The U.S. Government Lie: $700 Billion Bailout

October 16, 2008 by Pelikan
Filed under: Bailout Bill, Journalism, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis 

When the U.S. government begins renaming terrible things like killing civilians with misplaced bombs “collateral damage,” we should all know we’re in trouble. When the media doesn’t challenge this government gobbledy-gook but rather adopts it, we’re in bigger trouble. The de-sensitizing has begun.

Tonight I got home from work early enough to watch the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. As Lehrer discussed a story on the U.S. and world financial crises, guess what appeared to the side of his head? It was a graphic that just a couple of weeks ago would have said “bailout,” but now reads “rescue.” We’re screwed, the de-sensitizing is well underway.

As I wrestled with the fact that Bush Administration and Congressional double-speak seems to be lulling us all to sleep again, something woke me up. Specifically, it was something Heike Buchter, a business correspondent for Die Zeit, a German newspaper said. She said that the German government’s bailout of its own financial sector is nearly the size of what Congress handed over to Henry Paulson two weeks ago — $671 billion to be exact. I’ve suspected that $700 billion could be just a small beginning of what it would take to unwind Wall Street’s malfeasance; I’m beginning to be sure.

I went and compared the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with that of Germany’s. The GDP is the total value of all final goods and services produced by a country’s economy in a given year. According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP for 2007 was $13.8 trillion. Germany’s for the same year was $3.3 trillion. We know that the U.S. housing bubble, ignorant consumers, and shoddy lending practices coupled with securitization, the misuse of leverage, and unregulated market practices all have much to do with the current world crisis. What we don’t know is exactly how many bad assets are out there. We know what mortgages are bad – we don’t know how many other market gambles such as credit default swaps were placed on those mortgages.

We do know that the problem started here and spread worldwide because people are greedy regardless of where they live. The most exposure one would think is right here in the U.S., yet Germany – with an economy one quarter the size of ours – believes it will take nearly the same amount to bail them out as our government has put on the line for our entire financial sector. My musings are obviously un-scientific and untested but I’ve got a day job. I just think it’s fishy.

What we “ordinary” Americans can do is continue to ask questions – Oh, and don’t let even the venerable Jim Lehrer call a bailout a rescue.

Excerpt from tonight’s News Hour:

HEIKE BUCHTER, Die Zeit: I would say the problems originated here in the U.S., and that’s where — yes, in Europe — or at least in Germany, people are thinking this is where the original sin happened, so to speak, and then it came to Europe.
But one has to say that the Europeans were ill-prepared. They should have known that this is a global problem and they should have been much more on the lookout for problems in their own banking system. And they just waited far too long to deal with it.
JEFFREY BROWN: And to what extent did the banks there invest in subprime loans and other what turned out to be bad loans?
HEIKE BUCHTER: I mean, the German government just put together a rescue package almost the size of the U.S. It’s about $670 billion, 500 billion Euro.
And that shows you the extent of the government’s worry about the banking system. So nobody really knows for sure what’s in the balance sheets, but the size of the rescue package is, for German standards, it’s enormous.

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Comments

3 Comments on The U.S. Government Lie: $700 Billion Bailout

  1. L4in on Fri, 31st Oct 2008 2:08 pm

    2. You should make this film get to the news before is banned

  2. Anonymous on Fri, 12th Dec 2008 12:12 pm

    3. this doesnt help me either!

  3. me. on Fri, 12th Dec 2008 12:14 pm

    4. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I am a scary lion!!

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