Via Sanity Check:

I think the defining moment for me was when Bernanke responded to the question from Congress, as to whether the American people (and their elected representatives in Congress) would be told to whom all their tax dollars have been given or lent. That single word summed it up perfectly for me: "No."

Any illusions that the money trust in the US, that collection of bankers and hedge fund managers and industrialists who are the beneficiaries of the systematic looting of the Treasury under the current "emergency" measures, is going to do anything other than precisely whatever it likes, or is going to report to those being looted, was dispelled at that moment. Likewise, nobody has been able to articulate why the massive swindle at AIG continues to be subsidized by our tax dollars - but again, no reporting on where those dollars are going will be forthcoming.

Basically, the gloves are off and the banking establishment - the for-profit cartel of private bankers that is the Federal Reserve - refuses the most basic explanations of where our, and the next several generations' retirements, are going.

Just won't talk. Nope. Shhhhh. It's a secret.

So AIG sells insurance for which it has no collateral, thinly disguising it as credit default swaps, to those with no financial interest in the things being insured (which is illegal if insurance), and you and I get to pay those who bought the swaps and are now collecting big on the destruction of the market and the American way of life. Not a mention of simply making swaps illegal and calling them what they are - illegal insurance, which should be null and void. Nope. Instead, we get to pay out hundreds of billions, to Goldman and the Saudis and whomever else is fortunate enough to be a counterparty - but we can't know to whom the billions are being paid. Again. That's a secret.

I used to believe that it was an information gap. That if I only articulated the problem with the right words, in the right forum, that exposure would be sufficient to drive those entrusted with protecting us to do their job. For a while I believed that inaction was a function of ignorance of the true issues, and that if only the correct explanation was put forth, that then a lightbulb would go off in the collective congressional head, and the problem would be corrected.

Now I know better. Patrick's site, DeepCapture.com, is read by every major news outlet on a regular basis, as is this site. It's not that the info isn't knowable or known. It's that nothing will ever be done to change it; not by those with the apparent power to do so. Because even that power is an illusion. As evidenced by the single word response to a demand for the most basic and obvious form of transparency in the largest landgrab of national wealth in history:

"No."

I suppose "Bite Me" or "Fat Chance" are more inefficient uses of language. Why increase the number of words when a monosyllable will readily convey the entire idea?

Who can add to the crystal clarity of this?

Since we were never actually told what sort of "change" was in the offing. no doubt Big Money being perfectly open about who's running the country could fall under that heading.

Every other news story is tiny compared to this one, which is huge and right out in the open.* In a way, I can forgive Pravda and Izvestia for playing it down, because they are what they are, but our tribunes of the people in the left blogosphere? Hey, how about that Bobby Jindal! Look! Over there! Rush Limbaugh?

NOTE Via Yves.

NOTE * And also a great story, replete with wretched excess, whistleblowing, all forms of drama, and with tremendous stakes in play. Look! Over there! Sarah Palin!