Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

Eliot Spitzer is as concerned and outspoken a blogger as he was a governor. I recommend his Slate RSS feed to you highly—just copy that link into your newsreader.

Here are the most current three articles in the feed—we will look at the first one here.

• Break the Banks
  Why don't any of the Obama administration's financial reforms help middle-class Americans?
  Eliot Spitzer | Oct. 1, 2009
• Nine Questions for Ben Bernanke
  He'd better answer them before the Senate confirms him to another term as Fed chairman.
  Eliot Spitzer | Sept. 18, 2009
• Let Citizens United Speak!
  Why the Supreme Court should abolish political speech limits on corporations and unions.
  Eliot Spitzer | Sept. 4, 2009

In the first article, Spitzer begins:

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. [Slate, Break the Banks, 10/1/2009].

He specifically criticizes Obama for not giving judges the power to restructure mortgages in bankruptcy proceedings. I should add that this is a tremendous boon to the banks, because they get to keep and res-sell the homes.

Then he attacks the administration for failing to require that banks give up those “toxic” mortgages and allow only the simple, straight-forward loans that people understand. In other words (my interpretation): Obama’s administration did not stop predatory lending.

We have put these bankers back in business and are allowing them to do exactly what brought the economy to its knees.

While spending newspaper ink and TV electrons on the galling bonuses that financial firms are still paying out and ignoring the more important crimes of Wall Street, our press is siding with the bankers. That’s why we need more bloggers like Eliot Spitzer.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 10/05/2009 09:53:00 AM