Home > Opinion > Obama's 100 Days: Wall Street Crowd Makes His Administration Like Grant's

Obama's 100 Days: Wall Street Crowd Makes His Administration Like Grant's

Reader Comments
Back to article

Our beloved General Grant saved the Union but as President he was surrounded by liars and cheats. His last years were spent in debt. He said churches must be taxed or they could one day own everything. All our tax bases are narrowed because so many churches are off tax-collection rolls. Americans are scared by anti-Socialist propaganda but it is capitalism that creates the "rat race and dog eat dog" daily drag.
Congress should use taxes to buy out people who own shares of stock in companies that sell us electricity, natural gas, water, phone service, buses, trains and other daily needs. Then we could use all those without having a PROFIT tacked on. We should also have the federal government make machines used in health care. We made very fast all the war stuff needed in WW Two but we paid private contractors at a profit. We need more socialism (government ownership) not less, because we taxpayers ARE THE GOVERNMENT.

auradawnveirs of CA 9:47AM June 28, 2009

The news about the bailout payback has not been encouraging.Why should the captains of industry get free government money and I can't borrow $30k to start my business? My plan would make these organizations, that accept bailout money , pay back every cent to the US treasury(taxpayers)at prime plus 4% and put 50% of the payback into the social security funds to insure the survival for our partial retirement funds.Since our elected officials continue to borrow from this once solvent fund,how do these officials plan to repay this money? Now I have given them a chance! Someone should use this to help win votes for the next election!Think of the millions of baby boomers retireing within the next 10 years!Lots of votes! Now while I am solving economic problems,let's not forget that these captains of industry that made poor decisions resulting in failed economic models,should not be allowed to create new fees,raise user fees,increase or invent new intrest rates of service charges.These tactics will be used to help pay off the borrowed money faster.But as you see the consumer,again the taxpayer,foots the entire bill.A penalty should be paid from the corporations for creating or adding to the economic mess we(taxpayers)are sufferig for.Let the shareholders and other stakeholders begin forfeiting dividends and wealth appreciation while paying back a debt.

Kenneth Harrison of NM 5:36PM May 12, 2009

First off, Mr.Pinkerton, may I extend my compliments to you on your summary of the polical arena that fences us in today. You are both intensly factual and convincing about the economic pitfalls that we as country see as being inevitable. While of course I do not share your polish as a journalist and as a more gutteral and creative commenter, I would in a most simplistic sense ask this: If a family of four requires close to $100,000 per year just to break even today and then ends up putting themselves in debt in order to leverage the rest at 20% interest, what exactly is going to happen if and when Obama ultimately solves the recession, provided that he accomplishes same? Are we then, with the prospect of uncontollable oil prices and inflation down the pike suddenly be able to add another $50,000 to our income? People do not go anywhere now, when are Americans going to have some fun and live a lifestyle that is enjoyable. Restaurants do not carry Grey Goose sometimes because people go for the house brand. I suffered from this outrage on my birthday as I pondered the salient and ominous implications of that telling ommission.

Jay Adler of NY 3:05AM May 02, 2009

As the article says, the people in charge of economic policy are all New York finance types. They understand what a bank failure means, and they know the executives affected. Naturally that gives them a soft corner for banks and brokerages. They have no feel for manufacturing, and autos in particular. They have no understanding of technology companies. So we will bankroll the banks and making stupid decisions everywhere else.

Gary W of CA 2:45AM May 02, 2009

In my mind what is missing here is the fact that they are political animals first who do not live as they preach. A bigger issue to think about is the challenge of Detroit. Has anyone not thought of the underhanded way in which the Democratic Political Machine is using gov't money to fund their campaigns? UAW is getting 55% of company! Where does almost 95% of their "voluntary" dues in the political arena go? Yes to Democrats. So in essence, we the taxpayers are funding the car company to stay alive (and with borrowed money) where UAW members will continue to work and in turn the dues they extact for "union business" will flow back to the very people in this Democratic Machine! Wake up folks.....they understand what they are doing and they favor nobody but themselves.

John Zilliken of NV 9:24PM May 01, 2009

AB Catson is correct: Obama is perfectly aware of what he is doing - and Pinkerton is also (partly) right. The enemy of entrepreneurial capitalism is not only big government but government aligned with monopolistic capital. Socialist nations like Venezuela and Sweden have large corporations that work closely with their majority equity stake governments. Pemex in Mexico is an example of the kind of nationalized gov-capital model Obama is pursuing. It is not "Wall St" per se that is behind this but rather multinational, disembodied corporations like Monsanto (a genuinely evil enterprise). Obama is smart enough to know outright Communism does not work. But the Depression gives him an opportunity to work with a small elite that is already in place to nationalize and monopolize huge swathes of the economy. The losers will be small business owners, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs or anyone foolish enough to pursue what used to be called the American Dream.
Obama is a statist following the model of the EU: only the largest economic interests will survive; everyone will work for either the government or the few remaining, gov-monopoly corporations. Thus, corps that are "too big to fail," i.e. necessary to the nation's infrastructure, will be partly nationalized with tax money. It is a revolution in the way America is governed: using our very wealth to limit our economic opportunities and make us wards of either the government or government-controlled corporations. It is a huge shrinking of the private sphere and expansion of the state.
Obama is not opposed to large corporation but to individual economic actors. From the perspective of a statist, they are subversives. The tragedy is how gullible the left and college types are to the rhetoric of class warfare. The super rich will actually get richer under an Obama-style economy. It is the average worker, the ones the left claims to speak for, who will be diminished and lectured about consumption, global responsibility and all the rest. We are living through a slow motion coup and revolution but cannot see what in front of us because Obama, being half-black, is beyond criticism. Americans would prefer enslavement to being considered racist. The chickens really have come home to roost.

Sebastian of NY 5:53PM May 01, 2009

"I think the Chrysler announcement cancelled this whole pathetic attack. Wall St. is nowhere near as comfortable as this crybaby says."
Except that the Big 3 aren't *finance*. They aren't on the Street, they just try to sell shares there (well, not Chrysler). The automakers have almost no clout with the government.
The comparison between the kidgloving of the finance firms and the hamfisting of the automakers couldn't be more clear. The market's reaction to Chrysler's filing was "meh." When banks report losses, that's when the sky falls.

Dale Price of MI 4:01PM May 01, 2009

"No one wants to place any blame at Obama's feet ..... either he is the brilliant leader supporters crow about .... or he is not so smart after all. Can't have it both ways."
Agreed, but suggesting a different premise. Obama knows exactly what he's doing -- scare tactics and crisis legislation to centralize control for the benefit of his very few masters.
And yeah, he appears as dumb as a post sometimes, but he's not. Other times, he appears 'naive.' Whatever suits the needs of the moment. He's definitely an Alinsky-trained 'pragmatist' who devises a 'reason' for everything he does, only AFTER it's done. Whatever explanation fits, use it.
Congress is mostly part of the game. We may be unable to extract ourselves from this destruction as individual livelihoods, rights, freedoms and safety dissolve into the Obama version of the brave new world.

AB Catson of CA 3:58PM May 01, 2009

JGT of Tx
"He's a terrorist loving socialist one minute and the naive tool of corrupt bankers the next."
What exactly is the disconnect here once can be both?

David in CO of CO 3:29PM May 01, 2009

JGT of TX: Fox does a lot better than the rest of the MSM. But just like everybody else, they too are not reporting the full story when it comes to the truth of this financial crisis. Pinkerton is spot on here. One needs to plug into the financial news world on the internet to get the full picture, though.
Ironically, some of those who have the best insight as to just how rotten to the core our government is, and how both repubs and dems are owned by a Wall Street oligarchy, are financial types who voted for Obama. Simon Johnson is one, as is William Black of S & L fame. Black has been a lone voice pointing out the systemic fraud and corruption that is behind this entire financial crisis. Hmmm... isnt' it interesting how Obama is perhaps the most devisive partisan president ever?? He certainly is a master of distractions, especially when it comes to keeping the pot boiling between repubs vs. dems... But this is a government-wide problem, not a partisan problem.
Until the extent of this corruption and the role of a Wall Street oligarchy is fully and widely acknowledged, there will be no progress towards a recovery from this financial crisis.

Jen of CO 2:18PM May 01, 2009