Fact-esque

Business First. Also Second, Third, Fourth....

President Barry O, continuing confused on his role wherein he apparently thinks he's president not of a nation but of a corporation that helps other corporations to screw consumers, has decided that with the economy everywhere but Wall Street in free fall and banks foreclosing on homes they don't own, the real problem is...too much govt regulation. (Via Blue Texan at FDL)

Obama's Labor Day Kabuki

Everybody, it seems, wants to believe Obama isn't a corporate puppet sell-out. Bob Herbert, who has been very tough on Obama's willingness to give Wall Street anything it wants while refusing Main Street more than the absolute minimum of what it needs, "finally" hears what he's been wanting to hear for a long time.

Bare-Knuckle Barry: More Guns, Less Butter

There has been a feeling in some quarters (not mine, of course) that President Obama has been holding back. If that was true, it is true no longer, I'd say. In the last couple of days we've seen two pretty bold moves on his part, not that he expected anybody to notice.

Will the Fed Get Audited After All?

It seems that for once - and I do mean once - my pessimism may have led me uncustomarily astray. It appears that the White House, Wall Street, and conservatives are actually going to lose the battle to make sure the Fed stays unaudited and therefore unaccountable in every way. According to both TPM and the NYT, Bernie Sanders' amendment is now expected to pass.

Really.

Focus of Debt Commission is Reducing Medicare and Social Security

We predicted some time ago that, looking at the makeup of Obama's so-called Debt Commission and bearing in mind recent statements that "everybody was going to have to make sacrifices" (except the bankers, corporate executives, and coupon-clippers, of course, though he left that part out), it was going to turn out that, golly whiz, the biggest part of the national debt had been created not by the war he won't stop or the massive bail-outs of the rich that he engineered Bush-fashion but by those damn old people driving Lexuses. So sayeth Debt Commission Chair Alan Simpson.

C'ing the D's: Is There a Democrat Disconnect Between What They Say and What They Do?

Are we tired of the financial "reform" kabuki yet? I try not to waste time beating on dead horses, but I honestly don't know if this one's dead yet.

SEC Charges Against Goldman Strike Spark

The shocking news that the SEC was actually going to charge Goldman Sachs with criminal fraud, a move most of us had long ago given up expecting, was so well-received that it seems to have galvanized rank-and-file Democrats.

Obama v the Banksters: Is This a Real Fight or Just More Kabuki?

Hmm. The LAT is reporting that President Obama is acting like he's ready for a fight with Timmy's Wall Street Buds over financial reform. One would like to believe he means it but we've been here before only to discover he didn't. Still....

Banking Reform: We Can Do It If We Want To, We Just Don't Want To

OK, so Krugman isn't wild about Dodd's banking reform bill. Nevertheless he is bending over backwards to make it sound better than it is.

[H]ow good is the legislation on the table, the bill put together by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut?

Not good enough. It's a good-faith effort to do what needs to be done, but it would create a system highly dependent on the wisdom and good intentions of government officials. And as the history of the last decade demonstrates, trusting in the quality of officials can be dangerous to the economy's health.

"Good faith effort"? That's pushing the benefit of the doubt past the breaking point. The admittedly minimal House bill was a "good faith effort" if your definition of "good faith" is an effort to just barely control the worst of Wall Street's usual financial scams, shenanigans, and skullduggery. Dodd's bill is a bad faith effort to make non-reform smell like reform, thus keeping Wall Street happy with him so his life-after-the-Senate will be a very comfortable one.

Make-Believe Healthcare "Reform", A Make-Believe Jobs Bill, and Make-Believe Financial "Reform": It's All Good

There are 3 huge bills in the pipeline now, and what they all have in common is that none of them - NOT ONE - is going to change much of anything. It's important to remember that.