President Obama Talks a Lot About Taking on Wall Street, While Killing off Reforms in the Shadows

Obama Talks a Lot of Game About Taking on Wall St, While Killing off Reforms in the Shadows
The American people are clamoring for justice but our voices are still being ignored. The President says he is on our side. Is he?
By Danny Schechter
May 28, 2010

In several high profile speeches, Obama lashed out at Wall Street for its greed and mendacity, proposing financial reforms that appeared to be hard hitting if only because of the way the lobbyists for the financial services industry squealed about them.

But even as he was feinting left, he and his main economic operative, Tim Geithner, were moving right to kill off amendments that the bankers hated like Senator Bernie Sanders's proposal for a deep audit of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Brown-Kaufman Amendment that would have broken up the six biggest banks in America."

As John Heilman explained in New York Magazine, "Geithner's team spent much of its time during the debate over the Senate bill helping Senate Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd kill off or modify amendments being offered by more-progressive Democrats."

He used an old trick: embracing reform publicly while modifying its toughest provisions privately.

James Kwak praised the Obamacrats skill at political manipulation on BaselineScenario.com, "The administration is happy with the financial reform bill roughly as it turned out, and it got there by taking up an anti-Wall Street tone (e.g., the Volcker Rule), riding a wave of populist anger to the point where the bill was sure of passing, and then quietly pruning back its most far-reaching components. If anything, that's a testament to the political skill of the White House and, yes, Tim Geithner as well.

But guess what, the banksters didn't really get the flim-flam that was going on. (At least many continue to pretend that they didn't. BBI)

Forget the whole issue of whether they should be grateful to Obama for first saving their banks from collapse and then toning down the reform bill so it (a) doesn't break up their banks, (b) doesn't meaningfully prevent them from engaging in proprietary trading, (c) says nothing of substance about compensation, (d) doesn't set any hard capital requirements, (e) . . . The fact that they can see the policies this administration is pursuing and somehow think they are "anti-wealth" or "anti-capitalist" is as close to proof as you will find that they are deeply stupid, blinded by their self-interest, or both."

Please read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/media/147041/obama_talks_a_lot_of_game_about_taking_on_wall_st%2C_while_killing_off_reforms_in_the_shadows/

Credit default swaps still allowed . Nothing has changed except time wasted and 3000 pages of legaleze gobblygook. The Bankers go forward and do as they please.

Just like Health Care.. 1,100 pages of legislation.. and no single payer or public option.