Tuesday, August 31, 2010

FINANCIAL TERRORISTS & FALSE PATRIOTS ARE THE REAL ENEMY?

If you want to understand how we're getting cheated out of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue by our very own financial terrorists, the following is a primer. While I understand this may be conceptually difficult for the Country First, false patriot Tea Baggers, they need to pay attention to this one ...

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It looks like Wall Street and other financial titans who have been playing in our financial mud pit are going to pay 2011 bonuses in late 2010. Their rationale? They want to help their executives avoid paying out more taxes anticipated because of changes to tax laws. In the case of Credit Suisse Group in London, they want to compensate their executives for the tax hit they took in 2009.

Got that? Companies that drove our economy into the ground, and who should have been forced into bankruptcy, believe that their incompetence deserves to be rewarded. Instead, after happily accepting the benefits of a U.S. government orchestrated bailout, which allowed them to guarantee profits and complete big payouts, the biggest financial institutions are thanking governments by turning their backs on them precisely when budget shortfalls demand a little help from all corners.

This is one of the reasons why I called for nationalizing our failing institutions (here, here, and here). I didn't want the same people who ran our economy into the ground recovering only to socialize the losses and then, later, privatize the profits.

Too late. It's now a done deal. Our financial terrorists have socialized the losses, and seem content to ride the American taxpayer into the ground for their own financial benefit.

The end result is that you and I are paying for the bailout - in the form of increased budget deficits, lost jobs, fewer legal rights, chopped salaries, greater uncertainty, etc. - while Wall Street and their Washington friends continue to find new ways to stick it to Main Street. Check out these evolving stories ...

* OFFSHORE THEFT: Goldman Sachs, which received government debt guarantees and $10 billion in taxpayer funded bailout money, saw it's effective tax rate drop to 1%. Why? Because it moved some of its money off shore to avoid paying taxes.

* LEGAL COVER: In order to get taxpayer funded bailout money, which propped up their company and the profits of other institutions, AIG gave up it's right to sue companies who misled them. This helped keep regulators and law enforcement officials away from the mess created by Wall Street.

* HUSH MONEY: After securing trillions in guarantees and loans during the bailout Wall Street's financial institutions began paying out million dollar fines for misleading investors, selling "made-to-fail" instruments, and "misstating" anticipated losses. In laymen terms, they paid fines for fraudulent behavior.

* SIMPLE COLLUSION: Goldman Sachs and Bank of America colluded with firms that sent school district (infrastructure) money their way. Once the money was secured these firms then paid out bribes, all of which cheated cities and towns of much needed funds. Making matters worse, those involved in directing money to Goldman and BofA then deliberately withheld information about higher paying financial programs from municipalities and other governments.

* OUTSOURCING WHITE COLLAR JOBS (but here in America): Banks who received the biggest rescue packages requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers, to do white collar jobs! The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721. During the last three months of 2008 - when the market meltdown was at it's height - the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs (where's organized labor here?).

Can anyone say with a straight face that the real terrorists we need to worry about are right here in our country?

Think about it ... Wall Street's stupidity and greed collapses the economy ... Wall Street uses a taxpayer funded bailout to subsidize undeserved bonuses ... Wall Street shifts money offshore to avoid taxes ... Wall Street bribed convinced Washington to restrict the legal right to sue corporate incompetence ... Wall Street paid what amounts to hush money to avoid court cases ... Wall Street firms colluded to steal funds from local schools and cities ... Wall Street outsourced jobs by bringing foreign workers to America (at the same time they had their hand out to the American taxpayer) ...

Is putting America further in debt what Country First is all about? Where's the Tea Bag outrage over Wall Street's theft of American tax funds here? Why wasn't Mr. Tea Bag, Glenn Beck, discussing how all of this makes a travesty of patriotism at his white self-pity rally on Saturday?

At the end of the day, our financial terrorists are causing more problems for America than the terror babies the Glenn Becks of our world like to whine about. When the false patriot, Tea Bag Bunch, begins to figure this out (and adds a little color to their mob) maybe it will be time to take them seriously.

Until then, they're just perpetuating a debt-drenched, corporate welfare, system that increasingly makes us dependent on China. And, if I'm using my Glenn Beck-logic tin foil hat, that makes them all traitors.

- Mark

Note: Photo added after original post.

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