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By Dave Eggers
$25.00
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By Daniel Domscheit-Berg
$15.64
$17
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Original: Reagan Library
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By David Sirota — In a state where Democrats outnumber the GOP by a 3-to-1 margin, little-known Republican Scott Brown defeated his rival by demonizing the government and taxes.
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bbc.co.uk
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In case you hadn’t noticed, not a heck of a lot has changed on Wall Street in the last year, despite various banking behemoths’ successful pleas for federal aid to float them out of the recession they were instrumental in creating. Well, that’s about to change—or so President Barack Obama says, at least.
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Flickr / eflon
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The Fed has nothing to hide about its dealings with AIG when it saved the too-big-to-fail insurance behemoth during the great bailout of 2008-9—or at least Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has signaled his full willingness to make the central bank’s relevant “records and personnel” available to investigators from the Government Accountability Office.
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By David Sirota — On economic issues, we are often told that right is center, center is left, and left is fringe. For a year, national reporters (with help from conservative talk-radio goons) have depicted the center-right Obama administration and its corporatist policies as quasi-Marxist.
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commons.wikimedia.org / Ramy Majouji
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President Barack Obama wants to slap a new tax on the country’s largest financial institutions in an ostensible attempt to “recover every single dime” given away in 2008’s Wall Street bailout. The tax was met with predictable fat-cat jeers, despite the fact that the industry has largely recovered from the crisis.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If you held a contest to pick the worst thing a politician could be called at this moment, my nominee would be Wall Street Liberal—which is why President Obama’s new fees on the biggest banks comes just in time.
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AP / Mark Lennihan
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He’s not the only one saying this, but considering his background, Robert Reich is a pretty significant voice pointing out how, over a year since things went seriously south on Wall Street, “almost nothing has been done to prevent all hell from breaking loose again.”
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AP / Richard Drew
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By Chris Hedges — When the bailout trillions run out, Wall Street’s maladjusted gamblers will come back for more until our currency becomes junk. Not that any of these people, who exhibit the same traits as psychopaths, have thought this through.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Back in 2008, when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was just the lowly president of the New York Federal Reserve, he was involved in some interactions with embattled insurance giant AIG that apparently resulted in AIG withholding important information from the public. Now Geithner’s under pressure from at least one concerned member of Congress to testify about this matter.
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The total price tag for each American for the financial bailout is about $10,000. Could be worse: Brits are paying more than $47,000 apiece. The unemployed bear the brunt of the meltdown, but we all carry a debt for saving Citi, AIG and the rest.
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AP / Haraz N. Ghanbari
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By Robert Scheer — Maybe I got it wrong. During the presidential campaign I wrote columns blasting Sen. John McCain for siding with the big bankers on deregulation, citing his choosing ex-Sen. Phil Gramm, currently a vice chairman of the Swiss-owned banking giant UBS, as his presidential campaign chair.
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gametrailers.com
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Leave it to the good ol’ U.S. of A. to produce this sort of thing: An enterprising gaming company by the name of Hands-On Mobile has created an iPhone game that allows users to play the part of the money-gobbling Fed. In this digitized satire the Fed actually eats angry citizens. But fear not ... (continued)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Democrats can avoid a midterm rout if they get progressives excited without turning off independent voters. Here’s how.
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The filmmaker who gave us “Why We Fight” has crafted this powerful call to action out of scenes from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and documentary footage.
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Flickr / eflon
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We all know the outcome now, but in the latter months of 2007 executives at AIG seemed to be only starting to catch wind of the problems that eventually led to the nationwide financial collapse the firm helped precipitate a year later. Were they just overly confident? Clueless? Or were they hiding the fact that they knew very well that the jig was up?
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foreclosurewearhouse.com
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Who knew the Treasury Department had such deep pockets? Well, besides all of Wall Street, we can put the beleaguered duo that is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the list. The Treasury has obligingly removed the $400 billion cap previously assigned to the funding designated to save the two mortgage firms.
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speaker.gov
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By Eugene Robinson — The fact is some can play this game and some can’t. Nancy Pelosi delivers time and again. Harry Reid hasn’t. The president and his chief of staff could use some coaching, too.
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Federal Reserve
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It’s been a good week for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. First came the news that he’d been chosen to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and then, on Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee voted to approve his nomination to lead the Fed for another four years.
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By Ellen Goodman — What does it say when the New York Post hires Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute as a columnist and the bailout babies of Wall Street can’t be bothered to show up to the White House?
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AP / Mark Lennihan
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Was there ever a time when Goldman Sachs was more, um, ethical and client-centric than greedy and profit-driven, as its reputation now suggests? That’s debatable, but whatever its previous corporate ethos might have been, all signs point to Goldman’s current chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, as the major driving force behind the firm’s push for building bigger profits quicker these days.
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Flickr / Liberal Democrats
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Now that health care reform has been tailored to the demands of Sen. Joe Lieberman, there’s real debate among progressives about whether it’s worth doing at all. Howard Dean writes: “Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform.” (continued)
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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By Robert Scheer — 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 finally seems to grasp the obvious.
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AP / Susan Walsh
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On Monday at the White House, President Barack Obama reminded a group of big banking honchos (or “fat cats,” as he called them Sunday) about last year’s bailout and advised them to get busy helping the taxpayers who helped with their recovery. Well, good luck with that one.
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Collage: Gravel photo from Flickr / Center for American Progress Action Fund
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By Chris Hedges — Few voices in American politics have been as consistent, as reasoned and as moral as his, which is one reason why Mike Gravel, on a chilly December morning, is in front of the White House, not inside it.
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AP / Henny Ray Abrams
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In what is being hailed as the biggest bid to change financial regulation since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the House of Representatives on Friday passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. In a press conference after the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed, “We are sending a clear message to Wall Street: The party is over.”
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By David Sirota — Without consequences—or worse, with rewards—for wrongdoing, there is an incentive to do wrong. One need look no further than Wall Street and Washington, D.C.
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Flickr / antiparticle
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Goldman Sachs has had a record year in terms of employee earnings—The Wall Street Journal says Goldman’s 31,000 worker bees brought in an average of more than $700,000 each in 2009—and that would be better news for the firm if it hadn’t been on the receiving end of major federal funding from last year’s bailout.
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Do Americans really need to know how sausage gets made over at the Federal Reserve? As Stephen Colbert points out, there may be a little pig rectum in the mix, but as long as the Fed’s minions are allowed to perform their secret rituals, which may or may not involve ritual chicken slaughter, we all profit in the end, no?
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speaker.gov
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The president is so desperate for ways to fight unemployment he issued a call Thursday for “fresh perspectives and new ideas.” Well, Nancy Pelosi has some. The House speaker wants to spend some of that hot, hot TARP money on job creation. (continued)
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President Obama laid out what he believes his administration has been doing to deal with the employment crisis in America thus far and hinted at forthcoming developments in his plan to create more jobs. During a press conference Thursday he tried to take some of the heat off his administration by stating, “Ultimately, true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector.”
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Bank of America has been cleared by the U.S. government to repay the $45 billion in TARP funds it received last year at the height of the banking crisis, and BofA may be preparing to do so before 2009 comes to a close. That said, it’s not a foregone conclusion that the transaction will take place this month, even though the company has some built-in motivation to quickly make good on its payback promise.
Posted on Dec 2, 2009
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By David Sirota — Every American will spend $2,700 on the military next year and the Pentagon “lost” at least $1 trillion, but how dare you criticize the military?
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Flickr/James Buck
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By Yasha Levine — Student protesters may think they are simply battling a wasteful, callous government bureaucracy that is more concerned about bailing out Wall Street banks than supporting a frivolous thing like education. But really the fight is about something much more basic and widespread: It is a fight between the young and the old, between California’s baby boomer pensioners and everyone under 49.
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At long last, it seems that members of Congress, of left- and right-leaning persuasions alike, are harboring serious doubts about a couple of key players on President Barack Obama’s economic task force. The right-leaning Tony Blankley thinks that this signals the cyclical, and helpful, breakdown of hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, Robert Scheer thinks Sarah Palin is still scary.
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In these clips from Vice President Joe Biden’s visit Tuesday to “The Daily Show,” the nation’s No. 2 takes stock of the Obama administration’s first year in office, defends his boss’ decisions on a couple contentious issues, and compares Wall Street honchos to rattlesnakes.
Posted on Nov 18, 2009
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Flickr / eflon
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Those financial institutions that viewed last year’s bailout as an object lesson that they can carry on as they wish so long as they’re “too big to fail” may have to adopt another approach. At least, that was the message Monday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, if he makes good on words of warning to big banks.
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Mike McCaffrey
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Around here we take what Paul Krugman has to say seriously, which is probably why we’ve been so depressed lately. Alas (at last, even), the Nobel Prize-winning economist sees signs of hope—not in the numbers, but walking around the streets of New York and Princeton. (continued)
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Those entitled Wall Street types at Goldman Sachs are apparently oblivious to the fact that they’re having some PR issues of late—either that, or they don’t really care. Either way, “SNL” stars Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers make them the brunt of their jokes in this clip from last weekend’s show.
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Flickr / SEIU International
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Rep. Dennis Kucinich explains why he voted against the landmark health reform bill, which he says “continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America’s manufacturing and service economies.”
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White House / Pete Souza
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By David Sirota — The former financial executives inside the Obama administration have labeled their bill the “Financial Stability Improvement Act,” but it’s more like the 9/11 of bailouts.
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White House / Pete Souza
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That Timothy Geithner must love the big banks he spends all day talking to. Back when he was in charge of things, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced AIG to pay off Wall Street tycoons for all those toxic bets, even though the mega-insurer was busy trying to negotiate a better deal.
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about.com
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The government-run TARP program is preparing to shift its focus from large banks—such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America—to smaller banks, noting that small businesses are still struggling to get access to credit.
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By Eugene Robinson — Slashing bonuses at bailed-out companies is like arresting jaywalkers while ignoring the bank robbery that’s happening in broad daylight down the block.
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — Who are these people? I am not referring to the pathetic parents of “Balloon Boy,” whose fake drama I have been unable to escape while on the treadmill this week, thanks to my gym’s insistence on tuning its flat-screen TVs to Wolf Blitzer’s nonstop self-parody.
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0-60mag.com
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If you thought last year’s federal budget deficit was pretty big, you were right—and it’s three times as big now! Thanks to the magic of the recession, as well as the government’s attempts to rescue various sectors of the economy (and throw money at others, or so it appeared), the deficit for the 12 months ending last month was a whopping $1.42 trillion.
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — There is an odd disconnect between the furious public debate over health care reform, with its emphasis on the cost of an increased government role, and the nonexistent discussion about the far more expensive and largely secretive government program to bail out Wall Street.
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AP / Lawrence Jackson
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There is some rumbling among the congressional Republican ranks that Team Obama’s stimulus package has driven the country into ever deeper economic trouble, but one prominent member of said presidential team, economic adviser Lawrence Summers, begs to differ—and he’s written a letter to House GOP honcho John Boehner to tell him why.
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infiniteunknown.com
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It’s unsurprising to say the least: A Freedom of Information Act request has discovered that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in daily two-way communication with a small group of Wall Street CEOs—at Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs—while lawmakers like Rep. Xavier Becerra are forced to leave messages for him.
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By Marie Cocco — The fevered urgency with which the bailout was pushed by the Bush administration and enacted by the Democratic Congress last year has been followed by dithering in the midst of the employment crisis.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Joe Conason — If the president and Congress don’t come to the aid of workers, the political consequences will be severe, and deservedly so.
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