Michael Collins: Obama Embraces The Money Party

Forget about hope and change, it's the same old, same old. Obama just hit Wall Street for campaign cash. Kiss reform goodbye for a long time.

Michael Collins

It's time for Plan B.  The White House is about to be sold to the same people who bought it in 2008.  The front page of today's New York Times says it all.  President Obama is on the hunt for campaign cash and the Wall Street crowd represents his main target.  After all, he and his "good friend Tim" (Geithner) delivered in the biggest way possible.  Obama must be thinking that it's payback time!  Pony up fellas.

This much is clear.  There will be no federal prosecutions of Wall Street crooks for the 2008 financial collapse, no day of judgment for massive mortgage fraud before, during and after the housing bubble, and no representation for the people the in the White House, no matter who wins in 2012.  Populist rhetoric will guarantee a place on the no-fly list for any who stray from the new party line.

The Times article resorts to irony right out of the gate:

"Mr. Obama, who enraged many financial industry executives a year and a half ago by labeling them “fat cats” and criticizing their bonuses, followed up the meeting with phone calls to those who could not attend."  New York Times, June 13

How many hundreds of billions does Obama have to give these guys to make them happy?

They stole everything that wasn't nailed down, got away with it, and have to deal with some half assed regulations that may cause a little extra paperwork.  That sounds like a great deal, doesn't it?  Huge rake offs and not even a slap on the hand, unless calling them "fat cats" counts (it might damage their self-esteem, I suppose).

Here's how well the Wall Street crowd did.  From 2002 through 2007, the top 1% of the income scale in the United States got 70% of the net new income. In 2008, when the crash hit, Wall Streeter #1 at the time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, executed a coup d'état for The Money Party by carefully crafting an air tight guarantee that Wall Street would survive, at least those firms that he and his pals picked to survive.  The now tentative Obama donors got the right to back up a semi to the Treasury Department loading dock and make off with huge piles of cash.

From that point on, it was let the good times roll.  While unemployment skyrocketed and asset values disappeared for almost everybody, the objects of the president's fundraising made out with huge bonuses every year.  Some would call it an embarrassment of riches.  But they weren't embarrassed.  They just wanted more; and they got it, thanks to the president who can't stop embracing business.

If you're upside down in your home with an Alt-A or even a conventional mortgage that you struggle to pay, forget it.  Time to pack your bags.  There will be no relief.

If you are facing bankruptcy from medical debt, you'll hit the trifecta.  There's no "safety net" for the care you need.  There's no relief in bankruptcy court.  And thanks to the bankruptcy reform law of 2006, you get to carry the medical debt with you forever.

If you're a recent college graduate with a student loan and face an array of opportunities that start with Target and end with Starbucks, forget about it.  You'll never pay that back and the government will only postpone your repayment for so long.  It's all about moral imperative. That's right - moral imperative for you and fully forgiven predatory lending for them.

If you'd like a job, please, hush.  Nobody wants to talk about the fact that we've had a net loss of jobs since 2000.  Sure they're, saying the word "jobs" but they don't have the courage to tell the truth.  The economy is stalled, has been for a decade.  There are no new jobs.  Plenty of trained people, but no new jobs.

In reality, what we're hearing about is negotiating strategy.  Obama knows Wall Street owes him big.  They know it too.  But by playing coy, the people who brought us our current troubles are positioning themselves for even greater paydays over the next four years.

And Wall Street doesn’t' need to worry if by some freak occurrence we get a President (fill in any Republican candidate's name).  Whoever occupies the White House will be on The Money Party performance plan.  Be assured, that president will make every effort to please his or her masters.  It's all a part of the never ending process of the very few taking more and more out of a shrinking pie that they assume will last forever.

It won't.

END

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