To the editor:

“Has the Treasury partially nationalized the private banks, as we have been told? Or is it the other way around? Is it the Treasury that has been partially privatized by Wall Street, its massive rescue plan now entirely in the hands of a private bank it is directly subsidizing?” (Rolling Stone).

Unless there is oversight to what bailout money gets given to whom, then the taxpayers will be told, “We can’t afford to pay out your Social Security, let alone implement any of Obama’s progressive agenda.”

If the taxpayers are to fork over billions from Treasury to the banks, there needs to be some strings. “Structural adjustments,” as the IMF was wont to say, including voting rights as shareholders, seats on the board of directors, and dividends.

Furthermore, Congress must have the business sense (as did Great Britain), to get it in writing that the money will be lent to individuals and small businesses — not for mergers. To date, banks have used the money instead to take weak banks to their own slaughterhouses and hack them up to their fiscal liking, bypassing bankruptcy laws.

Please read Naomi Klein’s (The Shock Doctrine) article: click here (published in the Rolling Stone) then call your Congressperson and senators and demand Treasury department oversight.

If we-the-people-financing-the-bailout could get some modicum of control over the banking system, ideas like green community development could become a reality instead of a pipe dream.

John Hurd

Clinton