The Heist

The bank bailout plan is a criminal act -- larceny to be specific, and people more knowledgeable than me will back me up on this.

Krugman is not the only Nobel-winning economist to blow the whistle on this heist. In an interview with Reuters yesterday, Columbia University's Joseph Stiglitz condemned the Geithner plan in no uncertain terms.

The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors, he said.

"Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer."

That's it in a nutshell. Obama and Geithner are telling the investor class they can sit down at the green table and gamble that the constituent parts of the shitpile are worth a lot more than anybody's been willing to pay for them. When they lose the gamble -- and they will -- we, the taxpayers are now standing behind them, ready to cover their losses, and we're on the hook for upwards of a trillion bucks.

Stiglitz is right; there'll be a lot of anger. But that won't matter much, because the banksters own the country. They certainly own this administration, just like they owned the last one.

There's not a dime's worth of difference between "liberal" Democrats and "conservative" Republicans. When push comes to shove, political liberalism is a fashion statement and a "lifestyle" choice. The substance of real reform will have to come from outside the political establishment.

George W. Bush at least had an excuse. He could always say, "It's not my fault. I was born this way." Obama doesn't have that escape clause.