UNMASKING THE PRESIDENT
LURKING IN THE SHADOWS OF OBAMA’S GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN, AND LENDING A BIG HAND, WERE WALL STREET BANKS.
by Robert Scheer
for HUSTLER Magazine – July 2010
As you read these words in the future, some weeks after they were written, you may be hearing on your nightly news cast about a new law the President has just signed that promises to fundamentally reform the way banks operate and are regulated in order to protect individual consumers as well as the national and global economies. But it won’t change anything important. The banks will still have a license to steal.
That’s because, some two years after the free-falling investment house Bear Stearns tore a black hole in the thin-skinned super bubble pumped up by Wall Street speculators, Washington, D.C., has been completely unable to establish any authority over the banking industry it bailed out.
Trillions of taxpayer dollars were put at risk to buy the toxic assets that the banks bought and marketed with such abandon. The federal bailout saved most of the big banks from bankruptcy, they used the money to buy the assets of those that did fail, and at the end of the day the financial industry was more concentrated in a few hands than ever. By allowing it to get even bigger, we are being set up for the next crisis.
Not that politicians haven’t flapped their gums plenty, when convenient, about helping to protect Main Street from Wall Street predators. Even our normally reserved President has allowed himself to indulge a few hearty denunciations of “fat cats” now and again. Republicans meanwhile have opposed any effort to rein in Wall Street. The Democrats have not done much better.
That’s because the banking lobby owns both political parties—particularly now, after the Supreme Court committed the supreme absurdity of ruling that the big corporations are just like any ordinary citizen and that to control their buying of politicians would interfere with their free speech rights. Who are we kidding when it comes to the pretense of living in a democracy when even the puny limits on campaign financing have been eliminated, and more than ever it is money that talks?
When it comes to doing the bidding of Wall Street, it doesn’t matter much whether the Republicans or Democrats are in charge. After the banking meltdown there was no difference in the policy pursued by Barack Obama over that of George W. Bush. Both had nothing else to offer except throwing money at Wall Street while ignoring the pain of ordinary folks who were losing their jobs and homes. Both political parties kept the bailout gravy train rolling for Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and all the other good ol’ boy banks, while handing the keys to economic policy to the same array of slicksters that created this mess.
Whenever Obama started to get the least bit tough with the financial hustlers that got us into all of this, the big boys on Wall Street let the kids in Washington know who was boss. After Obama dared voice a desire for some return for ordinary taxpayers who footed the bailout bill, several of his Wall Street backers promptly—and publicly—shifted some political donations from Democrats to Republicans.
“Buyer’s remorse,” joked Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, apparently glad to sell his party to any bidder shifting its enthusiasm from the President they thought they had bought. For example, as the New York Times put it, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon “is a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, a frequent White House guest and a big Democratic donor.” But even he was complaining to Obama about the President’s loose talk of reinstalling some post-Depression regulations stripped out of the law books during the Bush I and Clinton administrations. As if to punctuate the point, the Times said Dimon’s traditionally Democratic Party-leaning megabank was shifting its electoral cash sluices toward the GOP.
Joining Dimon in pressuring the President was Robert Wolf, chief of the U.S. division of the Swiss-owned bank UBS. Wolf, who plays golf and watches fireworks with the President, was appointed by Obama to the Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, headed by former Fed chief Paul Volcker. Wolf was upset when Obama recently endorsed Volcker’s proposal for restoring the spirit of the Glass-Steagall Act by separating investment from commercial banking, as it was for six decades of financial stability before the big money people decided that stuff was old hat and for sissies.
Dimon and Wolf were just being cautious; they can’t be too worried. After all, take the mask off the Obama candidacy and there was always a deeply disturbing reality that his massive Internet-driven grassroots contributor base concealed: Obama was the first major party Presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to base his campaign fundraising exclusively on private rather than public funds.
The appearance of all those coins flowing in from the common folk denied the harsh reality that Obama’s campaign contributions established him as the darling of Wall Street financiers every bit as much as George W.Bush. Pity that We the People, that majority of Americans forced to pay dearly for Wall Street’s scamming, never got the populist in the White House we thought we had elected.
Before serving 30 years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer spent the late 1960s as Vietnam correspondent, managing editor and editor in chief of Ramparts magazine. Now editor of TruthDig.com, Scheer has written such hard-hitting books as The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America and his latest, The Great American Stick-Up: Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them.
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Tags: Bear Stearns, Obama
September 21st, 2010 at 3:01 am
I was searching for an easy way to contact Mr. Flynt (of course I know that there is no such beast) and came across this site. I agree that the banking system is still as out of what we (the American People) would perceive as control as ever and that it is probably more “too big to fail” than it was before the bust, but I am in no way qualified to talk about that in any intelligent manner.
My desire is to get a message to Mr. Flynt and I saw this site and this first post, and, with the absence of a, “Contact” link, decided to comment. For what it’s worth, I did read the article.
I just watched the movie, “Food Inc.”. I was able to chalk-up most of the testimonials and horrific situations presented in the film to capitalism being capitalism. I’m proud to be an American and I love to enjoy the opportunity I have as an American to make as much money as I can and buy stuff with it. No doubt about that. If making money is wrong, I (probably) don’t want to be right. However, one thing really pissed me off as an American: Veggie Libel.
According to “Food Inc.”, some states have laws that make it illegal to criticize the way that the major food companies do business. It goes so far as to cite some laws that make it a felony to publish photos of these giant lots where cattle are raised for the major meat-producing companies.
I took this in and thought, “How can this be? After all of the struggles for civil rights, especially freedom of speech and press, can private citizens be convicted of a felony for publishing a photo?” Naturally, I thought of Larry Flynt, the national symbol of the fight for free speech.
I am not asking, nor do I expect, Mr. Flynt to take up the cause of safe or ethical or nice or whatever you want to call it food. I would just like to ask his opinion on the matter, as someone who has made so many monstrous strides to preserve our First Amendment rights. How does Larry Flynt feel about these laws? What would Larry Flynt do if he was on either side of this business?
I don’t expect any response to this. I did a lot of searching for way to contact Larry Flynt and decided that this was my best bet. I’m not trying to start a social movement or get anyone involved in anything they don’t want to be involved in. I’m just curious to know Mr. Flynt’s opinion. But, if Mr. Flynt happens to read this, I want to say:
Mr. Flynt, from one pervert to another, thank you for your tireless work and the unmeasurable sacrifices you have made to protect our civil rights and our way of life as Americans.
With deepest regards,
Rich
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 am
At this point- it seems there is little to do- and that false hurrah that we were permitted to briefly feel was nothing more than a different sort of manipulation. I’ve been an activist for 40 years and this is perhaps the greatest of disappointments- but not the finale- gotta keep fighting.
September 29th, 2010 at 2:09 am
my motto was “never finance a home,or car its not worth it” and i was right,i didnt want to join the rat race!but i did got married at 50 divorced at 50.1 and letery lost the farm,so what the fuck,iam a disabled ironworker.so what to do next hmm i believe i can write i believe theres a movement to put anyone and everyone in prison who stands up for what they believe and all those prepies can pass all the laws they want to they think to protect their pussy selfs and then let the basturds cry wolf,it will be tooo late then punk! “MADE IN CHINA”
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:06 am
Well can we discuss this further would you mr flynt be interested in showing all how too use. Ethanol for energycan we discuss this on how this president doesn’t want that or even allow us too be able too be our selves with out sacrifice. So please consider. This thanks tony
March 2nd, 2011 at 9:42 pm
ok I might be a little sheltered or maybe a little slow, but I found this movie that had been laying around my house for years with Woody Harrelson and a flag on it. I never had any inclination to watch it because I thought it was some fictional movie about someone running for president. One night I started reading the back of it and thought it sounded pretty interesting. I started watching it and became totally absorped. When this movie was finished, I found myself completely impacted. I woke up thinking about this movie the next morning and all day long. I was tempted to come home and watch it again.
Now I find myself looking for a way to contact Mr. Flynt.
Of Course I dont think that I would want to share in his lifestyle and do not necessarily believe in that but what I do believe in is what he was fighting for or about. The “right” to be able to criticize and/or expose hypricrites without being crucified or prosecuted.
I can totally relate to why Jimmy Carter’s sister might have been drawn to him.
I find myself trying to process how a self proclaimed athiest or (SINNER) could have in his life the two things that every true spiritual (not religious) person searches, prays, and hopes they find during their life: a higher sense of purpose and their soulmate.
This movie really made me realize how unhappy that I am and it has me questioning what I am doing wrong. Although I am not much of a fan of porno, I admire the free spiritedness that Larry and Althea had.
It said in the movie that Larry had one regret and then it showed him watching a video of Althea. I could not really conclude what it was that he regretted. I knew that it was not the lifestyle, or the crusade, or his relationship with Althea. Was there something he felt he could have done differently to prevent Althea’s death?
Although Larry does not believe in God he had the two things that anyone who believes in God hopes to receive. I am now a Larry Flynt fan. I believe in his purpose and I admire the love, respect, loyalty, and committment that he and Althea shared.
What an amazing life and what an amazing story.
It really has me thinking hard about my own currently seemingly unfulfilling and less than meaningful life.