On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld appeared before Congress with some shocking news:
[Military] auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
In a world before the Bailouts, $2.3 trillion was real money. On September 11, 2001...We all know what happened. Among other things, people stopped asking about that $2.3 trillion.
On December 24, 2009, it was reported that the United States Government guaranteed all of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's debt. That is a several-trillion-dollar liability. Meanwhile, the same Fannie and Freddie will give multi-million-dollar bonuses to its executives.
On December 25, 2009, some Nigerian lit his pants on fire. We are now being told by the same folks responsible for the bailouts that Al-Qaeda is to blame.
Why do you believe them? That's not a rhetorical question. Why do you believe anything that the same people responsible for the Bailouts, tell you?
The Bailouts have proven that Washington cannot be trusted with taxpayer money. Politicians will lie to the American public when it will enrich private interests. Americans don't matter to Washington, so long as Goldman Sachs will be able to pay record bonuses.
Ideas that I'd assign a low probability to now seem much more probable. Who was responsible for 9/11? Before the Bailouts, I'd say that there was a very low (say 1-5%) chance that people in the federal government were responsible. Post-Bailouts, should we think it more likely or less like that someone from the inside was involved?
Oh, but stealing money from taxpayers is different from killing Americans. To a sociopath, there is no difference. But let's accept your premise as true: The government wouldn't kill Americans for profit.
What of the Iraq War? It's now a fact that WMDs were not in Iraq. Fact. No inferences. It's also a fact that the Bush Administration did not really believe that Iraq had WMDs.
How many thousands of Americans have died in Iraq? Still want to claim that the sociopaths in the White House wouldn't murder Americans for profit?
The Department of Defense Budget is over $500 billion each year. Will this latest "terrorist attack" make it more likely or less likely that the budget will increase?
It's time to stop dismissing controversial ideas as mere conspiracy theories. The Bailouts, after all, were a conspiracy theory.
Except...The Bailouts actually happened. Trillions went to Wall Street. TARP was sold as a way to increase lending, although it’s been proven that Paulson never intended to use TARP to increase lending. Goldman Sachs will pay record bonuses using taxpayer money while there is 10% official unemployment - though the books that aren't cooked put the number closer to 17%.
Wall Street banks are borrowing money from the Federal Reserve at .25% interest, and loaning that same money to the U.S. Government (through the purchase of Treasuries) for 4.5% - at ten times leverage. With $1 billion in equity, a bank can borrow $10 billion. Then loan that $10 billion back to the Federal Government. All of that stuff is actually happening.
No one needs to draw any inferences. Facts. Trillions gone from government to Wall Street. Money is loaned to banks virtually interest-free; and the banks loan that same money back to the Federal Government at 4.5% interest.
In light of the Bailouts, how can anyone take what the government says about terrorism seriously?
