Bill Greider lays the stomp on President Obama

[WilliamPitt]

...hard to say Grieder's wrong here...

Obama's False Financial Reform
By William Greider
The Nation

June 19, 2009

The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama's call for financial reform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. He tried to make it sound as though everyone was implicated in the financial breakdown and therefore no one was really to blame. "A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street," Obama explained. "And a regulatory system basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis--the Great Depression--was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."

That is not what happened, to put it charitably. Unlike some other presidents, Obama is much too intelligent not to know this. The regulatory system was not overwhelmed by historic forces. It was systematically gutted and dismantled by the government in Washington at the behest of the banking interests. If Obama wants details, he can consult his economic advisors--Summers-Geithner--who participated directly as accomplices in unwinding the prudential rules and regulations. Cheers were led by the Federal Reserve with heavy lifting by both political parties.

The president's benign version of events reminds me of what compliant politicians and opinion leaders said after the war in Iraq they had endorsed turned disastrous. "Hey, we were all fooled." If Obama were to tell the truth now about what went wrong in the financial system, he would face a far larger political problem trying to clean up the mess. Instead, he has opted for smooth talk and some fuzzy reforms that effectively evade the nasty complexities of our situation. He might get away with this in the short run. Congress doesn't much want to face the music either. But Obama's so-called reform is literally "kicking the can down the road," as he likes to say about other problems. In the long run, it will haunt the country because it fails to confront the true nature of the disorders.

Giving more power to the Federal Reserve to be the uber-regulator of banking and finance is a terrible idea (I examine the dangers in a forthcoming Nation article). Asking the cloistered central bank to resolve all the explosive questions about the over-reaching power of financial institutions is like throwing the problem into a black box and closing the lid, so people will be unable to see what happens next. That is the idea, after all, the reason Wall Street's leading firms first proposed the Fed as super-cop, then sold it to George W. Bush and now Barack Obama. Give the mess to the Wizard of Oz, the guy behind the curtain. He can do miracles with money, but don't watch too closely. This constitutes the high politics of evasion.

Still, I am thrilled to observe a nascent rebellion gathering strength in Congress. Some 230 House members have endorsed a measure to force GAO auditing of the Fed--a small but vital step toward dismantling the central bank's privileged secrecy and intimidating mystique. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed concern (and gave a nice plug for my 1987 book about the Fed). "The fact is that the American people want to know more of the Secrets of the Temple," she said. If they do learn more, I guarantee shock and awe will grow into outrage.

Outrage is good. As someone who has been around this subject for three decades, I came to understand that the power of financial titans and their friends at the Fed depends crucially on public ignorance. Most elected representatives and senators are just as clueless as their constituents. This is not entirely their fault. The system is designed to encourage deference to murky power. In our present crisis, people and politicians are naturally bewildered by the complexities. If they knew more about how the system works, they might be able to see that most of Obama's reforms are insubstantial gestures, not actual remedies.

The president, for instance, proposes to raise the requirements for capital and liquidity held by commercial banks with strict limits on leverage--their ability to borrow. That is a virtuous proposal, but it begs the question. Why did the legal limits already in place fail to restrain the appetites of bankers? Indeed, several times in the last two decades the Fed and other central banks enacted new and supposedly more effective capital requirements to curb the excesses. The big dogs of banking broke free of the leash again and again while vigilant watchdogs at the Fed and elsewhere looked the other way. Why should we expect different results next time?

The rest: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090706/greider2/print

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Greider's been correct at least since 11/25/08

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/108539/obama%27s_treasury_pick_has_all_the_wrong_ideas/

A year ago, when Barack Obama said it was time to turn the page, his campaign declaration seemed to promise a fresh start for Washington. I, for one, failed to foresee Obama would turn the page backward. The president-elect's lineup for key governing positions has opted for continuity, not change. Virtually all of his leading appointments are restoring the Clinton presidency, only without Mr. Bill. In some important ways, Obama's selections seem designed to sustain the failing policies of George W. Bush.

This is not the last word and things are changing rapidly. But Obama's choices have begun to define him. His victory, it appears, was a triumph for the cautious center-right politics that has described the Democratic party for several decades. Those of us who expected more were duped, not so much by Obama but by our own wishful thinking.

* * * *

The system is in collapse. Financial chaos won't wait for patient deliberations.





TG

[DissedByBush]

40. Obama was right

There is fault in varying degrees from regular individuals, special interest groups, Congress and the Executive going back over a decade.

Something this big almost never has a single cause. Obama is smart enough to know that.

[JackRiddler]

45. Not about the thing you say.

There is complicity from many actors involved in assenting to the system. This is true in most situations in life.

The actual steps in dismantling the regulation and shaping the system over the last 10 are well-known and attributable to a small class of people in the financial sector and the federal government who lobbied for and then exploited the changes. How it happened is well-known and touched upon in the Greider article. Have you read it?

You conclude with a platitude rather than observation. "Something this big" can be relatively monocausal: Institutions are formed and run for the material benefit of the rich. The blame-everyone impulse obscures that and guarantees that no change will come and similar disasters will happen again for the same fundamental reasons.

[DissedByBush]

64. Still trying to blame just the banks

One example, if everyone passed-up too-good-to-be-true mortgages then the banks wouldn't have had much to run their scam on.

If ACORN and Congress hadn't pressured banks to make these loans they never would have had the incentive to figure out how to make money off of them through their scam.

If Congress had listened and acted, even the Bush administration raised alarms, this could have been avoided.

We are up to the people themselves, activist groups such as ACORN, Congress and the financial sector. Bush of course makes five.

[JackRiddler]

65. ACORN?!

Whatever. You're talking about a tiny fraction of the subprime loans.

And newsflash: subprime was not the cause of the financial collapse. It was securitization of subprime (and other loans) and derivative betting that caused the world financial crisis and turned billions in subprime losses into the trillions in clone bonds and derivative losses that taxpayers must now carry.

The banks wrote the laws and set up the practices that made this possible, the banks sold the dodgy products to the sucker-investors, and the banks were used as the funnels for the actors who collected the plunder in the end. Your "everyone's at fault" formula has some validity, but is useless in actually correcting anything. You're right that Congress is to blame, as a faithful executor of the banks' will at all times.

A reform that doesn't take away the power from the banks is going to accomplish nothing and lead to more pain down the line. That should be the bottom line, not a bunch of philosophy about how "we're all to blame" (i.e., no one is to blame, keep the status quo).

[DissedByBush]

76. Yes, ACORN

You don't remember them demonstrating to force banks to make risky loans? It's simple: banks didn't used to make such loans, but were pressured into doing so. Having to make these loans, the banks found a way of making money off of them, the securitization of subprimes you mentioned.

We the greedy people started us down this path. Everybody deserves to own a home even if they can't afford it.

The government and groups like ACORN pushed that agenda.

The banks finished us off once the groundwork was laid.

Any reform that doesn't make the people realize they can't get what they can't afford will accomplish nothing and lead to more pain down the line.

A "banks are to blame" attitude will address only part of the problem. We need to address all aspects of the problem.

[JackRiddler]

77. Well, Michelle Bachman has someone who agrees with her...

Show me what percentage of subprime loans were "forced" by ACORN or any law requiring banks to dispense them. It's a joke compared to the total. The lenders aggressively marketed these loans and didn't care because Wall Street banks (who were not forced!) were begging to snap up the bad loans and bundle them into securities. And that was because of the outrageous returns they saw from paying corrupt ratings agencies to give an AAA rating (a lie) and then reselling the securities to investors everywhere, and then selling derivatives and clones based on the bundled securities, including bets against their own bonds. That this behavior was "forced" is a Republican myth that even CNBC has debunked in its landmark two-hour documentary, "House of Cards." Fannie and Freddie themselves got into the subprime act after the big Wall Street players created a market situation where it was considered insane not to play, and their share of the market was also minuscule compared to Wall Street's. It was about hyperprofits and leveraging for more hyperprofits, front to back, in an environment that celebrated corruption and instant payoffs. Greedy little borrowers could wish for whatever they wanted, it would make no difference and they wouldn't get a thing unless the banks saw a profit for themselves in this scheme as a whole. Plenty of good risk borrowers were, in fact, forced into subprime and option-A loans (and later went under) thanks to the incentives the banks saw. Bank executives in turn cared only about their personal skim and didn't give a bang about the lenders, the investors, or even their own institutions, long as they were cashing in the billions in bonuses for themselves. This "everyone's at fault" is a cover story for the top criminals. You would let Gotti go, because waaaaay down the food-chain there's some piker you can blame who hoped to get something for nothing and got burned, but the piker didn't set up this system and didn't reap the billions. In fact, you seem to be happy that the Gottis are still in power, getting the trillions in bailouts and writing the new rules. Please.

[DissedByBush]

79. They aggressively marketed

Once they had to start taking them they figured out a way to make a profit. After that they pushed them as hard as they could to sustain the profit.

The "everybody should own a home" crowd lit the match that started the forest fire. Others are to blame for fanning the flames and for preventing the firemen from putting it out.

"You would let Gotti go"

No, I was criticizing only blaming the banks when there is plenty of blame to go around. I never suggested the banks shouldn't be blamed.

[truedelphi]

2. Yesterday when Obama came on the TV I deftly used the remote to get away from

Him.

"You used to do that when Bush was President!" said the friend who was watching TV with me.

"Did NOT!" said I. I then scrolled back to the channel where he was speaking, and then sighed, and then clicked away.

"Note the sigh," sez I. "When I channel clicked away from Bush, it was as if the Dark Entities of the Universe were inside his presence, and could scramble out the cable box into my soul. With Obama, it's different.

"With Obama, it is as if he is the first boyfriend I had in seventh grade who told me to meet him at the malt shop at 4:30. Then he never showed, because Mary Jane B ran into him as he walking over to our rendezvous. She had fabulous tits, even in seventh grade, and let's face it she wasn't a geek.

"He is the guy I loved for eight long years in my twenties, the one who had a problem with fidelity.

"He is my best friend's ex-husband, who is always late with the child support, despite the assurances that this month it will be different.

"He is not a monster like Bush, but he leaves me puzzled as to what he is. Is the problem with me, that I didn't let him know what I wanted in the way of FISA, economic reform, Universal Single Payer HC etc? Is the problem that he MEANS to do right by me, but it's so hard to do that, cuz he really feels getting Mary Jane's attention will win him a spot in the in crowd? Especially since she has the big bucks to help him out now and then?"

In thinking this over today, all I can do is add another <sigh>

[ima_sinnic]

22. +1 my sentiments exactly.

the illusion was nice was it lasted. but it was only that, an illusion.

[truedelphi]

23. I'm lovin' your user ID.

:toast:

Now I know where and who that echoing sigh came from!

[Skittles]

41. he was no illusion to anyone who was paying attention

[ChiciB1]

49. He Was NEVER My First Choice, Nor Was Hillary... But I "Thought" We Were

really going to see a "starker" change than what has happened with Obama! I couldn't fathom McCain/Palin so I went out and worked my butt of in this VERY HOT Florida sun... and Now??? I've used the same words over and over, a broken record these days... but I'm soooooooooooooooo disillusioned!

[Skittles]

72. he talked a good game

I simply did not believe much of what he said

[Horse with no Name]

78. +1

Yep.

[MsLeopard]

29. K&R your post.... (if only)

Well said. Big sigh.

[tavalon]

32. Ouch, you just described how I feel

I still like watching him but it's wistful.

[defendandprotect]

37. I'm doing the same thing . . . it's an aversion to lies . . .

sad, though . . . really sad -- !!!

[PassingFair]

66. Love this post!

Perfect way to express how Obama is
making me feel, too.

I never deified him, but I figured
that by floating him over the top
of the DLC pick, he would at least
feel SOME courage at do the right
thing for the people, even at the
expense of the corporations....

Guess not... but he was STILL our best
shot.

[DemReadingDU]

3. Both of these articles by Greider are very good, n/t

[kentuck]

4. We have to face the truth...

No matter how hard it may be. I think Greider is telling the truth.

[MarjorieG]

5. He speaks to the pure, and then we have Congress, turf wars and ideology. If Obama could get better

he would. I also think refining regulations will be easier later.

[truedelphi]

6. Yes the refining of the rules and regs will come easier as time goes

On and on.

Each month a little more of the capital we on Main Street have supplied to Wall Street is slipping away.

So in about two years, when it is all gone, the tightening of regulations will come easily, and urgently. While we are made to endure yet another round (From Congress and O's economic team) of "Gosh Gee whiz - we just had no idea that giving all this money to Wall Street banksters needed any oversight. How could we have known THAT?"

[MarjorieG]

11. However legit the gripe, how do we get the regs we and Obama know we need to pass Congress?

[truedelphi]

12. He's the friggin' President, in case some here have not noticed

And also it is an emergency. He can pass a friggin' Executive Act, if that is what it takes.

Roosevelt did that in the thirties, regarding ownership of gold.

But if you read about the things Geithner (Obama's buddy if ever he had one) is proposing as the needed regs for the Emergency, there are a lot of things that do not pass muster. Article worth the read is posted on DU right here:

http://tinyurl.com/nrfjt9

[ProSense]

13. Some of us have noticed

Obama unveils biggest regulatory overhaul since 1930s


I know, it isn't enough.

[glitch]

14. It's worse than enough if they give regulatory power to those that should be regulated.

Reform isn't always in the best direction.

[ProSense]

7. Yeah, remember when FDR took office and changed the world in five months?

Well, it didn't really happen that way.

Fortunately the critics don't have crystal balls so their criticisms are confined to the present. Meanwhile, change is brewing.

[truedelphi]

16. FDR did not offer up the banksters trillions of bucks

And then go, Oops, maybe there should be some oversight. Inf act, he let some banks fail and if Obama's team had avoided the banks out right failing, but taken over the "too big to fail" banks and put them in receivership, it would have been a much smarter situation.

As far as Obama needing time to make it work - if his economic team was doing the right thing, those of us who are critical of this team would give them the time they needed. But there are some situations that are so obscenely counter-intuitive -- If someone at a party offers his car keys to a very drunk person to drive them home, I do not need to wait around to know for the outcome. Same with the elven trillion bucks that Obama's team has "created" to address the situation, and it addresses the situation mainly in the spirit of helping the financial-institution-insider-crowds.

BTW, from what I am reading, Eleven trillion dollars would pay off every single mortgage held by every single mortgage holder in the USA. But it's only chicken feed in comparison to the derivative and Credit Default Swaps losses that may total more than the original 550 Trillion bucks initially apprised to be the sum of that total debit. It has been said that there are not enough trees or other vegetation in the world to even print up 550 Trillion bucks.

Also, how is it fair that Main Street cannot share in the benefit end of the offering that they are making, but will definitely be taxed for this offering, either directly or through hyper inflation? Obama's economic team has offered 93% of the monies to either Wall Street or to activities like the Fed issuing money so that the Treasury Bonds the Treasury Department issues will be bought up by someone.

This may work very short term, at least for those that are rich and can do some commodity buying right now. It can probably work out okay from now until this current "bubbling' of Wall St Traders ultimately crashes.

The reason it cannot work long term is because inside a nation of 330 people, you have to create high paying jobs, which will last, and that affect a lot of people. Meanwhile the stim bill provided mostly tax cuts for the rich, and jobs for people who are capable of using forklifts and jack hammers. It is being said that only three states in the Union have decent budget situations. So while these Wall St insiders can enjoy their ride, many many others, including college educated police, teachers, social workers, project managers etc are getting pink slipped before the third quarter is over. In California, the firefighters are being laid off, even though those looks like it will be a very rough fire season.

[Captain Hilts]

19. He diversified the power to make economic decisions. nt

[truedelphi]

24. I was puzzled by your answer but now think

I get it. You meant FDR, right?

[Captain Hilts]

25. Yes. FDR created new federal agencies to organize workers and dispense aid - in addition to Hoover's

Reconstruction Finance Corporation - and supported the expansion of legal collective bargaining, ultimately through the Wagner Act.

Government work programs not only kept people employed, it individualized relief rather than funnel relief trickle down-style through the RFC as Hoover had done. People were no longer dependent on or tied to moribund industries - as has happened in current day Russia.

FDR has a jolly lunch outdoors with Henry Wallace, Harold Ickes, Rex Tugwell and CCC campers:



Eleanor gives 'em a grilling. Poor souls expected a quick 'grip and grin' photo-op:

[defendandprotect]

38. Obama has put the thieves in charge of new policy . . .Summers/Geithner . . .

etc.

Not to mention the poisonous DLC-corporate wing of the Democratic Party moved into
the White House!!!

No good is going to come from any of that and we all know it!!

[Captain Hilts]

18. He changed the GOVERNMENT in five months. The world would take a while longer. nt

[ProSense]

33. FDR and the New Deal

The result was not a "revolution" as some liked to claim...

[defendandprotect]

39. Correct . . . by regulating capitalism, he saved capitalism . . . this time it's over--!!!!

[Captain Hilts]

70. It revolutionized the way people thought about government and brought it into their lives

for the first time.

It changed the acceptable boundaries of govt.

This one essay - and I've read the book - is one man's opinion.

[pretzel4gore]

8. good. We are subhuman monkees

obama is just the needed adjunct to 8 years of goofy (bush)...the lies are so thick and endless (ferchrissake, junyer wasn't even elected in 2k! They joke about it on latenight tv!) that only by piling lies ontop can the earlier lies be kept down, outtasite (which might trigger mass executions of anybody who's been a player in the system :))
It's a mess, and it gonna get worse and by the time mankind straps on his 6 gun re: the Marshal in 'High Noon' and faces down the reactionary rightwing Daltons Brothers, it'll be too darn late.
hahahahaha...

[malaise]

9. Grieder has been on the ball from day one

The regulatory system was not overwhelmed by historic forces. It was systematically gutted and dismantled by the government in Washington at the behest of the banking interests. If Obama wants details, he can consult his economic advisors--Summers-Geithner--who participated directly as accomplices in unwinding the prudential rules and regulations. Cheers were led by the Federal Reserve with heavy lifting by both political parties.

[Subdivisions]

10. 'Still, I am thrilled to observe a nascent rebellion gathering strength in Congress.

Some 230 House members have endorsed a measure to force GAO auditing of the Fed--a small but vital step toward dismantling the central bank's privileged secrecy and intimidating mystique. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed concern (and gave a nice plug for my 1987 book about the Fed). "The fact is that the American people want to know more of the Secrets of the Temple," she said. If they do learn more, I guarantee shock and awe will grow into outrage.'

Just happens to be a Ron Paul bill (and Kucinich is on board too):

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207">H.R. 1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009

To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Cosponsors
Rep. Jeff Miller
Rep. Lynn Jenkins
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland
Rep. Shelley Capito
Rep. John Mica
Rep. Roy Blunt
Rep. Robert Aderholt
Rep. Dean Heller
Rep. Peter King
Rep. Peter Sessions
Rep. Bill Posey
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Frederick Upton
Rep. Paul Broun
Rep. Nathan Deal
Rep. Mark Schauer
Rep. Lamar Smith
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen
Rep. Judy Biggert
Rep. James McGovern
Rep. Jared Polis
Rep. Glenn Thompson
Rep. Jeff Flake
Rep. Michael Simpson
Rep. Tom Price
Rep. Raul Grijalva
Rep. Walter Jones
Rep. John Culberson
Rep. George Radanovich
Rep. Tim Holden
Rep. Dave Reichert
Rep. John Linder
Rep. James Forbes
Rep. Greg Walden
Rep. Christopher Carney
Rep. Heath Shuler
Rep. Solomon Ortiz
Rep. Christopher Smith
Rep. Jason Chaffetz
Rep. Brett Guthrie
Rep. Pete Olson
Rep. John Gingrey
Rep. Mark Souder
Rep. Michael Rogers
Rep. David Camp
Rep. Kevin McCarthy
Rep. John Boehner
Rep. Randy Neugebauer
Rep. Edward Royce
Rep. Howard McKeon
Rep. Geoff Davis
Rep. Jackie Speier
Rep. Devin Nunes
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Rep. Robert Goodlatte
Rep. Mary Fallin
Rep. John Fleming
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Rep. Parker Griffith
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Candice Miller
Rep. Clifford Stearns
Rep. Ed Perlmutter
Rep. Ralph Hall
Rep. Darrell Issa
Rep. Robert Latta
Rep. Tom Cole
Rep. Adrian Smith
Rep. Walter Herger
Rep. Daniel Lipinski
Rep. Harry Teague
Rep. Joe Barton
Rep. John Duncan
Rep. Henry Brown
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter
Rep. Bill Cassidy
Rep. John Boozman
Rep. Jason Altmire
Rep. Patrick Tiberi
Rep. Michael Michaud
Rep. William Shuster
Rep. Leonard Lance
Rep. Michael Burgess
Rep. Thomas Rooney
Rep. Timothy Walz
Rep. John McHugh
Rep. James Sensenbrenner
Rep. Rob Bishop
Rep. Ted Poe
Rep. Addison Wilson
Rep. Gus Bilirakis
Rep. Todd Tiahrt
Rep. Sue Myrick
Rep. Tim Murphy
Rep. Dan Burton
Rep. Steve Scalise
Rep. Tom McClintock
Rep. Bruce Braley
Rep. James McDermott
Rep. John Shimkus
Rep. Jim Jordan
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Rep. Collin Peterson
Rep. Spencer Bachus
Rep. Suzanne Kosmas
Rep. Steven LaTourette
Rep. John Kline
Rep. Ander Crenshaw
Rep. Fortney Stark
Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry
Rep. Samuel Johnson
Rep. Charles Dent
Rep. Rodney Alexander
Rep. John Carter
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett
Rep. Mike Coffman
Rep. Jim Gerlach
Rep. Paul Tonko
Rep. Jo Bonner
Rep. Erik Paulsen
Rep. Harry Mitchell
Rep. Gary Miller
Rep. Walter Minnick
Rep. Corrine Brown
Rep. David Loebsack
Rep. Dennis Rehberg
Rep. Virginia Brown-Waite
Rep. Daniel Maffei
Rep. Steve King
Rep. Alan Grayson
Rep. Henry Johnson
Rep. Ken Calvert
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
Rep. Gregg Harper
Rep. Neil Abercrombie
Rep. Bobby Bright
Rep. Donna Edwards
Rep. Mary Bono Mack
Rep. Samuel Graves
Rep. Gene Taylor
Rep. Michele Bachmann
Rep. David Dreier
Rep. Lynn Woolsey
Rep. Steven Rothman
Rep. Michael Castle
Rep. Brian Bilbray
Rep. Travis Childers
Rep. Michael Conaway
Rep. Tammy Baldwin
Rep. Steve Kagen
Rep. Phil Hare
Rep. Lee Terry
Rep. Howard Coble
Rep. Bill Young
Rep. Joseph Pitts
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
Rep. Robert Berry
Rep. Jeb Hensarling
Rep. Louise Slaughter
Rep. John Shadegg
Rep. William Thornberry
Rep. Michael Turner
Rep. Aaron Schock
Rep. Lloyd Doggett
Rep. Janice Schakowsky
Rep. Thomas Latham
Rep. Cynthia Lummis
Rep. Peter Welch
Rep. Marcy Kaptur
Rep. Virginia Foxx
Rep. Thomas Edwards
Rep. Stephen Buyer
Rep. John Barrow
Rep. Jean Schmidt
Rep. Frank Kratovil
Rep. Jerry Moran
Rep. Adam Putnam
Rep. Anh Cao
Rep. Patrick Mchenry
Rep. Timothy Johnson
Rep. Frank Lucas
Rep. Mike McIntyre
Rep. Zach Wamp
Rep. Jay Inslee
Rep. Steve Austria
Rep. Vern Buchanan
Rep. Doc Hastings
Rep. Frank LoBiondo
Rep. Todd Akin
Rep. Daniel Lungren
Rep. Jack Kingston
Rep. Donald Young
Rep. Bob Inglis
Rep. Thomas Perriello
Rep. Scott Garrett
Rep. John Sarbanes
Rep. David Roe
Rep. Thomas Petri
Rep. Christopher Lee
Rep. Vernon Ehlers
Rep. John Adler
Rep. James Barrett
Rep. Marsha Blackburn
Rep. Edward Pastor
Rep. Mike Pence
Rep. Louis Gohmert
Rep. Leonard Boswell
Rep. Paul Ryan
Rep. Eric Massa
Rep. Peter Hoekstra
Rep. Edward Whitfield
Rep. Kevin Brady
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter
Rep. Charles Boustany
Rep. Shelley Berkley
Rep. Michael McCaul
Rep. Trent Franks
Rep. Mike Ross
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart
Rep. Todd Platts
Rep. Kay Granger
Rep. Michael Rogers
Rep. John Campbell
Rep. Peter DeFazio
Rep. Frank Wolf
Rep. Doug Lamborn
Rep. Connie Mack
Rep. William Pascrell
Rep. Peter Roskam
Rep. Deborah Halvorson
Rep. Rob Wittman
Rep. Donald Manzullo
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer
Rep. Patrick Murphy
Rep. Kenny Marchant

[glitch]

15. Me too. nt

[truedelphi]

17. That is good news. n/t

[DemReadingDU]

20. Hope it continues to grow

[Greyhound]

21. K&R

[checks-n-balances]

26. Thanks for the excellent article. I discovered a similar one yesterday

from the Huffington Post
Obama's Financial Reforms: Five Reasons Why They Are Likely to Fail
by Les Leopold, author of The Looting of America
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/obamas-financial-reforms_b_217375.html

Not a long article with some great points. Here's one he made that really jumped out at me. It made me realize an additional way that the Bush tax cuts (still continuing, unfortunately) were a major factor in our present financial disaster:

"The money didn't trickle down. When the wealthiest few ran out of easy investments in the real economy, they turned to Wall Street's fantasy finance casinos...it is screaming at us to dramatically reduce the size and influence of the financial sector, and to fundamentally address the obscene and systemically dangerous concentration of wealth in too few hands."

So those with too much money to know what to do with played games with it; yes they "reinvested it into the economy" (as they were sold to the American public each time) but in ways that made it all worse. So why in HELL are we continuing them?

As brilliant as Obama is, he doesn't seem to GET it. I know his grandmother was a banker herself (and I'm sure an honest one), but doesn't he realize that his own mother, as a single parent, would not really be doing that well in our existing economy if she were still alive today?

That may sound a little personal, but I do remember his recalling how she had to fight while on her deathbed for the health coverage she was entitled to by her insurance co. But that's another, although related, story.

[pjt7]

27. Greider is

giving it to you straight.

[ChiciB1]

48. Anyone Who Watched C-Span This Am Might Have Heard Kevin Baker

of Harper's Magazine talking about his article he writes in the July Edition called "Barack "hoover" Obama! He made SO MUCH SENSE to me! I want to get it and read it because of it. From what I gathered he is saying that Obama is pretty much "going along -- to get along" and those are MY words! He's NOT LEADING, he's NOT taking the Bull by the horns and for me I'm tired of this Kumbaya attitude!

What are "we the people" getting for our buck?? No BANG for sure! And I'm seeing more and more regular "joes & janes" beginning to actually see this! Not to mention a slow realization of some MSM types who are starting to make the same noise!

What happened to Obama's call from his campaign... something about I hear you, I need your help, and I will be your LEADER as President?? What I'm seeing is a sort of "cave in" to those who have been CONTROLLING for much too long, the SAME PEOPLE & CORPORATIONS who got us into this mess, and I'm NOT seeing what I THOUGHT I voted for!!

I still watch C-Span and come here for "news updates" but I TOO turn off the "Speak of Obama" which seems to be a daily thing! Another speech, another something... for me and for many of my friends and family who worked very hard to get him elected, there's a knot in our stomach because we feel HOPELESS!!!!

And before I hear the hue and cry about "getting involved" writing Congress people all the same stuff... we've BEEN THERE, DONE THAT... too many, many times! My Senators or Representative simply don't even reply to any inquiries we have! It seems we are a "lone" voice and the ONLY thing I see that "might" make a difference is REVOLT! But THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!! I'm told over and over... IT WON'T WORK! So then I SIT AND WONDER SOME MORE!!!!

This country needs a VERY HEAVY DOSE of what we say we want to spread around the world DEMOCRACY!!! I'm not seeing it here!! And I won't apologize for offending those of you who still spout "it's ONLY BEEN FIVE MONTHS!" Tell me, where will we be in ANOTHER FIVE MONTHS at THIS RATE??????

[MasonJar]

28. William Greider is dead center every time I read him. Obama is a

DLCer who never joined. His policies on all fronts make that clear. He is what he is, and that is decidedly not a progressive. We are stuck with what he is. And I am not a happy camper...because this is not the Obama who ran for office. If he had run honestly on his centrist views, he may or may not have won, but if he had I would not feel betrayed. As it is, I am mad again every day just like I was for the last 8 years, just not in the same magnitude.

[ChiciB1]

50. I Hear You... I Hear You & So Do So Many Of My Other POLITICAL Friends!

I wonder if OBAMA is hearing anything from us or is just listening to his "inner circle" who sold us down the river before!!!!

History WAS made with the FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, but at this rate he's going to be a ONE TERMER from where I sit! If a corner isn't turned very soon, I'm off the wagon! Well, from my comments, I guess I'm hanging onto the wagon right now, and actually falling off!

And THESE comments ARE NOT THE COMMENTS I want to make... I REALLY, REALLY don't, but it's what I'm seeing, I have no blinders on and it's time "we the people" get rid of them!!!!

[bbgrunt]

30. k n r x 1000

[ooglymoogly]

31. The emperor has no clothes

This was so easy to say about Bush....How now brown cow.

[tavalon]

34. Willam Greider is dead to me!

I'm kidding, but I figured someone would say it. There is a cadre here that will brook no criticism of our current President. I'm not among them. I wish Obama would stop playing nice with these people.

[Indenturedebtor]

42. At first I thought he was playing nice

I'm growing ever more certain that he is "those people".

Good read, thanks for posting OP!

[bertman]

35. Excellent thread. Keep those cards and emails coming, folks. To our reps that is.

Let our voices be heard. It's a powerful tool.

Recommend.

[defendandprotect]

36. Haven't read all of this yet, but bless Greider -- I adore the man . . .

He's written some wonderful books over the decades trying to wake up America--!!!

[pjt7]

43. Has Keith Olberman or Chris Matthews brought up

the issue of the FED, needing to be held more accountable?

[defendandprotect]

57. I don't watch Matthews - and only part of Olbermann ...

and so far I haven't heard anything about FED, but I'm probably not
best source on him.
I also watch Maddow when I can and haven't noticed it there.

Greider wrote a whole book on the Fed - "Secrets of the Temple" - which
everyone should read.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Rebel Scum]

46. "Those of us who expected more were duped, not so much by Obama but by our own wishful thinking."

So true. I think so many of us were so glad to get rid of Bush that people were not really looking at who they were voting for. Not close enough anyway.

[WilliamPitt]

47. So we should have voted for McCain, then?

Um...

[ChiciB1]

51. Wrong Question... Do You REALLY Think That's A Good Response??

OF COURSE NOT!! But let's just say, it looks like we didn't get what WE PAID FOR!!!! And are STILL paying for DEARLY!!!

[PassingFair]

67. All of the other viable alternatives were MUCH worse.

And MUCH more obvious.

[ChiciB1]

68. I Guess As A Liberal & A One Time Hippie... Satisfaction Is Hard For Me To See!

I agree it could have been much worse, but then I thought it was going to be MUCH BETTER!

As my father used to say, "that's what you get for thinking!"

[PassingFair]

69. That's where HOPE got us this time....

Well, I'm clinging to a little of that
hope still.

I'm hoping that a public option will
be FORCED into health care reform.

I'm hoping for eventual National Health
Care.

If he (and we) can pull THAT off, it
will be worth the other losses.

[ChiciB1]

71. Ah, But There's The Rub For Me! I No Longer Use The Word HOPE... I Stopped

using it about 2001, thought it was a good idea during the campaign and it WAS one of the TWO operative words. CHANGE & HOPE!!

Haven't seen that much change, and I really don't think HOPE is going to get us National Health Care. I really don't think the people of America are willing or even able to hold anyone's feet to the fire! Look at Iran, a place that can get you KILLED for demonstration, and yet they fill the streets day after day, when in all probability they KNOW what the end game will be. Here? Not so much, actually RARELY! We just sit back and take it. There WAS a time when the PEOPLE SPOKE and got listened to, but then the people seemed much more WILLING to SPEAK!

I've tried and tried and I'm very tired of trying. I kick myself in the head all the time because I'M STILL HERE!! They will put on my gravestone... POLITICS KILLED HER, and it just might be true!

Oh, getting too maudlin, sometimes I just can't help myself! Another saying that most of us have heard over & over... ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS! Without action, words don't count that much as I see it.

[PassingFair]

74. I have often thought that the American people will NOT...

take to the streets en masse unless
our TV's are shut off.

Perhaps high cable bills will cause
unrest in the future.

If we have food in our stomachs and
TV....we will NOT protest our downfall.

Keep fighting for the Public Option ChiciB1,
we have to keep moving forward.

:hi:

[Karmadillo]

52. As long as we continue to pretend Tweedledum and Tweedledee are our only choices,

those are the only choices we'll have.

[ChiciB1]

53. Yeah... For Sure... But Give Me Some Answers... Lead The Way Out Of The Abyss!

Just saying "VOTE 'EM OUT" will not work!! Too much money involved! My Representative, Vern Buchanan had 12 LAWSUITS against him when he ran in 2006 and won by 369 votes, 18,500 that got lost! Even though Jennings is so DLC and a former Repukes she fought back for a VERY LONG time! Every time I turned around she and her lawyers were asking for more & more money!!

And guess who funded her FIRST run in 2006 to a great extent? Rahm Emmanuel and then DROPPED her in 2008! And WHERE is Rahm doing his work now???

PLEASE give me some answers, I can't find any! And believe me I worked REALLY hard for more years than I like to admit anymore. So many people over the years told me over and over that I was spitting in the wind, NOW I think I UNDERSTAND and wish I hadn't wasted so much of mu time trying to MAKE A CHANGE!!

Well, at least ALL THAT MEMORABILIA I bought from the campaign will be worth something to my grandchildren! Now there's a "silver lining!"

[Karmadillo]

54. Follow my keyboard to the barricades!

Oh. Wait. That probably won't work. The first step to health is recognizing we have a problem. We either have to figure out a way to let the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party (Wellstone/Kucinich types) gain control of the party or we have to figure out a way to create a party where the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party can oppose both corporate parties. I don't have a brilliant path to offer anyone, but I don't have to have a completed plan of action drafted when I discover the safety switch of the garbage disposal isn't working to know it's time to take my hand out. The left is getting nothing from the Democrats. While compromise is a part of political life, perpetual capitulation is just cowardice.

As Mario Savio said: "There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop, And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all."

And it's not like Savio and the others of the Sixties won, but Jesus, they at least stood up to the criminal ruling class and, at least for awhile anyway, said we're not going to go along with you. I'd rather lose trying to find a way out of this than go through this constant charade of pretending that a progressive world is just around the corner as soon as we give the Democrats the White House and a congressional majority. Wait. They need more. I meant a supermajority. Wait. Did I say supermajority? That wouldn't be enough. They need etc. etc. etc.

[ChiciB1]

61. What You Said SURE Sums It Up!!! Stop Blaming "The Left" I Say AND

how correct you are about the SIXTIES! My serious involvement began in the very early 70's, like '71 or '72 even though I was AWARE long before then!

My father introduced me to politics at the young age of 11 and this is just ANOTHER reason why I want to just throw my hands up in the air and say I QUIT!! It's NOT getting better no matter WHO says it is, at least not from where I'm sitting!

It REALLY does seem more and more like US against THEM... and I mean those in POWER! No Democracy that I was brought up with seems to be in sight. Seems all I see is people following other people and sitting at OUR COMPUTERS thinking we can make it different!

Yes, I have become quite the cynic, more fiercely than I ever thought possible! I almost want to apologize for my ranting, but WHY SHOULD I??? No HOPING from me, just WISHING it could be different and we could find some effective way to get our voices REALLY heard!

And yes, I'm a LIBERAL... not until Ronnie Ray-Guns did people start using PROGRESSIVE because he tried and MADE LIBERAL a dirty word!! So call me a DIRTY LIBERAL and be done with it!

[pjt7]

55. Let's see Bill Greider get a full coverage media

go around.

I was subjected to Dick Cheney's daughter mouthing lies & non-sense for a couple of weeks, let's see Mr. Greider get some full coverage on his straight on views.

[JackRiddler]

80. The trick is to make the choice be between Tweedledee and Genghis Khan.

[Vidar]

56. Excellent article.

[defendandprotect]

58. Where are Obama/Democrats on RE-REGULATION of capitalism???

Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime --

And the longer this period of de-regulation goes on the more jeopardy
we are in.

[customerserviceguy]

59. Thanks for posting that

I knew that there would never be true reform of the financial system when Summers and Geithner were given the highest economic posts in the country.

That's like putting Dick Cheney in charge of figuring out what happened at Abu Ghraib.

[tomreedtoon]

60. Congress gettintg "outraged?" BWAH-hah-hahhh!

And here I though Greider had no sense of humor!

For the record, there is NOBODY out there...outside of jail or mental hospitals...that expresses outrage. Oh, they use the word, but they don't mean it any more than they mean they want the driver next to them should die.

We have been taught for decades that to express anger or offense at anyone else is evil, inappropriate, antisocial and indicates mental illness. We have been told "Don't fight!" as children, and as a result we don't fight, not even when our welfare or lives are at risk.

And inasmuch as nobody in Congress is or ever will suffer financial hardship, they don't even have a reason for expressing outrage. I'll bet none of you can identify a member of Congress who ever went on welfare or had to beg on the street.

Greider believes that the rest of the human race will eventually get up and follow him on his grand crusade. He's been doing that for decades and he still has a hell of a lot of those hand-made banners on poles in his garage. Nobody has joined them and nobody ever will.

[ChiciB1]

62. Unfortunately The Days When His Kind Of Activism Existed Are LONG GONE!!! n/t

[truedelphi]

75. One person who did really have a tough time and

Even confesses to living in his car, is Congressman Kucinich.

That is why he gets it. He stands up to the Powers that Be again and again.

And he attempts to warn everyone that the Geithner/Bernanke-controlled Bailouts will simply allow those crooked banksters on Wall Street to purchase the very ropes by which the middle class will be hung out to dry.

Lynn Woolsey hadf to start her life over from scratch when she was divorced from her husband. For the first few years after that, she was on AFDC.

So those are two Congress people who get it. They understand poverty because they have lived it.

Very few like them, though.

[mnhtnbb]

63. Those of us who weren't expecting the second coming with Obama are not surprised.

The guy has always had serious connections to Wall Street and financial systems. And that's the problem.

The system is run by the moneyed and powerful for their benefit. You want to play the game, you make
friends with the players. Obama has done that very well.

I am optimistic that we will see some changes under Obama that would never have happened under McCain.

But I am not optimistic that this country is really ready to move very far left. It may move left
from where it was under Bush, but that is just moving more toward the center. I think that's where Obama is taking us.

I, too, sigh, wishing it could be more.

[Better Believe It]

73. K & R