A bank bailout report says the Treasury Dept. misled us last year. Should we know how healthy our banks are?

This is a silly question. It is asking if we consider ourselves stupid. However our elected and appointed representatives in government assume we are because we keep electing and appointed them to office where they take our money and do with it as they please with no accountability.

I agree with George!

Well said George

Who would answer "no" to this question? The terminally stupid? Our banking system is broke and out of control and no one is taking steps to fix it.

Last year, on September 15, $500 BILLION dollars disappeared from the banking system; that happened in ONE DAY over a period of about TWO HOURS. Allegedly, no one knows where that money went and they say they can't find out. Not surprisingly, the story went unrepored by the vast majority of the main stream media.

There has already been a run on the banks and with the Obama regime printing worthless paper money, the US is starting to look a lot like Zimbabwe.

Be not afraid comrades, the Big Leader knows all and will hold us informed by that we should know.

Why would anyone expect that the Treasury Department, headed by a tax evader, and working for a corrupt Chicago politician would do anything but lie? The one transparent thing about this bunch is that they lie all the time.

Well said Rick and George, why on earth would anyone beleive anything this government says. Oh I forgot there are Kathy's in this socialist world.

The truth? You can't handle the truth!!

Neglected to add to earlier comment, politicians and bureaucrats hate clarity and candor, they know they only keep their jobs if they keep the sheep calm and honesty can only upset the flock. They are like baby diapers.

Neglected to add to earlier comment, politicians and bureaucrats hate clarity and candor, they know they only keep their jobs if they keep the sheep calm and honesty can only upset the flock. They are like baby diapers.

Ditto Loafer! Everyone move along. There's nothing to see here.

The entire TARP program was done with deceptive intent. Recall, the original bill called for the money to be used to buy the bad mortgage paper. That plan was abandoned while the bill was still under discussion in Congress.

The concept that this information would cause a bank run is silly. The FDIC backs insured accounts and has access to unlimited credit from Treasury. For money market accounts, after the fall of Lehman, Treasury had backed them up to $1m each. So, if people DID do a bank run, would money have left the banking system? If not, then it's just a transfer of assets from bad actors to good.

No one ever once justified why we were bailing out these poor investment decisions. The only reason given was because "credit is the lifeblood of our economy," and presumably the money would be lent.

But what's happened instead is that banks have used taxpayer funds to shore up their balance sheets, they've raised interest rates and their lending is actually in a 10% annual decline. So taxpayers have suffered all the burden but see none of the benefit.

We need to see a reinstatement of Glass-Stegall, the SEC drop its 2004 leverage exemption for investment banks, allowing them to leverage 30:1 or more (since EVERYONE who has had to be rescued was leveraged 30:1 or more) and insolvent institutions allowed to fail in an orderly manner. If we continue down this path of propping up zombie banks, we will repeat the mistakes made by Japan's lost generation and we'll still be having the same discussion in 20 years.

Take note that this malfeasance happened under Bush.

The Glass_Stegall Act was repealed under Clinton.

The malfeasance that is occurring now has no precedent.

Kathy, get your glasses changed so you can read. Glass-Stegall was repealed in 1999 by a democratic controlled congress and signed by Mr. Clinton. The actual lessening of rules and regulations began in the mid 1960's and continued through both democratic and republican administrations and congresses. A republican President warned against the growth of power of what he called the industrial-military complex which of course are funded by Banks who also fund your representatives. I think you will find we are all responsible for what has happened in the past two years because we persist in returning the same politicians who are also in office because of the money.

Remember Kathy all politicians are like baby diapers and if you are a mother you know what you have to do frequently. Change them.

Yes comrade Kathy, Bush the old Big Leader, and Obama the new Big Leader. A lot of malicious business will pass in the new Big Leader. " It Who Knows", will tell to us that which we should know. From this we can be convinced.

Better question - Is the government trying to screw you? Can you see it now? I got out of banks and into a Credit Union after Bank of Amigo started handing out credit cards to Illegal Aliens. Wake up, America!

I agree with loafer: If I knew that my bank was unstable I would keep my money in, but the people that I am concerned about is people like kathy. Agree?

George, this poll is about the bank bailout report, which addresses the malfeasance under Bush.

David, don't ever believe anyone who can't spell beleive (sic).

Will, I am not sure which comment by loafer you agree with - I can't find one relevant to your statement.

RC, I have no idea what you are saying. Give it another try.

dlr, I totally agree. Credit Unions are the way to go, but for reasons other than banks' giving credit cards to undocumented immigrants. Credit Unions are built around the concept of community instead of profit, which I find much more appealing; kind of like food co-ops, health co-ops, power co-ops, etc.

Kathy,

Да товарищ Катай, Буш старый Большой Лидер, и Obama новый Большой Лидер. Много злонамеренного бизнеса пройдет в новом Большом Лидере. "Это, Кто Знает", скажет нам этому, который мы должны знать. От этого мы можем быть убеждены.

Yeah, kathy, we don't want the banks to make their evil profits. You are totally a socialist, we all know it, and you know it as well. Even if you do not call yourself a socialist your ideas and philosophies reflect it.

I was talking about people who take their money out of the bank because they find out that the bank is unstable. I was saying that I was not worried about 1/2 of america, but the other 1/2 I do not trust to make a rational decision. People like YOU!!

The question was should the US Treasury have kept us, the public, informed as to what the banks were doing. Laws were passed and regulations issued addressing the banks in the 1930's. For the past 50 plus years our government has been ignoring deregulating and removing these laws in order to satisfy the bankers. Had this not been done I doubt we would have had this failure of the banking system.
In any case I don't want my government keeping secrets from me for any reason regardless of the jersey color.

I seen Michael Moroes movie today..."Capitalism-A Love Affair......Everyone should go see it.

Will, that is not what you said in your earlier post. To quote you: "If I knew that my bank was unstable I would keep my money in". By the way, it should have been "If I knew that my bank WERE unstable, I would keep my money in" anyway.

RC, that's pretty good. Now, LMA.