Barack Obama once again delivers an impressive speech at a critical moment. A lot of the language of the speech will please both liberal and conservative sensibilities alike. Who knows Obamacans may come back as a subject of conversation.
It is not my normal position to pick nits with Obama as by and large he does very well for my general beliefs by and large. I find I tend to be aligned with him in terms of what needs to happen to move this country forward in broad terms and the details are less concerning to me as he clearly is in charge of the situation.
Tonite however, I think I found a fissure. Not a deal breaker by any means, but an area where I think he misjudges the circumstances we are in, both politically and economically. It came with his line, delivered firmly, that he will not govern from anger, while explaining the banking bailout program.
It seems to me this line is a veiled reference to the rising tide in favoring bank nationalization, which his administration seems fairly dug in against.
I tend to agree, we should not govern out of anger, we should govern out of a sense of shared responsibility and accountability. The problem I have with rescuing the banks through massive capital injections is the people who led our economy into this crisis will not come close to facing the dire consequences. This is the rub all Americans are feeling right now and is what s reflected in the polling data.
I am sure Obama reads these numbers a simple anger and surely that does play a role, but lets look at what people are angry about.
- Fairness. A word Obama used quite a bit n the campaign trail. Lewis, Dimon all of these CEOs that ran their organizations into the ground have their job. I work in a non-profit that partners with 700 businesses in the Portland Oregon area. In just 7 of those non-banking industry businesses 7,000 people have either lost or havebeen told they will be losing their jobs since the first of the year. Rent assistance requests in just one county at just one non-profit have gone from a norm of 350 to 400 to now over 1100 requests per month since september. Food bank emergency food box requests are up more than 20% over last year. Unemployment payouts in just 3 counties in Oregon have gone up from $65,000,000 per quarter to $124,000,000 in the 4th quarter of 2004. I could go on. These numbers do make me angry, but beyond that these people are suffering largely through no fault of their own and the people that put us in this situation are not bearing the consequences of their actions.
-Decency. A word Obama often used to describe the American people on the campaign trail. At core I believe this as well. I see examples of it every single day. Yet, while we are in a crisis created by the banking industry, they continue their bonus programs. I blew away all my performance markers away, but given the state of the economy and the impact it has had on our revenue, i do not expect even a cost of living increase this year. Forgoing this will allow us to keep a threadbare staff intact. In fact my efforts enabled us to break even this year, no loss overall while other folks struggled to get near last years figures. The banks have lost an unknown amount of money and yet STILL doled out indecent amounts of bonuses.
-Accountability. A theme that Obama strikes up more and more frequently. These people have turned millions of Americans lives upside down through their actions. How are these guys being held accountable? what is the consequence? While it was satisfying to see these arrogant CEOs brought humble in front of congressional hearings this hardly represents any accountability, and besides they still have no idea the mess they have caused.
-Responsibility. yet another Obama favorite. These guys take no responsibility for what has happened. Dimon bitching about people not paying underwater mortgages is funny considering his bank is tied up in this mess too. Although to be fair Chase has been the more proactive of the players in the mess. Not one of these guys has resigned, not one of these guys have laid out a restructuring plan for their own organization to deal with the problems they created, oh sure they have laid off a lot of folks, but mostly people who were operating under the system created by the management, you know the guys that are responsible to making sure organizational practices are in compliance with legal obligations. their staffs have been slashed, but the guys that caused the problem still sit there.
So yeah, people are angry, at the same time, the guys that are being saved are the antithesis of many of the themes Obama has struck upon throughout his campaign and first month in office. This disconnect is why people want to see these guys cleaned out, they deserve it. They should reap what they have sown.
Most Americans know we need a functioning banking system, they just don't think losing the people that lead us into this mess really represents any real brain drain. To paraphrase the Tim Toles cartoon from the other day people see it this way, 'the government can't possibly run our banking system into the ground as efficiently as the private sector.'
I urge Obama to realize the the rise in the desire for short term nationalization does not only stem from anger, but also from some of the aspects of the American people that he spoke to over the last two years, the fairness and decency of the American people.