In the aftermath of the Crisis of 2008 and the major taxpayer bailouts, nationalisations and also loan guarantees of major financial and in some cases industrial corporations, I noted in conversations with colleagues, family and friends that we and futures generations would be paying for the reckless actions of not only the corporations but also the people who lived beyond their means and did not think that saving for a rainy day mattered anymore.
As we know very well none of the major culprits on Wall Street, in the City of London, Frankfurt, Paris or Milan paid the price for their greed, recklessness and in some cases, even unethical behaviour that led to the meltdown of the financial system and brought the system within hours of complete collapse and maybe even the instituting of martial law as some at the time said would have happened.
Unfortunately, the public and even politicians were scared into acting and bailing out the bankers and the speculators. I remember well that Goldman Sachs henchman and then U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson got on his knees and begged Nancy Pelosi for a taxpayer bailout saying that the world would end if Goldman, JP Morgan et al went bust.
One thing I would say is that the world would have been a much better place by now if we the taxpayers throughout the Western world had not bailed out bad actors like Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Hank Paulson and even Robert Rubin (ex U.S. Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sach henchman) who was destined to lose a fortune if Citigroup had been allowed to fail. The excuse we are given is that we could not have survived economically without Wall Street or the City of London and that if they had failed Main Street was going to be next. For the counter, to this argument, I recommend the video below by John Titus in which he explains how then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson lied to congress about the real state of the economy and how Main Street and non-Wall Street banks would have most probably been ok without a taxpayer bailout.
The $1 Trillion Devil in the Details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhPeKsAnu0
So as the current crisis ensues and the usual suspects on Wall Street and the City of London clamour for more bailouts and support we should also note that now there is even talk of the taxpayer baling out other corporations like airlines, cruise lines and others with what is being called loan guarantees. A loan guarantee is just another euphemism for more bailouts.
Even the Trump administration which is supposed to be a free-market advocate and fighter against socialism is proposing, through another Goldman Sachs henchman at the U.S. Treasury by the name of Steve Mnuchin, that the U.S. taxpayer will have to again bail out fat cat corporations with loan guarantees. Don't forget that the executives of these corporations who have earned billions in wages and bonuses since the last bailout of 2008 now want the general public to again come to their rescue.
So there is no excuse for reckless behaviour again not going punished and especially when that reckless behaviour is by corporate fat cats who should have known better than to lumber the corporations they run with massive debts so they could buy back stock in their own companies in order to enrich themselves thanks to the free money policy of the Central Bankers. Unfortunately, it looks like the people in charge of policymaking are too spineless to say NO and allow big corporations to fail and suffer the consequences of bad decisions like you and I have to do when we make bad decisions.
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