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 Wall Street’s Fat Cats Are Still in ChargePosted on Dec 15, 2009
Most Americans now know that Wall Street bankers are so greedy as to never be trusted, and I suppose it is a sign of progress that our president now seems to grasp the obvious. How depressing, though, that a man who was elected as a consequence of one of the boldest grass-roots populist campaigns in this nation’s history should now feel obligated to offer the disclaimer that “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”
But whatever his intentions, Barack Obama has in fact accomplished just that, to the immense anger of the public that elected him. Thus, it is understandable that, in his “60 Minutes” interview last Sunday, Obama lashed out at the ingrate bankers whose greed he had served but who have failed to seriously increase lending or forestall foreclosures and instead shamelessly pocketed the cash the government threw their way:
“They’re still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks. Well, let’s see,” he said. “You guys are drawing down $10 [million], $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it’s gone through in—in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we’ve got 10 percent unemployment.” Advertisement But what did the president expect from those guys after he and his Republican predecessor were so quick to reward them so handsomely for their failures? In a reversal of the guiding principles of the meritocracy that informed Obama’s own success story, the president promoted, rather than flunked, the people who got it all wrong.
One of those was Larry Summers, who as Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary pushed through the radical deregulation that enabled disastrous Wall Street greed. But although Summers pocketed a cool $15 million from Wall Street in 2008 as he was advising Obama the candidate, he seems at last to have gained some awareness that the rules of the game he helped write now need to be changed. Speaking of the very bankers who once so handsomely paid him for his services, Summers, now Obama’s top economic adviser, told CNN: “Here is what I think they don’t get. ... It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse.”
Summers is upset that the banking bandits he once so slavishly adored are now opposing even the tepid legislative reforms that the administration supports. The banking lobby is in full-frontal assault mode on efforts of Senate Democrats, led by Chris Dodd, to establish a single bank regulator who might actually bring the industry to heel.
The largest of the banks—the very ones that led the charge into the financial abyss—are fiercely lobbying against the very sensible and all-too-limited proposals that would increase their capital requirements and empower the government to prevent them from growing to unmanageable proportions once again. They are even more incensed about attempts to regulate the rewards that bankers reap from risking the capital of their depositors and the taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill.
However, Obama’s stern rhetoric apparently did not move the top banking honchos who failed to show up for this week’s White House meeting with the president. The heads of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley waited until the morning of the Monday meeting to catch a plane and then claimed that fog prevented their journey. Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram S. Pandit couldn’t make the meeting with the president who had saved his corporation from bankruptcy because he was too busy lining up new private financing to allow Citigroup to escape the bonus confines and other limits stipulated by the government bailout program. No bank bears greater responsibility for the economic debacle that has caused such worldwide suffering than Citigroup, whose immense growth was made possible by legislation that Summers and his then-mentor, Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, successfully promoted in the late 1990s. Rubin was rewarded for his efforts with a top job at Citigroup, which was formed from one of the largest mergers in history and which paid him $120 million before its fortunes plummeted. The bank is by no means out of the swamp of its own creation, as it still holds a huge portfolio of toxic assets, is still sustained by substantial public assistance and was trading Tuesday at less than $4 a share—a tiny fraction of its value before Rubin led it astray. It was Rubin, as an Obama adviser, who pushed for Pandit’s selection as head of Citigroup. Perhaps Obama could enlist Rubin’s aid in getting Pandit to accept the president’s invitations to the White House. But of course there is no expectation of getting Rubin and Pandit to pay back the bankrupted homeowners they swindled.
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By G P, December 16, 2009 at 5:55 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The one thing that insults the intelligence of anyone paying attention is the diversionary rhetoric about bonuses. This repetitive red herring is not even an original head-bob anymore for the deer-in-the-headlights public that is supposed to obediently gobble up some more mainstream hype about this being little more than a few bucks in some CEO’s private pockets as though that is the cause of our impending destruction. Barry Soetoro’s, I mean the Teleprompter Reader in Chief’s administration officials have dismissed the idea that the financial sector should or can be changed in more fundamental ways than they are now proposing. You can’t turn back the clock, they say regarding those who propose bringing back Glass-Steagall.
If you believe this administration is not a cesspool of lobbyists and Wall Street functionaries, or that they are different than prior administrations, look again. We just happen to be dealing with the present circumstance, the evolution of this process remains the same. The official rhetoric festering from this current cesspool states the new requirements they plan to impose on big banks to hold more capital in reserve, put up $150 billion for a rainy-day rescue fund, and disclose more of their risky trades should be enough to keep the financial sector from imploding again. Oh is that our problem? Come on. In the next year the government needs to renew $2 Trillion in short term bonds and finance an additional 1.5 Trillion in new debt for this pork and war folly. How are they going to scrape that up? By monetizing the debt. Folks, in the next few years your $100 dollar bills are not even going to be useful as TP. What does the empire do then?
We are in sight of an impending paradigm shift on the world stage. In fact, we are likely on the verge of a civilization upheaval. Although ingeniously concocted, the One World Order plans of the elite are becoming chaotic. The world economy is in very real danger of collapse that could throw a wrench in their timing. How their carbon credit scam dovetails into this crisis is curious. One thing is certain; it is part of an Orwellian scheme of command and control. Don’t be fooled by angry little diversions about bonuses. It was only a matter of time until the USA fell off the Bretton Woods gold standard (it officially fell off in August of 1971) and a little longer (the past 38 years) until the system was no longer viable. As bellies become empty and the crisis intensifies, the most important thing is for us to jealously guard is our freedom.
It’s encouraging a growing segment of the public is becoming aware of the fact that our government is a treasonous figurehead for a syndicate of corruption that is has been in full looting mode ever since the government drug running and Wall Street money laundering took off in earnest during Iran Contra. It continues today with Afghanistan’s prolific drug export trade.
Report thisBy dickginnold, December 16, 2009 at 5:08 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I agree with most posts, particularly glider and C. Curtis Dillon. On the latter, China is not free of corruption but is sitting pretty because it doesn’t allow financial giants and political crooks to cheat the people. They are shot or thrown into prison for life. We just keep enriching them.
I supported Obama from the start, but no more. What a fake and empty suit. His speech on “just wars” and the sycophantic acceptance by the Nobel Chairman sickened me. Finance and the industrial military complex—Barack, you are an Uncle Tom on both. It will be much harder for you to come back from your malgovernance than Tiger Woods from his misdeeds. And no more quoting MLK, Barack. It just rings false, false, false.
Our last honest President was Jimmy Carter and we were deaf to him at our peril.
Report thisBy idarad, December 16, 2009 at 4:52 am Link to this comment
Until Obushma gets rid of Raul Emmanuel all this crap will continue, he is the one making deals with Joe Lierman, the Phamas, and the robbers (bankers). There needs to be a push to rid this administration of Emmanuel, then it may, I stress may, have a chance to get something out of this presidency. Though much of it lies in ruin
Report thisBy ThomasG, December 16, 2009 at 4:39 am Link to this comment
C.Curtis.Dillon, December 16 at 8:08 am,
Sounds like sound economic policy to me that would serve a useful purpose for the best interest of the American Populace, if implemented.
Report thisBy Mike, December 16, 2009 at 4:31 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It is just a no-brainer - nationalize all banking, pay the execs a fair wage and
Report thisreturn profits to shareholders, tax dividends and place whatever is left in the
treasury. So easy…
By omygodnotagain, December 16, 2009 at 3:50 am Link to this comment
Obama is what The Governator of California aptly calls a ‘girlie-man’. When LBJ was in the White House he threatened lawmakers who were skittish on the Civil Rights Bill. If Obama was to set the FBI and IRS on these fat cats, they would show up, in handcuffs, makes one wish The Governator was sitting in the WH
Report thisBy C.Curtis.Dillon, December 16, 2009 at 3:08 am Link to this comment
Maybe Bill Mahre was right ... hang a few of these bastards from lamp posts on Wall Street and see how the other gangsters react to that. Only I suggest we take the CEOs of all the major banks and make an example of them for all the underlings who may then think twice about another Ponze scam to make a quick buck.
As for the corrupt congressmen who support them, maybe a quick military tribunal and a firing squad on the capital steps would go a long way toward getting those who remain to redirect their considerable energies to the people’s agenda. It becomes more and more obvious that these radical steps are not only warranted but absolutely essential for righting the rapidly sinking ship of state. What a joke this has all become.
Report thisBy Jon, December 16, 2009 at 2:37 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Obama demoted the economic progressives and liberals on his staff as soon as he was elected, and surrounded himself instead with ex Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and ex investment bank and hedge fund employees, such as Summers, and Geithner. Robert Rubin was on Obama’s economic team during the campaign, Rubin being an ex Citigroup executive. Summers was Treasury secretary under Clinton, and along with Summers, Rubin, Geithner, and Greenspan, pushed behind the scenes for banking and Wall Street trading deregulation, including the repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act in 1999, an act that had regulated banks and trading since the Depression. These same men, under Clinton, saw to it that ‘newer’ financial products such as derivatives, were not regulated. Summers in 1999 said of the repeal of Glass-Steagal and other financial deregulation measures, to the effect that finally, the US had a 21st century financial system which would be great for the country. Clinton said the same. So here we are, and Obama is using these same guys.
ANYONE who suggests that Obama has been a naive player since taking office is spectacularly naive him/herself. Obama sought out and placed the fathers of this current disaster into key positions in his administration and moved progressives out to distant, ineffective slots. What does this tell you about who Obama is?
Obama made willful decisions here, and if anything should be impeached, not given any more benefits of the doubt. Sure, he didn’t start this (Reagan did), but he’s embraced the damage mechanisms of Reagan, HW, W and Clinton wholeheartedly and demonstrably, and continues to do so, despite what his teleprompter tells him to say.
Obama may be a one term president, but will go down in history as the one who ‘sealed the deal’ for the financial and corporate coup d’etat that we’re witnessing before our eyes. He’s not naive, he’s doing it with full knowledge, in plain sight, and lying about it.
Report thisBy ardee, December 16, 2009 at 2:33 am Link to this comment
“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”
Are you kidding me? Well, the money ( over $700 million dollars) collected, much of it from these “fat cats” over his two year campaign for the office, his eagerness to give away our nation’s future to these same guys who almost toppled our economy, and his refusal to explore judicial or legislative restraints on their future actions all say exactly the opposite.
Report thisBy hoodia gordonii, December 16, 2009 at 1:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Hi,
Report thisThe fat cats on Wall Street are saying “give us a lot of money, and buy all of our bad debt for a lot more than its worth, or Wall Street will get it and we’ll go into a depression!“Amazing…
By liecatcher, December 16, 2009 at 1:31 am Link to this comment
To:Bbethany7,
December 16 at 5:53 am #
“The true culprit is The Federal Reserve, a
consortium of swindlers who have been gouging
Americans since 1913. Their power makes them
virtual untouchables.”
EXACTLY !!!
And after he gave Benanke carte blanche Bush3’s
Report thisstealth agenda became transparent. His faux attempt
at redemption on 60 minutes was just playing good
cop bad cop & keeps those still clinging to his hope
bridge to nowhere until at least December 23. That
day of infamy in 1913 when Democracy was raped &
murdered.
By liecatcher, December 16, 2009 at 1:19 am Link to this comment
Wall Street’s Fat Cats Are Still In Charge
posted on Dec 15, 2009 By Robert Scheer
Duh !!!
Report thisBy Bbethany7, December 16, 2009 at 12:53 am Link to this comment
The true culprit is The Federal Reserve, a
Report thisconsortium of swindlers who have been gouging
Americans since 1913. Their power makes them
virtual untouchables.
By glider, December 15, 2009 at 11:34 pm Link to this comment
Obama’s protestations are political theater plain and simple. Why else does he choose “60 Minutes”? You don’t hire Government Sachs to repair the Bankster disaster if you are serious about helping the middle class. Obama is intelligent and knows what his actions have created. He is a liar, a scammer, a Bankster co-conspirator, and these are simply efforts to whitewash the evil he has done. If Obama has proven anything to the public, it is that you must ignore his empty disingenuous rhetoric and observe only his actions.
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