Dennis Kucinich
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today called for the $700 Billion Wall Street bail out to be designated as an investment in which every American would receive an ownership share of $2300. Kucinich posted this statement on his web-site:
“The Wall Street financial disaster is an opportunity to create a genuine ownership society. If Congress invests $700 billion in the market, then the American people must get something of real value for their investment.
“Simply purchasing bad debt, “cash for trash” and not receiving anything of value or giving $700 billion and not having a commensurate equity interest in Wall Street firms is unacceptable. No “cash for trash”.
“Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, tomorrow I will offer legislation to create a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, at market value and not higher, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.”
Kucinich arrived at the $2,300 figure by dividing the cost of the bailout ($700 billion) by the US population (over 300 million).
Another viewpoint that differs from what you hear in the mainstream media comes from Robert Reich, who was Labor secretary for a while under Clinton.
“1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.
2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?
3. All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers. Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street’s outsized political power – especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?
4. Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess.
5. Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?”
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-wall-street-should-be-required-to.html
Stan, thanks for the reference. I’m putting an RSS feed from Reich to my Google homepage. Of particular interest on Reich’s blog are the comments. Many are very thoughtful. And some offer a view of coming disaster that I find very troubling. But, this whole matter is difficult to evaluate. I really don’t have sufficient knowledge to form an independent judgment, and I suspect that most member of Congress also are very lacking in in-depth understanding about the whole matter. I have confidence in Reich’s motives and I have confidence that he has a good understanding. I hope that Reich’s comments are listened to by members of Congress.
I add the notion that was advanced by an economist (sorry, lost the name, I was driving) on the Diane Rehm show: any employee of a firm that accepts government money will automatically accept a government salary.
Gee, imagine what it would have done if Lee Iacocca had been given that restriction.
Why are people falling for this ! ! ! Educated peope made bad loans and thiings went to hell. The only people who were in a panic , are from Washington because they have their money invested in the stock market. Every thing was set up to keep the stock market going bigger and better. Do you know why your 401K was set up ? IT INVESTS IN THE STOCK MARKET. They could care less about your retirement package. It’s a way to pump up the stock market and THEIR retirement package. The bail out was a protection package for those in Washington. We, well most of us fell for it. Stupid, stupid people and watch Washington smile. The money is coming back in again.