Tuesday rant: SCREW AMERICA PART III, The Last Straw

SCREW AMERICA PART III, The Last Straw

By Charles Wallshein Esq.

All Rights Reserved, May 2011

            I think its appropriate to start out with Part 3 and work our way backwards. It’s kind of like the Star Wars series. Screw America Part I, is about how the banks got us into this mess. Screw America Part II, The Sequel is about the trillions of dollars spent on the bank bailout. Screw America Part III, The Last Straw, is about how the banks and our government is ensuring that the American middle class is destroyed once and for all, while the big banks post record profits.

            My previous blog article, Where Are We Going With This?,  directs our attention to the fact that there is a hundred billion dollar a year subsidy to the big banks. I could be wrong about the exact dollar amount, but if I am, it’s not by much. Please understand that I do not have a problem with subsidizing the banks per se. However, I do have a really big problem with what the banks are doing with OUR OWN MONEY.

            The most important fact here is that we all have to understand whose money this is. IT IS OUR MONEY. The treasury’s money belongs to the American people. It  does not belong to the banks and it will never belong to the banks. We (the treasury) lend it to the banks in amounts and at interest rates that are determined by the Federal Reserve. Over time, it is Americans’ responsibility to repay the debt. Therefore, it is our money. Right now we are losing money on every dollar we lend to the banks. Not much, a few cents on every dollar. But a trillion here and a trillion there and it starts to add up.

            The next important question to ask concerns how the banks are using our money to help us. What is their plan to make sure that while they are turning a profit by using OUR MONEY, there is some net-net benefit to America down the road? The problem is that I really don’t see the benefit. I tried. I just don’t see it. I’m as patriotic as the next guy. I love our country and I want more than anything to trust my government and our institutions. So I come to this looking for the silver lining. I just don’t see one.

            The really scary conclusion that I draw is that there is more money to be made by running the country into the ground than there is by saving it, over the short term (next 5-10 years), anyway. I wish there were someone out there to tell me that I am wrong. I have some pretty sophisticated readers and nobody has told me that I am wrong. I want to be wrong. I want someone to tell me that I am an idiot and explain to me HOW and WHY I have my facts backwards. Believe me, nothing would make me happier.

            Let’s say we used the bank subsidy for some useful purpose, like stemming the foreclosure crisis for instance. Now remember, ITS OUR MONEY. If I had a choice of how to use this money we are giving the banks at ¼ of one percent, I would suggest that some of it be used to stabilize housing prices. Instead we are financing a viscous cycle-downward spiral in housing. Well, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Call me crazy.

Let me punctuate this article by saying that the OBAMA HAMP program is a great program, in theory at least. The reason its results have fallen short of expectations is that the banks have not been co-operating and playing by the rules.

            Then the banks get a bunch of congressmen and senators to tell us that the program should be ended as wasteful because it doesn’t work. OK… let me get this straight… the banks borrow OUR MONEY, use it to subvert the system, then tell us we can’t save our homes because the system doesn’t work. Then they use more of our money to influence Congress to make sure our lawmakers never hold the banks accountable while using OUR MONEY and make them part of the solution. Its SCREW AMERICA, THE LAST STRAW,  starring The Big Banks, Treasury & the Federal Reserve, Co-Starring Congress & a few state attorney generals. 

The fact is that if the program were given a chance to work, if government imposed some really stiff penalties on the banks for wrongful foreclosure, not complying with HAMP, and disbarred foreclosure attorneys for behaving badly, we might not be in as bad a situation as we are. There might even be signs of a recovery. But that’s not what is happening. We are being forced to finance our own demise WITH OUR OWN MONEY. Hey Ben, run the credits…

Visit The Real Deal America for the article Stemming Home Foreclosures from “ChARTICLES”