Simon Johnson says the fact that the big banks are happy with it tells you all you need to know about the administration's proposed regulatory overhaul of the financial system. Writes Johnson:
There appears to be no mention that corporate governance within these large banks failed totally. How on earth can you expect these banks to operate in a responsible manner unless and until you address the reckless manner in which they (a) compensate themselves, (b) destroy shareholder value, (c) treat boards of directors as toothless wonders? The profound silence on this point from the administration - including some of our finest economic, financial, and legal thinkers - is breathtaking.
More:
But based on what we see so far, there is little reason to be encouraged. The reform process appears to be have been captured at an early stage - by design the lobbyists were let into the executive branch's working, so we don't even get to have a transparent debate or to hear specious arguments about why we really need big banks.
I heard a discussion on public radio last night about the proposed reform, with one economist saying that the Obama plan is so weak because it's about all that could get passed through Congress. If that's true, it's astonishing. After all the wreckage the irresponsible behavior of the biggest banks have caused, that the political response is still so puny says a great deal about who really holds the power in the US, and, more worryingly, is pretty damning about the political apathy and disengagement of the rest of us.
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I hope you aren't talking about me.
Not really, my comments were specifically aimed at CFK's exhortation to "Vote Democratic", but more generally at anyone who still things there is any substantial difference between the two parties. At this point they aren't even really separate parties any more, just different factions of one party, controlled by Wall Street and the banks. Their rhetoric may differ around election time, but after the election they both govern exactly the same way.
Damn Captcha. Freaking thing ate my post. There is but one party, Charles Foster Kane. It is the party of money. It has two wings, which exist to present amusing sideshows for the rubes as the looters continue, undisturbed. Divide and conquer. Works every time.
Charles Foster Kane, meet William Greider. Specifically, "Who Will Tell The People," wherein he dissects the myth of the two party system. Wealth will always protect itself, and it does so by purchasing majority shares in the political parties via contributions. Those parties are ever ready to produce amusing sideshows that get the rubes all worked up and angry at each other as the looters continue unmolested. Has Obama launched any prosecutions of the wizards who orchestrated the financial crisis? Except for the scapegoat, Bernie Madoff? It is to laugh. He hasn't, and he never will. Banksters and greedheads are every bit as welcome in the Dem wing of the Republicrats as they are are in the Rep wing, and I can only shake my head in mute astonishment when I see that so many people are still paying any attention to the man behind the curtain.
And, behold, the original post appears. Are we SURE that Captcha is not run by the gnomes in the Federal Reserve System?
Thanks for the information
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