Most Americans now know that Wall Street bankers are so greedy as to never be trusted, and I suppose it is a sign of progress that our president now seems to grasp the obvious. How depressing, though, that a man who was elected as a consequence of one of the boldest grass-roots populist campaigns in this nation's history should now feel obligated to offer the disclaimer that "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street."
But whatever his intentions, Barack Obama has in fact accomplished just that, to the immense anger of the public that elected him. Thus, it is understandable that, in his "60 Minutes" interview last Sunday, Obama lashed out at the ingrate bankers whose greed he had served but who have failed to seriously increase lending or forestall foreclosures and instead shamelessly pocketed the cash the government threw their way:
"They're still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see," he said. "You guys are drawing down $10 [million], $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in--in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we've got 10 percent unemployment."
But what did the president expect from those guys after he and his Republican predecessor were so quick to reward them so handsomely for their failures? In a reversal of the guiding principles of the meritocracy that informed Obama's own success story, the president promoted, rather than flunked, the people who got it all wrong.
One of those was Larry Summers, who as Bill Clinton's treasury secretary pushed through the radical deregulation that enabled disastrous Wall Street greed. But although Summers pocketed a cool $15 million from Wall Street in 2008 as he was advising Obama the candidate, he seems at last to have gained some awareness that the rules of the game he helped write now need to be changed. Speaking of the very bankers who once so handsomely paid him for his services, Summers, now Obama's top economic adviser, told CNN: "Here is what I think they don't get. ... It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse."
Summers is upset that the banking bandits he once so slavishly adored are now opposing even the tepid legislative reforms that the administration supports. The banking lobby is in full-frontal assault mode on efforts of Senate Democrats, led by Chris Dodd, to establish a single bank regulator who might actually bring the industry to heel.
The largest of the banks--the very ones that led the charge into the financial abyss--are fiercely lobbying against the very sensible and all-too-limited proposals that would increase their capital requirements and empower the government to prevent them from growing to unmanageable proportions once again. They are even more incensed about attempts to regulate the rewards that bankers reap from risking the capital of their depositors and the taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill.
However, Obama's stern rhetoric apparently did not move the top banking honchos who failed to show up for this week's White House meeting with the president. The heads of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley waited until the morning of the Monday meeting to catch a plane and then claimed that fog prevented their journey.
Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram S. Pandit couldn't make the meeting with the president who had saved his corporation from bankruptcy because he was too busy lining up new private financing to allow Citigroup to escape the bonus confines and other limits stipulated by the government bailout program.
No bank bears greater responsibility for the economic debacle that has caused such worldwide suffering than Citigroup, whose immense growth was made possible by legislation that Summers and his then-mentor, Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, successfully promoted in the late 1990s. Rubin was rewarded for his efforts with a top job at Citigroup, which was formed from one of the largest mergers in history and which paid him $120 million before its fortunes plummeted. The bank is by no means out of the swamp of its own creation, as it still holds a huge portfolio of toxic assets, is still sustained by substantial public assistance and was trading Tuesday at less than $4 a share--a tiny fraction of its value before Rubin led it astray.
It was Rubin, as an Obama adviser, who pushed for Pandit's selection as head of Citigroup. Perhaps Obama could enlist Rubin's aid in getting Pandit to accept the president's invitations to the White House. But of course there is no expectation of getting Rubin and Pandit to pay back the bankrupted homeowners they swindled.
Banksters know that when you own someone's debt you own them.
These massive transactions are insurance payments being made to organizations that would otherwise be on the hook for the outcome of their horrible judgement.
No one is asking to see this information and I makes me wonder why??
off our misery. They looted us, and now they rob from us.
Military force would never achieve the goal of taking over the world By controlling the monetary policies and the issuance of credit, many famous financiers of the not-so-distant have boasted that they could control the planet and now they do.
Obama is irrelevant. They laugh at him because he accepted their campaign contributions and they hold a mortgage on his presidency. They could "foreclose" on him any minute. He knows this is true and so do the bankers. Some banker-types even told me that no change would occur unless Kucinich was elected. The others were all more or less in their pockets.
If you want change, do not elect a middle-of-the-road man whose campaign was mostly financed by "them." Some claim that Obama is too far left. Don't worry about that. He will favor bankers by giving them trillions and go to war on top of that. He will continue Bush/Cheney policies, as he has. Torture will continue despite his claims to the contrary.
1. Obama's only chance is to start some new banks that will in fact loan money to the people.
2. Congress takes back its right as guaranteed in the constitution to print money.
3. Congress gives the newly printed money to the newly created banks.
4. Thumb your nose at the old banks.
5. Remove the authority of the FED to issue currency.
We must eliminate monetarism or lose our democracy altogether.
The horse has already bolted from the stable, Democracy is a delicate plant that has to be watered by an informed , alert and determined citizenry.
Americans generally are not in control of their minds, it is taken over by Hollywood , the Press and The
Evangelical Churches. no one will get up from their couches and take action. the Oligarchy knows this and have shown their contempt for their indentured servants , you !
Democracy and freedom in America is the right to vote for Mr. so-bad or Mr. so- worse at carefully orchestrated elections and the right to vent frustration verbally. You cannot change anything !
Welcome to the Brave new world !
that an article about the "Wall Street Fat Cats" is
actually about banks!
For me, and I suspect for many people, 'Wall Street'
speaks of investors, stock trading, etc.
'Banks' speaks of savings accounts, checking
accounts, deposits, loans, etc.
But then, maybe thats why we're in this friggin'
mess, no one calls anything by its proper name.
The Post Office calls Priority Mail special when its
nothing more than the old First Class Mail, Sarah
P. calls foreign affairs seeing Russia from her
breakfast nook, Liberman is an Independent/
Democrat (or Republican) instead of an ego
walking around with a bad case of the "see
me's", and now we are after banks masquerading
as stock brokers!
Goody! The fu*kin*' world has finally gone beserk!
It seems to have started in Chicago already. This unrest will likely spread. The people will eventually recognize that the banks, as said by one senator, own this place.
So, not only do we have a dysfunctional senate regarding the health of the nation, we have a senate which is owned lock, stock & barrel by the big money interests of Wall Street - the ones who benefitted most and needed least from the regressive tax cuts of the Bush Administration.
Why give one big regulatory agency the ability to regulate ALL the banks when the multiple regulators failed so miserably!
ONE big agency is the Bankers Wet DREAM!
why don't we make sure the multiple regulators actually ENFORCE the LAWS, and MAKE those people DO THEIR JOBS!!
seriously, one bigger agency is just easier to bribe the top people.
No excuse is teneable given the fact that they knew beforehand the weather patterns for the day and could have arrived the previous day. Its an affront to the President and does not speak well of their loyalty to the institution of Presidency - the highest authority of the Nation. I believe they should be called to order.
We continue to be fooled. They aren't really paying us back, just moving it from one pocket to another.