I find it rather sad that only three courageous Senators on 'our side of the room' have decided to stand up and be counted to refuse to reconfirm Ben Bernanke for the upcoming full Senate vote. Bernanke's tenure runs out as of January 21st, 2010, but there has yet to be an announcement from the Senate as to the actual full vote taking place. Wonder why?
Robert Kuttner has an interesting article entitled: 'The Case Against Bernanke' that is well worth the read, and there is one thing that Mr. Kuttner points out which is important for all of us in considering (besides the fact that Ben Bernanke failed miserably as the nations' steward during the greatest financial meltdown in our nations history.)
Kuttner understands that this is not simply about Bernanke's incompetence, malfeasance and negligence, but also has to do with the fact that Bernanke is not only just a symbol of everything that's wrong with Wall Street's dominance of economic policy, but the substance.
I had written in a previous diary, that I believe the Republicans may use the issue of the 'populist rage' against the continued Wall Street bail outs and the coddling of the Bankers and Wall Street by the Obama Administration as a 'tool' to 'turn the tables' and this has already begun recently by the bipartisan calls nation wide to conduct an investigation of Treasurer Timothy Geithner in the AIG/Goldman Sachs 'secret sweet deal' that is now being called Security Fraud.
The sordid tale unfolds in a series of e-mails between the company and the New York Fed obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and first publicly disclosed by Bloomberg News. Taxpayers have committed about $182 billion to AIG. The under-regulated firm developed and sold complicated derivatives products without having adequate capital in place if those bets went bad, which they eventually did. The firm nearly single-handedly wrecked the entire financial system.
After the firm was given a taxpayer-funded backstop, one of its most controversial acts was to repay banks at 100 cents on the dollar for what was by that point nearly worthless insurance the banks had bought from AIG, known as credit-default swaps. A brutal report issued in November by a government watchdog disclosed that AIG had actually been trying to negotiate better terms with the banks until - guess what? -- the New York Fed stepped in. The report held Geithner personally responsible, and led to renewed questions about his fitness for the job.
Now it turns out Geithner's people told AIG to delete references on draft regulatory filings to the sweetheart deals. And AIG then excluded any mention of them in its December 2008 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, keeping the information hidden from investors and the public.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sooner or later, all of these 'nasty little details' of 'who scratched who's back' and exactly how deep and wide the corruption goes on the greatest transfer of wealth our nation has ever experienced, are coming out, and these facts will continue to come out as time goes by. The fact that President Obama is still 'not getting out' in front of this growing 'inner circle scandal' among the very same group of people that are currently working as his 'economic team' may end up coming back to bite him very very hard on the ass....like 'Pitt Bull Hard on the ass.'
As Kuttner points out, which is exactly my point:
In October 2008, when Republican Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's TARP legislation was railroaded through Congress, it was Republicans more than Democrats who nearly killed it, and the Democrats who saved it. Now, many Democrats are having second thoughts. In this climate, Republicans are playing the preposterous role of the more populist of the two parties. And, as the fight over a badly flawed health bill shows, Obama's policies are making their jobs easier.
With a majority of Republican senators apparently ready to vote against Bernanke, Democratic senators risk finding themselves on the wrong side of another populist backlash. If half of the Democrats decide to vote against him, his nomination could go down.
With the disappointing job numbers for December just released, and the rising populist rage against the favoritism shown to Wall Street over Main Street, the opposition to Bernanke will only grow. And it would be a severe mistake to read this as senators needing a scapegoat or a sacrificial lamb. The Fed's policies are deplorable, Bernanke shows no sign of learning from his mistakes, and the Fed continues to hide behind its semi-secret status as not quite a public agency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Case in point is how this 'story' is not going to ever go away, and in fact will continue to just grow and grow -
Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, took aim at Wall Street’s looming bonuses on Monday, sending letters to eight of the nation’s biggest banks demanding information on how they structured those payouts. "At the end of the day, I represent the people of the state of New York," he said. "Taxpayers paid a terrible price for this past economic recession. Average New Yorkers are still paying the price for this economic debacle."
The letters to the banks — described on a conference call as the original recipients of federal aid — seek "extensive" information on how big the bonus pools are, how they were allocated and what clawback provisions and vesting periods are built in as checks and balances. The information is due Feb. 8. (Read one of the letters after the jump.)
The banks that received letters on Monday are: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street Bank and Wells Fargo.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/...
But I wanted to focus on these statements made by Senator Dorgan, who I am very very sad to see leave the Senate. He is, in all sense of the word, 'the real deal' when it came to doing whatever he has been able to in order to protect Americans from the predatory greed and controlled fraud of Wall Street and the Banks, and the Federal Reserve.
Senator Dorgan:
Well, this is going to be one of the big issues right at the start of this session, is financial reform. And Wall Street’s right back in the same old swamp, doing the same things. And with respect to the Federal Reserve Board, you know for the first time in history they said to the big investment banks, you can come and get direct lending from the Federal Reserve Board.
We’re trying to find out from the Fed, who’d you give the money to, how much money did you give? My point is, what did you do with our money? And the Federal Reserve Board says "none of your business."
Well, I tell you what, it is our business, and I’m not going to let the Bernanke nomination to head the Fed for another term go through until he tells, what did he do with our money, the American people’s money? So we’ve got a lot of things to work on here, and as I’ve said before, if you’re too big to fail, you’re too big, in my judgment. Because that’s no-fault capitalism, and we shouldn’t continue with it.
No fault capitalism indeed - which essentially now means not only can these Wall Street Bankers continue to make trillions of dollars in risky behavior, but that if they 'burn and crash again' it will once again be the taxpayers who clean up their mess, and that is in perpetuity.
Main Street has now officially become the only entity in our country that is not too big to 'fail' at the expense of crooks, liars and thieves who arrogantly and blatantly, along side our public officials live out the primary Shock Syndrome rule one, day after day:
First, exploit crises—whether due to economics, politics, or natural disasters––to advance an agenda that would never survive the democratic process during ordinary times. Next, create a "corporatocracy," in which multinationals and political leaders align to promote their interests at the public’s expense.
How's that working out for you Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, AIG, Ben Bernanke, and now Timothy Geithner? Who are all obviously working on the same team known as the 'New Improved Inglorious Bastards Brigade.'
Senator Sanders had this to say about his hold on Ben Bernanke:
"The American people are disgusted with the greed and recklessness of Wall Street .... People are asking why didn't the Fed intervene at the appropriate time to stop the casino-type activities of large financial companies," Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press.
This video with Senator Sanders is priceless in his outrage to 'get answers' from Ben Bernanke as the destruction of the Middle Class is happening as a direct result of 'Helicopter Ben' driving the nation's car off into the cliff and right into the volcano.
And now a portion of what Merkley had to say:
Merkley Statement on Nomination of Ben Bernanke
"Tomorrow, I will vote against confirming Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The reason, in short, is that as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke failed to recognize or remedy the factors that paved the road to this dark and difficult recession. Following our economic collapse, it is also apparent that he has not changed his overall approach to prioritizing Wall Street over American families.
"My decision is based on my fundamental belief that our economy cannot recover if we do not put Main Street first.
"Our nation is just beginning to emerge from the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, and there is no guarantee we will continue on the road to recovery over the long or short terms. Unemployment remains far too high, credit is unavailable to too many businesses, and families are plagued by falling home prices and high foreclosure rates. Even as we move forward with our efforts to get our economy back on track, it is critical we carefully examine what led us to this point.
"For too many years, federal regulators turned a blind eye to signs of an impending financial crisis. Tricks and traps proliferated in the credit card and consumer lending industries. Predatory mortgage loans exploded, fueling an unsustainable housing bubble. Regulators lifted rules requiring banks to keep adequate capital, and a laissez-faire approach to securitization, derivatives, and proprietary trading encouraged excessive risk-taking on Wall Street. As a member of the Board of Governors, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and then ultimately as Chairman of the Board of Governors, Dr. Bernanke supported each of these decisions, failing to take the necessary precautionary steps that could have averted or mitigated financial collapse.
"These failures are very relevant to the future. We need economic leaders who understand that the ultimate goal of economic policies and the key to meaningful economic recovery should be financially successful families, not over sized Wall Street profits. "Indeed, it should be recognized that although Wall Street prospered in the short-term from reduced leverage requirements, securitization of faulty mortgages, and the explosion of derivatives, Americans did not. The expansion that occurred from 2002 to 2007 became the first economic expansion in which working families were worse off at the end than at the beginning. This is not a path that we can afford to travel again."
http://merkley.senate.gov/...
Senator Merkley's sentence that states:
My decision is based on my fundamental belief that our economy cannot recover if we do not put Main Street first.
....Reminds me of the exact same phrase the 'Candidate Obama' must have used a million times or more during his 18 month long campaign that I, and so many of us here worked on to put him into the White House.
That seems like so many many years ago, it seems like a life time ago, and some days, I have to go visit old videos of President Obama saying those words, to remind myself that it wasn't just my imagination that this is exactly what and who President Obama ran on: Lifting up Main Street, lifting up the Middle Class, holding those accountable on Wall Street for what he called, 'their profound irresponsibility.'
Finally, Robert Kuttner makes a statement that is worth all of us thinking deeply about at this point in the manner in which President Obama has obviously chosen Wall Street over Main Street:
Bernanke's defeat would be a repudiation of President Obama's close alliance with Wall Street -- but it would be extremely salutary for him and for us. It might even get the president's attention for the proposition that his presidency and America's economic future depend on an entirely different strategy of economic recovery.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Well, I sure as hell hope that 'something' gets the attention of President Obama very soon to shake up his current 'choices' of those who he surrounded himself with for his economic strategies.
I have a feeling that the final vote on Ben Bernanke within the full Senate is going to be a huge wake up call for our President, and that, is not such a bad thing. Right now, in fact, that could very well be just the kind of 'change I can believe in.'
God only knows how long we will be 'paying' for what has been allowed to occur in our nation. Regardless of what the 'Main Street Media' has to say on 'Oh happy day green shoots dream land TV'....our nation is now in the depths of another Great Depression.
That is except for Goldman Sachs, who are giving out 23 Billion dollars of bonuses this upcoming month, and by the way, 13 Billion of those dollars game right from the AIG sweet deal, that Timothy Geithner helped out on. 13 Billion dollars of taxpayer money that should never have been 'given away' behind closed doors. Transparency, my ass.
Thank you Senator Dorgan, Senator Sanders and Senator Merkley for standing up for all Americans who deserve 'answers' to what happened to our money, who deserve answers as to whom is responsible for this unbearable catastrophe that has caused so many millions of Americans their jobs, their homes, their retirements, their savings, their hopes and their dreams, and for many their very lives.
We deserve accountability and we deserve the right to find a way to make absolutely certain that this kind of devastation will never be allowed to happen in our country again. We deserve answers, we deserve justice, we deserve retribution, we deserve to get our money back with interest and we deserve an explanation as to why this catastrophe was allowed to happen. After all, 'we' are paying the cost and will be paying the cost for the next few decades.
Main Street has become the one and only 'entity' in our nation that is officially 'not to big to fail' but has paid with the greatest and most tragic human suffering, and for that there is no amount of money that can ever make up for that kind of failure.
Thanks.