cause.
Check out the list of candidates we support and make a contribution here.
Activist Central!
This widget will contain links to folks who are organizing together to Fight Back!
Folks determined to take charge of the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee as a first step to the State and the the whole enchilada!
Drinking Liberally
Drinking Liberally Oakland is a political social group which meets on the 2nd & 4th Wednesday each month at Luka's Taproom & Lounge, 2221 Broadway @ Grand Ave in Oakland (6-9pm).
Posted by A.Citizen 
Bear Republic Action Group 