I think all of us owe a debt of gratitude to financial commentator Karl Denninger. On his Web site "The Market Ticker" he's highlighted some extraordinarily disturbing aspects of the bank bail-out mounted last year, and its implications for the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution in this country. They apply to both the previous and the present Administration.
His article is headlined: 'Thuggery And Mob Action, Government Style'. If his claims are accurate, it's well titled! Here's a short excerpt (the bold print is his emphasis):
These documents show that the banks in question were literally forced to accept the interference of the government in the form of equity investment under the direct threat that their primary regulator (the OTS or OCC, as the case may be) would force them to do so if they refused. Both OTS and OCC are run by Treasury.
The outrage here is not just that these CEOs were forced (literally) to take the money. It is also that they were forced to, at the same time, accept whatever FUTURE restrictions on activity, including compensation, Treasury or Congress desired to impose.
In short the banks were forcibly nationalized without a prior finding of insolvency; this is blatantly unconstitutional as a "taking" without compensation.
. . .
A recent Ticker commented on the nascent bill to provide a "backstop" to state and local municipal bond issuance. I believe it is quite safe to say that the precise same sort of thuggery used with the banks will be employed with the States, if we do not stop it. After all, there is zero evidence that this changed with the Obama Administration; they in fact tried to prevent the release of the FOIA'd documents from Treasury, redacted an awful lot of the material, refused to provide Geithner's notes on the matter and further, have failed to act to restructure that odious "trust" document mentioned above.
We are no longer a nation of laws; this is a bigger scandal, by far, than Watergate and it is 100% bipartisan.
If we the people allow any of this to stand we can consider our nation's founding document to be nothing more than toilet paper.
We need a special prosecutor, we need indictments and impeachments, and we need them now.
I urge my readers to please go to Mr. Denninger's article and read it in full for yourselves. If what he says is correct, I totally agree with him. This is worse than Watergate, and we do need indictments and impeachments of those responsible - at once, if not sooner.
If his claims are true, and those responsible are allowed to get away with it, then to assert that the United States is 'a nation of laws' will be no more than a hollow joke.
Peter
Denninger is on my morning "read" list- the man shines a light where it is needed and puts it in terms the ordinary Joe (me) can understand. His explanation of the theft from bondholders of the auto industry and the sweetheart deal given the UAW was very interesting and another criminal (literally) act.
ReplyDeleteWe should be pushing more, not just for less spending, to repeal the entire TARP bill and all its precedents!
ReplyDeleteI saw today a notice (I can't verify the validity of it) that the government is leaning on S&W and other firearms manufacturers to sell 10% of their stock to the government and under market rates. Why do this if not to gain leverage and control? S&W doesn't need the capital. They're doing great!
I hope that is a hoax but I fear it is not.