Ann Pettifor, HuffPo: A Tale of Two Presidents

A tale of two presidents. One is president of a country of about 300,000 people -- Iceland -- a country about the size of Virginia, President Olafur R. Grimsson. The second is president of a country of about 300,000,000 people, the United States. President Obama.

Both their presidencies have been scarred by the financial crisis. Both have had to balance the interests of their people against the interests of their bankers.

President Obama has allowed that balance to tilt in favor of the bankers.

President Grimsson yesterday took a stand against bankers and international creditors, including the British and Dutch governments.

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Unsurprisingly, Wall St. profits and bonuses have soared under Obama's watch and that of Fed Chairman Bernanke, while the monopolization of Wall St. has intensified. Worse than that, the bankers have been invited in -- to both the Treasury and the Congress -- to stall and undermine proposed regulation of the sector.

This concession of huge power has, naturally, gone to their heads.

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Where will this all lead?

We can expect further financial turbulence in Iceland, but President Grimmson can be sure of one thing: popular political support for his stand against the bankers. Support that will stiffen the spines of legislators and regulators, and ultimately subordinate the interests of finance to the interests of the Icelandic people.

Next November the opposite is likely to occur in the United States. President Obama will lose political support and his enemies will gain from his administration's failure to stand up for the people, and against the bankers.

As for Wall St? They will be cooking up the next financial crisis with which to undermine a popular, elected American president.