Greek Demonstrators Say 'Plutocracy Should Pay for the Crisis'

So they're wondering how the country managed to amount 300 billion euros of debt - what was that money spent on? Certainly not, they say, on public services or roads. The protestors have the impression that politicians robbed the country blind. With the former government, there was a corruption scandal every two months. So talk of wasted money is still rife. The former health minister ordered 16 million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine, but only 400,000 were needed in the end.

I saw the slogan ‘plutocracy should pay for the crisis' - which pretty much sums up the feelings of the protestors".'

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'Greece Being Forced to Buy Arms'

A leading European parliamentarian has accused France and Germany of forcing Greece to buy billions of euros in arms in exchange for their bailout money.

France and Germany, while publicly urging Greece to make harsh public spending cuts, bullied its government to confirm billions of euros in arms deals, Franco-German lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit alleged on Friday.

The accusation drew a stern denial from the French government.

Cohn-Bendit said he had met last week in Athens with Papandreou, a long-time friend of his, and accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy of blackmailing the Greek leader.'

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Big Fat Greek Debt: The Bailout

The financially stricken Greek government is beginning talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund about a possible bailout. Greece has found borrowing from banks too costly recently and is struggling to refinance old debts. Let's get some analysis with economist and author William Engdahl.

The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society

You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before exposing the root causes of this breakdown, let’s look at some vital statistics and facts.'

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Despite Obama’s Repeated Claims That Enacting $787-Billion Stimulus Was Urgent, 78 Percent of Money Remained Unspent

After his election last November and until the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February, President Barack Obama repeatedly insisted that it was urgent for Congress to enact his economic “recovery” bill immediately. Yet, by the end of fiscal 2009 fully 78 percent of the federal spending authorized by that bill had not yet taken place, according to the Government Accountability Office.'

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Gordon Brown to Give Another $11 Billion of Taxpayers Money To the IMF to Bail Out Other Countries

The UK has promised an extra $11bn of standby finance for the IMF, which will be used to support countries that are struggling in the face of the economic crisis.

This sum, on top of the initial $15bn pledged in spring could be drawn on within months since the IMF’s original war chest is understood to be close to running dry after it has had to come to the rescue of various countries, including Iceland and Pakistan.

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Judge Orders Fed To Disclose Who Received Bailout Trillions

A New York District Judge has ordered the Federal Reserve to disclose the destination of around $2 trillion dollars in bailout funds after the Fed failed to convince the Judge that the records should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

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Goldman Sachs Raking in Massive Profits

Due to the fact that Goldman Sachs is currently the favorite of Washington they are raking in massive profits during a time when most banks and brokerage firms are struggling for survival.

Due to a very successful second quarter, Goldman has set aside $226,156 per employee in compensation – a 75% increase per employee. That means annualized compensation could be $1 million per employee for the year. We find this of great interest inasmuch as the recently converted bank received a $10 billion taxpayer bailout via Goldman’s connections in Washington. They also received a myriad of benefits from several other government schemes over the past two years. It is nice to know that in part American taxpayers made this possible while unemployment is running on a U6 basis at 20.5%, and Americans are losing their homes by the millions.

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Celente: The Bubble to End all Bubbles

The biggest financial bubble in history is being inflated in plain sight, said Gerald Celente, Director of The Trends Research Institute. "This is the Mother of All Bubbles, and when it explodes," Celente warns, "it will signal the end to the boom/bust cycle that has characterized economic activity throughout the developed world."

Either unwilling or unable to call the bubble by its proper name, the media, Washington and Wall Street describe the stupendous government expenditures on rescue packages, stimulus plans, buyouts and takeovers as emergency measures needed to salvage the severely damaged economy.
"All of this terminology is econo-jargon," said Celente. "It's like calling torture 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'

Washington is inflating the biggest bubble ever: the 'Bailout Bubble.' "This is much bigger than the Dot-com and Real Estate bubbles which hit speculators, investors and financiers the hardest. However destructive the effects of these busts on employment, savings and productivity, the Free Market Capitalist framework was left intact. But when the 'Bailout Bubble' explodes, the system goes with it."

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Geithner's Plan Will Tax Main Street to Make Wall Street Richer

The new consensus among the experts who missed the housing bubble (EMHB) is that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's plan to subsidize the purchase of junk mortgages and their derivatives will help alleviate the stress on the banking system. That's good news.

Oh, by the way, some people will get very rich off the Geithner plan. Some hedge and equity fund managers could make hundreds of millions or even billions off the Geithner plan. And, under current law, they will pay a lower tax rate on this money than a schoolteacher or firefighter. Are you sold yet?

One other outcome of the Geithner plan is that the folks who bankrupted their banks and wrecked the economy will be able to continue to earn multi-million dollar salaries. Of course this is necessary, because who else has the skills to run these banks, other than the people who drove them into bankruptcy?

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The Real AIG Scandal

Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars?

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AIG: Give Us More Money or The Sky Will Fall

American International Group Inc. appealed for its fourth U.S. rescue by telling regulators the company’s collapse could cripple money-market funds, force European banks to raise capital, cause competing life insurers to fail and wipe out the taxpayers’ stake in the firm.

AIG needed immediate help from the Federal Reserve and Treasury to prevent a “catastrophic” collapse that would be worse for markets than the demise last year of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to a 21-page draft AIG presentation dated Feb. 26, labeled as “strictly confidential” and circulated among federal and state regulators.

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Tell them to just F*ck Off!!!

Bailout for The Mainstream Media May be Next

One of the silver linings of this economic depression is the collapse of mainstream media companies and the creation of internet blogs along with citizen journalism. While this media shift is ongoing and certain, a question arises - Will the government, in further effort to keep their political-financial-media power in tact, bailout big media?

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Senators Ask Who Got Money From A.I.G.

Trying to draw a line in the sand, a Senate panel told the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve to identify all the parties made whole by the bailout of the American International Group or forget about coming back to ask Congress for more rescue money.

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Mandelson Considering Bailing out Vauxhall to the Tune of £750 million

Lord Mandelson has signalled he is 'open to suggestions' after the Government was asked to take a £750million stake in Vauxhall.

The bail-out plan, which would save two British factories and 5,000 jobs, comes as Vauxhall's U.S. parent company warns it is on the brink of going bust.

Bosses at General Motors have submitted a master plan to float and effectively part-nationalise its European operations.

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Brown Announces Another £500 Billion Bank Bailout

The Prime Minister is to unveil a series of key measures that will see the Government insure the ‘toxic assets’ of major lenders and pump around £14 billion into the mortgage market through Northern Rock.

On Thursday, the Treasury is expected to announce plans to form a “toxic bank”, using taxpayers’ money to insure £500 billion of bad debt.

In addition, Mr Brown has signalled that he wants a return to more ‘sober’ banking practices, with a possible ban on 100 per cent mortgages to ensure people must save a deposit before buying a house.

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Now Even The UN and World Bank Wants to Sink its Nose in the Bailout Trough

The UN and the World Bank are lobbying for a portion of the billions of dollars allocated to bailing out the West's banking systems to be diverted to prevent 400 million people sinking into poverty across Asia in the wake of the global economic crisis.

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UK Taxpayers Face ANOTHER Multi- Billion Pound Banking Scam Bailout!

Taxpayers could have to spend billions bailing out the banks again after massive and unexpected losses were disclosed by Britain’s new superbank.

Shares in Lloyds Banking Group fell 32 per cent to 61.4p yesterday after it reported losses of £10 billion in HBOS, making it worth far less than thought when it was taken over in November.
The news, a huge embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who helped to broker the deal, triggered speculation that the bank will have to come back to the Government for more capital.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, defended his role in helping to push through the takeover, saying: “We had a matter of days and then hours to stop the entire banking system collapsing.”

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See how darling uses the same old excuse of fear and panic if we hadn't have done it a tactic used by Bush( Patriot Act) and Obama with the present bailout.

Enough Is Enough LET THEM FAIL!!!

Militarizing Police Departments With Your Bail-out Money

If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, then city mayors follow a very close second. In fact, it occurs to me they may be the spiritual offspring of the aforementioned liaisons. Whenever there is loose change or unclaimed dollar bills laying around, mayors can smell them a mile away and if a Sugar Daddy offers free cash, they never stop to question what the vigorish might be. The urban emperors, suburban commissars, the hack and the highbrow, the Republican and Democrat, the apolitical and amoral, the exurban apparatchiks all assemble to line dance down Pennsylvania Avenue like ladies of the evening on the way to a golden score with Big Daddy.

The United States Conference of Mayors has assembled the most ridiculous and repulsive example of government excess I think I have ever seen. Here is a PDF file of the document which stretches to 344 pages. One of the most alarming features of this civic gluttony is the gift list request for funds to buy military SWAT assault equipment for police forces like the examples offered here by Texas blogger and Reason.com contributor, Trey Garrison:

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Government of the Banks, For the Banks, by the Banks

I thought America is supposed to be a "government of the People, by the People and for the People".

But the financial companies have been allowed to use taxpayer bailout funds to lobby Congress.
And the government's decisions about who to bail out and who not to fund are based on donations, lobbying and politics.

Giving trillions to the banks won't help the economy or the American people.

Indeed, the only thing it is doing is subsidizing companies run by horrible business men, allowing the bankers to receive fat bonuses, to redecorate their offices, and to buy gold toilets and prostitutes.

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