NATIONALIZE THE BANKS!  HANG THE BANKERS! Alright, don’t hang the bankers, see if I care, but unless you threaten power, you don’t get nothin’.

this isn’t really a new idea, or even a soros idea. it’s what most of the countries of the e.u. are doing, and i hope it works for them. why bring up all the things you hate about soros. we need ideas. of course, our congressional “leaders” don’t think so. they prefer to cloister themselves in a room for days and put in a few cosmetic changes and tack on pork to seduce 10 more reps into voting “yes”. my “reps” are voting no, and i’m damned proud of them. there are much better ideas here right now! it’s not a question of having to search for them. but they need to come out of their ideological closet and listen to those huddled outside the door (ie, left out in the cold like the rest of us. and i’m not taling about the lobbyists! oh yeah, they’re invited “in”).

- make that C.I.A. front group (i.e. Reporters Without Borders) - not operative. (see post below)

sorry, no way, I am not taking ANY advice from a “Private investor/capitalist extraordinaire”.

Capitalist extraordinaire?? These are the guys that have brought our country to its knees!

I don’t like his “charity giving” so much either. For instance he generously funds “Reporters Without Borders” who have been outed for YEARS as nothing less than a C.I.A. Operative.

Come on! lets find some decent (as in having Decency) pundits here on Truthdig.

No, Sophie, giving money to the banks is not the same as nationalizing them.  Soros is a successful speculator and his solutions are predicated on that perspective.

pumping money into the banks the way Soros is suggesting is effectively the same thing as nationalizing the banks ...

Folktruther, 

Sorry to make your liver hurt, but I am not so sure I agree that when I don’t understand it means I am being screwed.  I don’t give myself that much credit that if I don’t understand something it must mean its wrong or trying to screw me.  I expressed that my main reason for liking it was it illustrates that their are more than one way to approach this problem.  We need a well thought out approach.  I will admit that I like that its cheaper too and on its face seems to address a worry I had about the bailout leading to a devaluation of the dollar and massive inflation.  If you understand it and can point out downsides to Soros proposal, by all means do.  I am open to other points of view on this issue.  I know you are against the bailout in any form, and that’s fine.  I disagree on that, but admittedly without a lot of knowledge of the credit market.  Having many major banks fail would not be a good thing from my perspective.  I appreciate your input, but I don’t appreciate you telling me what I should not say or think.  I reserve that right for myself.

Gmost- your comment that you don’t understand the Soros proposal but it sounds better to you makes my liver hurt.  Don’t say things like that or, much more important, don’t think them.

IF you don’t undersatand what an authority of any kind says, they are trying to screw you.  And the American people.  Soros not only gives millions to MoveOn, he was instrumental in turning the Soviet Unition into a third world country where apparently millions died.  An Open Society that he espouses is not so good when the temperature gets below zero.

Jackpine has conjectured that what they have done to the Soviet Union, they are now trying to do in the US.  I think he may be right.

Tony Wicher, I admire the way you came down on both sides of the issue.  You might consider running for office.  The Dem party welcomes people like you.

By Folktruther, October 1 at 10:26 am #

i have an alternative suggestion.  NATIONALIZE THE BANKS! ...  The ruling class can never go wrong on counting on the servility of Dem leaders.
—————————————————————————-
Folktruther,

I have always thought that nationalization of all banks (and all insurance companies) would be the best way to get to socialism. The rest of what is now the “free market” could continue to operate. I’m all for it, but I don’t see much chance of getting there very soon. Of course you are right that the ruling class can always count on the sevility of Democrats - unless, perhaps, we get into a really bad depression.

These are the kind of ideas that are needed and need to be thought through and discussed.  I think the nature of this crisis is such that the government needs to move quickly but thoughtfully, not hastily in a panic.  I will admit, I don’t really understand Soros proposal, but it sounds better to me, and better than that it shows there are a variety of ways to deal with this problem.  I now think a bailout of some kind is necessary, but I want it to be smart and have the best interest of the American public as its first priority.  For me I will be disappointed by any proposal that doesn’t include some kind of measure to help those facing foreclosure.  I certainly didn’t like the sound of the bailout + tax cuts that the senate is proposing. The bit about tax cuts for alternative energy sounds nice, but seems out of place and a bit like a red herring in this circumstance.

i have an alternative suggestion.  NATIONALIZE THE BANKS!  Then the government will control the ecoonomy rather than the bankers.  And if the electorial system were reformed, the American people could then control the government.

This is a perfectly feasible political alternative, if one happened to live in an alternative universe.  Since finance captial controls the American economy, and the two political parties, and the mass media, what will happen is that the Dems will probably triangulate and ripoff the American people by relying on Gop votes.  The ruling class can never go wrong on counting on the servility of Dem leaders.

I supported the bailout plan with Obama’s four points because I thought something was necessary and I trusted Obama to manage it so the taxpayers would not be ripped off. Now conservative Republicans have joined with progessive Democrats such as Dennis Kucinich and George Soros have proposed alternatives where the bailout will be bottom up instead of top down. This could be a very good thing. I support Soros and Kucinich and I hope Obama will now jump on their bandwagon to support such a progressive alternative.

Soros hit the nail right on the head!  The bailout proposal was fundamentally a “plan without a plan.”  In the absence of a plan, Paulson told Congress, “Just give us $700 billion [which, as I previously observed, was just Treasury-speak for “a lot of money”];  trust us to figure out how to spend it wisely.”  The House of Representatives did not fall for this;  and, in spite of their “vote of no-confidence,” the Senate STILL wants to vote on the same boondoggle!  Even worse is that Obama seems to be leaning in the direction of voting in favor.  (Biden has kept his mouth shut so far.)  If some Senator in his right mind cannot at least delay the vote until the alternative House proposal is on the table, then I sure hope that both Obama and Biden make a case for that “change we can believe in” by rejecting the Treasury proposal.  I have sent words to this effect to both of them.