Whoa! The Wall Street bailout bill was so nasty that
even Congress gagged before finally passing it. But this doesn’t
obscure the fact that the bailout is a disgusting glob of corporate
welfare.
A sign of just how bad it is came from the incredible
last-minute effort to disguise it as a populist proposal. “The rescue
we’re negotiating,” declared George W. in a Saturday radio
broadcast, “is not aimed at Wall Street; it is aimed at your
street.”
In fact, the administration’s rescue was having
a decidedly anti-populist impact: the elimination of banking competition.
On Monday — poof! — Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-largest
bank, disappeared. Then Washington Mutual was pushed into JPMorgan Chase.
Ten days earlier, Merrill Lynch was consumed by Bank of America. The three
behemoths doing the swallowing now dominate nationwide, wielding unrivaled
power to set fees and interest rates on our credit cards, mortgages,
checking accounts, local business loans and every other banking product.
Rather than using the assets of failing banks to
establish new competitors, the corporate mindset of Paulson (who came to
his job straight from the Wall Street powerhouse of Goldman Sachs) is to
consolidate America’s banking power into ever fewer, ever bigger
hands. His ally is fear, which the White House has been feverishly pumping
out. “This sucker could go down,” Bush shrieked a week ago in a
meeting with congressional leaders.
Worse, though, is the shameful failure of
either party to stand up for homeowners. Congress could have made one
change that would keep families in their homes, halt the downward slide of
housing prices and cost taxpayers nothing. Simply allow bankruptcy judges
to reduce the mortgage payments of distressed families (currently, every
kind of loan can be adjusted in bankruptcy court — except the
mortgage on your home).
During the debate, one House leader cried,
“There are no other choices — no other alternatives.”
What he meant is that there are not alternatives that come with Wall
Street’s seal of approval — your street be damned.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist and author.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2008.
