President Barack Obama's defense of banking bonuses as reflections of the "savvy" of his banker acquaintances and the workings of the free-market system recalls the Wizard of Oz instructing us to pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain after Toto had exposed the myth of the great wizard. Surely by now we all understand that Wall Street led the world into the worst crisis in seventy-five years, and that rather than congratulating the bankers on their savvy we need to uncover the insider dealings that broke the world economy. We also all understand that a variety of bailouts by the Treasury and Fed during 2008 and 2009, not the "free market," account for this year's profits, and even for the survival of these firms. The bonuses are taxpayer money.
How did last month's presidential statements about "obscene" bank bonuses become this month's calm justification? Perhaps the New York Times report that Wall Street is shifting its campaign financing to the Republicans had something to do with it? Or is it simply that Obama's White House and Treasury remain completely aligned with Wall Street? Or is it perhaps just a continuing thank-you for the finance industry's estimated $89 million in Democratic party campaign financing during the 2008 cycle? Whatever is the explanation, the president's ill-judged comments represent another sad failure to promote probity and decency in an economy suffering from a massive shortage of both.
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CDS AIG insurance without reserves is fraud, pure and simple.
Not "marking to market" but to some fantasy future better market,
is Fraud, pure and simple.
Hollowing out the rescued banks for the bonuses
Is fraud, pure and simple.
thank you Mr Obama for the reminder.
The basic underlying problem with our government, isn't so much personalities, as it is Corporate America thoroughly ingrained in our government. They control every facet of government, including the US Treasury. Why else would Obama reappoint Wall Street insiders, like Ben Bernanke, or Tim Geithner, or as did George Bush appoint Henry Paulson, who once was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, or Alan Greenspan, who once was corporate director for Alcoa, J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc.. and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York. Corporate lobbiests prime objectives are to make sure that laissez-faire capitalism remains secure and intact at the expense of everything else. That includes denying every American's rights to health care, passing Corporates fair share of the tax burden onto the individual taxpayer, and robbing your own national treasury, as a "bailout" when they get into trouble. No one else in the country has access to government like corporates do. Yet, predatory bankers will not hesitate to charge you obscene interests on loans, take away your credit, and foreclose on your home, if you come onto hard times. Just like the Mafia, they break your legs. So, it should not surprise anyone why Washington is so disfunctional, and why we are saddled with such a massive national debt, and a screwed up economy. Americans need to get big business out of government.
This year of failed government I am reminded of the great Edward Gibbon who in a dark moment measured history as "lirrle more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." After rejecting an invitation from Benjamin Franklin fo a meeting, Ambassador to France, Franklin "replied that he had such high regard for the historian that if ever Gibbon whould consider the decline and fall of the British Empire as a subject, Franklin would be happy to furnish with some relevant materials." Will and Ariel Durant Part X, 802. Franklin could have written ths same letter today for the decline and fall of the American Empire. Our despised leaders know or care little about history or the lessons it offers. This is indeed melancholy and sorrowful time.
Your friends owe it to you to put up their best fight. You owe it to them to maintain a little loyalty. If we were to move politics just a little to the left, it would pull every politician leftward a little. So, complain and even rage, but don't forget to vote. And, don't vote against those closer to you because, as the last few Republican administrations showed, things can get much worse.
Aren't our kids' futures, our houses, our educational system, our credit ratings, and our dignity,
just a small price to pay so that the Blankfeins can drive the biggest car in the neighborhood?
Thanks Obama!
Thanks Congress (you're swell) !
( ;
It's not quite a slogan, but it is just what is needed (humility or contrition being too much to ask, obviously).
So, as a total strange to whom it seems obvious:
1) "it was the brain work..." Work, for sure, and not an accident at all. But brain work, not hard work or good work which deserves reward. They sold us snake oil and they deserve jail, not a bonus.
2) "...of mentalities..." Mentalities, plural; there is no 'system' but it is composed of people, the very people who blame the 'system' for their actions.
3) "...who like to myth make..." for example, when convenient, that the all-powerful system forces them to pay themselves huge bonuses, but more generally the myth of the "Great Man" who deserves his billions, and on whom we all depend for trickle down (The Ford's name be praised!). What do they do for $50 million a year that wouldn't get done for a paltry $5 million?
4) "...and continue to show a false front." So "they" are the bankers continuing to show a false front, and it is false because they are denying responsibility for what all can see to be their fault. They are brilliant mixers of poison, and ask their dying victim to praise them.
Get it now?
To attack his choice of words is setting the stage for false accusations that financial reform efforts are filled with tainted motivations, and failure. Republicans will enthusiastically facilitate the failure, and we all lose.
Are those two questions even debatable anymore? Since Obama's advisors are adamant defenders of wall street and the status quo, we get more of the same. Obama is not separate from wall street. His job is to use lofty rhetoric and fool progressives into supporting his wall street policies.
But don't let anyone tell you we'll never get a chance like this again. Since we have done nothing, not one thing, to prevent a recurrence of this problem, we are almost certain to get a chance again in 8-15 years when the exact same bunch of Wall Creeps ruin the economy again. So things are looking up!!
I am proud to be your first fan.