. . .

We have Wall Street, along with the Harvard Business School and guys like Willard Mitt Romney to thank for the reinventing of the US economy, financialization of business, and the so-called "Third Industrial Revolution". And, by the way, Barack Obama had nothing to do with it.

Nothing.

Romney's private equity fortune amassed during his tenure as Bain Capital's boss is only one example of how business in the US was transformed from organization-based (corporations that lived and died by the quality of the products and services they provided) to transaction-based ("consulting firms" engaged in private deal-making to avoid regulation and transparency, hostile takeovers, leveraged buy-outs, restructuring schemes, lay-offs, and ruthless pursuit of quick profits). It's a transformation that made a few people very, very rich, and put most of us very, very much at risk – our homes, jobs, savings, and pensions . If Obama is to blame for anything it's for talking about hope in 2008 at a time when millions of Americans – poor and middle class alike – were about to lost it.