Bailout Swindle Alarm

The Nation’s William Greider:

“The swindle of American taxpayers is proceeding more or less in broad daylight, as the unwitting voters are preoccupied with the national election.”

United Steelworkers Union prez Leo Gerard cracks open the sweetheart deal that bailed out nine banks–and likely lined the Treasury Secretary’s own pockets–with billions of taxpayer dollars.

Does anybody care?

And then, The Nation adds the fire of Naomi Klein:

When European colonialists realized that they had no choice but to hand over power to the indigenous citizens, they would often turn their attention to stripping the local treasury of its gold and grabbing valuable livestock. If they were really nasty, like the Portuguese in Mozambique in the mid-1970s, they poured concrete down the elevator shafts.

The Bush gang prefers bureaucratic instruments: “distressed asset” auctions and the “equity purchase program.”