So Sayeth the Nobel Laureate and So Sayeth Commenter #33

[ozymandius]

Paul Krugman

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.

....

So what should Mr. Obama do? Count me among those who think that the president made a big mistake in his initial approach, that his attempts to transcend partisanship ended up empowering politicians who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh. What matters now, however, is what he does next.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

and So Sayeth commenter #33

I'll give him six months before I make up my mind, but so far Bam is a disappointment. I don't know why I'm surprised, clearly $63 million dollars from Finance Insurance Real Estate industries apparently trumps 67 million votes.

If Obama were serious,
1. The criminals who caused this financial disaster would all be facing RICO charges instead of getting $18 billion dollar taxpayer funded bonuses.
2. Instead of Geithner (tool of the NY Fed) we'd have Volcker (the man who tamed inflation back in the 70s) Instead of Summers (failed college president) we'd have Nouriel Roubini (the NYU economist who called this disaster three years ago)
3. Instead of throwing good money after bad, he'd declare a bank holiday, send in the auditors to force banks to mark to market then nationalize the insolvent banks, give the bond holders a hair cut, guarantee the depositors, then start a Federal "good bank" that would function like a utility.
4. Just like Roosevelt in the depression, he would cancel the derivatives contracts that threaten the system.
5. Force 'cram downs' where banks adjust mortgages down to match underlying market realities and then give the bondholders 80% of the upside if the houses appreciate.
6. Rewrite the extremely punitive bankruptcy law that the credit card companies and their cronies (I'm looking at you Biden) forced through in 2005.
7. Launch a real investigation to determine whether speculative manipulation drove oil to $150.

I could go on and on, but now is the time to start thinking about a 2012 primary challenge. I would also suggest that you consider your contingency plans given the possibility of S&P500, Dow 5000 and a dollar collapse. I'm not saying put everything you have into gold, just make sure you're not going to be standing in a line at a soup kitchen if everything goes into the can, because it's a real possibility.

— AS, Chicago

[whistle]

1. Set up a Ferdinand Pecora style commission and have every bank CEO

...give an accounting of their roles in this newest meltdown

<snip>
Pecora Commission
From Wikipedia

The Pecora Commission is the name commonly used to describe the commission established on March 4, 1932, by the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to investigate the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The name refers to the fourth and final Chief Counsel to the committee, Ferdinand Pecora.

Created by a majority-Republican Senate, its first Chairman was Republican Senator Peter Norbeck. Hearings began on April 11, 1932, but were criticized by Democratic Party members and their supporters as being little more than an attempt by the Republicans to appease the growing demands of an angry American public suffering through the Great Depression. Following the November 1932 election in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President and Democrats gained majority control of the U.S. Senate, Senator Duncan U. Fletcher chaired the Committee. According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the Commission's first two counsels were fired and a third resigned after the committee refused to give him broad subpoena powers. Ferdinand Pecora, an assistant district attorney for New York County, discovered, upon taking the committee counsel position, that the investigation was incomplete.

Following the Wall Street Crash, the U.S. economy had gone into a depression, and a large number of banks failed. The Pecora Commission initiated major reform of the American financial system. As Chief Counsel, Ferdinand Pecora personally examined many high-profile witnesses that included some of the nation's most influential bankers and stockbrokers. As the Commission's first witness, Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, declared that "The Exchange's refusal to pay heed to popular demand for reform was simply a manifestation of courage to do those things which are right, regardless of how unpopular they may be for the time being." Other important members of the Wall Street financial community to give testimony before the Commission included investment bankers Otto H. Kahn, Charles E. Mitchell, Thomas W. Lamont, and Albert H. Wiggin, plus celebrated commodity market speculators such as Arthur W. Cutten. Given wide media coverage, the testimony of the powerful banker J.P. Morgan, Jr. caused a public outcry after he admitted under examination that he and many of his partners had not paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932.

As reiterated by SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt during his 1995 testimony before the United States House of Representatives, the Pecora Commission uncovered a wide range of abusive practices on the part of banks and bank affiliates. These included a variety of conflicts of interest such as the underwriting of unsound securities in order to pay off bad bank loans as well as "pool operations" to support the price of bank stocks. The hearings galvanized broad public support for new securities laws. As a result of the Pecora Commission's findings, the United States Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, instituting disclosure laws for corporations seeking public financing, and in 1935 formed the SEC as a means to enforce the new Acts.

In 1939 Ferdinand Pecora published his memoirs that recounted details of the investigations. Titled "Wall Street Under Oath", Pecora wrote: "Bitterly hostile was Wall Street to the enactment of the regulatory legislation." As to disclosure rules, he stated that "Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker's stoutest allies."

The Pecora Commission hearings ended on May 4, 1934, and the Commission itself completed its work in 1936.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission

2. Poem to my Greedy Corporation Friends

DON’T SQUEEZE THE TURNIP

To my Greedy Corporation friends
On Wall Street
And to their friends
A word of wisdom
Don’t squeeze the turnip

Like our predecessors
We are the new world comers
We won’t sit around the fire
And put in our hair feathers

They wrote the good constitution
It needs better implementation
With this new administration

Here’s the word, my friends

You have Greed
We have ambition
Aspiration

Don’t squeeze the turnip

Did you forget
This country is
Of the people, by the people, to the people
Building a circle
With circulation

You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip

Remember blood is
Of the people, by the people

Without our blood
You can’t survive
See
We have the same circulation
If we die, you die

This temple was made for you and me
Like Samson with the long hair
The temple will come crashing
On all of us
Blood is to the people
Blood is to the people
Don’t squeeze the turnip

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. "Now is the time to start thinking about a 2012 challenger"

Ok.

:eyes:

[ozymandius]

4. Eyesroll is appropriate for that bit.

However, the enumerated points are on the mark.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. K&R

[Stevepol]

6. I nominate Commentator #33 for President of the USA.

Come on, Obama, start talking to Krugman and Stiglitz and #33!!!!!

[malaise]

7. Our President will have a live Prime Time Press

Conference on Monday night. Hopefully he'll finally dismiss the Rethug partisans.