Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect
XVII.
(March 2009)
Bill
Sykes looks back in retrospect at material which has
been published in previous editions of "View from
America", in an attempt to determine whether the
subject matter written then is still applicable in
today’s world.
Article #17B.
A previous "bailout package" under
the Bush Presidency.
In September of 2008, President
Bush requested $700 billion dollar bailout money in a
struggle to stave off a complete financial catastrophe,
whilst at the same time acknowledging that it was a very
high risk situation for the taxpayers of the United States. Apparently
his suggested aim was to attempt to try to rescue the
large number of United States banks and financial institutions
who were in danger of failing for the first time since
the great depression of 1929. The general idea was for
the Administration to take over failing banks and mortgage
lending institutions.
So why would American debt be the
primary cause of a worldwide recession? Well the United
States banks and mortgage lending institutions over the
last few years have judicially packaged and off loaded
a large portion of unsecured mortgage debt to worldwide
overseas banks and other financial institutions who are
now suffering the effects of those unsupported American
loans.
Please refer to: "In—Retrospect XIII.
October 2008 Edition, (Article # 13A)".
We now will take a look at the current financial
situation during the first couple of months in the year
2009.
The question now arises as to, "What is the Government currently doing
to avert a complete financial monetary meltdown?". Well it would appear
that they are doing what they have always done, that is to "throw money
at the problem and hope that the problem will go away", which if you look
back to the 1929 depression took many years, until way after World War Two was
won, for the economy to recover.
Since President Obama got into office he has insisted that the Democrat and Republican
party’s find a common ground non-partisan effort to come forward with an
acceptable financial Bill. After many meetings between the memberships of the
two political parties they are still arguing about an acceptable title for the
Bill. It has been named, the "stimulus bill", the "job’s
bill", the "bailout bill", or whatever, and I can’t keep
up with the daily changes. So if they cannot come up with an acceptable title,
how on earth can they come up with an acceptable amount of money to throw at
the problem?
Let us take a look at the Government bail out of just
one company, AIG, (American International Group), one
of the largest insurance companies in the world. One
may wonder why that around the middle of February 2009
the US Government seized control of AIG in an $85 billion
deal, whilst at the same time pulling the plug on Lehman
Brothers Holdings and allowing the large investment bank
to go bankrupt.
Could it be that the Government bailout of AIG in such
an expeditious manner had anything to do with the fact
that they were protecting their own interests, as I’m
led to believe from reliable sources, that "AIG INSURES
THE PENSION TRUST OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS"?
Were they protecting their own interests before the interests
of the people of the United States - of course they were
- isn’t
that what Governments always do?
By the way AIG announced a $60 billion fourth quarter
loss today Monday the 2nd of March 2009.
The bailout amount that is currently being negotiated
has been quoted at $787 billion dollars, but who knows
if this is going to be the final amount. The trouble
is that the members of the House and the Senate, (both
Republican and Democrat), are still trying to get their
pet pork projects attached to the bill, and many of the
major business organizations are still trying to obtain
a share of the bailout monetary handouts, whilst at the
same time some of those same companies are spending enormous
amounts of money on such things as excessive CEO and
corporate member salaries, with excessive bonuses added,
and other perks such as executive jets, very expensive
junkets in such places as Las Vegas, etc, etc.
I have yet to see a document which stipulates the amount
of tax payer money that is being handed out, and to whom
that money is going to, and also what they the recipients
intend to use that money for - it has been said that
the list has been "sanitized" over
the last couple of weeks or so in order to cut out many
of the pork barrel projects that were initially included.
I would bet a pound to a penny, (British terminology),
that many large sums of handout money will eventually
get into the wrong hands as there doesn’t currently
appear to be any finite methods of control and accounting
in place to oversee these obvious large monetary handouts.
Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this news letter
has been gleaned from American and International
media sources, (Including the Internet), and as such
is quoted as accurately as possible. I try to obtain
confirmation on each subject from several outlets,
so the text is a mixture of composite news items
and my personal comments and therefore the reader
must make his/her own judgment as to the reliability
and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.
Eric (Bill) Sykes, (Southern California).
March 2009.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these articles. Please send all correspondence
to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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