Here’s the latest spinnage … or hogwash … or BS … or whatever you’d like to call it:

“Paulson says US neared economic fall”

(By Bloomberg News – February 3, 2010)

“NEW YORK – The US economy came ‘very close’ to collapsing into a second Great Depression and the government had no alternative to bailing out financial firms, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

“‘There was a time when the credit markets had essentially frozen and when blue chip industrial companies were having trouble raising money,’ Paulson said in an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television. ‘I knew that we were on the brink.’

“‘We easily could have had unemployment at 25 percent,’ he said. ‘That would have meant millions of additional jobs lost, millions of additional homes lost, trillions more lost in savings. It would have been terrible.’

“Paulson, who has just published his memoir, ‘On The Brink,’ said he understands the criticisms of the bailouts of financial institutions.

“‘In this country, none of us like bailouts,’ he said. ‘But they were far better than the alternative.'”

Let’s see. Where shall we start. Mr. Paulson said that the US came “very close” to collapsing into a second Great Depression and the government had no alternative to bailing out financial firms … but that’s nowhere near the truth. Unemployment – and only unemployment – lies at the very heart of our economic tailspin. The wolves in our “financial firms” finally felt the squeeze of our failing economy and instead of treating the cause of our ailment – widespread joblessness – they decided instead, in their arrogance and ignorance, to demand the money and run. That’s right – demand. Their accomplices and lackeys are in high places, of course, because they (the wolves) put them there with their campaign contributions.

Since those bailouts – that trillion-and-a-half dollars worth of bailouts – Wall Street and the banksters are now enjoying unfrozen credit markets. And, naturally, they no longer have trouble raising money now that they’ve ripped off the American taxpayers. But the government had no alternative, you understand. It’s okay if the little guy comes up short – he’s not the one who provided the campaign funds for the elite. It’s simply a matter of giving the buyer his money’s worth. Doesn’t that prove that there’s honor among thieves?

“We easily could have had unemployment at 25 percent,” Mr. Paulson said. Baloney. That’s exactly what we have now, Mr. Paulson. The White House has been fudging the statistics – as you know.
You, as well as those in the White House, also know that “millions of additional jobs” have been lost, “millions of additional homes” have been lost, “trillions more” have been “lost in savings”, and all because none of the so-called “bailout” funding was ever intended to address joblessness – the real and only cause of our nation’s economic woes.

“I knew that we were on the brink,” Mr. Paulson said. Indeed he did know, and that’s exactly why he and the others pulled off their heist. The caper, however, didn’t avert the coming second Great Depression. It speeded up its inevitable approach and dug a deeper grave for the little guy.

About two weeks ago, NY Times OP-ED Columnist Bob Herbert wrote about “the little guy”. “How loud do the alarms have to get?” he asked. “There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.

“The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardship that has befallen so many.

“While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Great Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies giant pharmaceutical outfits.

“The public interest? Forget about it.

“With the power elite consumed with its incessant, discordant fiddling over health care, the economic plight of ordinary Americans, from the middle class to the very poor, got pathetically short shrift. And there is no evidence, even now, that leaders of either party fully grasp the depth of the crisis, which began long before the official start of the Great Recession in December 2007 …

“The question for Democrats is whether there is anything that will wake them up to their obligation to extend a powerful hand to ordinary Americans and help them take the government, including the Supreme Court, back from the big banks, the giant corporations and the myriad other predatory interests that put the value of a dollar high above the value of human beings …

“What we’ll get instead is rhetoric. It’s cheap, so we can expect a lot of it.”

Whether it’s spinnage, hogwash, BS or rhetoric, it’s still baloney no matter how you slice it. But cheap? Never. Not as long as the Ponzi-schemers on Wall Street, the banksters, the Fed and the politicians are allowed unlimited access to trillions of our tax dollars. This coming “Second Great Depression” will be the most expensive purchase this country has ever made. You’ll see.