Frank Rich nails it again....(and you ain't going to like it)....

[Aviation Pro]

...but this is what separates the men from the Two Shoes, open, honest criticism.

Link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print


Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?

By FRANK RICH

A CHARMING visit with Jay Leno won’t fix it. A 90 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses won’t fix it. Firing Timothy Geithner won’t fix it. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed. It would be foolish to dismiss as hyperbole the stark warning delivered by Paulette Altmaier of Cupertino, Calif., in a letter to the editor published by The Times last week: “President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived.”

Six weeks ago I wrote in this space that the country’s surge of populist rage could devour the president’s best-laid plans, including the essential Act II of the bank rescue, if he didn’t get in front of it. The occasion then was the Tom Daschle firestorm. The White House seemed utterly blindsided by the public’s revulsion at the moneyed insiders’ culture illuminated by Daschle’s post-Senate career. Yet last week’s events suggest that the administration learned nothing from that brush with disaster.

Otherwise it never would have used Lawrence Summers, the chief economic adviser, as a messenger just as the A.I.G. rage was reaching a full boil last weekend. Summers is so tone-deaf that he makes Geithner seem like Bobby Kennedy.

Bob Schieffer of CBS asked Summers the simple question that has haunted the American public since the bailouts began last fall: “Do you know, Dr. Summers, what the banks have done with all of this money that has been funneled to them through these bailouts?” What followed was a monologue of evasion that, translated into English, amounted to: Not really, but you little folk needn’t worry about it.

[elleng]

1. And always has been.

'Summers is so tone-deaf that he makes Geithner seem like Bobby Kennedy.'

Remember why he left harvard????

[ErinBerin84]

6. hehe

Good quote from Rich, that one made me laugh.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Refresh my memory....why did he leave Harvard?

[elleng]

15. Does NOT

'play well with others.'

'Summers resigned as Harvard's president in the wake of controversy over a talk in which he speculated that women may have lesser aptitude for work in the highest levels of math and science. Summers has been criticized by some liberals for the centrist economic policies he advocated as Treasury Secretary and in later writings.<2>'


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers

[girl gone mad]

25. The Gawker crowd has really shredded Summers over the past few months.

According to them, in addition to calling women in the sciences intellectually inferior to their male colleagues, Summers also stated on several occasions that he sees no need for the study of things like History, Art and Literature in academics.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. So, how the hell did Obama end up with these rejects of a civilized society???

[elleng]

31. Not rejected by Clinton +.

but . . . I don't know; can't say I understand Dems thinking.

[truedelphi]

114. Wish Iknew. It could be that Obama seems a lot more progressive than he is

He's just another pleasant, calm and centered rich guy happy to look out for his class of people's well being before he will tackle worrying about us little people. (Even though he came from our side of the tracks.)

There seems to be a big huge difference between Obama and FDR.

And here it is in a nut shell:
FDR is known for the following quote: "Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob" -- Madison Square Garden Fall of 1936.

FDR did throw a great deal of money at recovery but he DID NOT throw those sums of money irresponsibly.

Obama has indeed sided with Organized Money. He is aiding and abetting the Goldman/Sachs and AIG capitalists. We are now handing over the last penny held on Main Street to the bankers on Wall Street. And this will probably result in little in the way of a TRUE economic recovery, but instead more of a stagflation situation like Japan found itself in more than a decade ago.

[lostnfound]

43. Who in the hell picked him for president of Harvard?

OMG. I'd heard the first comment about women, but mcp's are a dime a dozen; but no need for history, art and literature??
OMG.

[lostnfound]

44. Who in the hell picked him for president of Harvard?

OMG. I'd heard the first comment about women, but mcp's are a dime a dozen; but no need for history, art and literature??
OMG.

[digidigido]

73. He's right though, women do have a lesser aptitude in GENERAL for work in math and science

I know it's not politically correct, but it's true, men have less aptitude for foreign languages
no judgement, just truth, so shoot the guy cause he's got the courage to tell the truth and
you don't want to hear it because it goes against your beliefs

[saracat]

77. Really? Most of the women scientists and math teachers would disagree as well as Marie Curie

Women are "taught" that they have less aptitude, just as men are "taught" that they have no ability to nurture.
I find it odd that almost all my accountants have been female, including the president of the largest most successful firm in my city and nearly ALL my physicians have been female, not because of gender but because they were the best.It is shameful that anyone would feel compelled to post such words as yours on DU, "politically incorrect" or not. Perhaps you have some equally pithy observations in regard to "race"?

[JDPriestly]

79. Women are discouraged from developing their abilities in math and science.

I base this on personal experience.

[SharonAnn]

87. Yes, and I also base mine on personal experience.

Despite straight "A"s in math and working at a computer programmer, I didn't realize how much I had internalized that message until I heard myself say (at age 25) "Well, I'm not really good at math". As the words came out of my own mouth, I realized that was not true. Not even close. I was very, very good at math. 99th percentile and i though I wasn't "good at math" because I'd always been told that girls weren't good at math and I am a girl.

Those are extremely powerful messages.

Fortunately, after that "Aha!" moment, I began accepting my math skills. But then, there have lots of other things to overcome, along with believing in my math skills.

[JDPriestly]

90. Thanks. I remember crying when I got the 99th percentile in arithmetic reasoning score.

I couldn't imagine what in the world you could do with that. I was so depressed because I scored so high. I know exactly what you mean.

[Grinchie]

93. Thats the key. Every individual has potential to be great

It is only in America where we bought into this rigid family structure imposed upon us by "Scientists". That experiment has broken down and failed, so now they tend to exploit everyone equally.

It's obvious in the continuing destruction of the family unit. They need everyone fending for themselves in order to sell more widgets, because nobody wants to share anything anymore, and family behavior is so toxic that everyone suffers.

[Grinchie]

92. Just because they are pushed into Home Economics instead of Algebra?

I may be dating myself, but when I grew up, they spent a lot of time in the public schools teaching girls how to cook.

I have no idea what the hell they are teaching in schools today, but they certainly are not teaching an eppreciation for the accomplishments of Civilization that have occurred in between the attempts at the despots controlling the people and stealing their wealth.

Just because the American Social structure was based upon the theories of Eva Freud, promoting conformity to socisl structures that has proven to be toxic to human mental health, which by default excluded females from an identical education or career path to male counterparts, doesn't make them less intelligent.

As far as linguists, I have no clue what you are talking about. The military has hordes of male linguists, and a good number of female linguists as well.

As far as truth, your full of it. Males will more readily lie cheat and steal to meet their goals when confronted with a situation that requires it, while females don't easily go there.

Do people lie? Yes. Does one sex lie more than another? No. Does one sex lie more easily when it is part of the game? Yes.

[alarimer]

99. You are so fucking wrong.

It is not about APTITUDE; it is about discrimination. Did you ever think that women and girls are actively discouraged from being good in math or science? And the reverse being true for boys in languages and the arts. "Ohh, math is hard!" (so says BARBIE in one of her talking iterations). Why are chemistry sets and bug collecting kits all marketed to BOYS and never to all children? Did you ever consider that it is our fucking sexist culture that causes it? And you are not helping by parroting the same old talking points that have no basis in fact at all.

Go away.

[Marie26]

101. Wrong

Though the statistics might be a bit much for you. :)


No Gender Differences In Math Performance

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2008) — We've all heard it. Many of us in fact believe it. Girls just aren't as good at math as boys. But is it true? After sifting through mountains of data - including SAT results and math scores from 7 million students who were tested in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act - a team of scientists says the answer is no. Whether they looked at average performance, the scores of the most gifted children or students' ability to solve complex math problems, girls measured up to boys.

"There just aren't gender differences anymore in math performance," says University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Janet Hyde, the study's leader. "So parents and teachers need to revise their thoughts about this."

The UW-Madison and University of California, Berkeley, researchers report their findings in the July 25 issue of Science.

Though girls take just as many advanced high school math courses today as boys, and women earn 48 percent of all mathematics bachelor's degrees, the stereotype persists that girls struggle with math, says Hyde. Not only do many parents and teachers believe this, but scholars also use it to explain the dearth of female mathematicians, engineers and physicists at the highest levels.

Cultural beliefs like this are "incredibly influential," she says, making it critical to question them. "Because if your mom or your teacher thinks you can't do math, that can have a big impact on your math self concept."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724192258.htm

[GeorgeGist]

107. Care to provide some proof?

[ElboRuum]

125. There is not enough popcorn in the world to support this.

But I'm getting mine.

:popcorn:

[lostnfound]

127. That comment isn't the one that I find so horrifying.

It's the one about history and art that's truly disturbing.

[defendandprotect]

62. Summers is toxic . . . yet there are interests which want him at the top of the heap . . !!!

[JDPriestly]

78. And, logically, Summers' remarks insinuate that women who do have

great aptitude for math and science are somehow less feminine. I know many will disagree with that, but society already has that idea, and Summers' remarks support it. I am very offended by that since I know many women, very feminine women, who are brilliant in math and science.

I wonder whether Summers has any (and if he does have some, how many) female economists and mathematicians on his staff. I wonder whether he has read Galileo's Daughter.

[AlCzervik]

13. damn right.

:thumbsup:

[BlooInBloo]

2. Well, at least you didn't lie about the title.

[girl gone mad]

24. Wow. You're really hung up on that.

[marylanddem]

3. yep, this is why I've been feeling so angry all day...

Obama needs to walk the walk...

[Redbear]

4. Its true that more leveling has to take place

People are ready to follow, they just want to know the whole truth.

[Egnever]

5. its a shame that peoples anger is misdirected here .

And frank is as wrong as the rest of them. Obama needs to educate people on what happened here. Too many hear the word BONUS and lose their minds.

As far as i can see those people earned those bonuses. They weren't add ons after the fact they were contracts written before these employees went to work for these people. I understand the outrage I suppose but I dont for a second agree with it. There may be and quite possibly are a few people directly responsible for the mess in this list of bonuses, but I dont think that excuses taking away money people were promised going into the job.

And the bill that just passed to tax it is ludicrous. The fact that so many reps voted for it makes me sick to my stomach.


Maybe I dont have the story right but going back and taxing people retroactively does not make me happy whatsoever. Its a precedent I dont like seeing .


Flame on I suppose

[earth mom]

8. WTF?! Are you fucking kidding?! That is TAXPAYER money they are paying those jokers!

And those jokers are the ones who created this entire mess in the first place!

They don't deserve one damn dime of my money! Not one! :grr:

[Egnever]

12. They didnt create this entire mess all by themselves

holding them responsible for the collapse of the economy is ridiculous and I think its meant to keep your eye on the left hand while the real magic is going on in the right.

I am open to persuasion though.

[Grinchie]

95. First of all, get over the fact that money is real.

If you pray at the Altar of Money, then you can never see what a fraud it is.

Say I have 10 dollars. It's all the money in the world. I loan you 10 dollars at 10% interest a day. You keep it for 1 day. You owe me $11.00. Where do you get the extra one dollar? Remember that $10.00 is all the money in the world.

You are now in debt, but thereis no possible way you can create the extra dollar without pinting it or giving be something other of value that I need to agree upon.

This minor example shows that Interest does not work, and creates an imbalance and unfair system where eventually you will be indebted to me, or whoever has control of the money supply.

The solution is easy. Produce something like an apple, radish, or cabbage. In this case, you can pay back the debt and interest with food. I however don't have to do the work, and get to eat your delicious apples, radishes and cabbage. I go out and loan $1 dollar to someone else and they buy one of the Apples you gave me in return. They could have bought the apple from you. It does not matter, they are still indebted to me. If they bought it from me, I have become competition to you, having successfully taken one buyer from you. And more actors into this and it gets very complicated very quickly.

You may have some left over for your family, but I really don't care if you do or not. That is the nightmare of Interest. Add it to the Fractional reserve currency system and it only postpones the inevitbale failure of individuals over time. They are built into the system, and supposedly "Balance" the disproportionate increases in the money supply by taking all the physical assets from the poor fool that got randomly chosen to go insolvent.

I look at the current Bonus and executive compensation amounts as an indicator of what the Bankers think adequate compensantion is. The common man will be lucky to earn 3 million dollars in their lifetime. While these guys get enough fo 10 lifetimes. Where does this money go? Does it actually grow, our are they really just losing it to the Berni Maddofs, buy political influence, trophy wives and McMansions. I believe it to be the latter.

[TankLV]

11. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SMOKING?!!!!

There's inherently wrong with bonuses and compensation WITH THEIR OWN MONEY

BUT YOU DENSE ONE: IT'S OUR FUCKING MONEY!!!

IF IT WASN'T FOR OUR MONEY, THESE CRMINALS WOULD HAVE NOTHING!!!

NOTHING!!! GET IT?!!!

"The people's anger" is directed JUST WHERE IT SHOULD BE - only they're missing one thing:

GUILLOTINE!

We should let them just go BANKRUPT and then they would get what they deserve - NOTHING!!!

[Egnever]

20. Somehow I doubt that

Even if the company went bankrupt its assets would still be liquidated to pay its creditors would it not? Or do you think the company was worthless?

It wasn't these guys all by themselves that did this to the economy. They signed a contract to keep them with AIG money they expected to be paid for their work. The word bonus is a red herring the amounts were already predetermined. The bonus designation from what i understand is for tax purposes.

Yes its freakish amounts and yes i want it stopped going forward but this after the fact taking of peoples expected incomes does not sit well with me even if they were a part of creating this global problem. Lots of people were responsible for this mess we going to go back and take money from all of them?

[Fire1]

26. No. They're not going to take the money back. Congress is

going to TAX that money and the courts are going along with it.

[girl gone mad]

27. I won't flame you, but I don't think you have the story right.

If AIG hadn't been bailed out, none of the employees would have gotten bonuses. Some bondholders may have gotten some assets, but due to the 2005 bankruptcy reform, derivatives contract holders would have been first in line, and these debts were far larger than than any assets on AIG's balance sheets. We learned last week that even the supposedly solvent arm of AIG, the insurance branch, is in trouble.

The bonus contracts were not pre-determined. Most of them were written after AIG had already failed and gone to Treasury demanding a government bailout. The term "retention bonus" is a deceptive misnomer, as a sizable number of AIG employees received their bonuses after they had already left the firm.

[Egnever]

40. Thanks for that

If the contracts were negotiated after AIG failed then we are talking about something different. If in fact they were determined at the beginning of the fiscal year it makes a huge difference.

the contracts are posted http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/employeeretentionplan.pdf Now i am no lawyer to be sure but they seem to be mostly a guarantee of pay based on what was made the previous year. So that the people would be guaranteed what they earned the year before no matter of performance of the company. I absolutely think its an obscene amount of money but apparently not an unusual salary for the people that received these things.

I am all for regulation going forward restricting the size of these salaries but when you reach back wards I don't like it a bit. What these folks did was not illegal. It may have been morally wrong but there's a ton of that going around.

Outlaw the behavior going forward please but don't set a precedent of the government taxing immoral behavior. Obscene amounts of cash are going out through tarp that is saving the salaries of banking and financial employees the world over. Many of those people are every bit as morally wrong as AIG but they are being ignored while this outrage over the "bonuses" is being used as some sort of revenge punishment on a bunch of guys doing their jobs. Perhaps a job that needs to be outlawed but there's plenty of directions to point the finger. And again applying taxes based on peoples outrage is a piss poor way to run a government.

Reminds me a lot of a terry shivo type law.

We didn't let the company go bankrupt we bought it I dont see how you can go back wards and void contracts based on what could have happened but didn't.

I think the outrage should be anywhere it should be at congress for not writing a tarp provision that voided these contracts or capped the salaries paid for any company that received tarp funds. when this stuff was being put together originaly under paulson and bush there was a lot of people asking for just that including obama but the bush admin wasn't having anything to do with salary caps.

Congress failed by taking it out. Pointing the finger at a few execs paycheck is a distraction from the real problems. Our government is not doing its job of oversight and hasn't for a long time.

[Usrename]

42. Some people think the relevant part of the contract is illegal.

I'm no lawyer either, but the part of the contract that walls off the bonus pool from losses arising from the toxic assets is said to be a criminal violation of their fiduciary obligations to the stockholders. That is one of the things that they have been talking about at the House committee hearings and one of things that the Atty Gen may be looking at.

...

3.06 (a)
Effect of Mark-to-Market Losses on the Bonus Pool. The Bonus Pool for any
Compensation Year beginning with the 2008 Compensation Year will not be affected by the
incurrence of any mark-to-market losses (or gains) or impairment charges (or reversals
thereof) arising from (i) the CDO Portfolio or (ii) super senior credit derivative transactions
that are not part of the CDO Portfolio.

...



As to the retroactive tax, that's how all windfall profits taxes are assessed, as far as I know. I don't think there's anything all that unusual or improper about it. Also, these people are not being singled out because of their race or religion or anything like that. They are being assessed only on their behavior and their income, which are probably appropriate things to consider when making a tax assessment. It just isn't right that tarp funds were used to pay these people these ridiculous salaries and bonuses.

[JDPriestly]

83. I agree.

[northernlights]

51. not to mention

that a number of them left the firm as soon as they received their "retention" bonuses.

[Name removed]

57. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

81. "For tax purposes." If it is pay, then they should have taken it as a salary

and paid the same kinds of taxes on it that other salaried employees pay. If it was a bonus, then it should be related to the financial success of the company as well as their own job performance. These people are caught in a trap of their own making. They named their pay "bonus." OK, we, the American people are now their bosses, and we don't think they deserve a bonus this year. They can have bonuses after their companies are back in the black and they pay back to us the cash we gave them.

[Bette Noir]

117. In the real world, bonuses are based on profits.

In the world of AIG, they lost enough money to fund a small European nation. Ergo, no bonuses were "earned," though many were given.

In the real world, the contracts on which those bonuses were founded would have been voided when the company went bust. We the People are holding it together during this economic emergency in order to avoid the collapse of other segments that are dependent on it, but it's not the company it was-- in fact, We the People own 80% of it.

What outrages me the most, and I think this is what outrages everyone else as well, is the reverse-Robin Hood-ness of it all. Taxes paid by folks who make 30, 40K a year are being handed out in million-dollar chunks to folks who were millionaires already. Robbing the working poor to give to the rich ain't the American way.

[Bluebear]

32. .

[Fire1]

23. That's a repuke meme if I ever heard one. You must be on the

wrong board. Too late to take the money back cause half of these fuckers are gone but they can damned sure TAX THE SHIT OUT OF 'EM!!!!!!:grr:

[Bluenorthwest]

52. But of course

the UAW and other union workers, when seeking to enforce a contract, are simply greedy bastards who want to see the auto industry go down, right? What about the promises of pensions that vanish, benefits that fail?
I remember the auto bailout controversy was all about those UAW contracts being unsustainable, and the bail out was contengent upon the union making concessions. Upon giving up what they were promised under contract going into the job.
What's good for the goose...

[lunatica]

54. They didn't 'earn' the bonuses at all

The bonuses are and always will be off the top of the real earnings a company makes. Not bailouts. Not borrowed money. Not from the money they have to go begging for. There's a huge difference in earning money and begging for it. Earned money is for some sort of services or goods that are created and offered and paid for. In other words, if I haven't been clear enough, you sell something, either a service or some goods that you produce and in return you get paid for those goods. Then, and only then do you pay yourself and your employees. Out of that money is where you pay bonuses.

When you run your company into the ground and your bottom line is in the negative zone you take your losses and change your business methods. One of those methods is you don't pay bonuses because the work you pay bonuses for hasn't been there. You might even lay off the people who you paid bonuses to the year before. So if you have to go hat in hand to get a bailout to save your company because your business practices are shitty the last thing you do with that 'unearned' money is do business as usual since that practice is what got you in deep shit to begin with. In theory you do what you can to keep from capsizing your business. You stay afloat. You tread water. You go over your books and CUT EXCESS SPENDING or you sink!

And when the taxpayer is the entity shelling out their hard earned money you best answer for every penny of that money.

[Egnever]

69. Again the word bonus here is decieving

and creating the controversy. As far as I can see these were not really bonuses. They were a scheduled payment for staying with the company regardless of performance in that fiscal year.

Like saying i will pay you 0k a year and at the end of the year i will give you a lump sum of 30k. You take that job based on the full payout not on the 10k alone. In no way was it a performance based incentive. In fact quite the opposite, it was a payout schedule regardless of performance.

Now i agree that the amount of mone4y these people make is frigging ridiculous but i dont think it is fair for the government to go back and take peoples wages from them no matter how obscene they are. I am all for restrictions going forward though, Then the employees can make the decision to stay on or not based on the package presented to them.

These people staid with AIG based on the idea that they would receive this money . maybe they wouldn't have left any way there's no way of knowing but the fact remains this is what they were paid to stay on.

I wouldn't want to see a common workers pay taken away after someone decided they didn't like what their company did either. Just because its called a "bonus" does not mean it was performance based at all. going back and making it somehow tied to performance after the fact is silly and more government interference than I want.

Hammer them going forward by all means.

[droidamus2]

56. Part of the problem...

I guess I don't understand the definition of 'bonus'. I was always under the impression that a 'bonus' was something you received if the company was doing well and you had performed at or above what was expected of somebody in your position. If the company wasn't doing well then nobody received bonuses as part of the belt tightening. Otherwise, it is something you get after the fact in respect to doing well at your job not as part of a predetermined contract. These aren't really bonuses there deferred payments of wages. I would suspect it is done for tax purposes. That is why people are mad because as the 'little guys' you don't have the ability to lock your employer into giving you large 'bonuses' on matter how you do your job. The closest you could get is if you belonged to a union. The other thing is that the same people saying you can't do anything about the high wages and huge bonuses of people on Wall Street are the same ones saying that the unions have to make big concessions if the Government is going to help the car companies. Don't be fooled the bigwigs on Wall Street aren't the only ones that can do their jobs and I have no doubt there are people out there that would do it for a lot less money and gee they wouldn't even demand guaranteed 'bonuses'.

[Egnever]

70. Right

its outrage at the word not at the actuality.

I agree that the unions are also being scapegoated,

[acmavm]

60. I don't hear the word 'bonus' and start freaking. I hear the word 'bailout' in

general and start freaking. It was the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. We are owned by corporate America. We don't own them. And we all sat here and watched the final transfer of power and money without taking to the streets, without upholding our responsibilities to our country. Sure, people like me sent our 'faxes' and 'letters'. But we didn't hit the bricks. We sat here. We are now complicit as well.

This was a scam from the get-go. And the new administration is in it right up to their eyeballs.

[Egnever]

71. Anger at the bail out I agree with

completely. Anger at congress for not putting restrictions into the bailout packages I also agree with. Knee jerk reactionary law making based on uninformed outrage pisses me off completely.

[defendandprotect]

64. These bonuses are a "windfall" and should face "windfall profits taxation" . . .

so should ExxonMobil ---

We have precendent for that -- taxing windfall profits from the last killing they made

in the "oil shortages" of the '70's.

"Retention bonuses" . . . ??? for the people who created the problems????

[Egnever]

72. They absolutely are not windfall

These payment schedules had nothing whatsoever to do with performance. They in fact were written to specifically ignore company performance.

Again I don't particularly like that these guys made that kind of cash, the idea that these are performance based or some sort of windfall though is wildly off base and I am angered that people are being manipulated into thinking that they somehow are to fuel anger in places other than where it should really be directed.

[Fovea]

82. We must have different understandings of the term windfall

Traditionally, IIRC a windfall is not a gain from superior performance, but a large gain through either serendipity or economic forces unrelated to merit.

If you work harder than the competition, that is not a windfall.
If a giant meteorite smashes the offices of all your competitors, that is a windfall.
If a fluctuation in the price of oil lets you manipulate prices of products made from oil in an unfair manner, that's a windfall.

At least, as I understand the term.

[JDPriestly]

80. The key word in Rich's column is transparent.

Obama promised transparency, but now he is protecting "secrets" of these banks and companies. Once they have to ask the government for help, they waive their rights to privacy.

Ask any welfare recipient or anyone who applies for a student loan. You have to tell the government everything about your financial situation in order to qualify for government aid. Why should it be any different for the banks? Yet Geithner and Paulson and Kashkari handed out money to these banks without asking for a statement of their assets. Try to get a student loan without disclosing your assets -- and, if you are young enough, those of your parents. Se how far you get.

Obama needs to keep his promise regarding transparency. Nice speeches will not do.

Unfortunately, for Obama he is following a very secretive administration. Voters are wary. We are recovering from a toxic relationship. Obama is the rebound boy- or girlfriend. He is going to have to prove that he is not the louse our former boy- or girlfriend was. So he is going to have to meet a heightened standard with regard to transparency and ethical conduct.

I want Obama to succeed. In order to do that, he will have to put in an entirely new economic team -- one sensitive to the public need for transparency, one with more distance from the crooks that brought down our economy in the first place. He says he wants to bring Republicans and Democrats together. Well, we are together on our demand for absolute transparency and fairness in economic matters. Obama's economic team have failed the test of the two months of Obama's presidency. He needs to get a new team.

[AntiFascist]

88. Once again Congress wastes its time on something that they hope will increase their popularity...

the real problem is orders of magnitude larger than the executive bonuses.

[AndrewP]

111. Bingo

[AndrewP]

112. Bingo

[GinaMaria]

102. They did NOT earn taxpayer money, no matter what was contracted

The American people did not contract with them to pay these bonuses. AIG may be legally bound to pay them. If so, they can liquidate assets, get a loan or figure it out in court. The problem isn't so much the bonuses. It's using our money to pay them. It is being taxed in an attempt to get back our money. That shouldn't make you sick. For once your government is standing up for your (and your future grandchildren's) hard earned cash. Our money should not go to bonuses like this.

Stop and think about every American in this situation. We are being taken for a ride and we've collectively slammed on the brakes. Enough is enough. We are not liable for AIG's bonus contracts. AIG is.

[Zhade]

123. They steal from us, and you applaud them.

You sure you're on the right fucking website?

[Mojorabbit]

7. This op ed hits the nail on the head.

Personally though, I think things are so much worse than we are being told that eighty percent of the secrecy is to prevent panic and a bank run.

[Adsos Letter]

14. That would be my take also.

[BeFree]

18. Yep

Give Obama a chance, I say. He's been handed a bag full of ticking time bombs.

He's been taking advice from dozens of people and it's probably a dozen different ideas. He needs some time to shift through it all, because really, one major blunder and it all goes boom!

Ya know, it was about this far into Bush2 that after a speech he made, I said, "Oh man, something bad is gonna happen to this country." 9/11 came a few months later, eh?

Now, I see Obama and I say, the good times are gonna roll again! Bring it on!

[Oilwellian]

38. I've considered that as well

I hope we're wrong.

[Nay]

47. Agreed--the reason we aren't be told much is that Obama and others

know we are going straight into a ditch, and to delay and/or prevent wilding in the streets, we aren't being given much information.

[myrna minx]

53. I think so too, and I shudder to think. n/t

[MasonJar]

9. Geithner and Summers are poor advisors in this time of trauma. Why.

they were chosen is incomprehensible, but to let them stay is reprehensible. They are insiders, not spokesmen of the people.

[pilsner]

16. Economist Ravi Batra said a month ago....

that things are currently so bad that nothing Obama could do would fix the problem. Batra said that Obama should stick to solutions the Establishment approves of until things bottom out and then tap into FDR-type solutions at that point.

Maybe the political will has grown in the past month for new New Deal solutions but I don't think so. The Evan Bayh club won't have it.

[girl gone mad]

28. That's an interesting take..

and I've actually pondered the same thing in my mind. The current establishment is so deeply entrenched that it will take a serious revolution in thinking to escape their death grip on our economy.

Do you have a link to Batra's comments?

[pilsner]

36. Batra said it on the Thom Hartmann radio program, no link

According to Hartmann, Batra is the best economist out there. Highly recommend his most recent two books especially "Greenspan's Fraud"

[BeFree]

30. Yep

When after he has done their bidding (establishment's) and it still stinks, he can say "I tried it your way" and then bring back some good ol' fashioned FDR-style economic health care that's whups some rich folks ass.

[certainot]

106. a agree batra's got it right

in the middle of this disaster obama had to pick people who knew the games and trust they would work for the country. they needed to be people who wall street knew wouldn't bring the system down. stabilization is the goal. a green economy transition might be harder if it all collapsed - unless we were all going to start from scratch - and i wouldn't want that for kids and old folks i know.

the problem is that the RW radio monopoly allows the GOP obstructionists to define the 'populist' outrage and progressives dems and liberals who continue to ignore the GOP's most effective weapon fall into the trap.

[Skittles]

21. poor advisors?

they fucking STINK

[Uzybone]

17. Very fair criticism

its a beautiful thing.

The Katrina reference is hyperbolic though. 60 days in and Obama is being compared to year 6 of Bush's reign of incompentence. Anything to sell the papers I guess.

[OwnedByFerrets]

19. K and R, sadly

[Warpy]

22. He's absolutely correct about all of it

All we can hope for is that Obama is as much of a pragmatist as we think he is and that he's not surrounded by a bunch of yesmen who will shield him from the reality of the situation.

People are damned mad. I have never seen people this angry. They're working their way out of resignation and it's not going to be pretty when they do.

[PSPS]

33. Rich is accurately reporting the general feeling in the country

Katrina was the last straw that neutered bush, so the Katrina reference is an apt one. How this is handled will either sustain or destroy the rest of Obama's presidency.

Most people realize that "the bonuses" is merely shorthand. The rage is boiling over because people are realizing that there are two americas: the obscenely rich and the struggling class. The disparity hasn't been greater in over a hundred years. And when over 99% of the population sees a future of 20% unemployment, shrinking wages and little prospect of improvement, the last thing that will ease their anxiety and rage is another trillion dollars of taxpayer money being used to bail out the richest 1%, who are already billionaires and/or criminals.

What surprises me is how much Obama is blowing it. This is such a unique time in both our history and our political climate that the sky really is the limit. Yet, Obama wastes precious time and "political capital" playing the appeaser, extolling the value of "compromise" with a faction of anti-american zealots whose biggest desire is the failure of our country. You don't give such a cabal any quarter, you simply sweep them aside.

Either Obama is tone deaf to the clamor in the country, or he isn't really the man everyone thought he was.

[chimpymustgo]

91. Obama's response is unfathomable. We can't lay the blame on Summers and Geithner.

This approach (the bailouts) is fundamentally wrong. The ADMINISTRATION fought to keep the bonuses while professing outrage - which really pisses me off.

This shit stinks.

[Bluebear]

34. PUMA!!!!!1 HATER!!!!!

:hide:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

35. Okay and so Katrina created a physical graveyard strewn with bodies...

And where are there physical dead bodies floating or buried?

Honestly, some people (Frank Rich, in this instance) just have nothing else to write about and collect their paycheck for, so they pull just about anything out of their ass.

Katrina and AIG. What a pathetic comparison.

[Bluebear]

37. Katrina & AIG are not being compared/contrasted,

The Katrina "Moment" for Bush and its political repercussion is being analyzed.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

45. That's like comparing the Holocaust to some political money scandal - insane and

unnecessary, stupid, and very much a REPUBLICAN TACTIC.

[glowing]

46. Really, what would you call death because of no health care, or malnutrition because of poverty,

or living in tents because the banks we are bailing out foreclosed on your home, or the company downsized because of the Recession and the wallstreet meltdown? People are hurting in very real ways. We do not have the same sort of safety nets social systems many countries put in place. We won't have "relief aid" with food and medical supplies dropped in our refufee camps (tent cities)... our reality is that the cops chase the tent cities away. This country is royally fucked and most of us realize it.. we just wonder if politicians will wake up in time.. most of us really like the idea of our democracy and constitution, but survivor mode will take over and at that point, Washington is pointless.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

48. What would I call it? I'd call it Americans voting for Republicans over and over

And it makes me sick, and I hate the lack of education in this country that causes Americans to vote against their own best interests. It's unfathomable to me. I think politicians should have in mind, FIRST the plight of those who don't have, and of those who suffer, and LAST, the rich. That's how I see it. It's not fair to put the rich first. It's wrong. It's evil.


:cry:

[MindMatter]

67. "Obama's Katrina Moment" is a perfect metaphor

and Obama has better get serious about this in a hurry. I, for one, am getting really sick of his tendency to talk of outrage and then turn around a let things just continue. It is freaking insulting to us, acting as if it is just some little disturbance that will quickly pass.

Katrina moment indeed.

The line about "using all legal remedies" to get the money back is complete bullshit. Show us one court action you have taken on this? There have been none and there will be none.

How are the American people benefited by sending $170B (probably a lot more) to the companies, mostly foreign, who were stupid enough to buy these products from AIG.

We're taking "Privatize the profits, socialize the risk" to a global scale.

It is a Katrina moment because a whole lot of us are judging Obama, and not in a good way. To continue the metaphor, it may not be too much of a stretch to compare the Leno visit to Bush's birthday cake with McCain.

[JDPriestly]

84. Just wait! There are physical bodies that are homeless, lost and hungry.

Elderly people have lost their life savings. Most people don't understand what has hit them yet. Katrina was localized to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. This financial storm is nationwide.

In my work, I look at people's financial documents and talk to people who work in and run small businesses. They are in a state of shock, hoping that business will somehow miraculously turn around soon. This is affecting people who were living very well, thank you, just six months ago. The oldest and most highly qualified, most trusted employees of companies have been laid off. In one county in California, the official unemployment rate is 26.6 percent. In our country, with our inadequate welfare system, that means that these people will have no income and only maybe food stamps to live on in a matter of months.

This is more serious than Katrina.

This morning, I opened my newspaper to read an article stating that my neighborhood, that is an area of about six blocks around my house, has recently become a center of gang violence. My husband and I like to be able to go for walks. There are lots of elderly people and children in this area. But, apparently we are not as safe as we thought we were.

Yesterday, police officers were killed in Oakland. We shall find out just why.

When the economy gets bad, crime in working class neighborhoods like mine becomes a serious problem. Young people can't get jobs. Anger grows out of desperation and the frustration of feeling you can't do anything to improve your lot in life.

You may be living in a privileged neighborhood where everyone feels safe, secure and can provide for themselves somehow. But many people do not. And the worst is yet to come. People are still numb and confused.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

113. Horrible and terrifying.

The ones responsible are, as with Katrina: Republicans.

They've been working on creating this disaster for 30 years.

[Captain Hilts]

119. Reason #3,487 to hate Frank Rich.

But he's right about the general population being more progressive than the president or congress.

[ProSense]

39. This is going to make Obama's success

sweeter.

[Mithreal]

41. We may not see Obama's success until some time after he leaves office.

It took 3 decades to destroy this nation economically, it may take that long to dig out of this mess.

I don't see a solution without bringing back jobs transferred outside our borders, placing tariffs on imported goods from nations that use unfair labor practices, and strengthening American labor and workers. For now, the stimulus is a bandaid and gives us time to triage, but the root causes of our situation are not even being publicly discussed by Obama or any other Democratic "leaders".

Sweeter? Tell that to all the folks losing their jobs, their homes, their very health and lives. I get how folks can be all excited with anticipation but a lot of us are hanging on by our finger nails.

[SammyWinstonJack]

50. 'a lot of us are hanging on by our finger nails.'

:applause: You are so right! And who in CORPORATE CONTROLLED DC really gives a rat'$ a$$?

[MaxPlancker]

86. I am not so sure

The US Government has the largest budget on the planet. It is based on tax revenue. Congress makes the laws and spends the money. The AIG "bonuses" are a smoke screen being used to cover orders of magnitude larger spending by Congress. Why are we sweating $165 million in the face of $1 trillion+ of government spending that no one can say where its going? Is it because we can "see" the AIG payment and we can't comprehend the size of the government spending? Worrying about pennies while ignoring millions is very short sighted. AIG is not spending our tax money, Congress is.

As far as the AIG "bonuses" go I am in agreement with Egnever. My widowed Mom was taxed retroactively. I will never support after the fact taxation. To have the rules changed at the end of the game is unfair, un-American and just plain wrong. I do not like what the AIG people did but in my opinion it is not as bad as the Government selectively going after certain groups based on populist outrage.

[Mithreal]

121. Your widowed mother worked for AIG? jk

I agree the AIG bonuses may be a diversion but I disagree that these bonuses should not be returned. The American people "own" 80% of AIG and should have a say in how our money is spent. AND, the $1,000,000,000,000+ spending, are you talking about the stimulus, budget or bailouts?

"unfair, un-American and just plain wrong" What the hay are you talking about? Please elaborate.

[ProSense]

75. "Sweeter? Tell that to all the folks losing their jobs, their homes, their very health and lives. "

So Obama success in helping the economy to recover, spur job creation, etc. will make people unhappy?

I didn't say may the misery of the last eight years worth it.

[Mithreal]

76. That is not what I inferred or maybe you implied with "sweeter". nt

[biopowertoday]

89. buy him some sugar---he is in need of lots of sugar.

[TwilightGardener]

49. Ridiculous comparison--Katrina was a natural disaster that COULD

have been much better handled with proper organization and resources, but a hurricane and flood aren't exactly complex issues--evacuation, food, clothing, shelter, demolish, rebuild--that's pretty much it, and the fact that Chimpy blew it shows just how incompetent his administration was. The ECONOMY is in worldwide collapse because of complex forces and factors that have been at work for many years--HOW THE FUCK FAST does Rich think Obama can turn around an ocean liner? On a dime? I like Rich, but he sounds like an ass here.

[earth mom]

55. K & R! I still can't believe the denial around DU about what's really happening.

:wow:

:wtf:

[Kolesar]

58. Frank Rick does not understand the banking crisis

Or at least he does not demonstrate understanding in this editiorial column.

[Aviation Pro]

63. Probably not, but he does understand the anger.....

...which is what the column was all about.

[peacetalksforall]

59. David Axelrod: Man, did he goof. I didn't know about his statement, but it sucks.

"David Axelrod tried to rationalize the lagging response when he told The Washington Post last week that “people are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about A.I.G.,” but are instead “thinking about their own jobs.”

We aren't stupid. Yes, we can be absorbed in our problems, but it doesn't mean we can't have one ear tuned to the background.

It is absolutely repulsive to know that your hard earned money is going for an embarassing $ amount of money for bonus/retention payouts to already wealthy employees who enabled their bosses to rip off the world with their so-called cleverness. It's another to infer that we don't care. At least some of us do. There may some who are so hopeless that they are willing to say - give it to them, they don't deserve it, but this is the bottom anyway - what does 218 million mean to me?

[JDPriestly]

85. Axelrod has lost his touch. People are talking about AIG -- at their

kitchen tables, on the subway, everywhere. My mother has an annuity from AIG, and she is worried. Many people get income from AIG and they want to know whether they will continue to be able to depend on that money for their livelihood. Our homes are losing value as we speak, and for baby boomers that means very dismal futures.

Axelrod and Obama need to understand that the internet has awakened America. They don't get to pull the wool over the eyes of Americans in the way that previous presidents did.

[defendandprotect]

61. When Obama puts DLC'ers in place with corporate-driven solutions . . .

they are all going to be blind-sided. The DLC is over . . . it's a rotting corpse.

If Obama actually understood the immense potential for damage that this new collapse

of criminal capitalism can bring - as he seems to suggest at times he does understand --

then he is looking for solutions from the wrong people.

Bob Schieffer of CBS asked Summers the simple question that has haunted the American public since the bailouts began last fall: “Do you know, Dr. Summers, what the banks have done with all of this money that has been funneled to them through these bailouts?” What followed was a monologue of evasion that, translated into English, amounted to: Not really, but you little folk needn’t worry about it.

We're already less than two years from the next elections -

Making these corporate-driven decisions is simply a Republican agenda --

[defendandprotect]

65. REMEMBER...expressing your outrage in a DU thread isn't the same as letting Obama ...

and Pelos/Reid -- and your Senators -- know what you're thinking!!!

Be sure to get on the phone tomorrow and send e-mails --

though I'm short an open e-mail address for Pelosi . . .

evidently, "[e-mail]" is no longer working?

Hate going in and out of those websites --- they should OPEN the e-mail!!!

[JerseygirlCT]

66. I definitely don't understand why they allow Summers to speak

for the administration... haven't they noticed the man is arrogant and doesn't care who knows it? And that he often steps right in it, and then keeps going?

I think this is an opportunity for the administration to take the time for a breath, and to step back enough to look again. Although I understand how very difficult it must be at a time like this, when they are putting out hundreds of serious fires at the same time, to do that. But it's time to reorient themselves to the real goals here.

And in some ways, the very high expectations for Obama and his administration will only make his job harder.

[colsohlibgal]

68. Kudos to Rich

This could be Obama's Katrina moment if his actions don't start matching his rhetoric. Despite the startling tackiness of his recent affair John Edwards had it right, there are two Americas - and each day, more and more people wake up and realize this. A large amount of them do have no idea what a CDS is but they now realize there is a ruling class here and then everyone else. It's totally obscene.

I hope enough of us get clued in ASAP and flood them all, Obama, Pelosi, Reid with indications of our anger. I'm a little pessimistic about that in this day and age where some decide their vote on who wears a flag pin or not - which still just floors me.

[antimatter98]

74. Summers has always been an a.h.

When he was president of Harvard, he said women didn't have the ability to achieve in science---this plus his horrible relationship with faculty, got him removed.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/lawrence_of_absurdia_1/

On December 12, 1991, while serving as chief economist for the World Bank, Summers authored a private memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly "under populated countries in Africa," which Summers described as "UNDER-polluted." Summers added that public outrage over the heightened rates of prostate cancer caused by his proposed dumping would be mitigated by the fact that poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop prostate cancer.
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/lawrence-summers-africa-i_b_141706.html

And in 1999, when he was Clinton's T R E A S U R Y S E C R E T A R Y---when Clinton signed the Phill Gramm bill that repealed Glass-Stegall, Summers said that he was glad to see antiquated regulations moved aside in favor of what he called a modern '21st century' financial system. He said it would benefit the nation and Americans.
source: 1999 NYT article at:
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/financial/102399banks-congress.html


Summers is a complete elitist disaster, and Obama picked the jerk to be on his economic team.

Heckuvajob Summers and Geithner.

[cadaverdog]

94. Frank Rich is a WIMP

compared to Dr. Michael Hudson of the "Institute for the Study of Long term Economic Trends". Who? This morning on "Background Briefing," from KPFK (Pacifica Radio) host Ian Master's guest gave what has to be the scariest script for the current economic crisis that I have heard yet. And he is unsparing in his critique of Pres Obama and his economic posse that seem to be wearing the black hats.
If you think Paul Krugman is savvy, you ain't heard nothing yet. Michael Hudson is Paul Krugman on steroids.

Check out "Background Briefing" at http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/

If you can stick around for the second hour you will hear a good discussion of the "Employee Free Choice Act."

This show is consistently the best two hours on radio.

[ProSense]

96. A rebuttal to Rich

here

[BostonMa]

98. I DONT CLICK ON UNKNOWN LINKS COULD BE VIRUS?

[ProSense]

103. Here you go

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/22/711561/-Katrina-momentHow-dare-you.

If you run your cursor over embedded links it reveals the URL.

[BlooInBloo]

108. Are you insane or something? lolol!

[Grinchie]

97. I can only hope that Geithner and Summers will be the catalysts

For the abolishment of the Federal Reserve and their fall will allow the creation of a new Government Controlled financial system.

With the amount of money spent on the bailout so far, they could have capitalized a whole new Government run bank.

[williesgirl]

100. The rage will not subside until we know where every fucking penny of our money went since last Sept.

Plus get all that fucking bonus money back. Period. Not one more fucking penny of taxpayer dollars to any bank, insurance company, corporation or other business entity. Let them all file bankruptcy. It's time to take care of the people, not companies. rec'd

[certainot]

104. garbage- the GOP talk radio monopoly manages the 'popular' outrage again

toward obama and geithner as opposed to the motherfuckers who caused this in the first place and dems and liberals and political commentators react as if the biggest soapbox in the country, 1000 radio stations going 24/7, didn't exist.

if this was outrage at the something the bush admin did it would be ignored and swept away even if there were millions in the street.

[cadmium]

105. you got that right. n/t

[lostnotforgotten]

109. Have To Agree With Rich Here - BankGate Will Be the End Of Obama

eom

[geckosfeet]

116. Obama did not make the banksters. But he WILL un-make them.

[lostnotforgotten]

122. He Won't, Unless He Gets In Front Of The Populist Rage

eom

[Riverman]

110. Agree! Rage is Everywhere, People talking, Expressing Unfettered Anger

Everywhere that I travel often to - West Coast - border to border! Obama needs to get on our side fast and bring it now down on the corporatists. Or, his presidency will not only be paralyzed, it will be revealed for what it has been on the financial front so far - a puppet of the Wall Street overlords. He needs to find laws to put these robber barons in jail. He needs to work with the people who know how to build a new system - beyond corporatism, not socialism, but localism! Support of locally-based financial institutions, such as Credit Unions and Microlending. Time to take our 401K amounts out of any financial institution backed by the bailed-out banks and investment firms and put our funds to work locally, to make small loans and low interest rates to locally-owned and managed businesses thru locally controlled credit organizations.

Also, as Einstein said, you can't fix a problem with the same thinking that created the problem. We lust stop bailing out the same banks, investment firms and insurance companies that failed us. That model of capitalism has proven to not work. We cannot continue to spend hard-earned taxpayers funds to prop up those institutions that have no future. Let them fail! And, in the void crated from those failures, no matter how painful, other more locally-based enterprises will fill the need with the interests in mind of the local community of which they are members. No more globalization of our money and debt. If I sign-up for a mortgage, I want to be able to walk into the office of the company that actually owns that mortgage, when I need to talk about the mortgage. That's all. Very simple, where are the George Bailey's of the world and the local Loan and Builds!

[geckosfeet]

115. I just refinanced at 4%. The paralysis hyperbole is laughable. It has been 60 days.

The paralysis is a result of the economy being in the tank - not Obama being tone deaf.

I think that he demonstrated during the campaign what his fundamental MO is. Personally, I fully expect that once the economy stabilizes to some degree, the Obama administration will start enforcing regulation that will protect the people and keep Wall Street in line. And a$$wipes like Rich better get in line.

[bridgit]

118. It's all good, not to worry @ 45 Obama is working his 3rd 'memoir'...

For that matter I would like to have seen Michelle be a little less preachy at Elenore's victory garden media event; a little less designer black-on-black head to toe, and maybe she should have become a taaddddd more familiar with the way a shovel works the earth cause it came off at least to me as way too fucking 'grip & grin'; I hope to see her girls out there before too long working the earth as well and not just leave the pruning to elsewhere-children their age while they swing on their WH swing set...and maybe a row of lemon cucumber or arugula, corn or string beans peppers; they're already in there so what's the problem

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

120. Remember when Frank Rich was President?

No? That's because he wasn't. Hasn't held elected office. Ever.

But of course you remember when he ran a Fortune 500 Company, right? No? That's because he never did that. Ever.

I love to hear less-accomplished people criticing people who have actually DONE something with their life.

I'm talking to you, Paul Krugman. Get a fucking job. Nobel Prize in Economics? Milton Friedman has one of those, too. Didn't stop him from being an asshat.

[DrZeeLit]

124. What does everyone think... that change is going to be pretty? Change is UGLY and HARD!!!

Change is UNCOMFORTABLE.
It's about PAIN and SCORCHED EARTH and ERADICATION of the well-known path.
No Growth without Change. No Change without PAIN.

For everyone who thought it would be poetry, and roses, and sweet perfume -- sorry!

Change is mean and tough and tenacious. We hack out the wilderness to build a home and the wilderness waits hungrily to return.

Lobbyist and corporations and greedy dicks who've been hiding behind laws and customs that tilt the playing field for the rich and the loud and the pushy and the corrupt HATE change. They invest their efforts in making us feel the flames, the hot breath of change -- they want us to turn back -- to turn our face to the cool breeze of easy street, of quite days where we don't have to think and they "take care" of us, as if we are little children.

We are not little children. We cannot afford to be patronized by those who want to retain the keys to the vault. We have to grow up and that is a painful process -- complete with RESPONSIBILITY. Oh, and responsiblity... ALL of us must face that ... Responsibility is not easy. It is much, much easier to remain unconscious, like the lotus eaters our society has become -- lured onto the rocks by the sirens of easy money, endless credit, and lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Of course this problem should be fixed in a snap! Of course .... ??

No. The deep hole that we have been digging since the mid 70's will not be filled in a snap.


So for all the Frank Richs (and I usually like Frank) and Mo Dowds and Krugmans this week -- we haven't even stuck our toe little in the water of change.

And the water is cold and unmerciful. This task is not for those who want the warmth and comfort of what used to be -- the old, known ways.

In every change process, a moment comes where the yearning and nostalgia of what we romanticize to be the perfect past, the calm, the status quo -- takes hold and we say, "maybe we shouldn't rock the boat."

Sure, it would be easy to have this whole mess swept up and done in a sitcom half hour -- but that's not what real, messy life hands us.

Change is not neat and tidy and easy. Ask any woman who has delivered a baby.

And if we want change, we have to fight for it. We have to give up our comfort. We have to feel the pain. All of us. And you can bet, many will not do this. Many will expect something for nothing. But that cannot deter those of us who yearn for a new, more fair, equitable system

We might have to completely eradicate the forms we have now for something jarringly new and itchy and stiff -- for we will not like change, no we will not.

And some people will lose all they have -- like the fire before the phoenix rises. Change can be that sweeping and nasty and devastating.

So, if it's only two months into Change and people are uncomfortable and have knots in their guts -- GOOD!

President Obama is right when he says it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Change is chaos.

But the alternative -- no change -- is death.

[bridgit]

126. ...