Obama rewarding corporate thieves with power and our money.

[Metta]

from alternet.org Bad move, B. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/117219/obama%27s_perilous_compromise_with_wall_street_looters/

[firedupdem]

1. no thanks. the title alone says don't click on it. n/t

[thewiseguy]

2. The article is from Huffington Post

[Captain Hilts]

18. They don't have Hillary to kick around right now, so they're going after Obama.

There are a lot of ignorant post on HuffPost.

This is one of them.

[Two Americas]

40. Jeffrey Klein?

Jeffrey Klein is a voice that we should dismiss out of hand and not even consider?

Jeffrey Klein the investigative journalist? The co-founder of Mother Jones? Who did exposes of Newt Gingrich, Big Tobacco and the introduction of offensive weapons into space? Who co-produced for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer a series on China's economy that won a Gerald Loeb Award? Who taught journalism at Stanford, San Francisco State and Cal?

[bvar22]

51. Hands firmly over ears....LA. LALALALA. LALALA.. LALALA... LA....

Can't hear you because I am happy in the dark!

[Avalux]

3. Would you please let him take the oath instead of condemning decisions he hasn't made?

Geez. :eyes:

[babylonsister]

4. Seems too much to ask around here. nt

[Two Americas]

41. that is what people are doing

They are discussing the decisions he has made in his cabinet choices.

[bvar22]

53. Why turn a blind eye?

"Consider Obama's Economic Czar, Larry Summers, who comes fresh from heading a highly secretive hedge fund. As Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Summers championed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which led directly to the excessive risk-taking by newly enlarged financial entities deemed too big to fail when they failed.

Additionally Summers and Robert Rubin lobbied intensely for legislation signed by Bill Clinton that forbid government oversight of derivatives, the toxic instruments that have poisoned balance sheets around the world.

Summers' former deputy Tim Geithner, the new Secretary of the Treasury, has supervised more recent rip-offs. He bears significant responsibility for the Lehman Brothers' catastrophe and for the flawed Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns and AIG bailouts.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/117219/obama%27s_perilous_compromise_with_wall_street_looters

[Armstead]

69. He has made decisions -- Picking your people is a decision

From the article:

"Consider Obama's Economic Czar, Larry Summers, who comes fresh from heading a highly secretive hedge fund. As Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Summers championed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which led directly to the excessive risk-taking by newly enlarged financial entities deemed too big to fail when they failed. Additionally Summers and Robert Rubin lobbied intensely for legislation signed by Bill Clinton that forbid government oversight of derivatives, the toxic instruments that have poisoned balance sheets around the world. Summers' former deputy Tim Geithner, the new Secretary of the Treasury, has supervised more recent rip-offs. He bears significant responsibility for the Lehman Brothers' catastrophe and for the flawed Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns and AIG bailouts. At Geithner's confirmation hearing, he must be asked repeatedly why the looters were rewarded and why plans giving taxpayers more equity were rejected..."

[DevonRex]

5. How unusual. A thread that criticizes Obama on DU.

:sarcasm:

Thanks but no thanks.

[dionysus]

9. as gomer pyle would say

"surpise surprise"

[DevonRex]

33. Heh. Good old Gomer.

He had a good line or two. :)

[Two Americas]

42. it is unusual

Citizens in a representative democracy questioning their elected leaders and critically discussing their decisions - that is what you are objecting to.

That is far too rare. But you think that there has been too much of that going on and wish to see it end?

[rockymountaindem]

6. We all need to confront the fact that Obama's economic team includes many people responsible

for creating the problems we currently face. Hopefully they've realized this and changed their stripes, but only time will tell.

[Skwmom]

14. Changed their stripes? They are idiots. Do we expect them to grow a brain?

Nothing seems to be more career limiting in D.C. then being right on the major issues of the day and nothing seems to be more career advancing then to have screwed things up on a monumental level.

Is there something in the water? And to think Summers had the nerve to question the intelligence of women. Heck, most women would have to have a lobotomy to achieve his level of stupidity.

[Runcible Spoon]

21. amen to that. Summers is such a fucking dispicable anal cyst

and now I will have to look at his ass for the next for years going on all sanctimonious about the economy :puke:

[rockymountaindem]

22. I'm trying to remain positive so I don't get branded as a hater

But yes, it seems that being right counts for nothing. Merely having a high-power job at one point appears sufficient to ensure you'll never be called to task by people with the power to make sure you don't get back into a position to screw up again.

[Skwmom]

31. Sorry, but I just can be one of "la, la, la, I can't hear this, I live by the rule

ignorance is bliss" crowd.

It's like smiling while the Titanic is sinking.

[DevonRex]

32. I don't think you're a hater. I don't think anyone here would think that.

But I do appreciate your willingness to try to be positive. It's a breath of fresh air. Thank you.

That's not to say that you don't speak up when you need to, because you do. I just think you do it in a constructive manner and I appreciate it. :hi:

[ShortnFiery]

46. OK, how about "we're POSITIVE that Summers is such a fucking dispicable anal cyst?"

:evilgrin:

[shraby]

38. The difference is they now have a different boss.

[ShortnFiery]

48. But that's not the point ... Obama may prove NOT "the boss" but merely "the attractive wrapping"

on a package that will only serve to make the rich-richer and leave nothing but a financial "shit sandwich" for working and middle-class Americans.

More "smoke and mirrors" as they rob us blind ... then disappear with their other bloated wealthy crones and family members to UAE or Paraguay? :puke:

[Two Americas]

54. not a dictatorship

This talk of "once he takes charge" and "he will be dictating policy" is creepy.

The president is not the "boss" in a representative democracy and a government of limited and shared powers.

I think we had about enough of that strong executive theory of government from the bunch we just threw out.

[polichick]

7. "This is a Ponzi scheme far beyond Bernie Madoff's imagination."

It sure is, and it's disgraceful ~ Obama's economic team inspires confidence for Wall Street thieves for good reason.

[ProSense]

8. "President Obama has made a bad mistake" What nonsense.

He isn't the President. He hasn't negotiated a single deal.

President Obama has made an enormous mistake. Instead of cracking down on serial looters and complicit regulators, he wants to guarantee the financial sector's obligations, which are several times larger than America's economy. This is a Ponzi scheme far beyond Bernie Madoff's imagination. Simply put: The government is breaking the rules of capitalism to reward the most reckless capitalists.

Is it unfair to criticize President Obama before he and his experienced team have a chance to enact new laws and regulations? For guidance on this question, let's turn to the father of capitalism, Adam Smith. Here's how Smith concludes Wealth of Nations, Book I:

"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order (the capitalists), ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."

Consider Obama's Economic Czar, Larry Summers, who comes fresh from heading a highly secretive hedge fund. As Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Summers championed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which led directly to the excessive risk-taking by newly enlarged financial entities deemed too big to fail when they failed. Additionally Summers and Robert Rubin lobbied intensely for legislation signed by Bill Clinton that forbid government oversight of derivatives, the toxic instruments that have poisoned balance sheets around the world. Summers' former deputy Tim Geithner, the new Secretary of the Treasury, has supervised more recent rip-offs. He bears significant responsibility for the Lehman Brothers' catastrophe and for the flawed Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns and AIG bailouts. At Geithner's confirmation hearing, he must be asked repeatedly why the looters were rewarded and why plans giving taxpayers more equity were rejected.

Sherlock Holmes was once famously asked by a Scotland Yard detective: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Detective: "The dog did nothing in the night-time." Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

(emphasis added)

Sherlock Holmes? More like silly spin disguised as investigative journalism

Obama is anti-deregulation. Period.

[Skwmom]

16. His experienced team that was in charge of the U.S. Titanic?

With that kind of experience, God help this country.

[ShortnFiery]

49. With respect, I'd hate to be around when you and other "very intelligent" people

with high ideals and a hopeful outlook finally come to terms that YOU'VE BEEN PUNKED again by the "have mores" pulling yet another variation of the "Reverse Robin Hood" Con Game on the non-investor class Americans.

The Power Elite (The Owners of this Nation not the Politicians) is a BIG CLUB and we're not in it. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI5EY5kqiBU&feature=related

[Captain Hilts]

10. You don't get to be Prez by alienating these folks. It's the way the game works...and, since Obama-

has killed campaign finance reform for another generation, it will continue to work this way.

Goldman Sachs gave him a lot of cash.

[ProSense]

11. "since Obama has killed campaign finance reform for another generation" How?

Describe how he did that. Opting out of public financing is not killing campaign finance reform. Obama financed his campaign with historical support from individual donors.

Your assertion that Goldman Sachs gave him a lot of cash implies that you are trying to spin individual donations as something they are not: PAC and lobbyist money.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Opting out of public financing - especially when you said you would use it...

reinforces the benefits of the Scrum for Cash that empowers folks like Goldman Sachs.

It was a good strategy on his part, but it does delay reform.

[ProSense]

20. He never said he would use it, he said he would consider it. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

24. And he didn't. So, in politics, greed still pays and is the best strategy. nt

[ProSense]

26. Are you suggesting that the people, all the individuals, who financed his campaign are greedy?

More spin.

[Captain Hilts]

27. No, but he got a LOT of Wall St. cash. That's the way the game works. Goldman Sachs..

gave him a TON.

[ProSense]

28. Let me repeat the point made

here in response to your previous assertion:

Your assertion that Goldman Sachs gave him a lot of cash implies that you are trying to spin individual donations as something they are not: PAC and lobbyist money.

[Captain Hilts]

34. The assumption is that money means clout. It does.

Obama's done it. Hillary did it. It's the way the game is played.

This isn't a dig against Obama. In light of how Republicans can raise cash it was probably a good idea.

It's just a way that things will stay the same on this front a while longer.

[uponit7771]

61. Difference is Obama didn't NEED their money and doesn't going foward. Dems might but Obama doesn't,

...hopefully that change in and of itself will be enough to change DC for the better. Get a smart leader to run so they don't have to be bought.

[blindpig]

65. "it's how the game is played"

So, what's the point then? If the game is entirely weighted towards the dictates of Money then why play? In such a situation to hang on in hope that the tiger changes his stripes is self-defeating, counter-productive.
Time to start a new game by our rules.

[bvar22]

55. And as a "Thank You" to Wall Street....

..Obama voted FOR a $850Billion Dollar "Bailout" with No Strings Attached.

[uponit7771]

60. His average donation was around 100 dollars, this is sophistric point you're making here

[blindpig]

71. Ridiculous.

How much access will a $100 donor get compared to those 6 figure pigs?

Nada, nichts, zilch.

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. Public financing was not the point of it - foregoing lobbyist money was.

And when he found he could have the best of both worlds - not limited by public financing, while at the same time not accepting lobbyist money - he did the rational thing.

But since you never liked him, anything you say must be taken with a HUGE fucking grain of salt.

[grantcart]

50. you seem to be talking to yourself

[Occam Bandage]

12. I am outraged that Obama might make some decisions I don't like when he actually becomes President.

This isn't what I voted for.

[Two Americas]

39. nonsense

It is highly reactionary and suppressive to continue to characterize any and all opinions you disagree with as people merely pushing their personal agendas - arguing for what they personally want, and getting emotional when they cannot have what they personally want. You must know that this is not true, it has been challenged and refuted dozens of times, yet you trot it out again and again as though it were a worthwhile or legitimate contribution to the discussion. Your tactic is a way to get people to dismiss and ignore those whose opinions you do not like, and as such is a threat to freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas.

Trivializing and ridiculing others is a from of ad hominem attack - criticizing the messengers rather than the message.

[Skwmom]

13. Putting the same stupid idiots in charge defies common sense.

"Tragically, the architects of the current economic fiasco have been placed in charge of America's recovery."

So if you have a record of major screw-ups, you're guaranteed a position. Mind boggling.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Some of these "stupid idiots" have a learning curve and know it's 2009, not the '90s. nt

[Skwmom]

25. I'm sorry but when you are that much of a screw up, no amount of learning curve will help you.

It's going to take real smarts to get us out of this mess and anyone with real smarts wouldn't have gotten us into this mess to begin with.

Only in DC is such total incompetence so richly rewarded.

[cali]

23. well, Paul Krugman seems to think they're largely OK

and as I don't know that much about it, I'll trust him and Reich over the likes of DU posters like you who know as little as I do.

[Skwmom]

29. As little as you do? So I take it that you thought the deregulation they were pushing would

lead to a financial debacle that would eclipse the S&L scandal? But then again, anyone with a functioning brain cell could see where that was going to lead. Oh that's right, anyone that voiced any concerns were called stupid idiots who just didn't understand what those economic geniuses were trying to achieve. :rofl:

Hmmm.... If Reich and Krugman were to criticize Larry, Curly and Moe do you think their advice would ever be considered or that they'd ever have a chance at an inside job?

[Captain Hilts]

36. Same here. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. nt

[ShortnFiery]

56. Yes, we learned a lot about Paul Krugman's character during the primary.

:thumbsdown:

[I814U]

19. I keep saying it....

...Obama went to his transition briefings and learned we really do live in a dictatorship; not from Bush but those behind the throne.

You know how the Progressives kept threatening general strikes; well, the corporatists know that trick too. They told him, "Mess with us and we'll close our factories and take our billions in tax-free off-shore accounts to vacation in Tahiti and let you go down in history as the black Herbert Hoover."

[firedupdem]

30. I'm glad you were at those meetings so you could report back to us.

By the way, what is bush? The white fucking asshole?...since you're adding the color of skin to your posts. :thumbsdown:

[I814U]

35. I don't understand your hostility...

1) DU is rife with posts bemoaning would-be appointments and Rick Warren etc.

Either:

A) Obama lied to us and is sweet-talking center-right Chicago pol

--or--

B) The same people that stole the 2000 election, framed UBL for Sept 11, lied us into Iraq, beat the war drums for Iran, crash the housing and securities markets, deny gay rights, deny universal healthcare etc etc etc

Do you think those people--entrenched in their halls of power and ivory towers--are going to suddenly shrug their shoulders and watch the 1st real president of the new millenium ruin their fun times?




2) I've made 2 posts in my short history concerning the Burris appointment and how it gives the cons cover for their racism.

Why the racial epthets aimed at me in such rude tones?

[firedupdem]

37. You brought ethnicity up in your post.

You decided Obama was the Black FDR...so I simply asked you if Bush is the white asshole since I can't think of any human to compare him to...and you put ethnicity in your post so it showed me how you describe things.

[I814U]

44. OK, I see where we crossed wires.

I didn't say Obama WAS the black Herbert Hoover (the real HH being responsible for the Great Drepression) but that he would be labelled/painted as such. You know the cons want him to fail on any number of fronts and they've already written the press releases...I'm just "quoting" them.

I'm convinced Obama wants to do the right thing but the cons possess what they worship: guns and money.

How do we fight that?

[bertman]

68. firedupdem, why do YOU bring up race? I814U simply made a true statement and YOU

inject race into into it.

Of course the corporate media would fry Obama as the "black Herbert Hoover" if he were to buck the white power/money brokers and bring their wrath down upon our economy. They would use it as an object lesson to all Americans that we can't trust a black man as President--"See, Look What HE Did to America." Is that concept really so hard to imagine.

And, yes, Bush is the white fucking asshole, thank you.

My guess is that I814U's assessment of the situation was only off in the element of timing, meaning that Obama knew BEFORE he was elected that there was very little he would be able to do to restrain the robber barons who control our economic future and that of the world. After all, he's been in Washington long enough to have already gotten a taste of that bitter humble pie. I'm just hopeful that he is savvy enough to manipulate things for the betterment of the average working Jane and Joe, and not JUST for the betterment of the financial elites--although, he's already handed them their big, fat TRILLION DOLLAR Christmas present.

[HughMoran]

70. Actually it's called pragmatism

Only a fool shows his cards before the betting has even started.

Obama is a self-professed pragmatist, so all of his "conservative" actions, appointments etc. will likely turn out to be only the "appearance" of normalcy so as not to provide fuel for his enemies. He will succeed in making massive overhauls of our system, but he won't do it with a sledgehammer.

[zulchzulu]

43. Yeah! The hell with experienced Wall Street people! Hire these guys!

What? You can bet these guys haven't been hanging around Wall Street.

[blindpig]

63. I would expect those folks to do a better job.

They have more grounding in reality.

[eridani]

64. Why not Brooksley Born and Sheila Bair, who warned against the policies of shitstains like Summers?

http://www.truthout.org/122208R

It is hard not to notice that two of the regulators who stand out for doing the right thing in this incredible financial mess are women. Brooksley Born, as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Clinton, wanted to regulate credit default swaps and other derivative instruments back in the late 90s. Her effort was torpedoed by Clinton's economic heavyweights: Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers.

More recently, Sheila Bair, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation (FDIC), has been a pesky voice, arguing that the purpose of the financial bailouts is not to ensure that the Robert Rubins of the world get to keep their day jobs at the Wall Street banks. She has been arguing that the banks that received public money should be required to rewrite mortgage terms so that more homeowners are able to stay in their homes.

[ShortnFiery]

45. Meet the new boss?

We have no representative national leadership with either party.

We're all just one big happy FUEDAL family toiling to serve our ruling class masters of the illustrious American Corporatocracy. :(

[Froward69]

52. I would Disagree..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28525113/

[loudsue]

57. Anybody who has read Obama's books knows that he favors the same agenda

that most corporatists favor. He is very favorable to global trade.... he doesn't mind inserting regulations (tax status, etc.) that actually HELPS Americans, as we heard in his campaign. But he is as much mr. big business as any one of the candidates that ran on the Dem ticket. He never said otherwise.

From the time he ran for the U.S. Senate, the NDN (who shares the same phone number with the DLC headquarters) mentored him (a la Joe LIEberman... in fact Obama has STATED that Lieberman was his mentor) and helped him raise money from certain donors.

I am glad Obama is our president, instead of the others who were very close in the race, and COULD have been elected. But anybody that thinks that we have ANYTHING that resembles a new progressive, or even marginally liberal, president has not done their research.

It doesn't matter whether he has taken office or not. He is the same man who ran and won. He is the same man that he was before he ran, and when he wrote his books. America is still being run by the corporations, and the "giants of industry" will continue to pull the biggest strings globally, in everyone's government....even Cuba's and Venezuela's. It's just a different set of strings.

Until the masses of all countries rise up and start taking the situation away from the corporations, it will remain this way. And now that corporations have their own "privatized" armies (i.e., blackwater, Halliburton) they can operate as their own governments for the most part.

We're still in very big trouble here no matter who is president, and we have a great deal of work to do if we're ever going to change this world for the better. It won't happen overnite, and Obama is NOT going to be leading the charge.

[zulchzulu]

58. Does Klein have ANY suggestions on who should be there?

Since it's all about the looters and the regulators, who does Klein suggest be in charge of the financial sector? People NOT from Wall Street?

Yeah, welcome to fucking Utopia, Klein. Your magic carpet is waiting for you...

[uponit7771]

62. Klien likes Donald Duck, either way the people are crooked are REALLY REALLY fuckin stupid. I don't

...like the choices but if Obama can lead them they'll do OK.

[eridani]

66. Yes, Sheila Bair. n/t

[mkultra]

59. ITS TIME TO INPEACH OBAMAZ!!

Hes a criminal likes BUSHES!!!!

[Caretha]

67. Hit & Run =

Epic Fail