Throw the Bums out and Start Over?
By Louise
The Obama administration and congress may now take on the issues arising from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with financial institutions that "are too big to fail." A senior administration official said Sunday that Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would make it easier for the government to seize troubled financial institutions, toss out management, throw out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution. It's a start. We did it with the banks in the 1930s, and the S&Ls in the 1980s and it worked, and Sweden did it with their banks in the 1990s. England did it with Northern Rock - the nation's largest bank - just last year. The best solution to toxic banks is to throw the bums out and start over!
In Strange News...Dallas Woman Ticketed For Not Speaking English. The Dallas Morning News reports that Ernestina Mondragon, a native Spanish-speaker who is still learning English, was wrongfully issued a ticket by an officer in training for not speaking English. Non-English speakers aren’t allowed to operate taxis or commercial vehicles in Texas, however Mondragon has every right to be on the road in her private car according to state and local law. Throughout the years, English-only bills have been considered by the Texas state legislature — including one that sought to designate English as the official language of the State of Texas. Yet so far, non-English speakers in Texas are still allowed to drive.
Comments
#2
Thom,
Great point of Phizer. If corporations are "people" and they kill someone, the company should get "the death penalty" and be disolved.
#3
I flew to Singapore once. 18 hours to Tokyo followed by a 6 hour connecting flight to my final destination.
No way my pilot didn't take a nap at some point during that flight. No problems at all.
#4
Thom,
My husband and I have been following the health care reform debate rather closely, and recently something significant came to our attention for the first time.
According to an AP article from October 21, the Senate Finance Committee's version of the bill includes a provision that excludes those employers who self-insure their employees' medical plans from the reforms in the bill.
The AP article indicates that over 70 million Americans thus could be subject to provisions such as denial of coverage due to a health condition, crippling out-of-pocket costs, annual or lifetime limits of benefits, etc.- the exact provisions that health care reform is supposed to be eliminating!
In addition, we suspect that insurance companies would use this provision as a sales tool, offering employers who have their fully-insured (and thus regulated) product the option of saving considerable money by switching to a self-insured product that the insurance company will then administer for them (for a fee, of course). This could raise the number far beyond 70 million.
We were shocked that we hadn't heard of this provision until now. And we're dismayed to learn that there are several big business groups who have banded together to lobby Congress to ensure that they can retain their exempt status.
We're hoping to bring this provision to public attention and thought that you and your show might be a good place to start. But - what do we do next? How do we stop this? We appreciate your show and thanks for your time and attention.
Barb and Ron Suiter
#5
Thom, you asked where the Senators are that were attacking GM and Ford? When they were doing that, I looked up their contributions on a web site that aggregates the FEC data. I was wondering if they got big contributions from the Foreign auto companies they seemed to be defending. Those contributions (made by US subsidiaries and their employees) go through a lobbying firm that makes them hard to trace, and it turned out that GM and Ford gave them more. But 4 of their top 5 contributors: Wall Street Bankers.
#6
Mugsy - at the very least, we should have "Three Strikes You're Out" for corporations!
Why not? when a corporation gets the death penalty, its assets are not destroyed; rather, they are distributed to creditors and the rest could be auctioned off. Whoever buys the assets would just start another company.
The losers would be the shareholders, which is totally appropriate. Next time, maybe they'll elect Directors who value human life.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
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From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story."
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"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
From Screwed:
"I think many of us recognize that for all but the wealthiest, life in America is getting increasingly hard. Screwed explores why, showing how this is no accidental process, but rather the product of conscious political choices, choices we can change with enough courage and commitment. Like all of Thom’s great work, it helps show us the way forward."
Petition for FINANCIAL REFORM at :
http://bit.ly/3I40yb
Dear President Barack Obama,
We want you to stop the bankrupting of our country by the large financial institutions, with policies and programs that give them taxpayer money with which they can gamble and make record profits.
We want Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, (Paulsen, Rubin) OUT and we want you to bring honest advocates of financial reform such as Elizabeth Warren and Brooksley Born IN.