Chomsky on Obama/Geithner plan: It's recycled Bush/Paulsen

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/03/27-14

Chomsky on Geithner
Chomsky: Plan is recycled Bush/Paulson. We need nationalization and steps towards democratization.

WASHINGTON - March 27 - The Real News' Paul Jay spoke with Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to get his thoughts on the Obama-Geithner plans for bank reform.

"They're simply recycling pretty much the Bush-Paulson measures, changing them a little, but essentially the same idea. Keep the institutional structure the same, try to kind of patch things up, bribe the banks and investors to help out, but avoid the measures that might get to the heart of the problem," says Chomsky.

The plans create a "win-win situation" for investors, he argues: "It means that an investor can, if they want, purchase these valueless assets, and if they happen to go up they make money and if they go down the government insures it. So there might be a slight loss but there could be a big gain....if you're the investor. For the public, it's a lose-lose situation."

Chomsky believes the system is built in a way that often penalizes the public: "Fact of the matter is, it's almost always public money....The public pays the cost and takes the risk and the profit is privatized."

He believes the first steps towards democratization involve nationalization and public accountability. "For a start, corporations, banks and so on should be responsible, I think, to stakeholders . That's not a huge change....It's a way to keep communities alive and industry here."

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He doesn't seem to care that people suffer when they can benefit, as his *actions* show.

Waiting for a low information voter to brand Chomsky as a "Right Winger"
Shouldn't be long now.

Some idiot on DU called Jim Hightower a "Right Winger" this morning .
:shrug:

It is getting harder and harder for the cheerleaders as more facts come in, and Status Quo policies are put in place by the Obama Administration. I actually have a small piece of compassion for them today.

Take some joy in the Stem Cell thing, because there is not going to be just a whole lot of stuff for the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party to cheer about.

that DU has been bombarded w/low information posters as of late. I believe Jim Hightower would get quite a chuckle from being called a right winger.

What was HT saying? I really like that guy.

Does he have a radio show or other means of communicating? Let me know.

He is on the radio as well - a syndicated thing, I believe.

He also appears in a number of liberal magazines.

I have seen that you get it, though, bvar.

No "change" there, Noam.

....speaks the truth....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5347897

Hell, the man knows everything ...

they add a little superficial "transparency" and a few zeros to the size of the gift they are giving Geithner's Wall Street cronies, but it is straight up no different from what Paulson was doing. Screw the (increasingly unemployed) public and turn the criminal speculators' $50 trillion losses (some percentage of which was theft) into windfall profits.

Above all, make no substantive change to the system that is destroying the world and the humans' world economy. Make trillions of dollars of "profit" private, but make 94% of the risk public. Corporatism at its finest.

I just love hearing him speak.

I'm proud to be a member of The Real News Network, and a donor to TRNN.

But, at least, this one sounds more sincere when telling us that it's for our own good when escalating wars and robbing us blind.

and it's really depressing to have to add :sarcasm: but the standard of political commentary here seems to have jumped the shark a little since the election

You TOTALLY supported the right primary. If only we were smart enough to have agreed with you.