The news for Bank of America and Citibank today is grim. Their stock values are tanking, investors have lost confidence, and many fear nationalization. I guess they think that nationalization would cause them to lose all of the value of their investments in these banks. Wait a minute. In the last five years Bank of America stock has dropped about 92% and Citi has dropped about 96%. How much more is there left to lose? These two banks, and others too, are on life support. They are being fed on an I-V of our tax dollars, otherwise known as the Great Bank Bailout. It’s time to take a step back and review the patients’ prognosis.
They are suffering from massive infections. Their circulatory systems are infected with toxins for which we have no cure. It’s like bank-eating bacteria. These patients are going to die without more truly massive transfusions, but no one wants to donate any more blood. And why should they? What have the banks done for us lately? Aren’t they largely responsible for this massive infection that has crept around the world, destroying the economies of country after country? Can massive blood infusions even save the patients? They not only need new blood, they also need some sort of antibiotic to kill the infection and to prevent future infections. But the banks say they’ll take the blood, but their religion prevents them from taking antibiotics. No medicine for them; just blood please.
It’s time for the doctor to tell these poor infected banks the truth. They’re going to die.
OK. So now what do we surviving relatives do? Should we immediately take over the banks, i.e. nationalize them, before they die? And if we do that, what to we do about the infected, toxic tissues in their vaults? And what about hidden toxins we may not even know about yet? Does it make sense to pour new blood into these son-to-be dead banks and then get the infection ourselves? No, it doesn’t. It’s like there’s plague on Wall Street. We can’t help them anymore. Let them and their investors go and meet their maker.
Meanwhile, while the banks take their last, gasping breaths, we (meaning the government – remember government of the people, by the people, and for the people? That’s us.) start our own National Banks. We start fresh with new blood, that is to say: money. Sure, it’s our tax dollars, same as in the bailout thing. But this time we are not buying toxic waste or flushing money down the toilet. We are creating our own banks with no toxic assets, nothing hiding in the closet, nothing lurking in the dark corners. Just a brand new, government-operated set of banks that will meet all of our banking requirements in a completely honest way while the sick banks dissolve into pools of coagulated ooze. Thankfully, unless we are investors in those pathetic banks ourselves, its not our problem.
Now here’s the real beauty of my plan: the Republican Party has to wholeheartedly endorse it because it is founded on two of their fundamental guiding principles: 1) You Are On Your Own 2) We are not paying to get you out of a mess you got yourself into.
Imagine that. I kind of always thought of myself as a Democrat, but now that I look at it this way, maybe I have some Republican values too. Maybe I’m actually more like President Obama: I think I have found a truly bipartisan solution to the banking crisis. President Obama, are you listening? I think the Republicans will go along with us on this one. No, really. How could they say no?
That is a great Blog and I share you thoughts all the way!! Robin Weirich CBW