Smoke & Mirrors: Bank of America Repays TARP Funds

Please excuse us, but we're laughing so hard it is difficult to produce this report. Our amusement comes from the announcement by Bank of America yesterday that it had repaid the U.S. Treasury the $45 billion in bailout funds it had been given under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

"We owe taxpayers our thanks for making these funds available to the nation's financial system and to our company during a difficult time," said the bank's CEO, Kenneth Lewis, in a press release.

No kidding, Ken. We'll politely overlook the fact that we taxpayers—as reflected by the huge public protests at the time—vehemently objected to the bailout, which was shoved down our throats, against our will, by a near-treasonous government, under the orders of the international financiers of Wall Street and the City of London. We objected then, and we still do, and no amount of revisionist spin will change that.

What we won't overlook, however, is the continuing duplicity, corruption, and fraud which this so-called payback represents, and the way in which the bailout policy as a whole continues to destroy the nation, and has put us on the verge of a complete breakdown.

We aren't buying your claims that Bank of America has returned to health, Ken. Your bank is even more bankrupt now than it was when it was bailed out, and you yourself are being shown the door. According to your own press release, the bank went another $19 billion in debt to help raise the funds to repay the government. By our calculations, giving the government $45 billion and borrowing $19 billion puts you $64 billion deeper in the hole, which doesn't exactly seem like progress. We realize, of course, that by repaying the government you make it easier for the bank to hire your replacement, as it removes you from the pay restrictions, but isn't $64 billion a bit much to pay for the privilege of overpaying some new guy to finish the job of running the bank completely into the ground?

We'll concede that Bank of America is now the biggest financial institution in the country, with a whopping $2.3 trillion in reported assets, although we must add that we don't believe that those assets are worth anywhere near what you claim, and we can't help but think of puffer fish when we look at your balance sheet. We're also impressed by your $75 trillion in off-balance-sheet derivatives. It looks to us like you've dug yourself a world-class smoking hole in the ground. Even the guys at J.P. Morgan Chase are starting to feel a little envious, from what we hear, though their smoking hole is still bigger.

The only problem, and we hate to bring it up, is that you're killing us. The TARP is just a tiny part of the overall bailout scheme, which has destroyed the real economy in its zeal to save the parasites. We're losing our jobs and our houses at an accelerating rate, our state and local governments are going broke faster than they can cut their budgets, and President [Obama] seems determined to slash and burn the social safety net upon which an increasing number of our citizens depend. As happy as we are that you are doing so well—or, at least, as happy as we'd be if we actually believed a damn thing you say; we know you're broke—we'd be even happier if the nation and the world weren't collapsing around us, destroying the lives and hopes of this and future generations. But at least as we descend into Hell, we have the comfort of knowing that Bank of America can tell lies with the best of them. That's gotta be worth something, right Ken?

johnhoefle@larouchepub.com
Reposted by gm here. From:
http://www.larouchepac.com/node/12734
December 10, 2009