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Monday, February 02, 2009
Bill Steigerwald :: Townhall.com Columnist
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Bailout - An Interview
by Bill Steigerwald
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Cody Willard, 36, has been causing a stir on and off the Fox Business Network, the upstart business channel that’s piped via cable and satellite into about 45 million American homes. It’s not because the co-host of the network’s “Happy Hour” has long hair, has his own rock band or because he is the principal of a hedge fund. It’s mainly because he’s been ranting daily on the misuse of government money to bail out the big banks and irresponsible Wall Street financial houses that he believes do not deserve to be bailed out. Willard, who’s been a featured columnist for the Financial Times and TheStreet.com, does his show live in New York City each weekday at 5 p.m. from the Waldorf Astoria’s Bull & Bear bar, which is where he was when I talked to him late Thursday afternoon.

Q: If I met you in a bar and asked you to tell me what the stimulus plan was all about in 30 seconds, how would you sum it all up?

A: It is the single largest money and power grab by the socialist Republican/Democrat regime in power that we have ever seen in the history of this country.

Q: Who are the good guys and the bad guys?

A: The good guys are the hard-working American people who save and are responsible and have been taking care of their bills. The bad guys are the Republicans and Democrats and all their cronies and everyone else who is putting their hands in all the renters’ and savers’ pockets and redistributing and appropriating that wealth.

Q: You are famous for being really, really opposed to the bailout. What are your chief reasons?

A: First of all, we didn’t need the quote-unquote "bailout," the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) bailout, the Wall Street bailout, because we have laws in place. We have private property laws and rule of contract law in place, and that is what is supposed to be the driver of the American economy and the American society. Whereas today, what the TARP did was basically create anarchy. It eliminated personal and corporate accountability. Not only that, but instead of punishing and allowing the consequences of people's and corporations’ actions to dictate where they are in life, we instead, again, appropriate and confiscate wealth from savers and renters and those who have been responsible and we have given it in the form of welfare to these incredibly rich and powerful bankers.

Q: What would say is the prime cause of the economic meltdown that has resulted in this real or perceived need for a bailout?

A: There are two things: A), it’s all the rich and over-leveraged people in the ownership class in this country that are trying to basically hold on to the status quo, and they can do that by causing panic and appropriating your wealth. But more to the point, what has caused the large downturn that we are experiencing is 70 years of policies that have funneled capital and money at below-market rates into real estate and propped up the real-estate ownership class and the landlords of the world with targeted tax tricks. After 70 years, that bubble has popped and what the proposal now is is to figure out ways to continue to keep real estate and housing unaffordable for the average American – quote-unquote, “We’ve got to stabilize real estate,” which is another term for keeping it unaffordable.

Q: And you would prefer that they do what?

A: That they respect contract law. All I ask, all that I think the American citizenry asks, is that if you signed a contract – if you bought a stock or if you’ve lent a company money (that went bankrupt) – you deal with those losses. The biggest issue is that they keep telling us that we have to contain these losses on Wall Street, and the Republicans and Democrats tell us that in order to contain the losses on Wall Street we need to spread them out among the entire citizenry. That’s exactly the Catch-22 double-think that has gotten us into this mess.

Q: What kind of politics and economics do you ascribe to?

A: I call myself a “free thinker” and I hate and loath and will fight till my dying breath the two-party/fraternity/political/partisan system that these socialists and power-hungry people have created in this country. There’s no need to have parties. Let’s have a democracy. Let people, individuals, think freely and not align themselves with a political party. You’re supposed to be representing your constituents and the individuals where you’re from. You’re not supposed to be representing a political platform.

Q: Did you vote in 2008? Continued...

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About The Author
Bill Steigerwald, born and raised in Pittsburgh, is a former L.A. Times copy editor and free-lancer who also worked as a docudrama researcher for CBS-TV in Hollywood before becoming a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a columnist Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Bill Steigerwald recently retired from daily newspaper journalism..
 
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Cody Willard
Amen, Cody!!!

Cody Willard
Alleluia! A man who speaks simply, rationally,and truthfully. God Bless Cody Willard.
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