[George_1950]

As far as I'm concerned, yes, starting with George W. Bush: " "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television." At least he is honest, unlike Obama and Dems who refuse to acknowledge that they are 'liberal'. But the practical result: "When the U.S. Treasury persuaded the nation's nine biggest banks to accept capital investments in October, it signaled the whole industry was weak, Kovacevich (Wells Fargo), 65, said in a March 13 speech at Stanford University in California. Even though Wells Fargo didn't want the money, it must comply with the same rules that the government placed on banks that did need it, he said.

“Is this America -- when you do what your government asks you to do and then retroactively you also have additional conditions?” Kovacevich said. “If we were not forced to take the TARP money, we would have been able to raise private capital at that time” and not needed to cut the dividend to preserve cash, he said." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

I call it, making a deal with the devil. Better to have said, simply, He-l, no!", and take the consequences.

[tomder55]

Many banks did not accept TARP money so his argument is BS . Wells Fargo was given a choice ;and still has the option to return the TARP money .

[excon]

Are some Republicans fascists?

Hello George:

Wikkipedia:

"Fascism is a radical, authoritarian nationalist ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or race.

Fascist movements promote violence between nations, political factions, and races as part of a social Darwinist and militarist stance that views violence between these groups as a natural and positive part of evolution. In the view of these groups being in perpetual conflict, fascists believe only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and have an aggressive warrior mentality by conquering, dominating, and eventually eliminating people deemed weak and degenerate.

Fascist governments permanently forbid and suppress all criticism and opposition to the government and the fascist movement. Fascist movements oppose any ideology or political system that gives direct political power to people as individuals rather than as a collective nation or race (individualism, liberalism, representative democracy); that is deemed detrimental to national identity and unity (communism, class conflict, internationalism, laissez-faire capitalism); that protects and empowers people deemed weak and degenerate (egalitarianism); that seek to preserve institutions and values that restrict the social or biological development and unity of a nation or race (conservatism); and that undermine the military strength and military ambitions of the nation (pacifism)."


Yes, they are...

excon

[speechlesstx]

Speaking of TARP money, Republican Charles Grassley suggested AIG executives should commit suicide.

Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, made the comments Monday in an interview with a radio station in his home state of Iowa.

"The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them (is) if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide," Grassley said.

"And in the case of the Japanese," he added, "they usually commit suicide before they make any apology."

Meanwhile, Democrats want to completely undermine the concept of contracts, and if that isn't enough they'd like to enact the "highest excise tax we can impose that's sustainable in court" on those who received bonuses according to their contracts at AIG.

I think perhaps they've all lost their minds.

[tomder55]

From page H1412 of the bucket list

``SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:

"(iii) The prohibition required under clause (I) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a writte employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary."


And guess who added this amendment... yup Senator Chris Dudd ;same Senator who was the highest recipient of campaign donations from AIG during the 2008 elections with $103,100... 2nd was President Obama .

[speechlesstx]

The Sam Dodd who now says "This is another outrageous example of executives -- including those whose decisions were responsible for the problems that caused AIG's collapse -- enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers."

The same Dodd who now says "We have a right to tax. You could write a tax provision that's narrowly crafted only to the people receiving bonuses. That's a way maybe to deal with it."

The same Dodd with VIP loans from Countrywide who wants to restructure them so it doesn't look bad.

He's very adept at covering his a$$ on both sides of things.

[George_1950]

He's very adept at covering his a$$ on both sides of things.

He would be toast if he were from my state - Georgia.

[George_1950]

Folks who are supporting this so-called tax of bonuses should be aware that the power used to collect an 'AIG bonus tax' can be used against them, as well.

[tomder55]

Marc Ambinder of Atlantic gives Sen .Dudd a pass on the compensation amendment in the bucket list bill.

The truth is that the codicil was added in conference by mutual agreement of House and Senate Democrats and the White House.

Don't Blame Chris Dodd For The Bonuses - The Atlantic Politics Channel

If this is true ,then Obama's teleprompter directed outrage was as phoney as they come.

Tigerhawk blog has an interesting posting about AIG .

As applied to AIG, the word “bailout” is losing its meaning. The common equity is destroyed, so the owners of the company — the people normally bailed out in a bailout — lost everything (as well they should have). Lots of people have lost their jobs. It is actually a company in a form of (orderly?) non-bankruptcy liquidation or receivorship. The countless billions pumped into AIG since the fall have gone right back out the door to pay creditors of AIG, many of which are big financial institutions that would have taken much larger losses (and needed more capital from some source, probably the government) if AIG had defaulted. From this perspective, AIG is nothing more than a conduit for the government to distribute money to financial institutions without making new investments in them. Whether that is a bug or a feature depends on whether you want the government to own much larger stakes in all these companies, but this much is difficult to refute: The “bailout” in question is not of AIG, but of the counterparties of AIG. ….................................
The salient feature of the late credit bubble was a massive shift in bargaining power from lenders to borrowers, all of whom pressed for lower pricing and looser covenants. It was borrowers who were “greedy,” from real estate developers to private equity firms to hedge funds to consumers who bought houses and cars they could not afford. Politicians and journalists who say otherwise are being ignorant or disingenuous, even if predictable.

TigerHawk

Among the companies that got considerable $$$$$ from AIG is Goldman Sachs... in fact Goldman is the highest recipient of AIG transfers($12.6 billion) even though Goldman had already been a recipient of TARP funds and had claimed it needed no further bailout $$$$$. May of last year these two giants almost merged .
MORGAN AND AIG ARE POSSIBLE SUITORS: GOLDMAN SACHS EYES IPO-MERGER COMBO - InvestmentNews

But if there is a real outrage about AIG(besides my own pet peeve about how Eliot Spitzer personally brought the company to ruin in his ambitious run to the NY Governorship) ,it is not the bonuses ;it is the $20 billion + payouts to foreign banks . As Tigerhawk pointed out ;We are essentially laundering foreign aid to European and others financial institutions through AIG .

[speechlesstx]

If this is true ,then Obama's teleprompter directed outrage was as phoney as they come.

He had to have something to take Rush's place.

[earl237]

Every party has a fringe element of people with extreme views, you can't single out the Republican party as fascist.