Obama blasts banks for opposing financial overhaul

[TomCADem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama singled out financial institutions for causing much of the economic tailspin and criticized their opposition to tighter federal oversight of their industry.

While applauding House passage Friday of overhaul legislation and urging quick Senate action, Obama expressed frustration with banks that were helped by a taxpayer bailout and now are "fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists" against new government controls.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said the economy is only now beginning to recover from the "irresponsibility" of Wall Street institutions that "gambled on risky loans and complex financial products" in pursuit of short-term profits and big bonuses with little regard for long-term consequences. "It was, as some have put it, risk management without the management," he said.

The president also told CBS' "60 Minutes" that "the people on Wall Street still don't get it. ... They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ... in decades and you guys caused the problem," Obama said in an excerpt released in advance of Sunday night's broadcast of his interview.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091212/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_financial_overhaul

[Journeyman]

1. I wish more regulation had been demanded *before* the money was handed out . . .

[RBInMaine]

3. The problem was the urgency of the situation. TARP was something that stunk but was immediately

needed or it would have been the second great depression. There was no time to hammer out complete regulatory reform at that time. Now what we need is some new regulation, and, of course, the RePUKES are doing all they can to kill it because they hate anything good for the ordinary American and not as good for their rich greedy sinful benefactors.

[mvd]

4. It MAY have been needed, but Bush really rushed it

Giving it all at one with no conditions was just a give away before he left office. If Obama can prevent the same thing happening again, though, that would be great. Bankers and the greedy oppose Obama because they want to rob everyone again and then be bailed out.

[Igel]

36. "Giving it all at one"?

That's not quite true. The first half was disbursed to the government by Congress immediately. When Obama took office there was still some of that money left.

The second half of the $700 billion required additional Congressional action, which * said he wouldn't request unless Obama personally requested it be disbursed. He did. Pelosi verified that he did. And a few days before the inauguration Congress took action to release the funds. But none were used until after Obama took office. It was clever: The money wasn't part of the deficit until it was released to the executive branch. Had Congress waited a few days, that $350 billion would have been part of the deficit that happened on Obama's watch instead of occurring during *'s term.

In any event, rather than have it all disbursed at once before * took office, over half was sitting there, untouched, when Obama took office. Rather than prevent it, well, you can fill in the rest.

Keep in mind that a fair bit of it has been returned, per the TARP agreement. Part won't be, which violates the agreement but was assumed.

[mvd]

38. It was all passed at once; that's what I meant

Unfortunately, banks haven't kept up their part of the bargain enough with the lending and giving back.

[midnight]

oops. my post listed itself twice.

[midnight]

2. Thank you Mr. President. Don't stop there.

[Adsos Letter]

5. "... They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. "

They aren't puzzled, they just don't care.

[notadmblnd]

6. How can those words even come out of his mouth as he continues to employ the top instigators?

is it just lip service to the American public? I can't express how disappointed I am of the about face he appears to have taken. Expressing outrage publicly will do nothing to convince me he is- at this point sincere in his words. In fact, it's a little offensive that he/his people would think that a person of average intelligence would believe it.

[tabatha]

7. Possibly because you are assuming

duplicity. I really believe that Obama is trying to fix the huge mess he inherited, but is being stymied.

[IndianaGreen]

8. What specific steps is Obama taking, or has taken, to make the banks behave responsibly?

How many people with troubled mortgages have been helped?

[tabatha]

9. One of the frustrations of the WH with the banks.

"The administration plans to spend $27.1 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program on the modification effort. Mortgage servicers receive as much as $3,000 for each permanently modified mortgage.

In triggering an extension of TARP this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said that easing the number of mortgage foreclosures is one of only three areas in which it plans to spend the funds next year as it winds down the bailout program."

[IndianaGreen]

10. Don't you think that Geithner and Summers are part of the problem, and not the solution?

Putting Wall Street insiders in charge of cleaning up a mess which they themselves played a part in creating is counter intuitive.

[tabatha]

12. I think Paulson was the problem.

[notadmblnd]

14. I do too. But what I can't figure out is why, if he is sincere why has he surrounded himself with

people who don't want to do a damn thing to correct the problems. Do they have some dirt on him, have they threatened him with assassination? I want to believe that he's shrewder and smarter than them, that he has a plan for reining them in on down the road. However, at every turn you see thee greedy bastards winning. Nothing has changed, the transactions that caused this mess are still taking place. The bankers took tax payer money with no strings attached. I see some that are trying to attach strings after the fact, but it's nothing but constant defeat.

I realize the president has very little power to make the changes he spoke about- himself. However, he does have influence.

I just wish I knew if he was playing a game of keep your enemies closer or if he's sold out. As i said, so far I'm disappointed that more hasn't been done to rein the banker in.

[Iowa]

22. Obama isn't trying to fix it. He's part of the problem...

Obama is a massive sell-out when it comes to Wall Street. If he had run as a Republican and won, we'd all be screaming for his head. In my opinion, the fact that he claims to be a Democrat makes his behavior even more revolting, not less.

Read this article and see if you still believe that he's trying to fix it, but is being stymied. There are plenty of other sources that confirm the facts in this article. Anyway, read this, and I'd be interested in hearing if you still think the same way after reading it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print

[tabatha]

28. I don't read Matt Taibbi.

He has lied too frequently in the past for me to take him credibly.

BTW - you are late to the game; this has been posted at least 4 times now.

[tblue]

31. What has he lied about?

I'm curious. I always considered him a reputable, insightful journalist, but maybe you know something that I don't know. I'd really like to hear your reasons for saying that.

[tabatha]

40. Posted earlier

"Taibbi may have a point here, but who would know since he has a history of mendaciousness in covering the few real leaders in Democratic politics. Dean has already been mentioned, but that was as nothing compared to the nasty, biased hatchet job Taibbi did on Wesley Clark. The piece on Clark as NATO commander was replete with inaccuracies, false assertions, and just plain lies, since the truth was widely known and available and Taibbi willfully chose to ignore it. Since then I take everything written by Taibbi with a large block of salt." Eriecanaller on Rolling Stone.

Also, see #39.

[Iowa]

35. Of course it has been posted before... but the point is, YOU DIDN'T READ IT!!!

Get it? I posted it again because it was clear from reading your comments that you hadn't read it, nor had you read any of numerous other sources that confirm much of what Taibbi has to say. It really never occurred to me that you are deliberately choosing to avoid information that might conflict with your prejudices and presuppositions. And I call bullshit on your smear of Matt Taibbi and Rolling Stone; when taken within the context of your other comments, it's pretty clear that you're just making stuff up as you go.

[tabatha]

39. This is why - I posted this earlier.

We were stunned to read Matt Taibbi's "Clark's True Colors." This article has nothing to do with Wes Clark's candidacy or, for that matter, with investigative reporting. Taibbi alleges to have infiltrated a volunteer meeting disguised as an injured adult-film director just to get a rise out of a group of hard-working volunteers. He clearly lacks professional ethics--and talent.

Throughout the article, Taibbi confuses our names, our words and even our identities. He refers to us as campaign staffers, but at the time we were volunteers and had never presented ourselves otherwise. The quotes attributed to us were either fabricated or taken wildly out of context. Most absurd is Taibbi's story about General Clark showing us a picture of himself in a tight T-shirt, which Taibbi claimed Clark called his "drool shot." Military hero, peace negotiator, leader--those titles describe Wes Clark. Wannabe teen idol certainly does not.

Taibbi's motive is most likely his vendetta against General Clark for leading the Kosovo campaign. In spring 1999, Taibbi wrote an article for his now-defunct tabloid in Russia, eXile, in which he subtly denied the infamous massacre of Kosovar Albanians at Racak. Human Rights Watch investigated and verified the massacre, which is a prominent allegation in the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic.

Taibbi also wrote an analysis of the Kosovo campaign, cunningly titled "101 Reasons Why NATO's War Sucks," for eXile in April 1999. Reason 72: "The Serbs are one of the tallest, most beautiful European tribes. Somalis, too, are tall and elegant, as are the Tutsi, who actually call themselves 'The Tall People.' Why are the most beautiful tribes being wiped out by the squat and ugly?" Taibbi's attempt at humor falls very flat.

A hatchet job like this is not worthy of The Nation. It should have been shopped around to the tabloids, or better, chucked into the trash where it belongs.

DAVID RUBIN, DAVID YOKEN

[pattmarty]

11. Well then Mr President, get off your ass and actually DO SOMETHING..........

...........about it!!!!!!! The speeches are nice, but I would rather see some ACTION from the White House.

[tabatha]

13. some...

"The administration plans to spend $27.1 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program on the modification effort. Mortgage servicers receive as much as $3,000 for each permanently modified mortgage.

In triggering an extension of TARP this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said that easing the number of mortgage foreclosures is one of only three areas in which it plans to spend the funds next year as it winds down the bailout program."

[IndianaGreen]

15. Right after the Inauguration, the Administration could have put a halt to foreclosures

We are in need in New Deal style leadership and programs, not the timid political games that are normally played.

[tabatha]

17. They did - but they did not expect the banks to behave like that.

[pattmarty]

19. That's why there is the CARROT AND THE STICK. If they don't do..................

..............what they "should" do, then you force them to do the right thing. This guy isn't about forcing anyone to do anything. What we needed was an FDR or LBJ, what we got was Casper Milquetoast.

[IndianaGreen]

20. Milquetoast trying to make deals with Milo Minderbinder

[tabatha]

21. How can you assume that people are going to

not do something that is what they are supposed to do as a business?

You are assuming that one should assume people are "evil"?

It is all very well to sit on your holier-than-thou throne, and judge in hindsight.

[Iowa]

24. I just posted a link upthread that I thought you might find interesting.

But then I read this post.

Never mind. You appear to be hopelessly Pollyannaish.

[tabatha]

26. I am hopefully pollyanish -

and I do think discipline is necessary, and so does Obama.
I am surviving in this downturn because I was disciplined.

But I think it was impossible for Obama to have come in and expected what the banks did.

BTW - thanks for using pollyanish term instead of DLC - of which I have never been.
Those that I admire are not DLC, most of all Howard Dean.

[pattmarty]

34. Sorry, but I really don't think you ever will understand what I meant.

[Iowa]

25. Not expecting "the banks to behave like that" would be gross incompetence...

That's not what this is. Read the article I posted up-thread.

[Deja Q]

16. With our economy, we need to do something too.

Make new businesses.

The trouble is, if banks won't lend or there's nobody to buy to keep the money flow, nothing will change for the better. Wouldn't that be an avenue to go down as well?

[pattmarty]

18. I could go on for probably a thousand words worth of what should...........

................be done. The problem is that BOTH of our political parties are beholden to big business and not to the citizens who voted them into office. We need to start down the road of Western Europe in our handling of corporations, education, healthcare and ................... IT AIN'T GONNA FUCKING HAPPEN.

[grahamhgreen]

23. The people on Wall Street will get it when you start repealing the laws that allowed them to game

the system.

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. And maybe reclaim their looting - in which case, it would be interesting

to see if they get it, as kind of fellow-suffers, if belated.

[upi402]

29. Confiscation, like holding Bush/Cheney accountable

would be legal, ethical, and the right thing. Therefore, it's off the table here in the Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave.

[yurbud]

33. how hard would it be for Congress to simply repeal the repeal of Glass-Steagal?

just to get the ball rolling?

[Lenomsky]

30. UK Press £44,000 per family ..

That's the cost of the bank bailouts (Twice the national average salary) yet RBoS (Royal Bank of Scotland) executives say they will resign if they don't get their hard earned (sarcasm) bonuses. Bye bye :) that's my tax money you want to spend! Government has eventually stepped in and required a 50% tax on all bonuses above £25k i.e the average national wage too little too late. They the banks have nothing without US they gamble with our (cash) investments thus reward must be aligned with gain not loss!

[yurbud]

32. if he was really mad, he would put the fear of God in them by firing Geithner, Summers, and Rubin

and replacing them with Stieglitz, Krugman, and Reich (or even Nader).

[yurbud]

37. Use Bush War on Terror methods on Wall St. CEOs: throw a bag over their head, fly them to a secret

prison, and hold them until we can figure out what to do with them.

And we would definitely NOT torture them (at least it wouldn't be torture according to the John Yoo definition)

Then strip them of all their assets.