Joe Nocera writes in the Times that banks receiving pieces of the $700 bn. bailout package are actually hoarding the money instead of using it to make loans more accessible. In fact, not only hoarding the money but in some cases using it to buy out other banks!

Perhaps this is why Paulson’s “no strings attached” bill was so fucking idiotic in the first place: if the government has no ability either to monitor what these pieces of shit are doing with taxpayer money or to actually enforce the laws (what some might refer to as the raison d’etre of a “government”), then what good was the fucking bailout to begin with?

Let’s hope this isn’t another case of a world-historical swindle perpetrated by the financial oligarchy. If there is any sliver of justice left in this world, and there is little hope of that, all of the CEOs of the banks that violate the spirit of the $700 bn. bailout ought to be thrown in prison and the banks immediately nationalized.

As Ben Popken of Consumerist writes:

What is the government doing to make banks use the money for loans? Apparently, jack except for asking really really nicely. If this continues and banks don’t use their government handout to open up loans, this bailout will be the single greatest ripoff in American history, and those responsible are naive if they don’t think they’ll have a giant bloody revolution on their hands.

If the elite are simultaneously trying to justify further transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich by raising the claim that “progressive” economic intervention constitutes “socialism”, perhaps a fruitful strategy for the Left would be to take these claims seriously by putting together some decent socialist legislation.