It should come as no surprise that a financial services industry powerful enough to water down meaningful reform in the US and internationally (Basel III rules were weakened to allow, for instance, that mortgage servicing rights be included in regulatory capital calculations) would probably have its way in blocking the nomination of Elizabeth Warren as head of the new consumer finance protection agency.
Let’s face it: the plan to deep six the consumer watchdog was set when it was changed from being an independent body as originally proposed and instead moved into the Fed, the most bank friendly and arguably the least industry expert of the US bank regulators. It might have had a hope of being effective had it been housed at the FDIC, which does not like cleaning up bank messes and therefore is less prone to swallow industry BS than the other Federal bank overseers, but it is now clearly meant to be a mere election time talking point (not that that is working either, since a surprisingly large majority, 80%, understands that financial “reform” is merely branding by the Obama Ministry of Truth). So why would Congress do a 180% change and allow someone with the moxie, legal expertise, and profile with the media to make the agency effective take the reins?
In case you missed it last week, Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, washed his hands as far as Warren’s candidacy was concerned. From Bloomberg:
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University professor touted to head a new consumer protection bureau, may not have sufficient support to win confirmation to the post, Senator Christopher Dodd said in a radio interview…
“Elizabeth would be a terrific nominee,” said Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who leads the Senate Banking Committee. “The question is, ‘Is she confirmable?’ And there’s a serious question about it.”
Yves here. Note Dodd employs the time-tested formula of bigots out to cover their footprints: “Personally, I’m all in favor of hiring [fill in minority in question, such as blacks, woman, transexuals, former drug addicts, one-eyed midgets]. But I’m not sure [fill in preferred scapegoat, such as “our customers” or “our organization”] is ready to accept them.”
The Los Angeles Times tonight provides a long-form discussion of the opposition to her candidacy. While the piece is generally positive, it also recites the bank lobby’s talking points against her (and kiss of death, has socialist Bernie Sanders an an enthusiastic backer). It’s also worth noting how her evolution to her current views gets short shrift (although this piece does a better job of covering this ground than most). Warren was originally a Republican; I’ve been told by a people who know her that it was a Republican senator who first asked her, as bankruptcy expert, to investigate the high level of bankruptcies among his constituents and she was surprised and disturbed by what she learned. In other words, her views come not out of an ideological predisposition but study of facts on the ground.
From the Los Angeles Times:
For a soft-spoken, unfailingly polite university professor, Elizabeth Warren has a surprising knack for making people squirm — particularly on Wall Street….
Now Warren has Wall Street executives, bankers and business groups extremely nervous…
Her pro-consumer views on outlawing what she calls the “tricks and traps” in mortgages, credit cards and other financial products — beliefs developed during her three decades of bankruptcy research — have industry officials gearing up for a major confirmation fight if she’s nominated.
They’ve called her an extremist who will put the government in charge of the financial decisions of average Americans, driving up the cost of credit. But Warren’s supporters said Wall Street’s true fear was that she would make the agency a success, eliminating the hidden fees and abusive practices that have been so profitable for the industry.
“There are people who try to portray her as an activist or some sort of ideologue. What they are really troubled by is she communicates very well with the American public,” said Jay L. Westbrook, a University of Texas law professor who has worked with Warren since the early 1980s.
“Her crime here, in the minds of many, is she’s a very effective proponent of consumer protection,” he said.
The story in full is here.
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It is not surprising to watch the kabuki of Warren’s consideration for the new CFP agency. Until there is more economic pain the raping will continue. It is only the little people that want her anyway.
What comes after jaded?
Re: What comes after jaded
Maybe cynical and then resigned? Not sure, I’m not a resigned yet.
After jaded comes apathetic ennui.
Typo: “Bernie Saunders” should be “Bernie Sanders”.
Beltway rentmes can’t stand anyone who cares, since they themselves got where they are in life by cutting whatever of that capacity from the flesh of their soul with the sharpened edge of a credit card before they left college, however long ago that was. Elizabeth Warren in this present case is the canary in the cage, indicating whether or not a society is capable of self-reform. If we find her cold and still at the end of this chapter, the answer is in the negative regarding that present capacity.
And btw I like educated folks who make shills squirm, all the better if they are unfailingly polite and prepared women talking to those who are none of the above.
“Beltway rentme” — I’ll have to remember that one.
The corruption goes to deep for reform, I’m afraid.
The corruption has always been there. The country used to be large enough (wealthy enough) to hide it.
If the middle class is truely shrinking (long term) then the peasants will start noticing we’re no better (politicially) than the old Soviet Union. We’re a long way from that tho. There’s still way too many dumbasses that worship their slow motion flags and eagles.
Until a measureable amount of the middle-class end-up broke (broken) it’s still much easier for their tiny brains to continue to blame “those people” for their problems.
Elizabeth Warren stands as a milestone in the aggregate generational corruption of scamerica and a testimony to the depth of sickness in the now totally dysfunctional scamerican family.
Ah yes, “to cover their footprints” … the scamerican “time-tested formula” of the good cop bad cop ruse continues …
Elizabeth Warren, the good cop (and an “extremist”, ex Republican, good cop — ROFLOL) is the dysfunctional scamerican child’s latest hope.
Yes, “she is a soft-spoken, unfailingly polite university professor,” who is pro rapee. She wants contracts “written in plain English” so that each and every rape victim can understand, but the usurious interest rape is still OK and can continue.
Nauseating bullshit!
If Elizabeth warren were truly bright and an advocate of the people, as she is being BRANDED, PACKAGED, and SOLD, she would be leading the election boycotts and not lending her good name to the validation and legitimizing of the now blatantly scam system.
PT Barnum smiles in his grave.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
Are you against a Consumer Protection Agency; or, are you against Elizabeth Warren? It’s clear that you are against either or both of the foregoing. Could you specify your anti opinions?
I could agree that in many ways a CPA is unnecessary, but, if there is to be such an agency, where ever it is housed, Elizabeth Warren would be a very good choice to head it up.
What is instructive in the current dialogue is that the banksters are not going to go quiet into that good night. They are going to fight any degree of reform. After all, any degree of reform is liable to make it a bit more difficult to steal by way of unearned bonuses and fees for non services.
All the while we are making a hullabaloo over who shall head the CPA, we would be wise to stop and consider just what the problem at hand is composed of. Consumer Protection is a relative side show, it’s all about the disguised insolvency of the banks, particularly the five major global money center banks. It’s all about the nature of the money supply and how the persistent erosion of purchasing power has incentivised the pursuit of yield. It’s all about the abrogation of regulatory responsibility; and, it’s all about the adherence to inane economic theories that bear no relationship to the reality of everyday commerce.
I do believe that Elizabeth Warren understands what has happened to the middle class. I do believe that she brings a communication skill that would serve the public well and make what may well be an otherwise unnecessary agency productive.
Again, please be clear here. What specifically is it that you oppose? We need a productive dialogue and not a rant.
If, in a year or so, Warren resigns on principle and runs for President as a green, that might make a difference.
The optics, though, right now are that Warren is the crumb Obama can throw the left to keep them on board for the mid-terms. Well, if that’s enough, than the left is pathetically weak, eh? And all that’s going to happen, regardless, is that the White House will staff the agency with bankster weasels, crippling it, and Warren.
The CFPB is intended to be a Potemkin organization. It’s intended to be ineffectual.
That’s why it was housed in the Fed, where it’s guaranteed to impotently rot.
Even if Warren were appointed and really is all she’s cracked up to be, she’d simply end up expending all her energy in pointless infighting against massive bureaucratic, congressional, and “industry” resistance. Almost certainly she’d accomplish nothing.
But meanwhile, as we see here, her appointment would evidently revive false hope that “reform” is possible. (Indeed, if Obama and Wall Street were more clever, they might make a big show of appointing her, knowing they won’t let her actually accomplish anything.)
So her appointment, like any other spark of luminescence among the putrescence, just conjures false hope, protracts the agony, and makes it less likely that we could achieve the necessary critical mass of anti-system consciousness in time to be able to act upon it before we’re all enslaved. Anything which even for a moment makes “reform within the system” look at all plausible has wasted a moment we don’t have.
Time is running out, very quickly.
Siggy, my post was clear.
With all due respect you have been conned, or want so badly for the good old days of Vanilla Greed to return that it has clouded your perceptive abilities.
Someone could write a book entitled; “ALLCONNED”, with a sub title; “Scamerica — Good Cops and Bad Cops”.
Remember when prosecutor Fitzgerald — the champion of motherhood, apple pie, and scamerican ‘just us’ — was going to clean Cheney’s clocks and make scamerica good and righteous again? Remember how he was branded the good guy and packaged and sold that way? And so it gave comfort to scamerica’s abused and dysfunctional citizens while dissipating their anger, energy, and resources. Its the same shit with Elizabeth Warren in a new suit of circumstances.
Profit driven Vanilla Greed is dead Siggy. Knocked out in the early rounds and the comatose body is now being carried from the arena.
The can can not be kicked down the road. It is too corrupt and over leveraged. But that is what the new controllers, Pernicious Greed, want. They value control over profit and are in the process of reducing unsustainable global consumption by decimating the global middle class and underclass. They are the deceptofatzis Siggy. The foxes in sheeps clothing. The worshipers at the alter of the noble lie. Go back and study commie bashing, Lemuell Ricketts Boulware and his cohorts who put the puppet Ronnie Reagan on the stage. There you will see the beginning of the sea change in global culture shaping propaganda from celebrating the family values of love, togetherness, desire, opportunity, etc., to celebrating cannibalistic corporate values of ruthless bottom line adoration, fear mongering and hate mongering. The values that got us — intentionally — where we are today.
I repeat;
“If Elizabeth warren were truly bright and an advocate of the people, as she is being BRANDED, PACKAGED, and SOLD, she would be leading the election boycotts and not lending her good name to the validation and legitimizing of the now blatantly scam system.”
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
i on the ball – you are so absolutely, straight on-target!
As much as Warren seems like a wonderful person who has the best intentions for the “little people” (or what’s left of the middle and lower class)- it’s tragically simplistic to believe that she, or anyone else, could create an agency that would magically “fix” all that ails our financial system.
When banks and lenders are held accountable for the long-term performance of their assets, then consumers will naturally be protected by the need for these entitites to create financial instruments that work.
Than we don’t need any huge bureaucracy to oversee consumer finance.
Sorry, Siggy my man, but the points made by the poster you are responding to hit home.
Sure, we like what Elizabeth Warren has said, but like Brooksley Born, after doing her good deeds she’ll return to that den of inequity, Harvard (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Bullets, Bombs and Banks — as Celante phrases it) and carries on with the Status Quo.
And since the CPA has been shelved in the Fed (and for people who haven’t experienced the Fed — it is full of the most stupid morons of all time, and Keepers of the Status Quo — and has been sooo “alternatively privatized” (employee positions reduced to contractors and temps)) it has been rendered nothing more than a useless money-sucking scam for future porn viewers of Amerika!
Naaah, sorry, I agree with poster you are responding to — I like what Warren has said, but it be business as usual….
With all due respect, mr doom and mr. i on the ball patriot, you are both wrong. For you, Mr. Doom, to be attacking Warren’s position as Harvard as carrying on or returning to the status quo is…nonsensical. Not all of us were born or raised with that strong sense of justice. It is not Ms. Warren’s fault for existing but your fault for not getting yourselves in a position to reach such leadership posts. Ms. Warren has accepted the role society has granted her, and though she make work in an institution that you say belongs to the “den of inequity” she believes she can accomplish given her elevated peon position in a world of peons.
Will the status quo continue even with her there? This is most likely true. However, in a statement that reflects more upon us as a people than to Warren herself, she’s the best we can do. This is where hope and optimism come into play. It’s completely pointless to be cynical when faced against such mounting odds….it truly gets us nowhere.
No, we can do much better than that if we face up to reality and reject the system and start rebuilding outside it, in resistance to it, in defiance of it, with the goal of overcoming it.
I can’t speak for the others, but that’s the least cynical, least hopeless idea I can imagine.
As for your false hope and deluded optimism, it not only gets us nowhere, it’s counterproductive. Wittingly or not it makes one a collaborator, part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Second that, and worth repeating …
“No, we can do much better than that if we face up to reality and reject the system and start rebuilding outside it, in resistance to it, in defiance of it, with the goal of overcoming it.
I can’t speak for the others, but that’s the least cynical, least hopeless idea I can imagine.
As for your false hope and deluded optimism, it not only gets us nowhere, it’s counterproductive. Wittingly or not it makes one a collaborator, part of the problem and not part of the solution.”
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
attempter,
in all of your posts I always get a hint(a strong hint) that your language is generally quite revolutionary and anti status quo. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but the likelihood of anything you say or want actually happening is slim to none…especially in a country with a democracy(oh, and not to mention a lower to middle class population who willingly advocate against their own interests and in the interests of the rich).
The candidacy of Warren does deserve SOME hope and optimism….again, just because she didn’t come into it being a purist(from what we understand anyhow) doesn’t mean she’s hopeless.
Come on, you can say it, mom and dad you were wrong[!]. You lead us down a path paved with cheep promises and objects de class distinction aka income inequality or judgments of taste.
Pierre Bourdieu is a good start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieu
oh and as a primer
Max Weber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
Sheeple is criminal, sheep should sue for libel and slander.
Oh yeah Warren is a side show, get sucked in or not, WMDs, heck does it matter he’s gone, hell after that ONE the masters must have pissed them selves a swimming pool and laughing all the way to your slavery, get into the pit now.
In fact I feel the middle class is/has been just a smoke screen (in and of its self), ummm what could that be hiding, ahhhh the masters desires of complete world domination via currancy control. Alas they served their role well, tis hard to put down a loved beast that has served so well, will they cry?
Skippy…society’s fools:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJiVgw6sxI&feature=related
Ohh what the hay, grainy goodness, before all was glossed over, monkey mind polishing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyzPvxRdTRw&feature=related
PS. the fishing and the seafood *pan* was great in Noosa.
Deus,
While the kleptocracy is unsustainable and must collapse regardless, I agree that the chances of a guided transformation from without are slim. On the other hand, there’s a much greater possibility of groups among the people being able to carve out political and economic spaces which are somewhat able to resist the worst of the system’s depredations.
Relocalization is an inherently revolutionary idea, but its applications don’t have to be “Revolution or Bust”. It scales very nicely to any context. But its effectiveness under kleptocratic conditions, I’d wager, would be a function of its participants undertaking at least the revolution of mind involved in renouncing the system completely in our minds if not in all our tactics.
So there’s lots of opportunities for transformative action even if the odds of a complete transformation happening anytime soon with non-linear speed are lower.
But by now the evidence is overwhelming that the chances of reform within corporatism are zero.
And I’d add that if we have a shred of human dignity and will to freedom left, the very idea of acquiescence in corporate tyranny should be odious to us.
One proven fact is that neoliberal corporatism will NEVER stop short of our complete enslavement. It will proceed as far as it can along the line of its logic. That’s an incontrovertible fact. So anyone who ever in any context counsels such submission (support for the health racket bailout ultimate classical example) is simply advocating submission to enslavement.
things get damaged
things get broken
I’d thought we’d manage
but words left unspoken
left us so brittle
there was so little left to give…
D/P-M said something like that.
I can’t think any regular readers are even a tiny bit surprised or fooled by the theatre. My own simple and simplistic approach to the current state of non-regulation in the economy and over finance is that we when it comes to bad, we get a double dose of what we deserve and not much at all when it comes to good. Point is: few people have much loyalty to locally made goods and services. Case in point: our daughter just bought a shirt today at ‘double’ the expected cost: ten bucks, instead of five. Three guesses where it was made. There’s a hidden price that we pay for these kinds of cheap goods and the truth is few make the connection to depressed wages and a shrinking middle class and the rise in China’s economic power. ‘Made in …” is going to have to start meaning something to folks sooner, rather than later. I’m too lazy to chase down the link, but I read about six weeks ago that Apple had pretty much lost control over its supply chain for I-pods, I-phones, and I-pads to three firms doing the assembly. China is playing hardball and linking technology transfers to the right to manufacture and sell in China.
The buck stops with a guy who relied upon Tony Rezko for funds and financial guidance. That’s not a story many who voted for ‘Inflate My Grades’ want to hear, but that’s the fact nonetheless. If he deferred to Tony, how unwilling must he be to call Larry Summers and Tim onto the carpet.
The worst part of all this is that a significant portion of the public still expects Hope and Change to part the sea of unemployment. The other part is seething. As one of those who saw ineptitude writ large in the preamble, I can say with all sincerity that I’d be thrilled to be proven wrong. The general sense is that things can’t get much worse. They can and very likely will.
I did not vote for Mr. Obama. I do not believe that the touted CPA will accomplish much of anything that favors the consumer.
I was unclear as to the focus of i on the ball patriot’s rant. I now understand his position. At best, he and I shall agree to disagree.
I continue to see this preoccupation with the CPA, its housing and who shall head it as being a misdirection away from the core problem.
Unless and until we do something about the currency, fractional reserve banking and the blatant abrogation of regulatory responsibility and the prosecution of blatant fraud, we shall continue to degrade deeper and deeper into being banana republic.
Perjorative labels capture the eye but not necessarily the the essence of the problem at hand. I fully recognize that we of the declining middle class have been cheated by a fiat currency whose purchsing power continues to erode each and every day; while all the while we hear dire proclamations that deflation is upon us and it is necessary that we create a bit of ‘artificial’ inflation to keep the engine of economic production moving.
It is offerred to us that if deflation is now upon us then we must have some quantitive easing so as jump start our sour economic back to robust growth. What will it take to return to consumption spending equal to 70% of GDP? That view is the cart before the ox.
What is being proposed is borrowing for the purpose of consumption. The increased consumption of consumables will not create sustainable economic growth. Better that we would invest in education. Better that we would invest in the recreation of passenger rail. Better that we would invest in nuclear power for the generation of electricity.
Not too long ago the super collider project in Texas was canceled. So the physcists have joined in Switzerland and France and that nice little project may soon find the Higgs Boson. Now there’s and investment that will pay, but then the returns come after a long delay and they are relatively modest. But come they do and they can change our lives in a very positive way. Computers, lap-tops ipads etal rely on large scale intergrated semiconductor circuitry. Thank you Livermore labs etal. Thank you Hyman Rickover for those lovely nuclear subs and their trident missiles all of which rely of LSI chips.
If we are not going manufacture things we need to create new technologies. But then this all goes well awry of this discussion. The CPA and whether it is led by Elizabeth Warren or not is a side show. The problem at hand is about the currency, abrogated regulatory responsibility and blatant fraud.
“Not too long ago the super collider project in Texas was canceled. So the physcists have joined in Switzerland and France and that nice little project may soon find the Higgs Boson. Now there’s and investment that will pay, but then the returns come after a long delay and they are relatively modest. But come they do and they can change our lives in a very positive way. Computers, lap-tops ipads etal rely on large scale intergrated semiconductor circuitry. Thank you Livermore labs etal. Thank you Hyman Rickover for those lovely nuclear subs and their trident missiles all of which rely of LSI chips.
”
That’s a nice jumble of science related phrases. Certainly by science understanding the structure of atoms and how they interact, semiconductors were made possible. Having transistors made the evolution into integrated circuits pretty much inevitable and that evolves into LSI. That did make computers, iPods and high speed trading possible.
Livermore Labs, subs, missiles, and things nuclear tie together, but aren’t closely related to the electronics stuff except they all need the computing power.
Where the super collider research leads is anyone’s guess, but as you say any results for the masses probably won’t be quick.
I worked in computers and electronics most of my life. I tried to avoid anything military so that I didn’t directly contribute to that level of endeavor. I always thought the work I was doing was good, but now I see that it also enabled where we are now. Without computers the quants couldn’t have squeezed blood out of a turnip. Without computers the twisted magic derivatives could not have been even constructed. The stock market could not be twanged up or down by whim of the banksters.
Most car races have some kind of limits on engines or power because unlimited use of available technology produces speeds that are just too dangerous. I think we could really use restrictor plates in the computer engines of our financial system.
Everything_a_side…currency and fraud are things we can work on as a society…the rest is a dinner conversation in perpetuity.
With those that choose that path (end corruption)_I_can work with, the others are enablers and I will shun them.
Skippy…feel like doing more but, understand the consequences too all.
I wish they would stop talking in code.
“Not confirmable” = too many in Congress are in the pockets of the Financial Industry.
She’s an “activist” = she’s independent minded and not prone to the group-think and sucking up that is expected of a regulator.
Get used to Obama; there will be no Ms. Warren. As Bob Herbert said yesterday in the NYTimes and as we already know, until the GOP gets only 10% of the votes and we stop electing dysfunctional presidents such as Bush and Obama, there is no hope.
“..and we stop electing dysfunctional presidents such as Bush and Obama..”
Naaah, the sock puppets for Wall Street who temporarily move into the White House, be it America’s first Simian elected president, George Weasel Bush, or his more intelligent and articule replacement, Barack Obama (and keeping Bush forever loyalist and lackey, Robert Gates in as SecDef pretty much tells us all the score), things will always be the same until the Financial-Intelligence Complex, which runs the Big Show, is reduced to rubble.
Nothing else will change anything…..
This is no different than the Brooksley Born lynching at the end of Clinton’s presidency. Almost the same cast of characters with Timmy Geithner taking the lead this time and Larry Summers in the background.
If the CPA is to be of any value to the public, Warren should head it. If not her, who? Lloyd Blankfein?
If Warren is not nominated or recess appointed, the president will be putting another nail in his coffin with the base. What is it with Democrats that they think they can take the base for granted while constantly spitting in their eye. The only think that the Dems have going for them is the Tea Party to indirectly motivate the base after they’ve demotivated them directly. [Expletives deleted.]
“What is it with Democrats that they think they can take the base for granted while constantly spitting in their eye.”
They think that, since the Republicans are so bad (look at all the material they’re providing the DNC for the mid-term elections) that the base as no choice than voting for them.
They also still believe that the push to boot Blanche Lincoln was a one time event.
They’re dead wrong about that. Unions are fed up, the base is fed up, small businesses are fed up and people in general truly wonder if they have o voice in DC. Of course, they don’t.
Moreover, the Democrass do NOT want to change the system in Washington. As per FDL’s Jon Walker; Dem Senators lie about what they say they care about. NONE of them as shown a true willingness to vote for Udall filibuster reform.
Why is that?
http://bit.ly/dBglVi
Dodd is retiring
He really doesn’t want to go up against her in his next job as a well paid lobbyist for the banking industry
In a welter of reflexive emotion driven cynicism and venting, this comment stands out as informed, intelligent cynicism. Bravo!
Ahhh the bellwether (A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.) sounds yet again.
Or Dodd’s wife, highly paid executive with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, doesn’t want to tangle with her now.
Seriously, does anyone really believe the latest Wall Street lackey in the presidency, Mr. Obama, who appointed the likes of Diana Farrell, Laura Tyson, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner (head of the NY Fed when that $8.7 billion of $9 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds were transported to the NY Fed – then back to Iraq and went unaccounted for), Orszag, Gensler, Schapiro and kept on super-Bushies, Robert Gates at DoD and Mueller with the feebs (FBI), would really appoint anyone of Ms. Warren’s caliber????
What was the result of the investigation into Friend of Angelo Chris Dodd’s accepting an insider only low mortgage rate loan from the king of no doc mortgage insurance, Angelo Mozillo?
Correction: ..”from the king of no doc mortgage issuance,…”
Obama can evade Senate opposition and appoint Warren during Recess. If he doesn’t, informed Americans will, at least, know that almost no apparatus of the Federal Government will do anything of substance to restore financial sanity and integrity.
On a contrarian note, I’d like to suggest that Barack Obama actually believes that he’s doing some part of “The Right Thing” by protecting Finance. I think it’s possible that he believes Summers and Geithner (I think he’s also smart enough to know that Summers is smarter and more knowledgeable) when they tell him that our economy can’t survive if Wall St takes the kind of hit most responsible experts of finance and economics advocate. If the economy implodes on his watch, I expect that he’ll fire them in genuine anger and bewilderment. I don’t think he GROKS the economy.
“If the economy implodes on his watch, I expect that he’ll fire them in genuine anger and bewilderment.”
Obama is a teleprompting machine (watch his speeches for the mechanical wag of the head). What I’ve been able to make of him to date, he has no genuine anything. Its all show-n-glow.
The firing part is correct though.
I wanted to give Obama the benefit of the doubt also. But he’s had plenty of time to learn about economic issues.
The economy is imploding as we speak. The Stimulus was (effectively) 1/4 of what it should have been (due to tax cuts and pork); the banks have made Obama look like a fool with big bonuses, predatory practices, and little help for homeowners; and Financial reform is considered by most independent observers to be a joke. Geithner argued for higher, BIS-led capital requirements instead of more stringent regulation. Now the BIS is backtracking on higher capital requirements. Geithner blocked the Volcker Rule, doesn’t like Warren, and has a testy relationship with Congress.
So why does Geithner/Summers and/or Ben “Subprime is contained” Bernanke – handpicked successor of Alen “Bubblicious” Greenspan – have a job?
As a registered cynic, I think Angelo Mozillo would be a fine choice to head the agency. He certainly has a background in appeasing consumer sentiment for the marginally displaced.
I would prefer Larry Summers for the job. It would be a step down for him but I’m sure he’s capable of self-sacrifice.
Summers!?
Was that a joke?
I’m predicting the agency will be staffed with sociopaths.
In fact, I’m prediction a sociopath will be our next president. In FACT, (you heard it hear first), I predict that 99% of the voting peasants will vote Republicrat!
Why doesn’t Elizabeth Warren just run for office (as an independent) this fall? I’d love to see her more widely publicized! Or possibly this drama over her leading the CFPA is designed to block such a move?
We need an Economic Rights movement.
She’s not running because she knows this story:
A woman said to Adlai Stevenson: “All the intelligent people will vote for you”
To which Stevenson replied:”That is very nice of you Madam, but I need a majority.”
No doubt we are being “gamed” by both sides of the argument , pro, anti Warren . I trust neither side with my rights in hand . But I have done due diligence on Warren . I think she would do the best job she could and would not fold to the corrupt voices over her . If she was a neutered position why are the Big 5 spending millions to lobby against her . She is a start . A good start . I agree with the first poster . If we get a Fed/ Central Bank puppet at this time , all hope , near term is lost for financial reform . Tea Party be damned .New wolf in sheeps clothes , new boss same as the old boss .
Dear Ms. Smith,
We find the callous use of the term “one-eyed midget” to be deeply offensive. In the future, kindly refrain from using such pejorative slurs and perhaps consider referring to our constituents with the dignity they are entitled to by using the preferred address: “monocular little people.”
Sincerely,
The MLP Liberation Army
by their Attorney,
/s/ Gen. T. Thumb, Esq.
Dear Ms. Smith,
We find the callous use of the term “one-eyed m1dget” to be deeply offensive. In the future, kindly refrain from using such pejorative slurs and perhaps consider referring to our constituents with the dignity they are entitled to by using the preferred address: “monocular little people.”
Sincerely,
The MLP Liberation Army
by their Attorney,
/s/ Gen. T. Thumb, Esq.
I hope Ms Warren gets confirmed. I must say the level of discussion here has sunk to that of NRO. Under the current 60 vote hurdle, Obama cannot get his way. Obama is not perfect but when have we ever had a perfect President. Too many here would settle for no loaf rather than half a loaf and seem to wish for no loaf. Where would that get us?
What is NRO? I’m sure it should be obvious, but it isn’t clicking with me.
I agree Warren getting confirmed would be a great positive sign, but I totally understand the trend of the discussions here.
Once upon a time, I think, it was possible to get a few votes from the other side on legislation that made sense. Now there is a complete stonewall on the minority side, and usually a few defectors on the majority side. The “great” pieces of legislation have been shredded and manipulated by the time they get voted, so that they accomplish nothing.
Mr. O staffed his administration with the usual suspects and kept to the status flow with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo. Nothing has been done with the criminality of the previous scum. Don’t ask don’t tell — still the same. Two years plus, and the banksters still have the same rackets milking us masses of sheeple.
The big change — this Prez can speak in a serious tone without tripping over his own tongue. He is not adding many new problems to the list, which is a relief, but he isn’t cleaning up much either. Mr. O is probably a reasonable nickname, as in zero or null.
This blog still provides some of the best, most neutral, information I have found and the discussions sometimes add some extra insight. Many of the regulars here get a bit redundant with the same negative messages, but it is really hard to maintain much optimism when we are knee deep in feces and all the plumbers give us is perfume.
IIRC NRO = National Review Online
In ending E. Warren aka Mommy will not make it better, I mean what the HELL is like wearing a pantsuit going to change the political landscape in a few years, after how many whacked out ones.
I’m with IONTBP all of this is a deception, as if one person could have any effect after so much water has passed under the bridge…shezzz.
All I see is a bunch of debt slaves arguing over how much they can load them selves up with and the middle men glad to take a cut too their masters glee. Maybe the FDA should look into the parallels of processed foods and debt in creating monkey mind polished minty freshness (I can see the glossy center page ad now, sexisimaxumus {cough honeyyyy}).
Skippy…its becoming a DADAists play ground, the absurdity is delicious.
Always good to read or hear a person of achievement and distinction properly denigrate a no-account schmuck like Liz Warren. Nice work.
Ask your self…why…is it that so much hope is attached to one person..eh.
When confronted with so much history, plays abound to this ridiculous state, yet you play to this faun/phaunos desire.
Achievement and distinction are catch phrases of social TASTE, whom is the arbiter of this metric, what are their goals..eh…what kinds of rope do you like to be bound with, hard or soft, many tastes out there, IDK.
Ohh me, well snorting coke with congrasscriters pumping me for military info (whilst I’m screwing their daughters/mans gotta get an edge on the comp {hay stay at my place on the beach/the COVE}), with presidents of the BAR in Cali (so many court cases and so much money to make (I’ve got a 90ft trawler and a NFL player hitting on my GF to contend with/pay for), a couple of B grade Exec posts, In’s on the two so called accounting agencies (bottom/up), family connections to the Rep party in AZ (Sedona is so spiritual/peasants not allowed), mates that married into the white mob {cough da lake in VM}, ohhh one mate that served on yachts in Fl and after a 6 mo crash course in computers ran the cash flow for citi in mining transactions {soon to be NYC bound so the whispers say}…yadie dada.
and you are?
For you KFritz…may the
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y6uL_sEelw&NR=1
ohh now look at what you have made me do…bring out the big guns of rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y6uL_sEelw&NR=1
Skippy…ahhh the young and their tendencies.
Ohh yeah lady gaga has talent…least we forget…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXkMrz-x-A8&NR=1
Crrrrappp…have too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXkMrz-x-A8&NR=1
The worst part is watching Dodd head to the financial services industry. In addition to dealing with Rangel, can’t Congressional Ethics bar Dodd from diving into the banking scene after he leaves the Senate this Fall? What a tool – I had no idea his wife was in a position of responsibility with the CME, talk about the fox’s wife guarding the henhouse. Revolting. Non-confirmable? Wall Street should be telling Dodd he’s non-employable, anyone who takes him on will be hiring a hot mess.
It is obvious she is an ideal canidate for the position except for one aspect.
IS SHE A GOOD ADMINISTRATOR?
Why are people avoiding that question. If the agency is going to be effective in the long term the initial bureaucracy must be molded by an effective administrator who understands how to work in the government and get things done with congress always looking over ones shoulders.
Elizabeth Warren represents what the heart of the organization should be, but I have serious doubts that she has the ability or personal charisma to leave a lasting impression on the organization.
For the record, I wholeheartedly support the nomination of Ms Elizabeth Warren as the Director of CFPA. But I don’t expect it. It continues to amaze me how poorly our politicians understand us. Some of us (myself included) have a ferocious antipathy toward the banks and the banksters. Many if not most abhor the thought that in 2008-9, the banksters, who created this mess, got bailed out with taxpayer funds the avoid “systemic failure”, then paid themselves huge bonuses – as if having to be bailed out was a sign of success. This anger gave rise to the Tea Party movement on the right and all the lefties I know consider Obama an Uncle Tom for the banks.
If Obama nominates Warren – and if the right holds up her nomination – then it would be easy for the Dems to paint them as pro-bank, anti-consumer – and get this Mr. Rahm Emanuel – this could be exploited by any campaign manager worth his salt. Here’s my prediction. I have no idea whether Obama is willing to bite the hand that feeds him and nominate Warren, but, if he does, the Dems will win big in November. If not, bye-bye House. Given that Obama has so far chosen the side of the big banks, and to avoid getting filled up on Hopium, I am guessing he won’t soon be standing at a podium with Liz at his side.