President Obama could have changed the outcome

[Jim Warren]

Come to think of it, these events could not have correlated more perfectly. Just as a horrific accident in finance is about to happen, a ready-made revolutionary mob is conveniently parked outside the pilot-houses of the world's great money vessels, so as to receive the crews directly into their open arms after the smash up.

President Obama could have changed the outcome if he had actually believed in change. He could have told his attorney general to enforce the securities law. He could have replaced the zombies at the SEC and told the new ones to apply all existing regulations. Before last year's election, he could have used his legislative majorities to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and reinstate the Glass-Steagall act. He could have initiated the process of deconstructing the giant banks back into their separate functions - so that banking once again worked as a utility rather than a launching pad for colossal frauds and swindles. Not only did he fail to do any of these things, he didn't even talk about it, or try.

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/10/going-apeshit.html

[Owlet]

1. Woulda, coulda,shoulda

Obama's presidential epitaph.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Sounds more like ours.....

[cui bono]

17. It was "Yes WE can" not "Yes, let's let THEM get away with everything

and I won't even try"

WE are out in the streets. What is that "I" doing? Keeping Wall Street in the WH, that's what.

Sorry, I'm soooooooooo sick of that sig line.

I think the real problem with is is that when he said "we" we thought he meant us, we didn't know he meant the banksters and GOP.

[RC]

2. +1000 And rec'd it too.

Too bad he turned out to be a Corporatist. I voted for a reasonable Liberal Democrat and we get a Right of Center enabler.

[TheWraith]

4. So Kunstler took a break from being massively wrong about everything else...

...in order to be massively wrong about finance? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, from the same guy who's predicted the end of the world every six months for more than a decade, including saying that Y2K would end western civilization.

If Mr. Kunstler had done even the most basic research, he might be aware that the Wall Street reform package Obama passed with those legislative majorities contains the essence of Glass Steagall. As well as the fact that you cannot prosecute people for doing things which were specifically legalized--that's rather the point of why people complain about deregulation as the cause of the financial collapse. Really, if you're not going to bother knowing anything about what you're talking about, why open your mouth?

[JuniperLea]

9. "Horrific accident in finance..."

What the hell is he talking about with this? Accident? Pft.

The only accident I see is they didn't count on it happening until Bush left office. Ooopsie!

[TheWraith]

12. I figure they probably never really imagined it crashing, actually.

Just speculative, but I imagine the guys responsible for the problem being rather like the venture capital guys of the late '90s dot-com bubble: they just imagined that it would go on that way forever, sort of like a summer vacation that never ends.

I suppose in that sense it could be viewed as an "accident" in the same way that someone getting drunk and smashing their car into the side of a schoolbus is an "accident." :eyes:

[JuniperLea]

25. I'm pretty sure they knew...

Hell, I knew what was happening the moment I heard W give that speach...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8

It wasn't hard to figure out that once all those loans readjusted to higher interest rates, a lot of people were going to default.

[Maven]

21. So, commercial banks are now forbidden from participating in investment banking activities?

That, to me, is the "essence" of the Glass-Steagall act.

[TheWraith]

27. For their own benefit, yes. That's what the Volcker Rule is.

They're allowed to invest on behalf of their customers only.

[Marnie]

26. Who uses Republican talking points as his own.

[leftstreet]

5. K&R

[Kolesar]

6. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x632695

[JuniperLea]

7. A horrific accident in finance?

What planet is this they speak of? Sounds like Freeper-speak to me.

Pretty disgusting to bring that crap here.

[snagglepuss]

8. k & r

[dennis4868]

10. Tell me specifically....

which company/bank broke which specific law/regulation on the books (before Dodd-Frank)?

[kentuck]

11. That has always bothered me...

I believe the President wanted to get the smartest people he could find, regardless of Party, to fix the problems. He ended up with Geithner and Summers. He wasn't looking for justice or partisan advantage. I don't believe he thought is was as bad as it actually was? More or less, he adopted the doctrine of Herbert Hoover in 1930. We are still waiting for FDR...

[gratuitous]

19. By settling on Geithner and Summers

I suppose a case could be made that by settling for Geithner and Summers, Obama showed that he didn't think the problems in the financial sector were as bad as they actually were. But there was no shortage of people - some of them even from "inside" on Wall Street - who knew just how bad things had gotten, and were saying it publicly. Geithner and Summers would have had to shown extraordinary courage to repudiate the financial sector and financial practices that had made both of them very rich men. For whatever reason, that courage wasn't something either one of them had.

So now that financial sector armageddon has been visited on our heads - a little tardy, but here nonetheless - the first impulse in Congress and in the White House is to keep things going as before with as little change as possible. That political calculation is not only bad policy, but it has brought thousands of ordinary citizens (representing millions more) out to public places all over the country to tell the politicians that their "solution" is wanting.

Have our elected leaders in Washington grown a pair? Of ears, that is. The folks who got us into this mess, and the laws, regulations and policies that birthed their untrammeled run of greed, aren't to be trusted to get us out. New presidential advisors, new regulations promulgated by Congress, and vigorous prosecution for the weak laws that were broken, are not only appropriate, but required. Markets run on so many tracks, but investor and consumer confidence are indispensable. Right now, investors and consumers are staying as far away from this rigged game as they can.

Unrig it.

[kentuck]

22. truth

:hi:

[workinclasszero]

13. When I and my wife voted for President Obama

We were voting for the next FDR, the next Harry Truman who would tell wall street and the banks to go to hell and save this country!

He was going to end the wars and start rebuilding America with a massive public works program, FDR style. He was going to kill the Bush tax cuts for the rich and make them pay their fair share.

He was going to stop the job killing free trade agreements. Universal healthcare for all.

It was all just a dream, so much bullshit and fairy tales. Once again we have been sold out by a pol.

Our last chance is OWS. No leaders to be bought by wall street, demonized and blackmailed by fox/cnn/abc/nbc/cbs and in the end assassinated by the right wing power brokers.

President Obama could have gone down in history like Roosevelt, like Truman. But now he will be a footnote in history, the first black president who gave good speeches and little else.

He was president when OWS started to change the whole world! Rise up 99%!

[leftstreet]

15. ...

You should make this an OP

:thumbsup:

[musiclawyer]

18. Agreed

He could have been transformational. He had both houses. But chose DINOS and republicans to advise him. Why on earth I dont know. The horse it out the barn He's just another politician now UNLESS he says two things:

1. The GOP is trying to send this country back to the 19th century. The democratic party is trying to send us forward

2. I can't keep my campaign promises unless you gove me a democratic house and senate because the GOP has proven it can't share governance. \

Do this and he probably wins in '12 and buys himself a second bite at the apple to be the transformational guy we elected.

[Autumn]

29. We had a Democrat and a pissy blue dog running here in Colorado.

Guess which one Obama came to Colorado to campaign for? It wasn't the Democrat.

[Lionessa]

28. OUCH! but wholey and entirely accurate. Let's not forget, though,

as so many are pointing out here today, Obama is a victim of all kinds of meanness and we should just love him.

[Selatius]

14. They didn't want to do this in either the White House or Congress. Why?

Because big finance is one of the largest contributors to politicians' re-election campaigns all around. They have more than enough money to buy an outcome, and they're smart enough to fund willing Democrats as well as their Republicans. Several of the highest paid CEOs and the top 25 hedge fund managers make enough money to buy a Senate seat outright or even self-fund an entire presidential campaign.

We're being out-gunned. Sure, we have the votes, but we're easily divided. It's why they can get 49% of the population to vote for Republicans and maybe another 10% to vote for fuck wipes like Joe Lieberman or Ben Nelson in the Democratic Party.

They own the radio stations and the tv networks. Of course, they're going to convince a lot of voters to vote against their own interests.

[RKP5637]

20. Well said, as long as we operate in this cluster fuck we are all out-gunned. Nothing

is going to hurt these guys like cash flow impacting their bottom line. Their lives are wrapped in $$$$. They don't give a F about the country, the citizens are garbage under their feet, citizens are mocked as fools, and easily divided into chanting fools, tearing each other apart while the big finance agenda continues.

Politicians are bought and bribed and the illusion of a democracy continues. Until Americans wake the F up this will continue. I have no idea what will wake Americans the F up. This has been going on for years.

Even a casual observer looking at America today IMO can only conclude we are fucked.

Bottom line, get the money out of politics. ... but who is going to do that ... very few politicians IMO want to give up the gravy train and many are absolutely part of it ...

Only when the country financially hits rock bottom will things change IMO.

[rhett o rick]

16. I agree with all but that Gramm-Leach-Bliley could have been repealed.

We didnt have enough votes to break the republicon filibuster.

[girl gone mad]

23. k & r

[glowing]

24. If he had OWS at the beginning of his term, the outlook would look

so different. I said on inauguration day with 3 million people in the city, they need to stay and turn their attention directly on congress to demand Single Payer Health care and and FDR program to counter the massive lay offs, along with support for those who have broken the system to be prosecuted... But no, everyone took their flags and programs and went home. And have suffered in silence as the Tea Baggers were hired to counter anything productive and cause massive blockage of anything good coming out of congress with Nancy Pelosi... It died in the Senate because the pressure wasn't there. Its here now, its going to take time, its going to take numbers. It will slow down as winter comes, unless a bunch of OWS want to move towards the southern states to help really occupy and move the conversation. The South is the slow, misdirected people's. They say don't raise taxes, but they take in more Federal tax money for govt services than they pay out. These are the right to work states with little Union presence. If the politicians in the south, that are predominantly Republican, can feel the pressure and people begin to support the movement, then they won't be able to slash and burn the states so badly. Besides, its warmer down here during the winter. We have some occupy locations, but many are just day time protests.. or small numbers sitting on the sidewalk over night.

Also, we need more members included. Down here, networking thru the black and hispanic churches for coalition building, without letting the preachers take over, would be a good thing. We have to get those who are feeling the economic pressures the most involved. Poor people cannot afford the luxury of being arrested or traveling or donating money or have money for daycare. If they feel they have a voice along with protection from the police (who normally terrorize their neighborhoods) they will make a big impact upon the movement. The poor people have been silenced. The biggest problem I see at the moment with OWS is that they do little to talk about institutionalized poverty; and what it is doing to people. Its not just the middle class and college students who are having a hard time. We have 50million without health insurance. Nearly that many as well are living in poverty (which is like $22,000 per yr, who can live on that?). 1 out over 4 children are living in poverty. If you work to insure that the least among us has a decent life to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, then the entire populace will be lifted with the rising tide.