Sunday Roundup
This week, Obama's pay czar announced he'd be slashing executive pay at seven of the biggest recipients of bailout billions. So it's no surprise that many of Wall Street's Masters of the Universe didn't turn up at the New York fundraiser President Obama spoke at -- choosing instead to attend a party thrown to toast the release of Too Big To Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkin's blow-by-blow account of the meltdown. There, enjoying cocktails and finger food, were many of the central players, including Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan and John Mack of Morgan Stanley. Which is kind of like Hannibal Lecter showing up for the opening of Silence of the Lambs. Perhaps they take comfort in Sorkin's assessment that when it comes to reforming Wall Street "the Obama administration seems to have moved on to other priorities." I need a drink.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
See Judith Ellis's Profile
Great succinct to-the-point roundup, Arianna. Loved the Hannibal Lecter analogy. So true! While watching the BBC interview which you and the young Sorkin participated he made a perculiar statement, saying something like "yes we know that the casino is a part of the banks but they are now inseparable. Now, I guess we need to build a firewall." Hmm, I thought. Why must they remain inseparable? Sorkin's assessment is very different from George Soros who believes that Goldman Sachs and the like which are essentially acting as hedge funds should not be guaranteed by the government, i.e., the taxpayers. Bankers who took such risks would be on their own as they should be. Soros said, "that would push the risk-takers who are good at taking risks out of Goldman Sachs into hedge funds, where they actually belong, because hedge funds take risks with their own capital, not with deposits and not with government guarantees." Sorkin's assessment during the BBC interview was pale in comparison. The difference may be that Soros doesn't need the dough or club memebership as Sorkin might. Dunno. But how else do you get Dimon and Mack at such a book signing again? Implicit in their attendance is probably just what Arianna proposes here with regards to Washington and this is very sad indeed for the government is increasingly being influenced by big banks to the detriment of the people's interest. Thanks, Arianna.
Dennis Kuchinich was on CSPAN Sunday morning live answering questions from callers. He is the only one who tells the truth. He said Wall Street makes money by eliminating jobs just like Health insurance companies make money by denying health care.
It make sense Wall Street does not create jobs. They are more interested in short term bottom line profit by eliminating cost of employees... especially employees working on efforts that support long term viability but not hort term profit.
Forget the drink. Bring me the bottle. No glass. This is yet another wrongly directed panacea being promoted by the WH. What about the rest of the nobles on wall street that are just as guilty as the handful who took TARP money? And how about all the other corporate executives in other industries who put their MBA's to work downsizing and outsourcing every decent paying job for ordinary citizens so they could pad their own paychecks and tout their business genius to every media outlet they can find each month. I've got news for these morons; moving your manufacturing overseas and importing the resulting products back to the US for sale is not TRADE. We need to attack this problem in a way that will bring lasting results that end this wealth transfer forever. There are several ways to do this. The most obvious being to bring back high income tax rates on income that exceeds a self insurable amount of somewhere between 3-6 million annually. What the right doesn't seem to be able to grasp is that when you give the wealthy all the money, they don't necessarily invest it back into their businesses or start new businesses. In fact, most of them just put it in their pocket as we've witnessed so vividly over the last 30 years or so. There are solutions to this problem but pay caps at a handful of banks isn't it.
If my recovery weren't so profound, I'd join you in that drink, Arianna! This administration certainly COULD drive one to drink. However, I prefer to stay sober and try to deal with as best as I can.
It is more correctly stated that our president has turned his back on the people of the United States. Everything he claimed to stand for was an illusion. So much smoke.
Share your outrage.
One thing though, when precisely did folks out there miss that
(a) money talks
(b) politicians are for rent
(c) promises are a dime a dozen especially campaign promises
Alan Grayson for President in 2012!!!
Our Free Enterprise system [Capitalism 201 Gone Wild] fosters inequality because it’s based on a set of flawed values; and hard work has little to do with financial success or happiness. This free enterprise system embraces (for the most part) a flawed concept of social Darwinism which rewards unrestrained competition over human rights.
It also says that those who adapt (Darwinian) and multiply unrestrained (free enterprise) are more valuable and the most financially successful. This system at its core, values money and physical assets over relationships and human rights; and it rewards exploitation. This system is most unstable.
In an economic system that values good familial and community relationships, human rights and human dignity over money and things [You can call it whatever you want]; people will agree to share regardless of one’s fitness.
This system takes into account human fraility and weakness; but tries to instill in its old and young the idea of human rights, human dignity, cooperation, and appreciation for family and community along with encouraging mutual respect and creativity. True free trade is also encouraged.
Denmark seems to largely embrace the second system and its people say they feel fulfilled, feel they are well provided for and feel happy. They also seem to be proud, innovative, creative and enjoy free trade.
Read more of my comments at: http://clevelandssecretclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/capitalism-201-gone-wild-fosters.html
As a life-long democrat (sic), I am profoundly disappointed by the Obama administration. Not to mention how disillusioned I have become about the insidious effects of campaign financing and the actions of Congress as a hole (sic).
All very well, commenting on the CEOs, but why no remarks about the embedded culprits Summers and Geithner. And Rubin, though he had to excuse himself earlier. This is the gang that advised Clinton to make bad decisions and now Obama has brought them back. By what logic I don't know. I thought Obama was smarter than that. Now that Brooksley Born's warnings under Clinton are being re-examined, Obama is open to embarrassment for having them around.
Obama knows exactly what he's doing. He's completing the Bush Doctrine
My sister works for a bank and the CEO held an employee "town hall" last week. He had the nerve to stand in front of 200 people and tell them that "not one dime of taxpayer $ was used for TARP. This is a myth. These were loans that are being repaid." The room was silent and instead of lasting an hour - the town hall lasted approximately 20 minutes. He spoke for 15 of them.
The bank CEO's don't get. Won't get it. Refuse to acknowledge it. To them - the taxpayer had nothing to do with the bailouts. They deserved the $ and everyone should be thankful they will pay it back someday.
It is crazy.
Cutting government bailout monied bonuses in half is simply political jestering to placate public dismay and anger. While main street continues to produce pink slips, the bankers produce million dollar bonuses for their executives. What happens with the next busted bubble? And what happens as the public safety net dries up? Who wants to address such obvious dismal conditions?
Has anybody mentioned the steep rise in prices of everything in the past few weeks? I will because I purchase a lot of a variety of things. For example, the price of furnace filters has jumped fro 52 cents to 67 cents in the past two weeks. The price of copper wire has jumped from $32 to $50 per reel of #12 wire in the past month. Of course, the price of food is going up and up. The price of gasoline went up 22 cents a gallon in the past two weeks.
We are beginning to experience hyper inflation as the Bush-Obama-Geithner-Bernancke- investment-banking class reembursement begins to show its affect on the American economy and people. This affect is caused by the transfer of the nation's weath to the affluent of the world through currency inflation.
In human history there has never been such a transfer of real wealth in such a short time through government policy. Such ignorance, favoritism and folly will have consequences that will (not may) unhinge our governing system and may destroy peace among nations.
When killing a snake, you must persist for a considerable time to stop it from writhing. Someone please send our leader the directions for completely killing a snake before "going to other things".
There is an even worse sickness affecting more people than H1N1 called the SPINE FLU. It affects many Democrats, Blue Dogs and moderate Republicans as well as some in the Obama administration. It is serious and manifests itself during real Health Care and Financial Reform debates. Lobbyists and the beltway business as usual ilk spread the virus to lawmakers, overwhelming by a factor of 10:1 the empirical thought process obvious to the other almost 300 million people in the United States of America. The cure is dumbfounding simple and already at hand. It is character and an understanding that 50 plus the VP equals a majority. Currently the virus blinds and intimidates lawmakers into believing that if they do not pass a robust public option or real financial reforms that they will be in a better position for reelection. It makes them deaf to the public who are already on board and need leadership. It confuses the lawmakers since the public is afraid of speaking out forcefully for fear of real repercussions. Passing a robust public option paid for by the Bush tax cuts and passing real financial reform legislation ala 1935 is the only cure for SPINE FLU.
love it!
The wall street elite are of the same school of thought as P.T. Barnum, "There's no such thing as bad press, as long as they spell your name right!"
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
