Have I ended up on the wrong blog? Is this the WSJ Editorial Page?
I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen.
Who said that? Gordon Gekko?
No. President Barack "Greed is Good" Obama.
Already, two diaries defending President Obama's position on the sort of obscene "compensation" being dished out to our twenty-first century plutocrats and bashing anybody who dares to criticize him have soared to the top of the Rec List.
I mean, I'll give the president props: he's telling the truth. Dimon and Blankfein are very savvy businessmen. Very, very, VERY savvy. They've found ways to milk the American financial system and the American people for cash extremely effectively.
Does that make them admirable, though?
No.
Bernie Madoff was a very savvy businessman, too...just not savvy enough.
So why is "savvy businessman" the new cool? What have Dimon and Blankfein done for our nation's people?
Let's look at JP Morgan Chase. What, we're going to praise Mr. Dimon's business savvy for raising corporate profits on the backs of working-class customers? How about Chase's sudden increase in minimum payments for some of its most creditworthy customers from 2% of the balance to 5%? I was personally one of those affected; ask me how it feels to have your monthly credit card payment jump from $520 to $1,300.
Or how about Chase's overall credit card customer complaint record? How about the behavior of their mortgage divisions?
Yes...Jamie Dimon is a "savvy businessman", all right...what's depressing is that the President of the United States thinks that the behavior of his admittedly good friend Mr. Dimon is okey-dokey and says of it:
That is part of the free- market system.
And Goldman Sachs? WTF does Goldman Scahs do anyway? I'm not exactly sure; one thing for certain, they rake in a whole shitload of money without seeming to provide a tangible service to society. Their craven and worthless existence is even a bit much for the wingnut New York Post!
Yet, "savvy businessman" Blankfein is also the recipient of President Obama's accolades.
Again, I ask you: what does it say about President Obama's "connection" to the American people that he feels compelled to make such statements in the first place? Is he still trying to establish "street cred" with the Republican side of the aisle? Does he think that the rapidly-increasing wealth gap in this country is a good thing, a testimonial to the social consciousness of these "savvy businessman"?
It's time for a leader who recognizes that the "no limit to greed" Reagan model is the death knell of American society, not some sort of trend that needs to be nurtured. What is going on in the banking industry is not
part of the free- market system.
It is part of the "socialized risk, privatized profits" system. It is part of a soon-to-fail feudal or plutocratic system. It is part of the destruction of the middle class.
It represents the death throes of a once-great nation.