laughing all the way to the, er, bank. With our money |
You have to wonder given the massive bailout and rescue of
capitalism and the bankers how any thinking person, especially a working class
person, can make the argument that the reason for increasing costs and the need
for tightening our belts is workers wages, benefits pensions or any other
associated costs.
There are some really backward working class folks and by
that I mean with a very limited class-consciousness, even to the point of
arguing positions that are against their own self interest. I can only assume that the reason for such
stupidity is that they believe they are not much longer for their present lot
and will soon be in the world of the hedge fund managers and other coupon
clippers. The American Dream fulfilled.
We have pointed out time and again on this blog, the massive
amounts of cash in society and that there is no need for this austerity agenda
other than the 1% have a lot of money and want more of it, including the funds
needed to wage their predatory wars on behalf of the corporations.
Let’s look at one small example of the many examples. I am talking about BankUnited. BankUnited was one of the banks that went
under due to the bursting of the housing bubble initiated by the collapse of
the subprime market. The bank was taken over by John Kanas and his private
equity backers, the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group.
Blackstone was founded by Peter Peterson a former US
commerce secretary worth $2.8 billion according to Forbes and Stephen
Schwartzman, a financier worth around $6.5 billion according to Forbes. Carlyle’s founders David Rubenstein and
William E Conway are worth $2.8 and $2.7 billion respectively. Government service opens a lot of doors for
the coupon clippers, the imbecile Dan Quayle sat on the board of Cerberus,
another well-known private equity gang. He’s a moron but as a former US VP he
can open doors for coupon clippers.
Anyway, Kanas, a banker himself, liked the idea of taking
over this Florida lender that was in trouble. He made some nice cash selling
his bank to the larger Capital One for $13 billion earning a handy $214 million
in the deal Business Week writes. Like
all bottom feeders Kanas was on the lookout for good deals as the banks began
to topple. He worked for another major coupon clipper and billionaire, Wilbur
Ross and came across BankUnited.
Kanas, Blackstone and Carlyle put up $900 million to invest
in BankUnited but what a deal the taxpayer gave them. The FDIC ensured the coupon clippers that the
deal would pay off by promising that the taxpayer would “eat” most of the future losses that would inevitably occur as a
result of the poor banking practices that led to the crash. The deal also
ensured that the taxpayers would, “….reimburse
BankUnited for 80% of the first $4 billion in losses and 95% of all additional
losses”, according to BW. The
taxpayer via the FDIC also gave the coupon clippers $2.2 billion in cash to
help them along. Needless to say, this sparked a lot of interest in such deals
from other scavengers throughout the land.
So Kanas came in, laid off more than 600 employees and as
Business Week puts it, “built a
commercial bank.”. Yes, they build
everything in society these guys. BankUnited now deals primarily in commercial
business rather than residential mortgages.
It is well known that trillions of dollars were allotted to
the bankers as them and their bankrupt system were dragged from the edge of the
abyss. Kanas admits that his deals would
not have been possible without the taxpayer,
“the deal covered losses for ten years” Business Week points out. Well,
whoopy f*%king doo.
BankUnited has “a long
life ahead of it” says Kanas. Maybe
it does, maybe it doesn’t. But this small example of the amount of money in
society and what the political representatives of capital do with our wealth,
crushes the argument that workers can’t make gains and deserve a more
productive and secure life. Billionaires
make their money off the backs of workers with the help of their government
that gives them the breaks.
The rich have always had socialism; they just oppose it for
the rest of us.
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