At a Senate hearing Thursday, Elizabeth Warren exposed and shamed regulators for failing to prosecute banks that played a leading role in the financial crisis.
On this week’s show, Robert Scheer opines that the current financial regulation bill favors big banks—here we go again—and doesn’t do much to help consumers. Meanwhile, Gen. Stanley McChrystal is free to explore other career options.
The Icelandic volcano isn’t the only problem blowing over from Europe, judging by Thursday’s dismal stock market dive, touched off in part by problems in the euro zone as well as homegrown concerns about the American government’s plans for financial regulation.
In case it wasn’t made perfectly clear in recent months how the American political system actually operates on its uppermost levels, here we have an object lesson to consider: Upset by the notion that the Obama administration might be working on regulating the financial industry next, some of Wall Street’s bigwigs are now focusing their funding efforts on the GOP.
President Barack Obama gave Senate Democrats a pep talk Wednesday, rallying the battle-fatigued and dispirited among them by reminding of the need to “finish the job” concerning health care and financial reform and recommending that they refrain from taking their cues from cable TV news and the blogosphere. Instead, Obama said, they would do well to get out and talk to ordinary Americans.