Sunday, October 18, 2009

 

Obama vs. the Middle Class


by Larry Geller

Sure, the Dow is up. Banksters are in the drivers’ seats again. It’s their Dow, of course, not ours. The only index we people can relate to that’s rising is the unemployment index.

Too many banks refuse to reform mortgages and refuse to lend to midsize companies yet simultaneously pursue the activities that do little to create jobs but do much to generate the type of paper profits that fueled the last bubble: proprietary trading, highly leveraged private-equity deals, and foreign investment. These activities are not the fuel for domestic job growth that federal dollars and guarantees should provide. They are also more likely to lead to significant losses that will once again require taxpayer intervention. [Slate, Break the Banks:Why don't any of the Obama administration's financial reforms help middle-class Americans?, 10/1/2009]

Well, why should they reform mortgages. Nobody made them. And they can make so much more money investing elsewhere. Should those investments fail, Obama and his banking advisors will take care of them again, of course. Not do do so would be to admit that the first bailout was a mistake.

Eliot Spitzer’s article cited above places the responsibility for this failed economic policy squarely on Obama. And so should we.

The Obama administration, which has spent much of the past year bailing out banks and protecting the markets, has done shockingly little to help the middle class that has borne the brunt of the financial meltdown.

Check out this and Spitzer’s other articles on Slate.com.


 




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