|
The economic scare we've got going on right now is rooted, at its base, in the greedy actions by Wall Street speculators who gambled on bad mortgages. So, I think it's more than fitting that we solve this solution through foreclosure.
Let's foreclose on Wall Street.
I'm not kidding. All these banks and brokerages are screaming that they need to be bailed out by the government. If you or I announce that you're not going to pay your mortgage, do we get bailed out by the Federal Government? No. We get foreclosed upon and possibly lose our homes.
So, why bail out Wall Street? Foreclose instead.
The Federal Government should be willing to step in and buy this junk paper. 50 cents on the dollar, 75 cents on the dollar, even at par, that's fine. But here's the wrinkle: it's not a bailout, it's a foreclosure. If we have to step in and buy your junk paper, you lose your home, that is to say, your bank.
The Feds buy the bad securities, and at the same time the government takes over ALL assets of these bankrupt banks and brokerages. Deposits, loans, branches, accounts, everything. The Feds foreclose on them and take them over. The management of those companies? They're out on the street. Period. They're fired.
The Feds then do what worked in the Great Depression: close the bad banks. Shut them down. Bank holiday. Then the government should break up these huge conglomerates into smaller companies. Break the brokerages off from the deposit banks. Break the multistate banks into individual companies within each state. Then sell off the individual pieces to several smaller, local banks who couldn't compete with the megabanks that were choking the life out of them.
Contingent upon these sales: no executive of a foreclosed-upon bank can EVER be hired by the companies that buy the assets once they're broken up.
I will acknowledge that I don't have details in this proposal. There's lots of little things that will need to be worked out. But if you get foreclosed upon, it doesn't happen overnight, so why should the foreclosure of Wall Street? Let's take the time to get this proposal right, so we're not coming back around in another 20 years to clean up the mess from this fix like we are now from the RTC.
If you agree with me, call your Representatives now. Tell them to foreclose on Wall Street, don't bail it out.
|