All of Obama's good work will be for naught if his team doesn't get the banking system functioning again.

From: Barack Obama To: Rahm Emanuel
Dear Rahm, I'm concerned that I'm getting only one viewpoint on how to solve the banking crisis.

The outrage over the AIG bonuses is a sideshow. The larger problem, both financially and politically, is the entire strategy for rescuing the banks. Obama needs to get a second opinion.

The indignation over AIG will serve a useful purpose if it focuses public attention on the much larger issue of the failure of the entire approach that Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are using to rescue the banking system.

I fear that these columns have been too polite. What we have is something perilously close to a dictatorship of the Fed and the Treasury, acting in the interests of Wall Street.