September 21, 2009
One thing we can all agree on about our president: He chooses his words v-e-r-y carefully.
So I wondered about his choice of language and timing when, on the same day he traveled to Wall Street to deliver the bankers a gentle scolding, he got caught on videotape labeling the rapper Kanye West a “jackass” for his behavior on a televised awards show.
You don’t mess with the president: Kanye West got himself right onto Jay Leno’s couch to perform an apology.
Imagine if you could report the value of your work on your tax return, rather than your actual income. At the end of the year, you’d issue yourself a W2 or a 1099 based on a comparison of how other people who did the same kind of work valued their efforts. The lower the worth you put on your work, the lower your taxes. Let’s just say the IRS wouldn’t be too happy with a system that encouraged low-balling.
Wall Street bankers were able to arrange an equally self-serving compensation system for themselves - and they got away with it.
In a week, the nation will celebrate the one-year anniversary of Wall Street’s collapse.
For most, it won’t be a festive occasion. A whopping 16% of Americans able to work are unemployed or are working fewer hours than they want. Spending is way down because people are scared and many are unable to borrow – lines of credit have been slashed and credit card interest rates are skyrocketing. Since household spending amounts to at least 30% of the nation’s economic activity, this has had a devastating ripple effect on the economy.
By now it’s a familiar story: when the legendary labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph met with FDR before World War II to get the president to take action against discrimination, the president boomed back: “I agree with you, now go out and make me do it.”
Lots of people have been retelling the story as a call to action, comparing Obama to the wise, liberal Roosevelt. It urges supporters of everything from Middle East peace to health care and financial reform to keep the pressure on in order to get President Obama to do what he essentially wants to do, but cannot do—on his own because he’s being forced into unpalatable compromises by political pressures.
Remember when high risk and reckless trading led to economic collapse?
That was so five minutes ago.
Goldman-Sachs is back to its old tricks, roaring to record profits from high-risk trading - and the federal government is aiding and abetting the whole thing.
You might have thought the feds would be discouraging Goldman from using the economy as its private casino, but that’s far from the case.