Bank bailout done in secrecy: an outrageous story

There's a great story on Bloomberg financial news online that details the bank bailouts of 2008, the need to keep it secret from taxpayers footing the bill, and the sort of arrogance that must have come with people making these decisions.

Here's the story.

In my mind, the big bank bailout is ranking right up there with the biggest scams of all time.

It is most troubling because it tears down the notion that we all live in an America where hard work is rewarded and we all take the same personal and financial risks when we screw up in business or the workplace.

Not so with some of these big banks, and I mean big banks. We should not confuse these folks with your average small-town banker or even bigger regional banks.

These were the biggest of  the bigs and the Bloomberg story shows they had not only influence, but more or less protection from the mean results of capitalism gone bad, something all the rest of us and our families must face without the government protecting us.

Then, they not only didn't pay the price for their mistakes, they were rewarded with low interest taxpayer loans where they turned around and made $13 billion.

 At one point, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is saying that he didn't want to release the names of the banks getting taxpayer money because of the "stigma" it would create.

That explanation is not going to fly with folks who face the "stigma" of unemployment and home foreclosures.

The Bloomberg story is what good journalism is all about. It takes on powerful interests, (Bloomberg sued the fed and the big banks for two years and finally won its Freedom of Information case), and exposes their evil to the governed.

You will not get this kind of journalism from a blogger or a political organization posing as a news organization.

Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown called the story one that would unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.

I couldn't agree more.