THE MAGIC OF THE MARKET ... IN BUSH'S AMERICA

Yet another lurid example of the private sector privatizing the profits and socializing the losses …

On Feb. 14 the Wall Street Journal reported that major banks are looking to shift the burden of their supprime stupidity to the federal government. In a proposal advanced by Credit Suisse, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would guarantee the refinanced mortgages of delinquent borrowers. According to MoneyNews.Com, the programs currently being discussed include creating "negative equity certificates" that would help financial institutions recoup losses from refinancing a mortgage when a home's value has dropped.

Can someone tell me, Where’s the market risk in guaranteeing an industry's profits? With knowledge that the feds and the American taxpayer will bail them out, won’t they just go out and do something even dumber the next time?

Let’s keep in mind that these are the same idiots who made the decisions that created this ponzi-like bubble market reality in the first place. And you can bet your life that the same guys with their hands out today will be at the forefront, whining that taxes are a form of theft, should someone with common sense ask how we should pay for this industry bailout.

So here we stand … Banks asking the federal government and American taxpayers to help them keep their profit margins. I don't know, but it seems to me that the dream fantasies of Alice's Wonderland can't hold a candle to the twisted but guranteed profit schemes in Bush's Neo-Conlandia.

- Mark