Editorial: Two Solutions to TARP

I think we can all agree that the one thing TARP accomplished is to socialize the losses brought on by corporate irresponsibility and greed, freeing the banksters to continue their fat bonus checks and conspicuous consumption.  Here are two solutions to dealing with TARP:  Tim Geithner’s and mine.

A day ahead of testimony in which he's sure to be grilled about the controversial taxpayer-funded bank bailout program, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced Wednesday that he wants to extend it into late 2010."History suggests that exiting prematurely from policies designed to contain a financial crisis can significantly prolong an economic downturn," Geithner wrote in a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, widely known as TARP, will continue until October 3, 2010, Geithner said, arguing for prudence in keeping an unpopular program afloat until almost the end of next year.

"We must not waver in our resolve to ensure the stability of the financial system and to support the nascent recovery that the administration and Congress have worked so hard to achieve," he said…

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Why am I not surprised to see Geithner supporting the extension of the taxpayer funded gravy train for Wall Street?

My solution may be a bit simplistic, but it represents a complete about face from Geithner’s socialism for the rich policies.  First, I call on Obama once again to fire Geithner and Bernanke, to appoint Elizabeth Warren at Treasury and to appoint whomever she recommends at the Fed.  Second, as the big banks pay back the TARP funds, let’s invest all that money in Main Street through job creation spending on infrastructure and establishing a green manufacturing base.  Third, we must muzzle the bankster’s greed through exhaustive oversight and iron-clad regulation.  Fourth, too big to fail is too big to exist.  Break up the banksters.  Fifth, and perhaps most important, we must correct the travesty that ultimately led to the crisis.  Years of GOP No Millionaire Left Behind policies, have skewed the wealth in our nation so extensively that the bottom 40% of Americans own only 0.2% of the wealth, while the top 10% own 58.9%.  The bankster’s crooks were able to sucker people into ninja loans only because they could not maintain their standard of living without using the equity in their homes.  Why?  Costs increased, but real wages fell, as the nation’s wealth flowed into the pockets of the super-rich.  It’s time for these beneficiaries to give back some of the largesse they have received at American taxpayers’ expense.  It’s time to finance health care reform, clean energy reform, and education reform using a healthy surtax on millionaires.  The tired old argument against this is that it will hurt the economy by limiting the rich people’s ability to create jobs with their investments.  That is a lie.  They are investing for paper profits that produce little if anything of value.  paper profits produce no jobs.  Furthermore, history tells a different story.  I found the above statistics this morning at Crooks and Liars.  The top marginal tax rate (what the super-rich pay, before loopholes) in the US stayed above 75% from 1941 – 1981.  Throughout most of that time, business boomed and investment capital was plentiful.

What do you think?