The Banks are totally bankrupt

The chart below shows the assets versus liabilities for four major banks. These figures are from the Comptroller of the Currency and clearly indicate these banks’ dire situation due to overextending themselves in credit default swaps, derivatives and other toxic loans. These four banks alone account for nearly $179 trillion of toxic debt and downside liabilities and yet their total asset value is only $4.5 trillion. Furthermore, many of these assets are still over-valued. This means that each of these institutions is virtually bankrupt. There is not enough money in the civilized world to pay off all of these debts. Giving taxpayer money to bail out these banks’ liabilities is tantamount to fraud.

During the TARP oversight by the Fed’s Ben Bernanke and the Treasury’s Henry Paulson, not once were the banks seeking a government bailout required to reveal actual and potential liability portfolios. If this had been done, and if American voters were made fully aware of our financial institutions’ true accounts, the original $700 billion package would have been rejected outright. Instead, the American public has been sucker-punched. And the gang who orchestrated the current meltdown are again steering the sinking vessel to remedy the crisis.

Assets vs. Derivatives and Credit Default Swaps (CDS)
for Four Leading Banks

Chart is represented in Millions

Bank	Assets	Derivatives	Credit Default Swaps	Total Liabilities
J.P. Morgan Chase	$1,768.657	$87,688.008	$9,177.731	$96,865.739
Citigroup	$1,207.007	$35,645.429	$2,939.783	$38,585.212
Bank Of America	$1,359.071	$38,673.967	$2,480.672	$41,154.639
HSBC	$181.587	$4,133.712	$1,152.948	$5,286.660

Americans voted for progressive change that would remove the United States from Iraq, roll back past administrations’ favoritism towards the corporate and financial oligarchies, and for a proactive reinvigoration of life on Main Street. The United Nations and other multinational forces—with America’s assistance—can deal with the Afghanistan crisis. Just by exiting these two war zones alone, American taxpayers would save between $5 and $10 billion per month. Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz’s thorough analysis of America’s war costs in Afghanistan and Iraq is now estimated at over $3 trillion.