Dear CommonDreamer,
When Congress passed the George W. Bush $700 billion bank bailout plan, the goal was to rescue our banking system by propping up the banks that deregulation had allowed to become 'too big to fail.' We now know that the bailed out banks didn't use our money to start lending more - rather they paid out big bonuses to executives and bailed out the banks' shareholders. In return for our money the American people got nothing.
We, the people, became majority owners in many of the major banks. But we have no voice in the way the banks are run. If taxpayers are footing the bill for rescuing the banks, why shouldn't we get ownership, at least until private buyers can be found?
Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman calls this a "a classic exercise in 'lemon socialism': taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right."
Yes, we get f++++d regardless who is in the Whitehouse.
