September 2010

Who Could Forget AIG? The U.S. Treasury Sure Wants To

Who could forget AIG? The never ending bail outs, the fictional derivatives, the funneling of U.S. taxpayer money to foreign banks, the outrageous bonuses and most of all, TARP. Yet it seems the Obama administration wants you to do such that. It seems the Treasury department planning to dump off AIG by the end of the year. What they are not telling you is the total taxpayer losses.

Bloomberg:

The biggest part of that strategy is for Treasury to begin converting its $49 billion preferred stake into common stock for sales by the first half of next year.

Common stock means no dividend, coming in last in the shareholder pig trough and taking a financial bath.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the deal consists of:

The U.S. Treasury converting some of its $49 billion in AIG preferred shares into common stock. Then the stock can be sold over time. The conversion, which could take place at about $35 an AIG share, is likely to occur in the first half of 2011.

Why is Treasury converting to common stock? Is it to extend TARP de facto, allowing them to hold on to 2011, all the while making it appear they got out of the AIG bail out biz by 2010?

Benedict Arnold Senators Refuse to Vote for American Jobs

Our Congress sucks.  I think all will agree with this statement.  That said, is there anyone, anyone at all who is a working stiff in the United States, be they conservative, liberal, green, purple, red, blue who thinks it's a great idea to give tax rebates to corporations when they offshore outsource their job?  Do you think it's just swank when you must train your cheap labor replacement before being fired?  Do you think about increasing corporate profits by using cheap labor when you cannot pay your mortgage because your job was offshore outsourced?

I didn't think so.

No one who works for a living in the United States thinks offshore outsourcing our jobs is a great idea. Yet our Congress, once again, blocked the bill that would help curtail offshore outsourcing. The block was all of the Republican Senators plus these Democrats:

  • Warner (D-VA)
  • Tester (D-MT)
  • Nelson (D-NE)
  • Baucus (D-MT)

Joe Lieberman, now an independent, owned by multinational corporations, acting as a U.S. Chamber of Commerce, demanding their cheap India and China labor, also voted against the bill.

China's Currency Manipulation Makes America See Red

A little noticed bill was voted out of committee Friday from the House Ways and Means Committee, H.R. 2378, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act. This bill finally addresses China's currency manipulation by enabling tariffs. It passed out of committee by voice vote and all it will take to pass is to hear from constituents demanding Congress do so. The Senate version of the bill is S. 3134.

Pages