Robert Scheer: They Go, Or Obama Goes

[amborin]

They Go or Obama Goes


snip

The core issue for the economy is the continued cost of a housing bubble made possible only after what Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers back then trumpeted as necessary "legal certainty" was provided to derivative packages made up of suspect Alt-A and subprime mortgages. It was the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which Senate Republican Phil Gramm drafted and which Clinton signed into law, that made legal the trafficking in packages of dubious home mortgages. In any decent society the creation of such untenable mortgages and the securitization of risk irrationally associated with it would have been judged a criminal scam. But no such judgment was possible because thanks to Wall Street's sway under Clinton and Bush the bankers got to rewrite the laws to sanction their treachery.

It is Obama's continued deference to the sensibilities of the financiers and his relative indifference to the suffering of ordinary people that threaten his legacy, not to mention the nation's economic well-being. There have been more than 300,000 foreclosure filings every single month that Obama has been president, and as the New York Times editorialized, "Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the Obama administration's efforts to address the foreclosure problem will make an appreciable dent." The Times noted that the administration's main program has been a bust, with only $321 million of the $30 billion allocated to the program having been spent to help folks stay in their homes.

The ugly reality that only 398,198 mortgages have been modified to make the payments more reasonable can be traced to the program being based on the hope that the banks would do the right thing. While Obama continued the Bush practice of showering the banks with bailout money, he did not demand a moratorium on foreclosures or call for increasing the power of.....

snip

There is no way that Obama can begin to seriously reverse this course without shedding the economic team led by the Clinton-era "experts" like Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who got us into this mess in the first place. They are spooked by one overwhelmingly crippling idea—don't rattle the financial titans whom we must rely on for investment. But when it comes to keeping people in their homes, it is precisely the big banks that must be rattled into doing the right thing.

snip

http://www.thenation.com/article/154128/they-go-or-obama-goes

[AndyA]

1. Why does ANYONE think corporations are going to do the right thing?

On what f*cking planet do these people live? Corporations do what's right for the shareholders, and THAT. IS. IT.

Ruin the environment. No biggie as long as you aren't caught like BP was.

Kill employees with unsafe/missing/unenforced safety regulations. That's OK, too.

If the people in our government--from Obama all the way down--are really that stupid, they should be replaced. Corporations will NEVER do the right thing unless they are forced to under threat of huge fines that take away from their bottom line.

BP is a convicted felon. How many BP employees have been killed on the job due to lax safety measures? And yet, we still think or expect they will do the right thing?

:banghead:

[tomp]

16. exactly. obama is either criminally naive or complicit.

i vote for the latter.

[jgraz]

19. Except they don't even do what's right for shareholders any longer

These days, corporations are interested in short-term profit to enrich the executives. The shareholders can go hang.

[ProSense]

2. "They Go or Obama Goes"

Meaningless ultimatums.

[girl gone mad]

5. I took it as a prediction, not an ultimatum.

Seems kind of obvious.

[depakid]

8. That was my take, too

>9% unemployment + continued corporate right pandering = one term.

[BzaDem]

15. I doubt it.

While I by no means want to acknowledge as legitimate your characterization of "continued corporate right pandering," I am glad you finally are making a prediction/statement that can actually be proven false with time.

[Jakes Progress]

6. Don't be dense.

Learn to see a warning as a warning instead of a threat. Paranoid a little?

[TheWatcher]

14. "Don't Be Dense."

Though your wishful thinking does you credit, expressing that particular sentiment to some individuals is like telling a Blade Of Grass to throw a football.

It simply isn't going to happen. :rofl:

[jannyk]

7. Methinks thou doth protest too much....

....and too often.

What has you so scared anyway???

[ladjf]

17. I believe that the statement was a predictive equation rather than

an ultimatum. nt

[glitch]

3. The Federal government is owned by Wall Street.

Who said that?

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. K&R

Nice thought, but it will never happen. Obama has made his choice clear and it is only those that prefer to be ignorant or willfully ignorant that cannot see it for what it is.

[Mimosa]

9. Robert Scheer is worth listening to

I remember when Scheer was vilified forwriting that the invasion of iraq was a scam to make the war machine prosper. The man has been targeted by the right wing for nearly 10 years. I'm amazed he's still telling it like it is.

[OutNow]

11. Robert Scheer - writing the truth for over 40 years

Yes, the RW doesn't much like the writings of Robert Scheer, but he's been making headlines and telling it like it really is since the 1960s. I've been around since Ramparts magazine. It didn't last that long but it was unlike any periodical I've ever seen.

Some folks thought Scheer was a sellout when he began writing for the LA Times, but I think he did a good job there as well as later endeavors. We've been lucky to have folks like Scheer and Izzy Stone doing real reporting.

[Mimosa]

12. OutNow, glad you're posting here

Thanks for the info re: Scheer. All I knew was that he was vilified and the right wing wanted him fired from the LA Times.

I know a *little* about Ramparts, not a lot. I was a teenage Vietnam war protester.

[Touchdown]

10. Why doesn't anybody answer the obvious?

We've lived under Reagan's trickle down economics for 30 years now. When is it ever going to actually trickle down? Just a timeline? Just an approximate year. That's all I ask.

[scheming daemons]

13. So... Robert Scheer shares policy discussion with John Boehner?

...

[xchrom]

18. The answer to the problem of corporate power and

Influence in government wasn't more of it.

That's what's happening now and if it works
Out miserably for the people then
They will choose some one else.

[Steely_Dan]

20. I Asked This Question...

...on a earlier post...weeks ago.

When we bailed out these banks and financial institutions, why didn't we "require" that a certain amount of that money go towards helping people keep their homes as well as providing loans to small businesses? I just don't get it. It isn't brain surgery.

-P

[tonybeme]

21. Live Q & A

Just saw this on facebook!
Join Truthdig Editor and columnist Robert Scheer for a live chat session to discuss his latest column, “They Go or Obama Goes.”

http://www.truthdig.com/q_a/item/live_chat_with_robert_scheer_20100824/

[sabrina 1]

22. How many people have said this now:

There is no way that Obama can begin to seriously reverse this course without shedding the economic team led by the Clinton-era "experts" like Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who got us into this mess in the first place.

But it falls on deaf ears. Which makes you wonder if Obama agrees with these Goldman Sachs guys that saving Big Corps from their own corruption is more important than helping the American people.