Ralph Nader Nader's 4-Point Plan to Reverse Bailout
Ralph Nader, running mate Matt Gonzalez and local community leaders rallied on Wall Street yesterday in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to protest the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of casino capitalists.
Mr. Nader spoke out against the bailout supported by Bush, Obama and McCain which requires taxpayers who had nothing to do with the current economic turmoil to shoulder the entire burden for socializing the liabilities and debt of Wall Street. The Wall Street fiasco is the result of banksters who tanked other people’s money in a "sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior," as Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fischer puts it. Mr. Nader presented a four-point plan to reverse the bailout: 1. Make Wall Street pay for its own bailout by implementing a securities speculation tax, starting with derivatives, which would have the additional benefit of deterring some of the worst excesses of casino-capitalism. Taxing speculative securities transactions is a common feature of many Western European and Asian stock markets, as well as being supported by Warren Buffett. 2. Criminal prosecution and jail time for corporate crooks that perpetrated these high economic crimes, including the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. 3. Provide capital injections to prudent (as verified by independent ratings agencies) financial institutions to create a protective wall to contain the domino effect, while ensuring full taxpayer equity. 4. Protect homeowners from foreclosure by passing a law with a sunset clause allowing below median-value homeowners facing foreclosure the right to rent-to-own their homes at fair market value rates. This would provide the majority of distressed homeowners sufficient bargaining power to restructure their mortgages along fairer more affordable terms. |
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