Now, after claiming to be against government ownership stakes in banks, the Treasury Secretary has reversed course and the Feds are buying minority stakes in 9 banks – with more to come.
Once the eloquent, chosen one is ushered into office on the coattails of a misinformed increasingly American Idol type electorate, all restraints to creating the ultimate nanny-state will be removed and we will no longer be on the way to socialism – we will have arrived. We will be all set to spread the [diminishing] wealth from those who’ve taken the risk and succeeded to those who can’t or won’t. Instead of our young plumbing company growing and providing jobs, he will instead be providing for folks directly because if he makes 250K, he is “rich” and his wealth needs to be “shared”, because, after all, it benefits everybody.
If you think it’s merely an investment by the Feds, think again. These [mandatory] voluntary participating banks must agree to conditions set forth by the Feds.
In pressing the bank executives to accept partial government ownership, Paulson’s message was clear: Though officially the program was voluntary, the banks had little choice in the matter. In exchange for giving the Treasury minority stakes, the nine firms would jointly receive an investment worth $125 billion. The government would make another $125 billion available for the next 30 days to thousands of other banks and thrifts across the country.
Federal officials set conditions, telling the banks they could not raise their dividends without government permission and could not offer their executives new retirement packages, though the old packages would remain intact.
