[Roccland]

Here is the raw list...do I think it will work...nope...but if you think it will...have at it...

[email protected];[email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected];[email protected];

[Daphne64]

From the Wall Street Journal

Mr. Paulson has argued that pay limits shouldn't be part of this plan because they could discourage firms from participating. Treasury is also arguing that it isn't feasible to expect thousands of companies to change their executive compensation structure just to participate in the program and says such a move would discourage small banks and credit unions from participating. Some lawmakers are looking to call Mr. Paulson's bluff, thinking that many institutions would find the choice between limits on executive pay and bankruptcy an easy one. But Treasury is insisting that is a false choice and that the program isn't aimed at preventing firms from filing for bankruptcy but is instead supposed to help relieve pressure on firms that are being weighed down by a glut of assets they can't sell.

Funny, Paulson got this thing going by scaring congress by saying that the whole system would topple without massive intervention. Now, in trying to keep his buddies in their 8 figure jobs, he claims they aren't in danger of going bankrupt!

[coyote]

It's worth a shot. If we're silent now we'll have little right to complain later. Thanks for posting the list Roccy....

[Iaato]

Here's a copy of the letter I just sent to the useless windbags we call representatives up here in AK. Some of was adapted from a letter at this website linked below, and I have added and deleted some things. We are witnessing global economic collapse--we have to try to get them to do the right thing. I'm told that letter writing works. I don't think many of our national Congress understands what is happening at all. Here's what happens when the world economy stops growing and our fiat money system keeps on going--we get massive disconnect. This may be pointless, as the economic system is toast, anyway.

http://agonist.org/node/54330/167575#comment-167575

If you use the Congress.org website, they'll even hand-deliver your letter, I'm told, if you want. You can fax a letter, or email directly. They're all titled the Honorable So and So.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

I am extremely concerned about the moral hazard attached to Secretary
Paulson's proposed bailout. What Sec.
Paulson wants you to believe is
that catastrophe is approaching, but it can be averted if only
Congress acts urgently to give him the extraordinary authority he is
requesting. The implication is if you don't give him $700 billion in
borrowing authority within a week, markets will collapse and it will
be all your fault. Not only that, Secretary Paulson wants ongoing,
"rolling," money, in perpetuity. This power grab by the unelected,
former CEO of Goldman Sachs is an appalling overstepping of
constitutional authority.

If insolvency is here now for the big banks, the last thing you want
to do is throw $700 billion of money and probably much more than
that
at bailing out the banks who created this disaster. You'll
need every bit of that money to protect the taxpayers and their
deposits in these banks when these financial companies are thrown into
the bankruptcy courts. You'll need that money to make sure consumer
deposits are protected with insurance, and you'll need it to keep the
healthy parts of these banks that deal with consumers and businesses
functioning until they come out of bankruptcy. The US government is
obliged to guarantee bank accounts through FDIC ($1 Trillion, I
believe), and now Money Market Funds (another $5 Trillion).

And forget about comparing Paulson's plan to the RTC. These L3 assets
aren't homes, condos, or commercial real estate that can be easily
sold at the right price. They are bits of paper giving the bond holder
the right to some small portion of thousands of mortgages, a right
that is shared with all the other investors, who are required to agree
on what is done with foreclosed properties in the pool. This is one of
the reasons no one wants to buy this stuff, and no one will for many
years until it is crystal clear what the final losses will be.

Once you give Paulson the authority he seeks, he will buy these
securities at 65 cents/dollar, then quietly auction them off at a
nickel each. It will be "unfortunate but necessary" to revitalize the
banking industry, even though you will discover the banks won't be
lending after this is all over to any but the finest credits. You will
have rewarded the banks for their calamitous decisions, stuffed the
taxpayers with huge losses, squandered your remaining ability to shore
up the FDIC, not prevented the big banks from collapsing anyway, done
nothing to help the community banks that will constitute the new
banking system in this country when these problems are solved, and in
the end made the situation much worse.

If you want to do something practical, require the SEC to go into
these banks, open up their L3 holdings to public scrutiny, auction off
a sampling of these securities, and apply those prices to the L3
portfolios of all the banks. In this way we will know which banks are
insolvent. You won't need to go through this charade of having the
Treasury take ownership of these assets, because the core of the
problem is not that these assets are clogging up bank balances sheets,
as Paulson says (which is tantamount to saying, by the way, that no
one will buy them). The core of the problem is that there is no
transparency about these portfolios and their real worth. Congress
doesn't need $700 billion of our money to create that transparency,
and if it shows as I suspect that many of these banks are insolvent,
that's why we have bankruptcy courts. You can certainly protect the
banks from bank runs while they are in bankruptcy.

Paulson is basically rolling you and the rest of Congress into giving
him unprecedented power to protect his friends on Wall Street. This
decision you are making is probably as momentous as the Iraq War
resolution. Don't fall for this bailout disguised as the only way to
prevent Armageddon. Armageddon is already here - at least for the big
banks - and it needs an entirely different solution. Spend our money
protecting us, by ensuring the FDIC is properly funded, by throwing
these too-big-to-fail banks into bankruptcy if they truly are
insolvent, by preserving the healthy parts of these banks while in
bankruptcy, and bringing them back out again so they function under
much better safety and soundness regulations. We've had airlines
functioning properly and safely for years while in bankruptcy, and
there is no reason we can't do the same with banks. If you do not stop
the bailouts right here and right now, we wlll go on to bail out the
automakers, the credit card companies, and foreign central banks.
These moves are not authorized by the Constitution and are inherently
hyperinflationary. A yes vote on the proposed bailout would set us on
the road to a failed currency and Zimbabwe banana-republic status.

Please, please, do not fall for some useless compromise or bipartisan
agreement that gives these unelected principles and their fat cat
friends what they want in the end. Kill this proposal here and now,
protect us from this bailout, and deal with the real problem - the
insolvency of the major banks, not the paper that is supposedly
blocking their lending capabilities.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you consider the ramifications of
this bailout carefully before you vote.

[coyote]

May I use that, Iaato? That's way better than I managed to say it.

[TheDude]

Excellent statement! I just told 'em support this and the marriage is over as of Nov. 4th.



Devaluation, inflation, depression, collapse

When you add $1,000,000,000,000 to the US deficit in the form of T-bills during an economic downturn in a program that yields no return, or stimulus, this is what happens. Economics teaches us that as supply increases, price drops - and that’s why the dollar slumped today, and why everything tied to it - like oil - shot up in price faster than McCain and Obama can make you lose faith in politics.

[Daphne64]

Here's what I wrote my senators and congressman:

I urge you to vote against the proposed bailout of Wall Street. If you do vote for it, I will print and distribute a minimum of 250 flyers for each primary and general election going forward, reminding constituents what you voted for, and also pay for targeted ads on the internet. If you vote against it, I will continue to vote for you despite being a republican.

(I added a little bit about myself next)

The bailout will not work. How long will China and Japan keep buying up our paper when the amount of newly issued debt increases by several hundred billion dollars each year? What will that do to interest rates? How long before we are in a death spiral higher interest payments leading to more borrowing, leading to higher interest rates…? Not long at all. My educated guess is it will be within 12 months.

You all can try to hide electronic money creation in the dark recesses of Fannie and Freddie’s financial statements, but no one will be fooled for long. Hyperinflation will be here soon enough.

So if we are going to have financial ruin, lets have the Henry Paulson’s of the US share it’s effects by letting their banks go down first. Don’t give them the poor and middle classes' money! I understand even the middle managers on Wall Street made money in the 7 figures in recent years. They made that money writing derivatives and bundling junk mortgages for sale.

Having the large banks fold will not hurt the economy as much as the FORMER CEO OF GOLDMAN SACHS would have you believe. Those banks don’t produce anything real, and the smaller, more responsible regional banks will be able handle what little lending will be needed for the upcoming Kondratieff winter.

Obviously it's not the best letter out there, but it's important we all write unique letters - they ignore form letters.

[pedalling_faster]

contact info for the Senate
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... rs_cfm.cfm

contact info for the House - not quite as accessible
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

maybe there's a better link somewhere here
http://www.house.gov/