9.27.2008

On the banker’s coup

The New York Times reports that a consensus is emerging on the Plan. The Washington Post reports that a deal is near.

Yet some professional economists, situated on the right, strongly advise against implementing the Plan. American citizens mostly oppose the Plan (also this). Even a significant number of congressional Republicans oppose the plan. So, is it that surprising that Wall Street pushed the crisis toward the precipice (see this and this) this past week in order to shove the Plan through Congress? No! And, as Mike Whitney adds

Financial industry rep. Paulson is the ringleader in a bankers' coup the results of which will decide America's economic and political future for years to come. The coup leaders have drained tens of billions of dollars of liquidity from the already-strained banking system to trigger a freeze in interbank lending and hasten a stock market crash. This, they believe, will force Congress to pass Paulson's $770 billion bailout package without further congressional resistance. It's blackmail.

As yet, no one knows whether the coup-backers will succeed and further consolidate their political power via a massive economic shock to the system, but their plan continues to move jauntily forward while the economy follows its slide to disaster.

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