'08
U2 frontman Bono, who has become an international spokesperson in recent years on global poverty, is astounded by how quickly the U.S. government was willing to part with $700 Billion to bail out flatlining investment banking firms. The singer says he and other advocates have had trouble getting just a fraction of that amount to help end poverty in underdeveloped nations for years. Bono teamed up with former President Bill Clinton yesterday to ensure that this latest economic crisis in the U.S. doesn’t overshadow the ongoing need for global aid.
The U.S. financial crisis making global waves is no excuse for governments and companies to walk away from helping the world’s poor, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and rocker Bono said on Wednesday.
As Congress debates a White House-proposed $700 billion bailout for the worst financial crisis since the Depression of the 1930s, Bono questioned why wealthy countries had not been able to come up with enough aid for the world’s problems.
“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger,” the U2 lead singer told Clinton’s fourth annual philanthropic summit in New York. “That’s mad, that is mad.”
“This crisis is not an excuse to walk away from the world’s challenges, but a compelling reason to intensify our efforts to meet them, around the corner and around the world,” said Clinton, who has focused on humanitarian work since leaving the White House in 2001.
The Group of Eight wealthy nations vowed in 2005 to raise annual aid levels $50 billion by 2010, $25 billion of which was to go to Africa. But under current spending plans, the G8 will fall $40 billion short, according to a June report by the Africa Progress Panel set up to monitor implementation.
“Bankruptcy is a serious business and we all know people who have lost their jobs,” Bono said, referring to the bankruptcy declared by Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “But this is moral bankruptcy.”
Perhaps someone (like maybe a certain former president?) should have explained to Bono that the reason the U.S. government was so willing to hand over that kind of money to bail out Wall Street is because it’s not really their money- its the taxpayers who will be footing the bill for this little exercise in corporate welfare. It’s easy to give away something that’s not yours to begin with. Still, the rocker does have a point- our economic woes are a walk in the park compared to what people in poor and warring parts of Africa go through on a daily basis. They lack access to some of the most basic human needs and for the most part, nobody cares.
Clinton, Bono and Al Gore are shown below at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative at the Sheraton Hotel in NY on 9/24/08. Credit: Janet Mayer/PRPhotos
Written by MSat
19 Responses to “Bono and President Clinton speak about $700 Billion Wall Street bailout”
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Kaiser, the bail out is a joke, wall street experts know this. The dollar is going to be worthless after this. They don’t even know if it will work. Shrewd wall street goons are going to run away with your cash. Paulson is their tight buddy.
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STFU Bono. Please. I get what he’s saying but we have starving families here, and many more to come as a result of this federal fuckery. I read the other day that tent ’shanty’ towns are popping up all over the U.S now. These are hard working people, too. Be honest, how many people do you know living check to check already? One lay off in the family can easily make them homeless. We need to fix things here first. Bono can be indignant when he has multiple homes and private jets. Yes he earned them but forgive me if I find his outrage eye roll inducing. If he wants to be taken more seriously he can maybe start with taking off those ridiculous colored raver glasses .
We’re damned if we bail out and damned if we don’t. Bush wants to bail out his cronies and give them golden parachutes. Anyone else notice the not so subtle scare tactics he used in his speech? That ugly little rat face made it seem the sky would indeed fall if we do not bail out. And if we do not, the economy will implode. It’s the worst catch 22. A few weeks ago a trillion something was quietly approved and a lot of people didn’t even hear about it. Christ.
I fear rat face will not want to let go of the presidency and create some ‘diversion’ to delay the election.The bail out plan is a farce though and I am glad so many are asking the hard questions regarding the details. No businesses can take out loans now as a result of this. Some small businesses take out loans to make payroll. The effects of this are going to be frightful.
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Lola, I don’t understand why you’re directing that at me. Do you think you’re contradicting me?
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sorry billy & bono but we need to work on home first.
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Clearly they (Bone) don’t understand what the crisis actually is and it is not a bail out. This crisis is widely misunderstood and about 95% of people commenting on this have little understanding of what is actually happening and what will transpire. I suggest you listen to sage financial people such as Warren Buffet to see what they think.
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i don’t think we should bail out wall street. it’s going to screw up our economy more if we do it then if we don’t. companies that give loans to high risk people should know they may not be able to pay them thus deny the loan. i can’t afford a home, that’s why i rent and if more people would live by their means instead of trying to get something outside of their means we wouldn’t be in this problem. but i most certainly don’t think now that they can’t pay em we should bail em out. that’s just suicide for our economy.
has anyone been listening to what ron paul has been saying? i mean that’s the only man who knows what’s going on and the damage it will cause in long term that is taking a stand and speaking out on it.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/paul.bailout/index.html
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Go away Bono
That picture of him peeking out from behind Gore is creepy and funny at the same time
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I hate people like Bono (and put Jolie into that category) who get on the soap box and expect America to continue to pony up to the plate and take on WORLD poverty.
Anyone give a crap about those people in Texas suffering after Ike????
Hey Bono - you’ve got Millions - more money then I will ever see in my life and more money then you can possibly spend - why don’t you pony up to the plate and give until it hurts!!! Scale down your freaking lifestyle and stop preaching to me!
(Sorry for the rant).
BTW - Mr. T you are correct, it’s a shame that more people don’t listen to Warren Buffett. He thinks the bail out as tough as it is to swallow has to happen, which is why he invested $5 BILLION into Goldman Sachs!! I cannot believe that companies and greed have let this happen, crap, I might as well get used to working until I die.
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While I agree that people should have been smarter and lived within the confines of their income, a lot were duped or sold a bill of goods by these mortgage companies. Unfortunately not everyone has the education to understand loan terms unless they are spelled out in plain english. And now we’re all fucked because of it.
And Bono can bite me, sticking his hand out for cash too. That’s adding insult to injury in my opinion.
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@ Mr. T- 95% commenting on this don’t understand it but you do, right?
“I suggest you listen to sage financial people such as Warren Buffet to see what they think.”Warren Buffet is rich, on the inside tack. Think he didn’t see this coming? Would not be surprised if he is part of the Bilderberg Group either. Create a crisis and create a new world order/global economy with only the rich and the very poor.
He’s not spending his 5 billion now to show ‘good faith’ like so many people think he is. No, he will make money of this down the road. Buy cheap sell at a higher price. He’s a businessman and he’ll profit greatly from all of this.
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@ Jennifur- YES, Ron Paul has had some very interesting things to say on this. I really like the guy.
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Kaiser am actually agreeing with you. I am not sure though whether anything America does at this time will help. I know I sound like a dooms-sayer but where is that money going to come from, foreign investors mainly, then what does that do to the dollar? And if the dollar is worthless then what? Back to the tax payer suffering.
Well I guess the fed has to be seen doing something.
Notice that,like Iraq, they are saying, ‘we have to do this, and do it now…’ ‘It is so urgent otherwise disaster will occur..’. How many times will AAmericans fall for Bush’s tall tales?
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Bono is greedy, self-important, tax-evading piece of shit. I f*cking hate this guy.
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Last I checked, U2 has a net worth (net) of nearly a billion dollars. Write a fucking check, asshole.
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there is no “bailout”. the government will be using funds that are not directly used from tax payer money. I really get annoyed when people don’t understand an issue. And its really very simple: the government actually has a chance to make a profit here AND help out a financial institution(s). Now what they do with this “extra” money who knows, hopefully they use it to pay down the national debt. But by no means is this a “bailout” and by no means will it costs 700 billion dollars because the government is buying assets that will generate capitol. It might take 5 to 10 years to see a turn around but this negative event could actually help the economy in the long run as long as out government leaders don’t geed greedy and put the economy first.
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@Daniel - “I really get annoyed when people don’t understand an issue.”
That’s because most people believe that the media is telling the whole story, instead of pushing their own agenda. Unfortunately, most people believe whatever the shiny box tells them, and just become part of the moo-ing, mindless, uneducated herd.
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“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street…”
It’s extraordinary to me that Bono spent $35 million on an apartment in NYC and buys first-class airline tickets for his favorite hat. But then, I’m no financial expert.
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@ anony : thanks!! he was the first person i’ve ever donated money to for a presidency!!!! i wish more ppl would check him out and ignore the “republican from texas” part by lumping him in with bush…
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Or someone could explain to Bono that if we don’t fix the banking industry and the regulatory agencies, America will be lucky to look like Somalia.
And isn’t Bono on some kind of hedge-fund board? And doesn’t he have extensive tax shelters? SCREW YOU BONO.
Hey CB, if you want to do a fun political/entertainment story, you should check out Colbert and Stewart’s EW cover story:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20228603,00.html
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