One year ago Lehmann Bros. died of skid marks, Goldman-Sachs was gasping for life and then the economic crisis was for real. All of Wall Street went to Washington, to their paid agents in Congress for help and they got it and to the tune of $700 billion and with a far reaching tentacles that will run into the trillions when all is counted.
In an article by Barry Grey, he observed:
In what was meant to give the appearance of a stern rebuke, Obama declared, “I want everybody here to hear my words. We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”
He went further, implicating the American people in an economic catastrophe for which they bear no responsibility and whose victims they are. “The crisis was not just the result of decisions made by the mightiest of financial firms,” he declared. “It was also the result of decisions made by ordinary Americans to open credit cards and take on mortgages.”
He returned to this theme to proclaim that the crisis was a “failure of responsibility that led homebuyers and derivative traders alike to take reckless risks they couldn’t afford. It was a collective failure of responsibility in Washington, on Wall Street and across America…”
Obama linked his demand for “collective responsibility” with a pledge to impose austerity measures on the American people. He promised his well-healed audience that he would put the country “on a secure fiscal footing” by “cutting programs that don’t work.” He reiterated that his plan to slash health care for the working class, in the name of “reform,” would “not add a dime to the deficit.”
Obama characterized his regulatory proposals as “the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression.” This is a fraud. He is proposing nothing approaching the structural reforms enacted under Franklin D. Roosevelt. On the contrary, he is opposing the restoration of any of the key elements of New Deal banking reforms that have been dismantled over the past three decades. This includes the Glass-Steagall ban on investment banking by commercial banks.
Instead, he is proposing a hodge-podge of minor measures which will do nothing to rein in the speculative activities of the banks and hedge funds. His Consumer Financial Protection Agency would merely establish a new agency to oversee consumer credit without giving it any powers beyond those presently spread out among a number of different regulators. In any event, this proposal is a dead letter because it is fiercely opposed by the banks.
Any regulatory “reform” that might emerge from Congress will be drafted by Wall Street lobbyists working behind the scenes with politicians bought and paid for with campaign contributions and other bribes. The Center for Responsive Politics recently reported that the financial industry, along with the insurance and real estate sectors, has already given more than $50 million in campaign contributions so far this year. The financial industry has spent more than $222 million lobbying Washington, where it deploys more than 2,300 lobbyists.
Sorry Progressives, but this is total crap! Obama said NOTHING that would be good for the people living and dying on Main Street. After one year of straightening out the crisis….and NOTHING has changed…..all involved are still too big to fail, they are still taking all that risk, they still receive massive bonuses, taxpayers still on the hook and finally there appears to be very little regulation that will be enacted, just minor tweaking to allow all this process to continue.
Obama is playing a dangerous game with the financial health of the country.