On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:56:39 -0700, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

snip
How about making the share holders liable for the debt. They are after all
"owners" of the companies :-)
snip
This simply echos a legal fiction. In fact 'shareholders' have
almost no control, otherwise the corporations would have been
forced to declare dividends rather than hording cash, and the
executives would have received human salaries. While there is
more than ample "blame" to go around, the major enablers were the
financial institutions that handled the IPOs, made the loans,
audited the books, created the "special purpose entities,"
managed the pension funds, etc. As such, these should be the
people that get the big "hair cut" [like down to their knees]
rather than the employees or taxpayers [who tend to be the
shareholders when the music stops].

The neocons have a planned fix for this.
Default on Social Security (worthless junk bonds, like
T bills) and force the new money into stocks & T bills ...
where, if needed (and it will), it is all handy to be taxed again ....

Australia used to tax unrealized capital gains. Stock went up?
Pay taxes on it ... they still may for all I know .....
--
Cliff