More corporate welfare

Markets rebounded yesterday. Spring, it seemed, had come early. Bank of America was riding to the rescue of the embattled mortgage lender American Century, and the bathroom attendant at the Fed Bernanke, wringing hands of great worry, is promising steep cuts in the prime rate for the incompetent banking industry. If Bernanke's words pumped up a sagging capitalist morale, for those with a long memory, he is proposing a tried and true remedy for banks and lenders in deep trouble by throwing away easy money good or bad. Americans have poor capacity for history but think of the S&L scandals in which a Bush uncle and a Bush son were up to their necks in. And then ten years ago the rescue of a failed hedge funds which came on the heels of the Asian downturn. So once again ratepayers, the little men and women whom the banks rip off with endless fees and charges, have to pull belts tighter to bail out the fat cats, coupon clippers, and the whole sorry, smelly capitalists who are greedy and what's more incompetent and should be behind prison walls instead of living high on the hog on say Park Avenue or Greenwich, Connecticut. We should feel no pain for this gang of theives who sit on very fat wallets. John Thain fresh from the NYSE/Euronext and formerly of Goldman Sachs, now ceo of Merrill Lynch is saying his old white shoe firm is going to write down us$15bn of bad subprime debts. Boo hoo...and that is just the beginning of bigger write downs for all investment banking houses whose greed is as depthless as universe. Had the feckle Congress had a strong spine, it would re enact legislation which would keep the banks from slipping from one side of the banking wall to the other...as the now dead Glass Segal [sic] act did during the FDR run in the White House. Like it or not, the US is sliding more and more into recession, and sterner measures are called for, ones that will put the kabosche[sic] on the greedy banking industry for starters. The housing bubbles won't chasten them, only strong laws and political will and an enlightened electorate can box the rotting fish who run this country into the trash heap where they deserved belong.