'Says one banker."The Obama folks don't even like us."' v MO small business owner "We are desperate"

[Pirate Smile]

Mr. Obama and his aides regularly and publicly criticized financial firms for buying private planes and redecorating offices and hosting lavish parties. The talk was fueled in part by the results of surveys by New York pollster Joel Benensen, commissioned by the Democratic Party, which Mr. Axelrod regularly reviews. The polls consistently showed that the public blames big financial firms for the current mess, and is hesitant to offer aid.

"There's a rebellion out there," says Mr. Axelrod. "Everyone but Wall Street knows the days of Gordon Gekko are over."

The administration's initial approach contrasted with those of the last two White Houses. Robert Rubin left Goldman Sachs Group to become one of Bill Clinton's top economic advisers, and convinced the new president that what was good for Wall Street was good for America. Under President George W. Bush, the administration "looked up to and admired Wall Street," says one banker. "The Obama folks don't even like us."

Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn saw the contrast in person when he visited Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in early March. Goldman executives wanted to be part of the dialogue reshaping their industry, according to one Goldman executive. Instead, Mr. Emanuel lectured about how Wall Street "mispriced risk" and then expected Uncle Sam to pay the price for it. "My shareholders are called taxpayers," said Mr. Emanuel, who had previously worked for about two years as an investment banker.

Guess what - the Obama Administration has to deal with the f#$kers to get credit to the people who need it.

Who is Obama trying to help by freeing up credit? Wall Street? No. People like the owner of a pontoon fishing-boat manufacturer in Missouri.

When chief speechwriter Jon Favreau began working on the president's late-February joint address to Congress, he included draft language criticizing Wall Street for helping trigger the economic downturn and stating that "Americans are justifiably angry" at the banks -- sentiments the president had expressed many times before.

Yet when Messrs. Favreau and Axelrod presented the draft in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama surprised them by saying he wanted to interject some balance to help encourage the financial industry to lend again, one official said.

The president cited a letter he had read a few days earlier -- one that his office had selected from the mail that pours into the White House. The owner of a pontoon and fishing-boat manufacturing business in Missouri wrote that he had cut his payroll to 33 part-time employees, from 120 full-time. "During the past year, we have been turned down three times for loans necessary to secure operating capital," he wrote. "We are desperate."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123785266231219605.html

[firedupdem]

1. Good Post. I know our guys are in tune with what regular folks

are thinking and feeling. I enjoyed reading this. Thanks!

[Pirate Smile]

2. The idea that they are doing this to enrich Wall Street flies in the face of everything

he campaigned on for two years and how he lived his life the entire time before that. I'm surprised by how many people jump to the conclusion that he is doing this for reasons other then that he thinks this will help the small business owner in Missouri get capital to support his business and rehire his employees.

[DrToast]

6. It's laughable when you think about it....

Obama became a community organizer when he could have made a fat salary working on Wall St. or with a large law firm. His tax policies call for raising taxes on the wealthy and cutting taxes for everyone else. He wants to overhaul health insurance to make it cheaper and to make sure more have access to it.

Yet somehow he's a shill for big business. :crazy:

[Jennicut]

9. Some people believe only want they want to see.

I think its a question of philosophy anyways. The country is shifting to the left every day, just not as far and fast as some want it to be. I am more interested in Obama's budget priorities then anything else.

[Skwmom]

24. Wow, if the Wall Street crooks are getting treated this good when they are

"disliked," I can't imagine how great they would be treated if Team Obama was really in their camp.....

[FrenchieCat]

3. We are desperate.....

Loans are needed.

NO, let's nationalize.....it's the only way! :shrug:

[terisan]

4. Rahm Emmanuel made 16 million in those 3 years as an investment banker. nt

[asphalt.jungle]

7. and? we're against making a shit load of money now?

he didn't steal it.

[terisan]

15. Left Clinton White House for Investment Bank and also was on Freddie Mac Board

the same time-Then ran for Congress.

I have no way of knowing whether he stole is 16 million or not. I certainly did not suggest it. You raised the issue of theft.

I raised the fact of how much money he earned in a short time with an investment bank upon leaving the Clinton White House.

If he were a Bush aide I would also be pointing out the connection between leaving public service and immediately making huge sums of money in a short time through Investment Banking. Sometimes the private opportunity is a reward for past or future favors.

Consider Billy Tauzin who got Bush's medicare drug plan which benefited the pharmaceutical industy through Congress then left and immediately went to work for one million a year salary for the pharmaceutical industry lobbying arm.

I consider Emmanuel's investment banking position and income and his Freddie Mac position of power and influence to be pertinent and so I mention them.

You can chose to ignore them or consider them of no consequence.

[truedelphi]

16. Since no one else has asked you this, may I?

"Why do you hate America? Why do you hate Obama?"

It matters not who brings back the economy to me, as long as someone does. But I don't think much of this thing of allowing We the Taxpayers to pay for the purchase of items that lost money and then more money, so that Wall Street can feel good about itself at our expense. And maybe only for a short time?

Somewhere on the grounds of the Springwood estate, the ghost of FDR tosses and turns.

[Jennicut]

5. Obama is either a socialist or an evil corpratist

Or perhaps he is just the President trying to do what he thinks is best. He is in the middle on this issue and I guess its driving some people nuts.

[Pirate Smile]

10. Like he has said repeatedly, he is often making choices between "bad and worse".

There are no good options. There is no "magic bullet".

[Jennicut]

13. Exactly. I think all the options stink really.

But that is capitalism I guess. The best thing to come out of all this will be a society less focused on consumerism, money, and buying.

[asphalt.jungle]

11. either? i'm led to believe he's both.

the media meme a couple weeks ago was that he's declaring war on the rich. this week it's he only cares about the privileged class. so is he giving them all this money so that he can take it away the next day? unbelievable. and the media wonders why the things they throw at him don't tend to stick. americans can be easily manipulated sometimes, but even they know you can't be both. so if one week he's a socialist, he can't be a corporatist the next. they're all over the place.

[terisan]

8. Bailout money could have been channeled to businesses through lower tier banks. I think

Galbraith is right-the financial sector is too big in relation to rest of economy and needs to shrink. Obama is enlarging the sector- doing the opposite of what we need.

He blinked and did pretty much what Bush would do. should bring a short term gain and a long term disaster.

[girl gone mad]

12. There is absolutely no guarantee the banks will lend again.

None.

Geithner's plan does nothing to help repair the balance sheets of ordinary Americans. As long as we have a jobless recovery, declining asset values and too much debt, there is no reason for the banks to lend to us. They used to be able to pawn our bad debt off onto naive foreign investors, but that reservoir has dried up. Now they are simply transferring their bad debt onto our national balance sheet.

This is glorified trickle down economics. The same thing that has turned America's once thriving middle class into minimum wage slaves forced to compete with workers living under corrupt dictatorships in Banana Republics. We would be better off with direct lending.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. The banks will either make loans or disappear.

It's their only business.

[girl gone mad]

17. No..

right now their business model involves getting lots of free money from American taxpayers.

Anyhow, your assertion is false. Bankers' fundamental duty is to maximize return to their shareholders. Sometimes, that might involve lending. Sometimes, it might involve purchasing eligible investments that have high yields. In the future, it might involve buying Samurai swords from Japan and selling them to Peruvian gangsters, for all I know. They are under absolutely no moral, financial or legal imperative to lend money to broke-ass Americans.

[AllentownJake]

20. You are absolutely correct

and lending money is only a part of the business they do.

[The_Casual_Observer]

23. Ebayers have beaten them to the collectibles.

But if you say that's the way it is, then it must be, banks won'tlend money & it's the end of the world as we know it.

[AllentownJake]

19. That is the beautiful thing since the repeal of Glass Steagal

It isn't their only business.

[AllentownJake]

18. Its Geithner and Summers people don't trust

I don't know how many times this has to be said.

[Romulox]

21. Then they gave them trillions (strings free!) with which they bought new corporate jets anyhow.

[Ganja Ninja]

26. "The Obama folks don't even like us."

Reminds me of the old saying "Don't applaud just throw money."

They aren't happy with the billions they've stole or the billions we've thrown at them since. Now it seems we have to give them a standing ovation or their feelings will be hurt.:banghead:
:wtf: When the hell can we declare open season on these scumbags?

[Skwmom]

28. Well, look at it this way. The "perception" that Obama folks don't like them can sure help

make it easier for the "Obama folks" to hand them trillions of dollars.

[ima_sinnic]

29. really--one might almost think they didn't even really need that money for business reasons

--the money was used for nonessentials, so We The People were conned.

[Pirate Smile]

22. kick

[Skwmom]

25. All right. You win. You've convinced me that Obama is a defender of the working class even

though the actions of his economic team would indicate otherwise.

The letter bit is just soooooooo heartwarming. And that Rahm Emanuel, what a guy. It's hard to believe that only yesterday he was pushing NAFTA, (aka selling out the working class in America).

[bdamomma]

27. this comment is really sickening

damn greedy bastards:mad:

Under President George W. Bush, the administration "looked up to and admired Wall Street," says one banker. "The Obama folks don't even like us."


the Bush Administration was Wall Streets friend that is why we are in this crisis!!!!!! Damn.

This is definitely a class war, us against Wall Street.