[Pen-l] "Has Barack Obamaâs presidency already failed?"

[Charles Brown <cdb1003@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, I think so much leftwing and bankbashing agitation in the bourgeois media, Wolfe, Krugman et al (see below) is a very, very good thing. It might even be best that it is directed at the Obama administration. I have to think about that. Might be better to direct more of the angry words at the banks and bourgeoisie themselves. Feature O's Wall Street supporters, rather than whispering about them. Who are they ? Lets talk about them, and expose them by name to the working class. That's a class conscious approach.  Is this thread a class struggle , class conscious rant or just a petit bourgeoisie vs petit bourgeois rant ? 

Of course, isn't Wolfe's proposal faux socialism ? Is he proposing permanent or temporary nationalization ? Even a 5 trillion dollar stimulus package would be still only a reform.  

PEN-L'ers seem to be pissed at Obama for not carrying out _social democracy_ . I don't see Krugman or Wolfe raising questions about the system.  Socal Democracy and left Keynesianism is still capitalism, so PEN-L'ers cursing O aren't quite as radical as they imply.

Workers of the World , unite !

Charles



Thursday, February 12, 2009 
Daniel Howes
Commentary: Bankers' arrogance costing the taxpayers billions
 
Next time some sanctimonious jerk lectures you on the bubble surrounding Detroit's automakers and those who depend on them, remember two words -- Wall Street. 

Or just one -- bankers. 

In another day of outrage Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee, the nation's top bankers showed how truly disconnected many of them are from the Bigger America. That they're more tone deaf than the most clueless auto CEO or union president (which is saying something). That they project a hubris stunning in its totality because their services are considered indispensable to the country. 

They mostly are, which is beside the point. How the globe's top bankers can threaten financial Armageddon, hold up American taxpayers for billions in bailout cash, get massive infusions and then pay their people billions in bonuses exceeds the meaning of the word "arrogance." 



 
 
The biggest bubble, folks, isn't in Detroit, where CEOs agree to work for $1 a year in exchange for a comparatively measly $17.4 billion in loans (less than the $18 billion in bonuses securities firms paid to those working in New York City). Here, we get the trade-off -- massive restructuring, job losses, union givebacks and politically correct vehicles are a condition of federal help. 

There, The New York Times runs a Sunday story detailing the impossibilities of getting by in the Big Apple on a salary of $500,000 a year. There, Wall Streeters whine of getting screwed on their bonuses because, well, it's not their fault the subprime mortgage holdings blew a massive hole in the corporate earnings. 

There, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Merrill Lynch & Co. pulled its bonus pay-outs forward so it could disburse nearly $4 billion to "their failed executives" -- before the sullied brokerage reported a $15.3 billion loss on Jan. 16. That's the same day Merrill's new owner, Bank of America, said the taxpayers would invest $20 billion in the combined entity and backstop the deal with another $188 billion in protection. 

"What my office has learned thus far concerning the allocation of the nearly $4 billion in Merrill Lynch bonuses is nothing short of staggering," Cuomo wrote Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in a letter dated Tuesday. "While more than 39,000 Merrill employees received bonuses from the pool, the vast majority of these funds were disproportionately distributed to a small number of individuals." 

Case in point: Merrill's top four recipients reaped a combined $121 million in bonuses. "Rewarding failure," an increasingly common phrase used even by President Barack Obama, doesn't begin to describe it the Wall Street way. 

Bubble, indeed. Here in Detroit, implosions requiring federal intervention beget pain -- bonuses evaporated, plants closed, tens of thousands of jobs cut, benefits reduced, a jobs bank that pays people not to work eliminated. There, 39,000 people at just one firm are rewarded for their part in helping to destabilize the global financial system. 

Populist rage can be a dangerous thing, but on this it's not misplaced. Here, federal dough came with onerous conditions, most of which forced harsh change in livelihoods and Detroit's dysfunctional culture. There, federal money flowed in and goodly chunks flowed out in fat pay envelopes glorifying a culture whose chief product is taking care of its own. 

And that's all. 

We need banks. We need vibrant capital markets and the "animal spirits" that make them work, build wealth and reward risk. But they also can destroy it, take their cut and leave the rest of us to pay the bigger price. 

Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. You can reach him at (313) 222-2106, dchowes@xxxxxxxxxxx or detnews.com/howes. 


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