Cross-posted with The Baseline Scenario.
The campaign to convince people that Treasury is serious about banking reform -- led sometimes by President Obama -- suffered a major blow today on Capitol Hill. In testimony to the Congressional Oversight Panel, Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability "and Counselor to the Secretary" Herb Allison said, "There is no too big to fail guarantee on the part of the U.S. government."
This statement is so extraordinarily at odds with the facts that it takes your breath away.
Should we laugh at the barefaced misrepresentation of what this administration has done (and the Bush team did) -- or just dig out Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin and go through all the gruesome details again? Should we cry for what this implies about Secretary Geithner's commitment to real reform -- if there is no issue with "too big to fail", then why do you need any new laws that try to address this issue (e.g., such as the Volcker Rules, sent to Congress this week)?
The temptation is to shrug and ignore repeated such insults to our intelligence and implied injury to our pocketbooks. But this would be a mistake.
I want an answer to this question: Who authorized Mr. Allison to make this statement, and what were they thinking?
If Mr. Allison was freelancing, we should discuss the consequences. If Mr. Allison was sticking to his talking points, as seems likely, let us find out exactly who is responsible for sharing arrant and self-defeating nonsense with Congress. The disrespect for our legislature and cynicism for mainstream opinion here is beyond what is tolerable or responsible.
The Obama administration has dealt itself another formidable blow.
It is important to define what a true Democrat and Republican is: each party member works for the best interest and well being of the American people and by that definition only one third of the U.S. Congress is working in the best interests of the people and the rest have sold their votes and soul to the Robber Barons and thus have become members in good standing of the Robber Baron Stooge Party.
Lincoln's party has already given her 7 million in campaign donations because she has sold her votes to them and therefore she can no longer be considered a Democrat because no true Democrat sells their votes to corrupt corporations.
Since Howard Dean no longer runs the Democratic Party the Democratic Party has been taken over by the corrupt corporations and that is why the Administration is supporting Blanche Lincoln and this is really bad new and a potential future disaster for the American people and the Democratic Party.
Independent voters in Mass were the deciding factor in electing a Republican (he had a truck!).
Independent voters have become the deciding factor in elections and these voters are only interested in electing representatives who are honest, intelligent, have good judgement and common sense and who will apply these traits to resolving and solving the serious problems the people of this country are now facing and they do not want these representatives selling their votes to the very people who are ripping them off!!!
I wouldn't want to be anywhere near either place right now. These clueless social "leaders" are scary, and they are going to bring havoc down upon their own heads - and wonder what went wrong.
Weapons of MATH destruction.
Brought to you by the same government that gave us the old WMD's, but now under new management.
With, by the way, the potential to do a great deal more damage.
When listening to politicians and advertising, take everything literally. They are not lying if you infer more than what is actually said, even though they are counting on you doing that.
well, that's it in a nutshell, isn't it?
they (giethner, emanuel, summers, rubin...._obama_, et al) really do despise us...
they think we're stupid.
they DON'T CARE if our CHILDREN are DENIED medical care for life-threatening illnesses
(the emanuel/obama white house has had FOURTEEN MONTHS to make hay of uber- Republican Wall Street heir BILL KRISTOL saying exactly that - "whenever [he] hears of a 'HEARTLESS ASSAULT on Ameircan children [denied medical care] he tends to think it is a GOOD thing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqObdWSv5lg
they DON'T CARE if we are FIRED from out jobs, FORECLOSED on our mortgages, EVICTED from our homes, DENIED unemployment or food stamps.... as long as they get to hand out TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to their bankster friends (in return for a few millions in "campaign donations" kickback, slush-fund bribes.)
as we know, the Emanuel/Obama WH is "IN" with the Republicans, in trying to hand BILLIONS in GUARANTEED PROFITS to Big Insurance, Big Pharma, and Big Banks, extortionate credit rates, health costs way beyond inflation, and outsourced jobs be damned.
Until congress passes something, shock of shocks, the law doesn't change.
Funny how that works.
"Too big to fail" = Govt collusion in corruption...
Not change or hope we can believe in...= no voter turnout..
=More spin-no accountabilty-More proapaganda..
= public anger at thinking they are stupid..expecting thier future generations to pay for
=destruction of a party..
I have friends who are Obama-philes, but they are completely resistant to comprehending the importance the issue of finance and banking have on the economy and their well-being. They don't get that the financial phantom economy created by many Obama appointees is at the root of the phantom wealth created over the past 2-3 decades, and the crisis we are now facing as this phantom economy has reached the point of bursting and collapsing.
From an economic standpoint, instead of continuing to prop up the financial phantom economy, we should be putting in place extensive safety-nets and then letting it fail. Yes, there will be pain...but that has already come, and more is on the way. The question is ultimately whether you want to soften the blow with propping and propaganda while letting the banksters continue on with their pillaging of every last cent, or if you want to bite the bullet, stop the pillaging (and prosecute every last financial wrongdoing), reinstate Glass-Steagall, end the bulk of the derivates market and complex financial products, lower the price of housing to make it affordable, and get to a new normal - a place where we can start building again.
Obama has failed us from a financial and economic standpoint. I knew that the day he appointed Tim Geither, tax evader. It is highly unlikely I'll vote for a Republican, but I will not vote for Prez rather than vote for Obama.
I have friends who are Obama-philes, but they are completely resistant to comprehending the importance the issue of finance and banking have on the economy and their well-being. They don't get that the financial phantom economy created by the likes of Obama appointees are at the root of the phantom wealth created over the past 2-3 decades, and the crisis we are now facing as this phantom economy has reached the point of bursting and collapsing.
From an economic standpoint, instead of continuing to prop up the financial phantom economy, we should be putting in place extensive safety-nets and then letting it fail. Yes, there will be pain...but that has already come, and more is on the way. The question is ultimately whether you want to soften the blow while letting the banksters continue on with their pillaging of every last cent, or if you want to bite the bullet, stop the pillaging (and prosecute every last financial wrongdoing), reinstate Glass-Steagall, end the bulk of the derivates market and complex financial products, lower the price of housing to make it affordable, and get to a new normal - a place where we can start building again.
Obama has failed us from a financial and economic standpoint. I knew that the day he appointed Timmy-the-tax-cheat. It is highly unlikely I'll vote for a Republican, but I will not vote for Prez rather than vote for Obama.
The problem now arises that once the markets have recovered, what do you do with these guys? I fear President Obama is listening to them to much.