Hi, AfDers and friends,
A lot is being written suddenly on the "who could have expected" economic crisis we have found ourselves in, which intensified on Thursday. Thursday is being compared to Black Monday, the offical beginning of the Great Depression. Keep in mind that the failing banks and the ever increasing crisis didn't hit its worst until 1933. So if Thursday was the modern Black Monday, the worst is yet to come.
As presented in the Oregonian on Sunday it appears that Congress will be asked to push legislation (legislation text: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/20/news/economy/treasury_proposal/index.htm) which will give Treasury Sec. Paulson near dictatorial powers to decide future responses. Included in the legislation will be an increase of the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion dollars.
See Letter to Editor by Bill Michton below (unpublished).
See also Jeffrey Smith's suggestions on a couple of reforms that might make a difference. However, don't expect to see these enacted, because they do not push the payment burden onto the average Jill.
Finally, I would point people to this article by William Geider, frequent writer for The Nation magazine. To quote him: "Paulson and the Federal Reserve are trying to replay the bailout approach used in the 1980s for the savings and loan crisis, but this situation is utterly different. The failed S&Ls held real assets - property, houses, shopping centers - that could be readily resold by the Resolution Trust Corporation at bargain prices. This crisis involves ethereal financial instruments of unknowable value - not just the notorious mortgage securities but various derivative contracts and other esoteric deals that may be virtually worthless." http://www.truthout.org/article/paulson-bailout-plan-a-historic-swindle. He presents a number of conditions on those to be bailed out as well as additional protections for you and I.
David e. Delk, Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter 503 232 5495 www.afd-pdx.org
Letter to Editor of Oregonian by Bill Michton
Before people start believing the advice of your editorial "Once More Unto the Breach" that Treasury Secretary Paulson is "offering the economy a parachute [that] Congress would be crazy not to accept," I suggest they read Section 8 of his plan:
8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are *non-reviewable* and committed to agency discretion, and *may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.*
Isn't this how we got into this mess in the first place? This plan calls for blind trust in the Bush Administration as it transfers 700 BILLION dollars to the same people who threw it away to begin with.
This plan REWARDS the crooks with more of the victim( the US taxpayer)'s money.
From: jjs@geonomics.org
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:54:23 -0700
To: michtom@pacifier.com
CC: group-list@lists.ejag.org
Subject: [Group-list] Re:wards US taxpayer
On Sep 20, 2008, at 10:40 PM, Bill Michtom wrote:
This plan REWARDS the crooks with more of the victim( the US taxpayer)'s money.
Hear, hear!
Instead,
(1) give home buyers leverage to re-negotiate; require anyone foreclosing to first pay all of the mortgager's back taxes and future property taxes for one year, and
(2) get money into the pockets of the populace, not the elite: shift the property tax off buildings, onto land, (this will be counterintuitive but it works where tried) raise the rate on land to full annual market value, then use that pooled public revenue to pay residents a dividend or Housing Voucher (a la Aspen CO).
A land tax is progressive because land values are progressive, steeply rising in "better" neighborhood where the wealthy live, in downtowns always owned by investors (usually outsiders), and in places like oil fields, coal mines, loggable forests, etc.
It's better than an income tax because it's more progressive and it gets the money (the value of sites and resources) before the elite insiders do, depriving them of the wherewithal for unduly influencing policy-making.
And shifting the property tax is something that activists can do locally.
SMITH, Jeffery J.
President, Forum on Geonomics
jjs@geonomics.org; www.geonomics.orgShare Earth's worth to prosper and conserve.
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