DISQUS

AMERICAblog: White House defends billions in bailout cash for bank dividends

  • Paul_In_SF · 1 year ago
    WTF? I always thought that dividends were a way of dividing up the profits among the shareholders. How can they justify saying that they have profits when their losses are so bad that they needed a bailout? Pitchforks and torches to the ready!
  • blackwolf · 1 year ago
    That's exactly the point.! You've hit the nail on the head. We have fools running this country, and they're on both sides of the aisle in Washington.
  • 1970cs · 1 year ago
    this is one of those instances where I ask myself why is necessary to call and write my senators(one who is the chairman of the senate banking committee) for them to actually do their jobs?

    Accoutability? Not so much
  • fried · 1 year ago
    Just remember that with four more years of similar politics this situation wont get better!

    You would be absolutely nuts to vote for McCain!
    Heres why

    www.tv1.com/playlists/show/11
  • themanofthecrowd · 1 year ago
    I think this is the point where the government kicks itself for not insisting on an equity stake in the banks, so it could at least make some of its money back. Honestly, I don't know why the government doesn't insist on equity and the right to appoint a governing majority of the board of directors for the banks participating in the bailout.
  • SCLiberal · 1 year ago
    I sent this info to others in South Carolina and told them Lindsey Graham voted for the bailout bill. Now it's their turn to vote. (He is up for reelection)
  • cwzilla · 1 year ago
    Could there be a strongly worded letter in the makeing?????
  • Bluestocking · 1 year ago
    As I said yesterday, the fact that the banks are using more than 50% of the bailout money for dividends shows that Wall Street doesn't give a hoot about Main Street. I don't know about you, but I'm not personally acquainted with many ordinary people who own blocks of banking stocks and who would therefore be entitled to some of these dividends -- so this says to me that most of this money is going to stay on Wall Street. "Trickle-down economics", my backside!
  • nsr · 1 year ago
    Ok, but it seems like once you accept the idea (as you did, Chris) that $700 billion to buy a bunch of crap debt is necessary to get credit to the average consumer, with no real controls and no targeting of credit bottlenecks, you're coming on now that the horses are out of the barn. I mean, they got the money, and they're spending it however they want-- big surprise, huh?

    Did the bill work? It passed four weeks ago, a week after you said "The bailout isn't perfect but everyone except the radical GOP fringe and the grandstanding McCain were prepared to sign off on this." Has it actually eased the credit situation like you thought it would?
  • cordblomquist · 1 year ago
    Check out beyondbailouts.org a site designed to fight against further bailouts and keep the existing scheme from becoming staggeringly corrupt.

    CEI has joined with the National Taxpayers Union (you may remember McCain citing them during the debates) to create BeyondBailouts.org. The allows visitors to write their Congressman, sign a petition, and view syndicated news from several think tanks and advocacy groups.

    Our roster includes the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Club for Growth.
  • CRT · 1 year ago
    A trillion here, a trillion there; pretty soon you're talking real money. Well, as real as this paper stuff gets that is -- and thanks to the Fed, a trillion isn't exactly what it used to be.

    It's time to put a stop to this. Just start over. Throw them all out, Dems and Republicans alike. There isn't an ounce of difference between them anymore anyway. Could the Libertarians or Greens really do any worse than this?

    We can start by voting "no" against incumbants who voted "yes" for the Bailout. Don't know who they are? Check out Constituent Response's Bailout Vote Map at http://www.constituentresponse.com/congress .