Yves: "Obama is a lackey of the financiers ... their looting, or he is a fool."

[Karmadillo]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/02/latest-obama-nation-president-defends-bankster-pay.html

<edit>

Yves here. There are only two, not mutually exclusive, conclusions one can reach from reading this tripe: that Obama is a lackey of the financiers, and putting the best spin he can on their looting, or he is a fool.

The salient fact is that, their protests to the contrary, the wealth of those at the apex of the money machine was not the result of the operation of “free markets” or any neutral system. The banking industry for the better part of two decades has fought hard to create a playing field skewed in their favor, with it permissible to sell complex products with hidden bad features to customers often incapable of understanding them. By contrast, one of the factors that needs to be in place for markets to produce desirable outcomes is for buyers and sellers to have the same information about the product and the objectives of the seller.

Similarly, the concentrated capital flows, often too-low interest rates, and asymmetrical Federal Reserve actions (cutting rates fast when markets look rocky, being very slow to raise rates and telegraphing that intent well in advance) that are the most visible manifestations of two decades of bank-favoring policies, are the equivalent of massive subsidies.

And that’s before we get to the elephant in the room, the massive subsidies to the banksters that took place during the crisis and continue today.

We have just been through the greatest looting of the public purse in history, and Obama tries to pass it off as meritocracy in action.

Obama is beyond redemption.

[DURHAM D]

1. I can't figure out if "Obama is beyond redemption." or

if he just doesn't care.

[earth mom]

2. Probably both. nt

[Mike K]

16. You might find the answer to your question -

- here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print

[frazzled]

3. But who is this Yves person a lackey of?

And how do we know that he is not beyond redemption?

These kinds of screeds have a kind of common argot that makes me laugh at times. If it doesn't have the word "massive" or "looting" in it's, it's just not exposing the evils of capitalism enough.

I've come to the conclusion that a pox should be placed on everybody's house. We're all nuts.

[Hannah Bell]

5. "she". it's your position that the mortgage crisis & meltdown was NOT

precipitated by massive looting?

imo, that's not the neutral position you posit it as.

[immoderate]

6. Pox on me? I may be nuts but I didn't steal a million dollars, either.

I guess we can find a euphemism for "massive looting" but to paraphrase some justice, "I know it when I see it!"

Obama didn't do it, but he seems to be OK with it. Else, where are the prosecutions, or investigations, and why are these same people working in the administration? :shrug:

--imm

[frazzled]

7. Are you Yves?

And why would Yves be a girl's name? It's usually a boy's name.

[immoderate]

17. No, but I'm "everybody."

Or at least one of them.

--imm

[Kalun D]

13. Euphemism

"I guess we can find a euphemism for "massive looting"... Obama didn't do it."

Let's review. Bankers loot about $700 Billion, it may have been more but that's the number they put on it.

Obama was front and center pushing the $700 Billion "bailout" now there's a euphemism for BIGGEST FU*KOVER IN HISTORY.

The bankers rob the bank, Obama rewards them with another $700 Billion. They got $150 Billion in bonuses last year, right after a $700 Billion "failure" as a direct result of the $700 Billion "bailout".

And then Obama appointed (or re-appointed) Geitner and Bernanke, both of them thieves in the center of the heist, to the banking oversite positions. And the rules that allowed the heist have of course not been changed. Did you know Geitner and Bernanke are republicans?

Obama is in the middle of all this, he's just as complicit as any of them.

[bvar22]

15. Obama is NOT "just OK" with it.

He endorsed it...
simply a product of "Free Markets". :shrug:

The failed Wall Street Banks were showered with a $Trillion Dollars of tax payer money "Low/ or Interest FREE" so that they could "loan" it back to the rightful owners of that money at interest rates up to 30%.
They made a "profit" which they converted into Billions in Bonuses for the execs.
MAN, Thats some "Free Market" you got there.

BTW: Failed Baseball players do NOT knock down Millions.
Only the successful ones get THAT kind of money.

In a REAL "Free Market", the failed Wall Street Banker would be making the same money as a Failed Baseball Player..."Would you like some fries with that?"

[Kalun D]

10. Screed

""These kinds of screeds""

the screed is coming out of the TV

the ObamaRahma TV show "Hope and Change"(brought to you by...the corporations) is fictional

please stop believing it's true.

[Kalun D]

11. ""But who is this Yves person a lackey of?""

the American worker?

[Babel_17]

4. I'm not a fan of this administration's ....

coddling of big money but, fwiw, here's the other side of this debate.

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/02/10/bloomberg_and_obama

Imo the full article mitigates the statements which, taken by themselves, provoked an honest outrage.

"Hmm. Maybe we should read the entire interview before rending our hair and screaming doom and disaster? If there's one thing we know about the president, it's that he is pretty good with nuance and capable of making complex, multifaceted arguments."

In my opinion the President made a mistake with that interview. Especially as it came after Wall Street squealed at being taken to task just days before.

[Kalun D]

8. Apologist BS

Talk talk talk is all Salon is doing here.

and that's ALL Obama has done to reign in the bankers.

He was the one front/center pushing for the $700 billion "bailout"

He's the one that has kept Bernanke and Geitner in key oversite positions

when they are the very criminals at the center of the heist. Did you know both of these guys are republicans? and guess what, the weak rules that allowed the heist are still in place. The phony derivatives are still going on.

Obama is a phony and a liar. He's knows exactly what went down, he supports it, AND HE IS PART OF IT.

$150 BILLION in bonuses last year to the people that ripped us off blind. Mostly due to a $700 billion giveaway. Under Obama's watch.

[Kalun D]

12. Lawyer Weaslespeak

""In my opinion the President made a mistake with that interview.""

In other words, the president didn't get the lawyer weaslespeak exactly right

yeah, he's a little better talking the game than Clinton, but he's a lot worse than Clinton when it comes to actual results

Obama talks the working man's talk, and walks the corporate walk.

[Kalun D]

9. ++++10

K & R

[ProSense]

14. "Obama is beyond redemption. "

"Obama is a lackey of the financiers ... <spinning> their looting, or he is a fool."

Hmmm, either or

If that isn't hyperbole, Yves is a moron.

[FiveGoodMen]

18. Hear, fuckin' hear!