OPINION | Goldman Sachs has heeded the advice of a political statement attributed to Law professor William Black, “the highest return on assets is always a political contribution.” It is widely known that Goldman Sachs dictates legislation, oversight and enforcement upon the United States economy; simultaneously preforming the roles of the SEC, Congress as well as the Federal Reserve. In 2009 Goldman Sachs had the most profitable year in its history, and this post-crisis record was available because of the charter set up by Henry Paulson (the Treasure Secretary that was previously CEO of the bank the legislation is bailing out) and Timothy Geithner. Both names ring synonymous with Goldman Sachs even though the latter has never been directly employed in the banking industry. The recognition of Goldman Sachs influence on the Executive Branch is found in Michelle Malkin’s April 2010 article, “All the President’s Goldman Sachs Men.” The article illuminates Goldman’s cozy relationship with the Obama Administration noting his financial strategists consist of Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Gary Gensler and Mark Patterson.
I’ll admit it: Listening to Barack Obama, I am ready to enlist in his campaign against the feed-the-rich Republicans … until I recall that I once responded in the same way to Bill Clinton’s faux populism. And then I get angry because betrayal by the “good guys” for whom I have ended up voting has become the norm.
Yes, betrayal, because if Obama meant what he said in Tuesday’s State of the Union address about holding the financial industry responsible for its scams, why did he appoint the old Clinton crowd that had legalized those scams to the top economic posts in his administration? Why did he hire Timothy Geithner, who has turned the Treasury Department into a concierge service for Wall Street tycoons?
Why hasn’t he pushed for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, which Clinton’s deregulation reversed? Does the president really believe that the Dodd-Frank slap-on-the-wrist sellout represents “new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like this never happens again”? Can he name one single too-big-to-fail banking monstrosity that has been reduced in size on his watch instead of encouraged to grow ever larger by Treasury and Fed bailouts and interest-free money?
When Obama declared Tuesday evening “no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas,” wasn’t he aware that Jeffrey Immelt, the man he appointed to head his jobs council, is the most egregious offender? Immelt, the CEO of GE, heads a company with most of its workers employed in foreign countries, a corporation that makes 82 percent of its profit abroad and has paid no U.S. taxes in the past three years.
Donna and Jerry Creamer were volunteering at the Flagstaff Family Food Center in 2008 when they were struck by a repeated problem: Some of the unemployed couldn’t get to potential jobs offered at night and early morning.
Public buses didn’t run at all hours.
So Jerry found a couple of bikes at a local thrift store, bought them for $6 and $8, and gave them to a couple of local homeless men.
“They told a whole bunch of guys, who started asking: If they could find a bike, would Jerry fix it for them?” Donna said.
So began the Sunnyside Bike Shed, a charity operated by a retired truck mechanic and a retired pharmacy technician out of their Sunnyside apartment.
We’ve already made our choice for the best headline of the year, so far:
“Citigroup Replaces JPMorgan as White House Chief of Staff.”
President Barack Obama with new chief of staff Jack Lew, formerly of Citigroup (Photo: AP /Charles Dharapak)
Bill Moyers & Michael Winship – When we saw it on the website Gawker.com we had to smile — but the smile didn’t last long. There’s simply too much truth in that headline; it says a lot about how Wall Street and Washington have colluded to create the winner-take-all economy that rewards the very few at the expense of everyone else.
The story behind it is that Jack Lew is President Obama’s new chief of staff — arguably the most powerful office in the White House that isn’t shaped like an oval. He used to work for the giant banking conglomerate Citigroup. His predecessor as chief of staff is Bill Daley, who used to work at the giant banking conglomerate JPMorgan Chase, where he was maestro of the bank’s global lobbying and chief liaison to the White House.
Daley replaced Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who once worked as a rainmaker for the investment bank now known as Wasserstein & Company, where in less than three years he was paid a reported eighteen and a half million dollars.
The new guy, Jack Lew – said by those who know to be a skilled and principled public servant – ran hedge funds and private equity at Citigroup, which means he’s a member of the Wall Street gang, too. His last job was as head of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, where he replaced Peter Orzag, who now works as vice chairman for global banking at – hold onto your deposit slip — Citigroup.
Still with us? It’s startling the number of high-ranking Obama officials who have spun through the revolving door between the White House and the sacred halls of investment banking. Sure, you can argue that it makes sense that the chief executive of the nation would look to other executives for the expertise you need to build back from the disastrous collapse of the banks in the final year of the Bush Administration.
Today Rand Paul, speaking to the Daily Caller, described his detention by TSA agents yesterday in what many believe amounted to a clear cut violation of the Constitution.
Paul described his detention as a big ordeal that highlights the growing problems with the Transportation Security Agency and their police state actions.
For their part, the White House came out in defense of the TSA thugs who detained a sitting Senator as a possible terrorist, with Whit House spokesman James Carney attempting to change the narrative and reality of the story by claiming Rand wasn’t actually detained.
“Let’s be clear,” Carney said. “The passenger was not detained. He was escorted out of the area by local law-enforcement.”
This statement is such a blatant lie that its actually hard to believe it was said.
Donna and Jerry Creamer were volunteering at the Flagstaff Family Food Center in 2008 when they were struck by a repeated problem: Some of the unemployed couldn’t get to potential jobs offered at night and early morning.