|
Today's
Stories
October 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Obama and McCain's Goofy Afghan Bluster
Gary Leupp
Seven Years in Afghanistan:
From "War on Terror" to
"War of Terror"
Uri Avnery
Olmert's Final Divorce
From "All of Eretz Israel"
P. Sainath
The Cop-Out Election
Major Candidates, Congress, Press, All Fail in the Big Crisis
Peter Morici
The Dow Tanks as Bank Bailout Fails to Restore Confidence
Conn Hallinan
The Great Game in the Caucasus:
Bad Moves by Uncle Sam
Martha Rosenberg
Training America's Youth
Today a Pheasant, Tomorrow Osama
Binoy Kampmark
Let's Talk About Extinction:
CERN and Halo
October 6, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America
Mike Whitney
Still on the Edge of the Abyss
Tariq Ali
Goodbye to Grosvenor Square
Emily Horowitz
How People Tell Cops They're Guilty Even When They Aren't
Michael Hudson
What Did Jesus Say?
A Christian Perspective on the Paulson Bank Bailout
Ron Jacobs
Winter Soldiers and Washington's Wars
October 3 - 5, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
CounterPunch Diary
Creatures of Capital
Paul Craig Roberts
Why Paulson's Plan is a Fraud
Dave Lindorff
The Rebellion That Failed
Saul Landau
The Chutzpah of Hank Paulson
Jonathan Cook
The Souring of a West Bank Romance: Israel's Army and Settlers Fall Out
Andy Worthington
The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials
Dave Marsh
Bono (Himself) Challenges Me to a Debate
Sasan Fayazmanesh
Using the IAEA to Spy on Iran
John Ross
Massacre in Morelia
Brian Cloughley
The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism
Wajahat Ali
Dueling Partners: an Interview with Tariq Ali on Pakistan
Robert Schwartz
A Serious Blow to the Rights of U.S. Workers: NLRB Limits Political Strikes
Alan Nasser
FDR's Response to the Plot to Overthrow Him: a Paradigm for Today's Democrats?
David Ker Thomson
The Case for Drunk Driving
David Yearsley
The Musical Patriot
Organ Transplants: An Odyssey to Ithaca
Peter Morici
Gone in 30 Days: U.S. Loses 159,000 Jobs in September
William Blum
When is a Holocaust Not a Holocaust?
William S. Lind
War on Two Fronts: Without Railroads
Michael Donnelly
The Ghost of Gen. McClellan
Thom Rutledge
On Presidential "Rule"
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Science and the 2008 Presidential Elections: a Survey of the Candidates
Dave Lindorff
Calling the Problem Early
Cindy Ellen Hill
Waging a Sustainable Peace?
Paul Krassner
Dying to Get High: the Side Effects of Medical Marijuana
Daniel White
Vietnam's Masterspy
Poets' Basement
Corseri, Absher, Gibbons and Jenkins
Website of the Weekend
How We Lost Glen Canyon: a Legal Chronology
October 2, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
Can a Bailout Succeed?
Joe Bageant
Speaking in the Tongues of Brokers: the Bailout in Plain English
Ralph Nader
Soulmates in Deregulation
Mike Whitney
Why the Bailout Stinks
Madis Senner
When Push Comes to Pull: How a Foreign Banker Invasion Sent the Markets Reeling
Winslow T. Wheeler
Congress as Usual:the Crisis Will Pass, But This Bunch Will Remain the Same
William Blum
A Boy's Game:
the Origins of the Financial Crisis
P. Sainath
Wall Street Transforms Presidential Race
Website of the Day
McCain's Meltdown in Des Moines
October 1 , 2008
Glen Ford
The Last Hold Up
Steven Conn
Trashing Sarah Palin: the Boomerang Effect
Alan Maass / Lee Sustar
Why Not a Bailout for the Rest of Us?
Kenneth Couesbouc
The Blame Game: When Wall Street Pigs Sprout Wings
Stan Goff
How the Republicans Can Win (And Deserve It)
Adolfo Gilly
Racism, Domination and Bolivia
Rannie Amiri
Bombs in the Levant
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil
Adam W. Parsons
Food and Markets
Dave Lindorff
Bums' Rush to the Bailout: Where are the Hearings?
Douglas Valentine
The Bush Continuity Plan?
Adrien Rain Burke
The Party's Over: an Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi
Website of the Day
Sarah Palin's Beauty Pageant
September 30, 2008
Pam Martens
What Wall Street Hoped to Win
Chris Floyd
The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic on Wall Street
Stephen Martin
A Biological Walk Down Wall Street
Deepak Tripathi
A Bitter Harvest in Afghanistan
Mark Engler
Bad Money
Jonathan Cook
The Attack on Zeev Sternhell: Has Israel Become a Breeding Ground for Jewish Settler Terrorism?
Dave Lindorff
The Power of No
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Time for a General Strike?
Ahmad Faruqui
In Cold Blood: Buried Alive in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Will the Bride Wear White? As Rome Burns, Bristol Palin Prepares to Tie the Knot with Mr. "Sex on Skates"
David Macaray
Blaming the Labor Unions
Fatemeh Keshavarz
What Obama Could Have Said
Website of the Day
538: a Cognitive Map of American Politics
September 29, 2008
Mike Whitney
Black Monday
Jeff Gibbs
"Just Say No!" to Reverse Robin Hood
Paul Craig Roberts
Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Peter Morici
The Bailout and the Economy
Tim Wise
Racism as Reflex
John Walsh
Sarah Palin is a Rotten Mom
Uri Avnery
Israeli Fascism:
Yes, It Can Happen Here
Alan Farago
Hell to Pay: the Financial Collapse and the Housing Market
Andy Worthington
Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Running the 9/11 Trials?
David Michael Green
Where's the Repudiation?
Carl Finamore
Capitalism on Steroids; Labor on Tranquilizers
Iris Keltz
Postcards from the DNC
Bill Hatch
Take This Shrimp Slayer!
Website of the Day
Tina Fey as Palin, Round Two
September 27 / 28, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
How McCain Blew It
Linn Washington, Jr.
Alaska's Blacks and Palin: a Strained Relationship
Christopher Ketcham
An Israeli Trojan Horse
Mike Whitney
The People vs. the Banksters
Kevin Alexander Gray Race in the Race: Is Obama Shining Us On?
Anthony DiMaggio
The Unspoken War: Pakistan, the Media and Nuclear Weapons
Mary Lynn Cramer
Their Assets; Our Debts: How Economic Crises Are Overcome
Marc Levy /
Susan Erony
War Jokes Wanted: No Laughing Matter
Stan Cox
Livestock of Mass Destruction: Germ Labs in the Heartland
Saul Landau
Election Drizzle
Ali Khan
Meltdown in American Markets: an Islamic Perspective
David Rosen
The Great Fear:
the Sexual Politics of Sarah Palin
Todd Alan Price
Bailing Out the Foes of Public Eduction
Matts Svensson
The Red and White Bird in Gaza
Ron Jacobs
Pakistan Through the Eyes of a Native Son
Robert Fantina
McCain and the Economy
Richard Rhames
Hank-ering for a Bailout
David Krieger
The U.S.-India Nuclear Proliferation Deal
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking Charter Schools
Charles R. Larson
Dear Mrs. Abacha: a Nigerian Email Romance
Kim Nicolini
Sadism in the Desert
Poets' Basement
La Morticella, Holt, Moser and Buknatski
Website of the Day
The Great Schlep
September 26, 2008
Moshe Adler
Bailing Out Wall Street Won't Save Main Street
Bill Quigley
The U.S. War on Unarmed Working Mothers
Jonathan Cook
When Archaeology Becomes a Curse
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Visions of Pinpoint Control: the Romance of Laser Weapons
Madis Senner
Why the Bailout will Fail
Brian Cloughley
US Raids in Pakistan: Violations of Sovereignty
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Oh, Henry!
Joanne Mariner
Passport Fraud and Torture
Dan La Botz
The Financial Crisis: a View from the Left
David Macaray
Ralph's Management Indicted by Federal Grand Jury
Website of the Day
Nader and Obama Girl at the Office
September 25, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway
Sharon Smith
Democrats and Corporate Bailouts
Ralph Nader
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?
Christopher Ketcham
The Economy of Dead Sperm (or What I Learned From My Race-Car Grandpa Who Had No Bankers)
Eric Toussaint
Is Another Third World Debt Crisis in the Offing?
Robert Weissman
Getting Wall Street Pay Reform Right
David Estabrook
A Better Bailout Plan
Nikolas Kozloff
The Voyage of the SS Peter the Great
Steve Early
The High Price of Purple Dissent
Judith Scherr
Blue Helmets in Haiti
Laray Polk
South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Notes from the Inside
Website of the Day
Letterman Spanks McCain
September 24, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation
Nikolas Kozloff
Palin at the UN: a Tutorial from Uribe
Robert Weissman
The Financial Crisis: How and Why Congress Should Play for Time
Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Trials: Govt. Says Six Years Not Long Enough to Prepare Evidence
Steve Conn
Will Nader's Warning be Acknowledged in the Presidential Debates?
Karyn Strickler
The $700,000,000,000 Power Punch
Diane Farsetta
Stealth Marketers Gone Wild
Dennis Loo
Poisoned Legacy
John Halle
Wealth Tax Now!
Khalil Nakhleh
Palestinians Under the Occupation
Website of the Day
Nader: Debate Crasher
September 23, 2008
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Bail Out on This Bailout
Michael Hudson
Henry Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal
Tariq Ali
Why was the Marriott Targeted?
Patrick Dyer
A Death Row Visit with Troy A. Davis
Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah and the Palestinians
Joshua Frank
Oppose Barack Obama? How Dare Thee!
Alan Farago
Pushing the Referees:
How the Financial Crisis Occurred
Dave Lindorff
The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar
Tanya M. Kerssen /
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Popular Upheaval
Harvey Wasserman
Nuclear Power Liabilities Dwarf Bush's Wall Street Bailout
Website of the Day
Hammered by the Irish: the Video
September 22, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout Plan: Will the Cure be Worse Than the Crisis?
Mike Whitney
Mushroom Clouds Over Wall Street
Christopher Ketcham
Let It Collapse!
Ron Jacobs
The Predators' Bailout
Anne-Marie McManus
Lost in the Rhetoric of Crisis
Robert Weitzel
The Twin Terrors of the Holy Land: a Sexy Fundamentalist and a White-Haired Zionist
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Howard Dean
John Ross
A New Cold War Comes to Latin America
Steve Breyman
Does the U.S. Really Need Cluster Bombs?
Patrick Bond
On the Bellies of the Filth
Uri Avnery
Fly, Tzipora, Fly
Carl J. Mayer
An Open Letter to Michael Moore (AKA God's Pen Pal): Whatever Happened to Voting Your Conscience?
Website of the Day
Stop the Execution of Troy Anthony Davis
September 20 / 21, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Is This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart?
Michael Hudson
America's Own Kleptocracy
Pam Martens
The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design
Lila Rajiva
Putting Lipstick on an AIG
Mike Whitney
Full-Spectrum Breakdown
Richard Rhames
A Bailout to Nowhere
Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
The NY Yankees and the U.S. Economy
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Making of Recent U.S. Middle East Policies: a New Study of Neocon Influence
Susan Block
Palin as Venus in Furs: the Dominatrix Politics of Drilling and Killing
Robert Fantina
Republicans and Subpoenas: Never the Twain Shall Meet
Heidi Walters
Hung Up on Route 36: an 18-Wheeler and a Nuclear Cask
David Yearsley
Germany's Lost Organs: When Bigger Was Better
Raymond J. Lawrence
The Politics of Tribulation: Sarah Palin and the Rapture
David Rosen
One Billion Pills Later: Viagra at 10
David Michael Green
Living in Sarah Palin's America
Anthony Papa
Imprisoned Voters and the Elections
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Freddie, Fannie, Daddy, Nanny
Howard Lisnoff
When We Notice the Homeless
John Goekler
Leaving Every Child Behind
Missy Beattie
Impalement
Dave Zirin
Leave Josh Howard Alone
Charles R. Larson
Holden Caulfield, Rest in Peace
Tim Matson
Too Big for His Birches: Woodlot Economics
Susie Day
Attack of the Angry Fetus
Poets' Basement
Corseri, Gibbons, Jenkins and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Dylan & Baez: Deportees
September 19, 2008
Steven T. Banko
McCain's Passion Play
Mike Whitney
The Point of No Return
Michael Hudson
The Dow Jones' Wonderfully Cheesy Addition
William Kaufman
Shattering the Glass-Steagall Act: the Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis
Brenda Norrell
The Fall of Lehman Bros.:
Blowback for Black Mesa?
Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
The New Rhetoric of Racism: Why Won't Obama Call It Out?
Clifton Ross
Bolivia: Cleaning Up the Bull Ring
Dave Lindorff
Hang On to Your Wallets: the Government's About to Rescue Us!
Cynthia McKinney
Seize the Time!
Susan Hurlich
Storm Survivors: a Dispatch from Cuba
Michael Donnelly
Let's Hand It All Over to the Democrats (They Helped Create This Mess)
Website of the Day
The Crisis Explained
September 18, 2008
Benjamin Dangl
The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table
Harvey Wasserman
The Senate's Drill, Drill, Drill Scam
Susan Abulhawa
The Lobby Has Spoken:
Biden and Israel
Robert Weissman
After the Fall:
the Financial Re-Regulatory Agenda
Anne-Marie McManus
McCain's Cinderella: the Fetishization of Sarah Palin
Corey D. B. Walker
The Poverty of 21st Century Progressivism
William S. Lind
Senator O'Bush: Why Obama is Wrong on Iran and Afghanistan
Ron Jacobs
Washington's False Logic of Torture
Dave Lindorff
American and China: Joined at the Hip
Binoy Kampmark
How Damien Hirst Got Away With It
Website of the Day
An Invisible Army
September 17, 2008
Stephen Conn
Palin and the Politics of Big Oil
Forrest Hylton
Reactionary Rampage in Bolivia
Patrick Cockburn
Petraeus Leaves Iraq
Gregory Elich
Inside North Korea
Ralph Nader
How the U.S. Auto Industry Wrecked Itself
Franklin Lamb
The Palestinians of Shabra-Shatila
Pam Martens
The Gang's All Here: Bush, McCain and the Old Iran/Contra Team
Dave Lindorff
The End of the Blue Chip Economy
Peter Morici
The Damage Deepens
Stanley Heller
The Killing of Count Folke Bernadotte
Douglas Valentine
Rambling David Foster Wallace
Website of the Day
Free Cindy McCain!
September 16, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits
Tiphaine Dickson
Citizen Palin: Why Sarah Palin Quoted Westbrook Pegler
Stan Goff
America is Now Rome: an Open Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Uri Avnery
Tzipi's Choice
Michael Winship
Lipstick on Polar Bears
Jeff Halper
Warehousing Palestinians
Patrick Irelan
Bolivia Versus the Empire
Oscar Gonzalez
Who's Dumber? Ike's Refugees or Wall Street's?
Binoy Kampmark
Cheney and His Records
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Muslims are at Peace with You
Sen. Russ Feingold
Restoring the Rule of Law
Website of the Day
The Next Great Rock Band?
September 15, 2008
Mike Whitney
The Tumbrils Roll at Dawn
Peter Morici
Toxic Lehman
Patrick Cockburn
Take Another Look at the Surge
Charles R. Larson
The Maverick Has No Clothes
Jonathan Cook
The Expulsion of Palestinians from Jaffa
Nikolas Kozloff
Racist Rhetoric in Bolivia
Roger Burbach
Morales Confronts the Insurrection: Bolivia and the Echoes of Allende
Helen Redmond
Where's the Health Care Bailout?
David Michael Green
The Democrats Do Poland
David Macaray
The Boeing Strike
Ralph Nader
Remembering Peter Camejo
Website of the Day
The Ballad of Sarah Palin
|
October 7, 2008
The Dow Tanks as Bank Bailout Fails to Restore Confidence
By PETER MORICI
It’s official! The bank bailout has not worked.
Global stock prices are in a panic rush to the bottom.
The bank bailout cannot fulfill its primary mission to restore investor confidence, because it does only half the job.
The bank bailout will provide banks with much needed liquidity but it does not address the compensation and management practices on Wall Street that drove irresponsible decisions and gave rise to the crisis. It does not address the void of sound leadership at the top of major financial institutions like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.
Since 2000, corporate profits have jumped sharply but stock prices were down, even before the subprime mess of recent weeks took them to new depths. The fact is most of the gains have gone to private equity funds, hedge funds, investment bankers, executive buyouts, and the financial engineers that run the deals. These put together firms, take them a part, get paid up front, extract billions in shareholder value, and then leave shareholders with vague promises about future synergies and depressed stock prices.
Worse, the wizards of Wall Street leave companies too poor to take care of their workers decently. Like the Flim Flam Man in the George C. Scott classic, the con artist is in the next county before the ruse becomes visible, and ordinary Americans are left with vanished dreams in their retirement accounts and prospects of a mean old age.
Obama’s tax and redistribution policies will not resurrect jobs, wages or the price of stocks in American retirement accounts. Ordinary Americans who have to earn their livings outside the cosseted confines of Wall Street will be not much better off two years from now. In fact, Obama’s policies may make economic conditions worse. However, middle class distress gives populist promises enjoy strong appeal. If Obama wants to make Americans better off, he would serve them better by straightening out the banks and taking substantive action on the trade deficit with China. Also, he would be less politically correct on energy and the environment. His platform is full of platitudes and generalizations but not enough substance.
Nancy Pelosi stated, last week when the bailout bill passed, the party is over on Wall Street, referring to compensation reforms in the new law. Those reforms are simply too weak to have meaningful effects.
Come January, the Democrats will likely control both the White House and the Congress. Until Pelosi and other Democrats recognize the problem is in the way the banks are run and get serious about fixing the banks, look for things to get worse before they get better.
Peter Morici is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
|
