Plundering the Public Purse

I have found this great article on the bank crisis, you really must read it.

As the global financial crisis unfolds, one thing is certain: The major investment and commercial banks who have wrecked our economy and financial system are now successfully sucking unlimited amounts of money from the people’s Treasury to bail themselves out.

Drooling at the head of the line are Bear Stearns and JP Morgan Chase. There will be more. 

In simple terms, Bear Stearns, the fifth largest U.S. investment bank, got caught in a massive bank run……

……the Fed becomes the lender of last resort, and the Treasury guarantees payoff even in the case of default.

But, Bear Stearns is NOT a bank and NOT a member of the privately-owned Federal Reserve. And since the Fed can only lend cash directly to member banks, it channeled funds through surrogate JPMorgan Chase, to purchase Bear Stearns and guarantee its continued operation.

What a sweetheart deal for JPMorgan Chase: It literally stole the company for a mere $2 per share or a total of about $250 million. The Bear Stern headquarters building alone is worth at least a billion dollars. Its stock traded as high as $170 just over a year ago.

So, Bear Stearns gets bailed out at no risk to JPMorgan Chase, and JP Morgan Chase gets to add windfall assets to its own balance sheet. …….

…..Americans aren’t going to take this much longer.

Social mood is visibly turning just as certainly as a San Francisco cable car on its turntable at the end of the line.

A recent search on www.cnnfn.com for “Bear Stearns” produced these two sponsored ad links at the very top of the results page:

• “Bear Stearns Lawsuit: Lose Money in Bear Stearns Shares? Free Case Review”
• “Bear Stearns Employee? Did Company Violate Your Rights? Get into an ERISA Investigation”

This is just the tip of the iceberg. ……

Read the whole of this marvellous article here……