[Peace-discuss] Jobs with Justice's Wed 10/1 "No Blank Check to Wall St.; Save The Economy, Pronto" call to action

[Stuart Levy]

Below is another call to action (but with a bit more lead time),
from Jobs with Justice, on the proposed bailout which is edging
ever closer to being approved.  Currently a House vote is slated
for Monday 9/29, and Senate vote might be Wed. 10/1.

Apparently Rep. Tim Johnson has said he opposed the bailout,
at least as of a couple days ago.  No idea what Sen. Durbin is thinking.
Obama seemed supportive as of last Friday at least.

There's a sketch, but not much detail, of the new "consensus" plan at:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bailout.html

[oh, I see Carl has posted an extensive article from David Sirota which
says a great deal about it and does point to the draft bill as well -- yay, Carl!]

and a BBC report quotes John Boehner, House Republican leader,
as saying that there's really no gov't money at risk since, if there's
any outstanding debt still unpaid after 5 years, the bill calls for the
Pres. to assemble a plan to reclaim it from the financial services
industry, somehow.  Right.   This sounds a lot like the claim (Wolfowitz's?)
that the Iraq invasion would be paid for by selling Iraqi oil.

The NYTimes report above confirms that there is indeed no provision
for bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage terms.

That "the Treasury will buy assets with the potential to resell them at a
higher price" is touted as a strength of the bill.  What on earth?
Maybe that's in comparison with the original proposal, that bad assets
be bought at some projected future market value, not at a current depressed price.

Nothing mentioned here about any re-regulation of the industry
to prevent this happening the next time a bubble starts to grow.

On Sunday's Media Matters program which discussed the bailout plan,
    http://will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters080928.mp3
McChesney interviewed Thomas Ferguson (UMass Boston) and Rob Johnson
(Campaign for America's Future).  They pointed out that the equity
provisions -- where the Treasury would get part ownership in the banks
after buying junk from them, so as to benefit as the banks recover --
are no longer mandatory, as originally proposed, but optional.
So the gov't can buy worthless mortgage securities, pay money for them,
and get no stake in return.  They also argued that buying bad assets was
wrongheaded in the first place -- we'd be better off by simply taking over
entire banks -- and that the Congress should have started by scrapping
Paulson's plan altogether, rather than amending it to be marginally palatable.

After all that, here's Jobs with Justice's call to action:

----- Forwarded message from Jobs with Justice National <jwjnational at jwj.org> -----

Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:44:23 GMT
From: Jobs with Justice National <jwjnational at jwj.org>
Subject: Call to Action WEDNESDAY, 10/1:  No Blank Check to Wall St.; Save The Economy, Pronto
To: Stuart Levy <slevy at new.math.uiuc.edu>

The Wall-Street blank check bail-out, driven by corporate greed,
is still moving ahead in Congress, so far without any of the
commitments that JwJ and allies have insisted are needed to Save
The Economy, Pronto. Several national groups and economists
agree that we can and must push for a better deal for Main
Street.

On September 30, Congress is scheduled to go home to face
constituents, during their election cycle break. JwJ is counting
on YOU to hit the streets on Wednesday, October 1st to make sure
Congress serves Main Street before Wall Street. We will do this
Day of Action whether the Wall Street Bail-out bill has passed
by then or not!!

Jobs with Justice members know that Congress needs to act
strongly (but not in a panic) to address the immediate financial
crisis, but we also need a deeper, long-term restructuring of
our economy so it works for everyone.

Our Demands:

- Make the people that got rich while creating the crisis pay
for the clean-up
- Restructure the banking system
  * Short-term: public ownership for public assistance (i.e.
    equity for bail-out)
  * Long-term: re-regulate private finance and expand public and
    community-owned alternatives
- Solve the housing and foreclosure crisis
- Commit to fast-tracking a true recovery plan that addresses
    jobs, infrastructure, pensions, etc.

Local JwJ coalitions are organizing actions in cities across the
country. Find your local JwJ coalition:
    http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/rpSpxzd1hqYL/
and call or email them to find out what they are planning.  We are
gathering information about what coalitions have planned, and will post
a list early next week.

Live in an area where there is no local JwJ coalition? Plan your
own action! Send an email to jwjnational at jwj.org and let us know
what you're doing! 

Here are some ideas:

- Rally at Congressional offices
- Deliver 'trash for cash' to your federal reserve office
- Picket the banks that are asking for handouts without giving
    Main Street anything in return
- Hold a bake sale, and sell junk food to pay for Wall Street junk bonds
- Conduct a public survey asking working people what they need a bail-out for
- Now that we taxpayers have paid for your local bank, have a party there
- Invite the media to hear from people that need a "Main Street" bail-out

You can take action on this alert via the web at:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/step_up/w8x8n8xz975m5635?

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/step_up/forward/w8x8n8xz975m5635?

We encourage you to take action by October 23, 2008

Tell Congress: No Wall Street Bail-out! We need you to STEP UP!