WTF!!!! US to Bail Out Afghan Bank

[mod mom]

Afghan Bank Bailout: U.S. To Prop Up Kabul Bank To Prevent Crisis

The New York Times reports that the U.S. has agreed to assist the Afghan government in bailing out that nation's largest bank in order to prevent a nationwide financial crisis:

Details of the deal, including how much each government would contribute, were still being worked out on Saturday between the Central Bank of Afghanistan and the United States Treasury Department, officials said...

Top officials at Kabul Bank and a senior leader at the Central Bank declined to comment publicly on the proposed bailout, which was still being negotiated. However a manager at the Central Bank and a senior American official confirmed what the American official called an "intervention."

Crowds gathered at Kabul Bank branches around the capital to withdraw dollar and Afghan currency savings, with customers saying they had lost faith in the bank's solvency following a change in leadership and reports that tens of millions of dollars had been lent to political elites for risky real estate investments.

"Kabul Bank has lost the trust of the people. Even the chairman resigned so all the people are concerned," said Mohammad Nawaz, head of an Afghan aid group who had tried for three hours to withdraw the $15,000 in his account.

-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/04/afghan-bank-bailout-us-to_n_705830.html


ARE THEY TRYING TO PISS OFF PEOPLE TO REVOLT?

[The Northerner]

1. If true, how despicable

[Skink]

2. they have banks in Afghanistan?

[mod mom]

5. Karzai's corrupt brother was requesting this a few days ago:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202266.html?hpid=moreheadlines

I joked that watch we'll do it because they have dirt on * that we'll need covered up and now this!

[Raschel]

17. LOL!! (all comedy comes from pain)

[L0oniX]

25. Yes ...and kilo's of opium are the currency.

[Parker CA]

3. Why? nt

[Enrique]

4. shoveling even more money to Karzai and his brother n/t

[mod mom]

6. This will really kill the Democrats chances. It seems politically stupid!

[elocs]

8. Like the GOP really needs Dems to hand them more fuel for the fire.

It pains me to think that being politically stupid has come to define Democrats because we expect that from Republicans.

[pscot]

13. This administration excells

at political stupidity. Two more years of this and the country will be ready to embrace Jeb Bush.

[mod mom]

30. Please no!

Unfortunately, I can see something like this happen as I never thought a coke head frat boy had a chance but with the miracle of voting machines & dirty tricks....we got him.

[L0oniX]

26. Hey ...dope dealers need banks too.

[suffragette]

7. Got to keep that money flowing to Dubai somehow

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8877508#8879367

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8563433#8572831

[mod mom]

9. WEIRD: Just yesterday FOX was reporting the opposite:

Obama Administration: No Plans for Afghan Bank Bailout

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/03/obama-administration-plans-afghan-bank-bailout/

WHY IS THE NYT & FOX REPORTING OPPOSITE REPORTS?

Question: Can the US treasury act w/o the administration's approval?

[Subdivisions]

20. Remember the incident where Hank Paulson demanded an immediate

bailout from Congress or else? Well, I wonder if the power given Paulson along with those funds was trasfered to Geithner...I don't see why it wouldn't have. Didn't that power include bailing out foreign banks?

[earth mom]

10. Your tax dollars at work. Might as well start flushing them down the toilet for all the good they

do taxpayers! :argh:

[Raschel]

19. Talk about yer tit suckers!! Bail out the Afghan bank and cut Social Security huh?

[L0oniX]

28. They are sucking on something but I don't think it's tits!

[Catshrink]

11. Obama is deliberately throwing the '10 elections.

There can be no other explanation.

[jpak]

12. Karzai is corrupt fuck and should be cooling his heels in Gitmo

Karzai is a fucking snake and undoing everything that the US has done for his country.

time for a CIA coup :sarcasm:

yup

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. This is monumentally stupid

Get our troops out of there, let the bank fail and let whatever Afghanis are left clean up their own mess like adults.

:grr:

[femrap]

18. Arm the women and give

them the keys to the bank/treasury. Problem solved.

[AzDar]

15. Wow... hope this isn't true.

:grr:

[Raschel]

16. Well don't I feel like a fish-eyed-fool.

I was diagnosed with cancer and I'm still trying to pay off the couple of bills I have left.

There isn't a president in the US who could be elected and do away with the corruption and insanity.

Every single one is directed by the corporations (globally) and RNC/DNC. (same same)

[readmoreoften]

37. I hope you're feeling better.

It is a disgrace. A total disgrace. Both parties are a disgrace.

[CrispyQ]

21. Update:

***UPDATE*** The Times has updated their story with comments from U.S. Treasury officials insisting that no American money will be used to recapitalize the Kabul Bank: "'No American taxpayer funds will be used to support Kabul Bank,' said Jenni LeCompte, a Treasury Department spokeswoman."

===
What other funds do they have? ???

[ShamelessHussy]

27. Drug Money

most likely

[mod mom]

31. Good question.

Here's another who pays the treasury dept salaries? (because if they are on the American Dime, then even spending time on this issue costs us)

[onethatcares]

22. I have a 10000 Afgani note I'd be willing to loan them

with a 24.99 % variable interest rate that could rise or fall depending upon how I felt that day. The rate would also be attached to the cost of scrap beer cans as listed at my local scrap metal recycling company.

Why don't these assholes go to the nearest payday loan place like the G.I.s have to do to pay their bills?

Does anyone know what the real estate bubble looks like in the Pashtun Mountains? I was thinking about a nice castle overlooking some verdant fields with dead sheep on them. Someplace I could watch the drones blow stuff up, you know.

edited: upon further review it is a 10,000 Afgani Note.

[DeSwiss]

23. K&R

"ARE THEY TRYING TO PISS OFF PEOPLE TO REVOLT?"

- They do this because they're absolutely certain that we won't.

"Understanding America's Class System"

Fundamentalist Christians, gays, small businessmen, Hispanic Americans, organic farmers, pro-lifers and abortion supporters, union workers in the North and Southern anti-unionists, school teachers and stump preachers -- we all feel threatened by our government.

At the same time, in order to keep revolution at bay, and the military in cannon fodder and defense industry in contracts, we have been heavily indoctrinated to believe America leads the world in all things, and that the rest of mankind lives less prosperous, less free lives, coveting our "lifestyle." In short, they are lesser people.

Still though, we have in common that none of us like the idea of a ruling class. We did not from the very beginning. Yet, we no longer take effective action, because it has become impossible to identify what we might do to change anything. Instead, we react to events. That is what the ruling class wants, because if we are reactive, then outcomes can be controlled by controlling the stimuli. Keep 'em dazzled with foot work.

So the stimuli keep coming at us faster than we can think. And they are presented as fate, or the result of "fast changing world events," or a banking collapse no one could have predicted -- things to which we must respond immediately. Most of us just give up. Which again, is what the ruling class wants us to do -- become a uniformly pliant mass.

~ http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/08/understanding-america.html">Joe Bageant, "Understanding America's Class System"

[L0oniX]

24. It's the USA ...we're only doing what we're good at.

:mad:

[sarcasmo]

32. Blowing stuff up and rebuilding it.

[L0oniX]

33. Well yea the blowing up but the rebuilding is out sourced now.

[ShamelessHussy]

29. And they announce this Pottery Barn rule over the holiday weekend, how savvy

who is gonna say, enough?

[geek tragedy]

34. Story updated, no US money involved.

Premature poutrage.

[pinniped]

35. Karzai the Puppet and his cronies must have looted the gold reserves and national....

treasures that used to be in the bank vault.

[chill_wind]

36. Words. Fail.

K & R.