1

The entire thing is just like Beck said. They are out to destroy the country so they can rebuild it in the Communist image.

Nothing else makes any sense.

2 Maybe he can call the new taxes "Smoot-Hawley". Since he probably never heard of that.

3 And hereÂ’s yet another ridiculous part of this story: The largest banks that de-TARPed, and are regaining their health, are now, with this tax, supposed to cover the government-owned failures like GM, GMAC, AIG, and Fannie and Freddie, which are running up huge deficits because they may be on the taxpayer dole in perpetuity.

Ridiculous, yes, but entirely consistent.  While they appreciate that some banks 'succeeded' under TARP, Obama wants to make sure all of the TARP affected institutions have the same opportunity to succeed, so he has to share the wealth.

4 How else to describe it but a deliberate attempt to ruin our economy?  Nothing else makes sense. I mean NOBODY is this stupid.

5 2 Maybe he can call the new taxes "Smoot-Hawley". Since he probably never heard of that."   I am going off an alcohol addled brain but wasn't that the tariff or tax that sparked a trade war and helped spiral us into the Great Depression? 

6 It's a shell game. Only, instead of a pea being jostled around, it's the country's wealth and security.

7 5 Yes.The whole thing reminds me of Lando's bargain with Vader in SW:ESB."Pray I don't alter it further."

8

this is a stupid policy move, but a good opportunity to see if the public is still caught up in "new deal II fever"....

 

I am thinking like his "it was worse than I thought*" ploy this one'l Wile E. Coyote on him....

 

 

*even though I compared the economy in October to the great depression-Soetoro

9 Anybody on Wall Street who voted for a Democrat is getting what they deserve. End of discusion.

10 Posted by: Methos at January 14, 2010 10:11 AM (Xsi7M)

Right now, if you think back, you can remember that some of the banks were healthy, fine, and they were forced into this debacle by Hank ostensibly to make sure that no one would be able to figure out which banks were in  trouble.  Right now, bet Jaimie is kicking himself.

11
Somebody somewhere has to pay for the Democrat's spending binge.

12 I guess Obama really is going for broke. He must know that there is now no hiding his intentions. Whether it was taking over private corporations, trying backdoor nationalization of the banks or attempting to establish Government ownership of our health, all of his major first year actions were headed in just one direction.
Fascism, Communism, Progressivism, whatever the term du jour is, cannot flourish in an informed nation. Therefore Obama must work quickly and he must work behind closed doors.
On the plus side, I believe Ameriica's gorge is rising and Barry is gonna have a helluva rough year, losing allies every step of the way to the 2010 election.

13

Another reminder to the economically challenged: When you impose low pay on an otherwise high-paying job, you get what you pay for.

14 Now more than ever wouldn't you like to know what Hank told them that Thursday night in that meeting in Nan's office where she and chuckie and the others came out "white as ghosts", panting?

15

If they tax (remove) 90-100 billion of capital from the banks, that means they will reduce bank lending by approximately 1 trillion dollars since they loan at 10-12 to 1. This at at time when Obama claims the banks arent lending and should lend more.

Either this is another example of incredible stupidity, or they are doing it on purpose to control more of the banking sector.

This is a vital point but of the media will never tell you.

16 Wait, I'm all for a free market, but that does not include bailing out banks with billions in taxpayer dollars after they make bad loans.  So these banks pay huge bonuses for years, then blow up, get TARP for a year, go back to making bad loans, and restart huge bonuses knowing that if they fail again the taxpayers will bail them out.

I am not for bank taxes, but I have no problem going after those involved in the bad loans.

17 I am going to TAKE those profits...

18 This thing will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!

19

Several good points, Dan (#15).

Either this is another example of incredible stupidity, or they are doing it on purpose to control more of the banking sector.

I reject the "stupidity" conclusion. Their goal, sadly, isn't to govern well; it's to accrue power, and the main way they do this by villifying those with money. This fee isn't meant to actually do anything except to throw a bone to angry voters.

As such, your "control more of the banking sector" conclusion seems dead-on, but I don't know if it's a designed objective or a nice by-product for them.

20 Mary Lamb, your history is wrong.

About a dozen banks were forced into a room, with the doors blocked by armed Secret Service agents, and Hank Paulson told the bank presidents they were not allowed to leave until they signed onto TARP. Then, they were prevented from returning the money until last summer (though some were trying to ditch it as early as January, like Wells Fargo).

These banks didn't want TARP, didn't need TARP, and have done everything they can to get away from it. Most were never in any risk from loan defaults, so they never needed "bailed out." They're paying bonuses because they're, you know, profitable. Or at least not insolvent.

The banks you're mad at aren't the banks being affected by this tax. {cough}Goldman Sachs{cough}

21 Snowbeast?  Yvette Mimeux; Clint Walker?  A whole lotta' aswesome!  BTW, to impose fees on bonuses is really nothing but a surtax; they're already paying huge income taxes on those bonuses; thus, the bonuses should be welcome accounts payable to the Treasury, but not in a lib's mind. 

22

Um, must have missed that part of the Constitution, but just where can the President impose fee's on a Private Corporation?

Congress can tax INCOME... but the President?

23 "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Ronald Reagan

Obama's  idea is that on hyperdrive.

24 I blogged on regulation at http://pointsandfigures.wordpress.com We need to regulate based on function-not based on institutions. End dual trading. End internalization and payment for order flow. Create more transparency.

25

You showed up with no lube?  Again?

This is getting old.

26 Look it up.

Cloward Piven Strategy in action baby.

That's what ya get when ya elect commies.

27 I think the whole point of this is to try and 'pivot' the anger of Main St at the WH and turn it to anger at Wall St..with the help of the media handmaidens
Cenk at FDL did a post yesterday inviting tea party people to join with progressives if we wanted to prove our cred, all we had to do was...attack the banks

just in time for Obama s new attack against banks, gee whodathunkit???

BWAAAAHAAA

Main St knows whose to 'blame', banks do what banks do, business does what business does, are they charities? no they need profit. and to create mor jobs they need to be successful....

Americans arent falling for it and didnt really the last time, it was ACORN and SEIU outside AIG exec houses , Dodd still went down b/c the voters KNOW who is responsible for those bonuses, DODD at the request of,,the WH....

28 the unnamed WH official speaking on background also noted that the car companies were hurt b/c of the meltdown and it wouldnt be 'fair'; for them to pay

good grief

well the good news is, Americans will be so pixxed and have no jobs to go to there will be plenty of time to get to the polls and vote these fools and toolz out

Rick Santelli on CNBC doing the job data this morning said the unadjusted UE claims were another record, I think he said it was into 6 digits...

they wont be able to hide that decline much longer

29 Reminder to the economically challenged: when you tax a business, the customers get to pay for it. This populist idiocy always hurts the little guy in the long run.

Reminder to the Democrat mindset challenged: all money belongs to the government.  The government can do with it as they please.

30 Hey come on, we're just taxing those greedy corporate bankers.  You don't like those rich greedy corporate bankers do you?  Spread the wealth around and whatnot, right?  What, you're still not happy?  Whatever, I won.

31 "Mary Lamb, your history is wrong."

I didn't say all banks.  I said banks who made bad loans that needed to be bailed out.  If a bank received TARP and didn't need it then they are not the problem.  All I know is taxpayer money was used to bail out banks (including i-banks) where large investors were paid 100% on an instrument which should have received something close to zero.

32 Besides, I need this money more than those banks.  With the way my poll numbers are going, I'm going to have to buy a whole lot of votes in 2012.  And those aren't cheap, ya know?  It's going to take a whole lot of "undocumented workers" to offset all you teabaggers.

33

Look at the headline I posted from CBS on the top headlines thread this morning. The press is helping him along with this crap all the way.

 

34 33 Isn't being a left wing economic adviser automatically make you a dumb shit that doesn't know anything?

Yes.

It also guarantees you a job for life with tenure and a very generous pension at an ivy league university.

35 Oh goodie. It's not like they'll pass on the costs.

36

What is bad is that this, as well as a bunch of other shit, will probably get tacked on a bill and passed under the table while everyone's attention is diverted to Haiti.

Never let a crisis go to waste eh?

 

 

37 "In other words, help the banks get healthy, and then punish them? I donÂ’t understand it." Right: we help them get healthy because they are (unfortunately) essential for recovering our economy; then we punish them for crippling the economy in the first place. Or should we let the cycle continue: banks run up risks, crash the economy, take a huge taxpayer bailout and get right back to work on taking risks again?

38 Gabe, these people are economically challenged, but not stupid. What the hell do you think redistribution of wealth means?

39 Profit and earnings ratio, y'all.

40 Unfrickinbelievable.  Well, not really, but geez.  How's that hoax and chains working out for everybody?  Thanks again 52%. 

41 Here's a socio-economic equation to better illustrate our troubled times: Marxist v. capitalist = scorpion v. frog

42 Is Obama going to punish Fannie and Freddie Mac and their high paid executives too?

AFter all their bonuses were, what, $24 million?

Oh, but they're Dems.

43 Alot of banks still have TARP obligations not out of wanting to keep it but they're forced to keep the money and can't repay them back. Why? Obama wants to maintain some control over the banks. Take this logic for example: Bank: Okay Mister, we're going to be giving you a mortgage of $250,000 for your house with a 10% interest rate over 20 years Homeowner: Oh awesome, I'll start paying that asap. *couple months later* Bank: You don't need to pay back the mortgage, just the interest. We don't want to lose our control over your property. Homeowner: But I want to own my house. Bank: Tough luck. Now replace homeowner with bank and replace bank with government. Especially it's obviously that Geithner failed macroeconomics in college unlike me which everyone even Bernanke knows that banks create money.

44 Well, they could have not taken the money.

That said - yeah, it's almost as if Obama doesn't know the first thing about economics, banking... or much of anything, really.

But he's got Cloward-Piven down to a science.

@39 - you know, I'm sympathetic to your line here.  But the thing is that they've paid back and are now being told to pony-up for the craploads of suck on the government's balance sheet.  I think you'd be pretty pissed at that too, no?

45 "Reminder to the economically challenged: when you tax a business, the customers get to pay for it. This populist idiocy always hurts the little guy in the long run."

It depends on the elasticity of demand on the product being taxed. 

46

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro blamed compensation practices that rewarded short-term gains for spurring the financial crisis.

Brilliant really brilliant.

47

Seems pretty obvious to me.  The big banks were kept in business for future demonization.  If they had let the big banks fail and provided TARP money to medium sized banks interested in growing they would have a policy that makes some sense (grow the banks with the smarts instead of keeping alive those with the dumbs), but they would lose opportunities to demonize a sub-set of the American citizenry.  Priorities and stuff.

48 President Jobkiller has a big job to do: destroying as much wealth and prosperity as possible.

49

"It depends on the elasticity of demand on the product being taxed"

My belly taxes the elasticity in my undershorts which has reduced the demand for my product.  What?   

 

50 Right: we help them get healthy because they are (unfortunately) essential for recovering our economy; then we punish them for crippling the economy doing what Barney Frank told them to do in the first place. Or should we let the cycle continue: banks run up risks (at government insistence), crash the economy, take a huge taxpayer bailout (at government insistence) and get right back to work on taking risks being forced by Barney Frank to give out high-risk loans again?

FIFY

51 So let me see if I have this right, my taxes taken from my wallet at the point of a gun go to these banks then the smartest president ever decides he needs more of my cash so he is going to tax the banks which will pass the cost onto to me so I get screwed twice because the ignorant liberals can't seem to grasp the fact that business's don't pay taxes they pass them on to the consumer and since all business's pass them on there is no competition so all of them raise the cost of their goods and services the exact same amount so I have no where else to go. We are so screwed, thanks to everyone who voted these retards into power and lets not even go into the fact that it was these same liberals who caused this fiasco to begin with barney frank anyone?.