The President said I don't begrudge, and I fully believe him

Here's another gem that I found over at DU from user AllentownJake, who I have a great deal of respect for. I admire his dedication and insight on how to move the United States forward in a progressive direction. Jake, thanks for letting me share your brilliant post with my blog audience.


When the President says he doesn't begrudge Goldman and JP Morgan's CEOs I fully believe him, because every action he's taken since after election day, say that is 100% true.

1) Appointing Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. The guy who took tax payer dollars and handed it over to Golman Sachs, in the year long quest to "save the world" from the banksters facing consequences for their actions. When Tim was appointed, some people thought he had turned state evidence, he was now going to be working for the good guys! He was the Joe Kennedy of 2009! 2009 has shown, that is not the case.

2) Backdoor bailouts. The Fed has undergone a toxic asset purchase program (this is what TARP was originally supposed to be), however, the institution that prints our money can't let anyone know any details about it, and conducting an audit for congress would be bad according to the people at the Fed. Now the President does not control the Federal Reserve, but he picks the Fed Chair every 4 years. He reappointed Ben Bernake, which is a defacto endorsement of the policy of purchasing toxic assets from failed institutions and not letting anyone know what you paid for them.

3) Rewriting tax rules to extend losses and reduce tax liability. If you hate the bonuses, there is a policy undertaken in 2009 that rewrote some tax rule interpretations to reduce the liability of Too Big to Fail. They don't pay those bonuses without the tax breaks.

4) Finance reform policy proposed to congress was weak in 2009. It was panned by nearly every single major activist on this issue as doing next to nothing. Barney Frank's finance committee took a weak bill and made it weaker and the White House was next to silent on it.

5) Freddie has been given unlimited ability to buy toxic mortgages in 2010. Another one of those actions that bypassed congress. The Fed has promised to stop it's policy in March on Toxic assets, around that time, Freddie will pick it up. We shall see if the same level of secrecy is required on what was bought and what was paid for assets in 2010 at Freddie. It can kind of hide because it is an arm of the federal government with the illusion of being a private entity.

6) The executives at Freddie were just given banker level bonuses and salaries, despite the fact, they are working for a bankrupt government sponsored private entity that will never be solvent on its own merit again.

7) Lack of prosecutions. Alan Grayson is correct, 20% of our wealth has disappeared overnight, and no one has been held accountable for the biggest fraud in the history of the world. Like under Bush, the New York Attorney General appears to take his job and mandate more seriously than the SEC or the Attorney General of the United States of America.

I can continue if you really wish me to. This is the issue, I'm loaded for bear so to speak, because I read up on it everyday, follow it closely, and try to educate as many people as I possibly can where ever I'm at.

The reason why I don't begrudge the salaries and they are hard working savvy businessman has hit a nerve with everyone from Moveon.org to Paul Krugman, is that the words do match the actions or privatizing gains and putting losses on the public and CEOs taking huge profits while people can't find work, and a lot of people are fucking sick of it.