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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTHE CON-ARTIST WING OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
THE CON-ARTIST WING OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
By Matt Stoller Jun 4 2014
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MUCH MORE:
http://www.vice.com/read/tim-geithner-and-the-con-artist-wing-of-the-democratic-party
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)I have real mixed feelings about then - on the one hand I think they are often sincere, but on the other hand they are so steeped in the wall street mentality that they can't really step outside of it and see how badly it is hurting things.
Bryant
Leme
(1,092 posts)or any politician. I listen to the sound bites made by these politicians and wait to see if any concrete action occurs.
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Problem is.. I get little info on any action. Media does the sound bites.
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All the politicians are at some trough... almost all.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I know down deep that the Sanders/Baldwin/Grayson/Sherrod wing of the party cannot win by themselves. But this 3rd way crap is
1. Not going to help the party over the long run. We don't have the media juggernaut that the Repukes have. Therefore we have to attract voters with a platform and results. The president's campaign in 2008 did just that; his and Pelosi's and Reid's failure to deliver was very discouraging to the new voters so they stayed home in 2010. Posing in front of Walmart as a testament to American greatness is really unhelpful. The only way the party can battle the right wing media is to go populist and deliver.
2. Corporatism is bad for the country, and more specifically the people who live in it. Privatized health care, schools, SS, post office, roads, etc. are really a bad idea. Having the DLC run the country is much better than the teabaggers, but still not good. We deserve, and can do, good.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)All you have to do is follow the money to know who and what they are.
They are deliberate infiltrators of the party, bankrolled by corporate interests. And they lie. Watch the actual policies, not what they say.
When the DLC connections to the Koch Bros. became well known, they just rebranded the infiltration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4165556
When you hear "Third Way", think INVESTMENT BANKERS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024127432
GOP Donors and K Street Fuel Third Ways Advice for the Democratic Party
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101680116
The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x498414
Third Way: 'Majority of Our Financial Support' From Wall Street, Business Executives
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024164622
Third Way VP indicates they fear Elizabeth Warren's influence on the party.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024168867
Same companies behind the GOP are behind the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1481121
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)I know these creeps for what they are.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)"F Ron Paul!!" "Yea, Obama!!" "See?"
baldguy
(36,649 posts)Too many "liberals" are more then happy to help the GOP by being outside the tent. That's the only way the GOP wins.
Remember, Elizabeth Warren supports that evil fascist corporatist Hillary Clinton for Pres in 2016.
Given how badly Timmy and his crew screwed the American homeowner and American public generally, I really don't get your point.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...for billionaires like TPP.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)By Matthew Skomarovsky
LilSis.org
Jan 10, 2011 at 19:31 EST
EXCERPT...
Another new business model Rubin and Summers made possible was Enron. Rubin had known Enron well through Goldman Sachss financing of the company, and recused himself from matters relating to Enron in his first year on the Clinton team. He and Summers went on to craft policies at Treasury that were essential to Enrons lucrative energy trading business, and they were in touch with Enron executives and lobbyists all the while. Enron meanwhile won $2.4 billion in foreign development deals from Clintons Export-Import Bank, then run by Kenneth Brody, a former protege of Rubins at Goldman Sachs.
Soon after Rubin joined Citigroup, its investment banking division picked up Enron as a client, and Citigroup went on to become Enrons largest creditor, loaning almost $1 billion to the company. As revelations of massive accounting fraud and market manipulation emerged over the next years and threatened to bring down the energy company, Rubin and Summers intervened. While Enrons rigged electricity prices in California were causing unprecedented blackouts, Summers urged Governor Gray Davis to avoid criticizing Enron and recommended further deregulatory measures. Rubin was an official advisor to Gov. Davis on energy market issues at the time, while Citigroup was heavily invested in Enrons fraudulent California business, and he too likely put pressure on the Governor to lay off Enron. Rubin also pulled strings at Bushs Treasury Department in late 2001, calling a former employee to see if Treasury could ask the major rating agencies not to downgrade Enron, and Rubin also lobbied the rating agencies directly. (In all likelihood he made similar attempts in behalf of Citigroup during the recent financial crisis.) Their efforts ultimately failed, Enron went bust, thousands of jobs and pensions were destroyed, and its top executives went to jail. Its hard to believe, but there was some white-collar justice back then.
SNIP...
Summers also starting showing up around the Hamilton Project, which Rubin had just founded with hedge fund manager Roger Altman. Altman was another Clinton official who had come from Wall Street, following billionaire Peter Peterson from Lehman Brothers to Blackstone Group, and he left Washington to found a major hedge fund in 1996. The Hamilton Project is housed in the Brookings Institution, a prestigious corporate-funded policy discussion center that serves as a sort of staging ground for Democratic elites in transition between government, academic, and business positions. The Hamilton Project would go on to host, more specifically, past and future Democratic Party officials friendly to the financial industry, and to produce a stream of similarly minded policy papers. Then-Senator Obama was the featured political speaker at Hamiltons inaugural event in April 2006.
Summers joined major banking and political elites on Hamiltons Advisory Council and appeared at many Hamilton events. During a discussion of the financial crisis in 2008, Summers was asked about his role in repealing Glass-Stegall, the law that forbade commercial and investment banking mergers like Citigroup. I think it was the right thing to do, he responded, noting that the repeal of Glass-Stegall made possible a wave of similar mergers during the recent financial crisis, such as Bank of Americas takeover of Merrill Lynch. He was arguing, in effect, that financial deregulation did not cause the financial crisis, it actually solved it. We need a regulatory system as modern as the markets, said Summers quoting Rubin, who was in the room. We need a hen house as modern as the food chain, said the fox.
CONTINUED...
http://blog.littlesis.org/2011/01/10/evidence-of-an-american-plutocracy-the-larry-summers-story/
PS: Remember when Democrats stood up for the equality of all people, including the middle class and the poor? How stupid!
for this
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Is great phrase:
Geithner sacrificed homeowners to foam the runway for the banks.
Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has published a new book, Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street. It presents a damning indictment of the Obama administrations execution of the TARP program generally, and of HAMP in particular.
By delaying millions of foreclosures, HAMP gave bailed-out banks more time to absorb housing-related losses while other parts of Obamas bailout plan repaired holes in the banks balance sheets. According to Barofsky, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner even had a term for it. HAMP borrowers would foam the runway for the distressed banks looking for a safe landing. It is nice to know what Geithner really thinks of those Americans who were busy losing their homes in hard times.
CONTINUED w VIDEO and links and more letters...
http://washingtonexaminer.com/video-geithner-sacrificed-homeowners-to-foam-the-runway-for-the-banks/article/2502982
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Maybe they could form a duo and sing it to the ticket holders for a higher payoff...er...fee...er...contribution.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and you do too, because it would make us both political prostitutes. Him? Who knows.
MFrohike
(1,980 posts)Speaking gigs are for the birds. Timmy got the top spot at Warburg Pincus.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Like a bossy third-grade teacher, I looked at him and said, Put on your seat belt, Mr. Secretary,? Warren writes. Like a naughty kid, he looked back and said, I dont have to.?
They continued arguing the point, and Warren thinks she raised her voice.
He didnt put on his seat belt all the way to the restaurant, she writes. On the way back, after debating the role of government in the financial markets, he did put on his seat belt.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/12/tim-geithner-warren_n_5310503.html
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)But it is a pretty funny exchange. It shows what an ass Geithner is.