When Ronald Reagan shuffled the nation by encouraging us to embrace FreeEnterprise we all "felt good" and it worked. But it grew into a corporate capitalism since then, so hated by Karl Marx and now look what it has become: BigBanks need a bailout.They get it at a low %, while our credit card interest rates remain high. Is that how capitalism is supposed to work?
The Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research calculated that the below-market rates offered by the Federal Reserve to JPMorgan Chase — and 17 other large banks — accounted for 41 percent of the profits at Dimon’s banks.

They accounted for 47 percent of the profit at Bank of America, the group said.

A report by the CEPR compared the rates the Fed charged large banks to the rates it charged smaller banks.

The difference amounted to 0 for each of the 120 million families in the country — or roughly billion.

"Most people, if you asked them what do you want to do with 0, I doubt the answer would be, ‘Why don’t we subsidize the large banks?’" said Dean Baker, the group’s co-director. "A lot of things we think are important cost much less — billion annually would go a long way to subsidizing health care [costs for American families]."

Financial experts blasted the subsidy as corporate welfare.

"It rewards their irresponsible behavior in the past and encourages them to do the same thing again in the future," said Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
If a company fails it goes bankrupt. But if a corporation fails it gets a bailout. What are the benefits to taxpayers if any?
When corporations form by buying up large amounts of small companies they should be made clear that if ever in the future they fail, they ought to sell off the smaller entities before begging for bailouts. And guess what, this is EXACTLY what happening now (in Europe) after the public’s outrage.

Technorati Tags: american families, bailout, bank of america, cepr, co director, corporate capitalism, corporate welfare, credit card interest, credit card interest rates, dean baker, dimon, financial experts, health care costs, irresponsible behavior, jpmorgan chase, karl marx, quot, ronald reagan, simon johnson, sloan school of management

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAGzLfmV4Ks

"The 0 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered.

Why aren’t we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren’t we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers’ money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give 0 billion to Wall Street? Why aren’t we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren’t we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the 0 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren’t we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren’t we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren’t we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn’t it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls."
jeremy: Yeah, that’s a good speech, too!

Technorati Tags: american families, bailout, bankruptcy, bears, board of directors, bulls, debt burden, federal reserve, fundamental change, goldman sachs, manipulation, monetary system, new laws, premise, reducing debt, regulatory structures, speculation, taxpayers, united states congress, wall street