April 9, 2009

The Great Cover Up.... Again

History has shown that, first the corporate establishment creates a scandal, then the government creates a cover up scandal. We're watching a cover up unfold before our eyes.

Why the cover up? Because the establishment in charge is trying to 1) hide their role in causing the scandal, and 2) preserve their wealth and power... at the expense of common folk.

A historical example: The "cover up" during the 1980s Savings and Loan debacle, which by the way was about the size of the AIG piece of what's shaping up to be the downfall of the US Empire, was as follows. Rather than expose the depth of the S&L mess, risking public out cry that would expose Congress' role in causing the mess, Congress swept it under the rug. They spread the S&L bailout costs over a long time, creating a huge interest payment burden for the public. A lot of these interest payments were eventually paid to many of the financial industry thieves who stole money and caused the S & L failures.

Same type of coverup is happening now and a mark-to-model shell game, on which I wrote today, shaping up to is a big part of it. In the short run, things will look good, but it's also dangerous. It's the same kind of trickery that Japan played in the 1990s that led to their lost decade, drifting in and out of recession.

The internet is all abuzz about last weeks interview of William K. Black by Bill Moyers. Black was involved in exposing the theives of the S&L crisis. One of them was Charles Keating, after whom the senate's so-called "Keating Five" were named, including John McCain. According to Moyers, Keating wrote a memo that read, in part, "get Black — kill him dead."

William Black fired a broadside last Friday, April 3, on Bill Moyers Journal:

BILL MOYERS: Why are they firing the president of G.M. and not firing the head of all these banks that are involved?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: There are two reasons. One, they're much closer to the bankers. These are people from the banking industry. And they have a lot more sympathy. ... But the other element of your question is [they] don't want to change the bankers, because if [they] do, if [they] put honest people in, who didn't cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up.

BILL MOYERS: The cover up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Sure. The cover up.

BILL MOYERS: That's a serious charge.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Of course.

BILL MOYERS: Who's covering up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him.

Black levels the charge that the Obama administration is intentionally covering up the insolvency of the big banks. Some will say that this is to preserve stability, a montra of the establishment, but as noted above, it's really about preserving establishment power and wealth.

William Black Interview Transcript

Psssst... Do Something
Sources:

Bill Moyers Journal, April 4, 2009. (Video, transcript and more).

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