President Obama's Weekly Address, June 26, 2010 (Video, Transcript)

With Congress having finalized a strong Wall Street reform bill, the President urges Congress to finish the job and send the bill to his desk. The legislation reflects 90% of what the President originally proposed, including the strongest consumer financial protections in history with an independent agency to enforce them. It ensures that the trading of derivatives, which helped trigger this crisis, will be brought into the light of day, and enacts the “Volcker Rule,” which will make sure banks protected by safety nets like the FDIC cannot engage in risky trades. It also creates a resolution authority to wind down firms whose collapse would threaten the entire financial system. Wall Street reform will end taxpayer funded bailouts and make sure Main Street is never again held responsible for Wall Street’s mistakes.



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President Obama's Weekly Address, May 1, 2010 (Video, Transcript)

As the President beats back lobbyists seeking to weaken Wall Street Reform, he talks about an even broader threat that would vastly expand the influence of massive industries and their lobbyists in Washington. A recent Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates for corporations, including foreign corporations, to spend endless money on political ads that would give them even more power at the expense of American families – the President pledges to fight for reforms to stem that influence.



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President Obama's speech at Cooper Union, NYC on Wall Street Reform, April 22, 2010 (Video, Transcript)

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What is the point in financial reform, when there is NONE?

As long as the Democrats, Republicans remain beholded to Wall Street and the "too big to fail banks", there will never be any financial reform. And when the banks and Wall Street fuck up again, they will be running to Washington, D.C. again to bail them out. And guess what? They will continue to do so.

This reform by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank is a joke.

For all the proposals stuffed into its 1,336 pages, the financial reform bill that's headed to the full Senate soon will change very little for the banks that brought us the most dire financial system crisis since the Great Depression, critics say.

When proposed a year ago by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 held enormous promise. The bill was supposed to unify a patchwork of rules and agencies, regulate a “shadow” banking system that hid the riskiest bets, protect taxpayers from picking up the tab for another bank bailout and create a new agency to protect consumers from predatory lending.

On Tuesday, Dodd repeated his commitment to get full Senate approval of tough new measures to address those issues.

"What I'm determined to do is get a strong bill," he told reporters at a news conference with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

But Dodd faces an uphill battle. After a year of debate, the bill that emerged from the Banking Committee Monday was riddled with loopholes, compromises and watered-down provisions that undermined the proposals’ principal goals, critics say.

"It doesn't do any significant reform of the system that got us into this problem," said William Isaac, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. during the Reagan administration. "All it does is shuffle the same powers around among the same agencies in a little different way. It really hasn't changed anything."

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President Obama pitches that he will fight for you at a Ohio Town Hall Meeting (Video)

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President Obama's Weekly Address, January 16, 2010 (Video/Transcript)

President Obama blasts the banks: "We’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run."


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When is Geither going to be asked for his resignation?

I don't know what more can be said about the problematic Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The very same individual who has protected Wall Street, the Big Banks and AIG. It is these decisions that have the American Public currently red hot about tax payer money being used to save these industries, which put us in the bind we are in. And the big banks? The very ones who used our money at 1% interest, invested it, made a bundle, paid the government back and still are not lending to move this economy.

Again, when are we going to see some asses flying from posts under the Obama Administration. This is a valid question, because this is all about changing Washington and not remaining the same, right?

An arm of the Federal Reserve, then led by now-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold key details from the public about overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.

The sordid tale unfolds in a series of e-mails between the company and the New York Fed obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and first publicly disclosed by Bloomberg News.

The matter is the subject of an "ongoing review" by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), communications director Kristine Belisle said in an e-mail to the Huffington Post. SIGTARP is headed by Neil M. Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor.

Taxpayers have committed about $182 billion to AIG. The under-regulated firm developed and sold complicated derivatives products without having adequate capital in place if those bets went bad, which they eventually did. The firm nearly single-handedly wrecked the entire financial system.

After the firm was given a taxpayer-funded backstop, one of its most controversial acts was to repay banks at 100 cents on the dollar for what was by that point nearly worthless insurance the banks had bought from AIG, known as credit-default swaps.

A brutal report issued in November by a government watchdog disclosed that AIG had actually been trying to negotiate better terms with the banks until - guess what? -- the New York Fed stepped in. The report held Geithner personally responsible, and led to renewed questions about his fitness for the job. read more here...

Geithner, for me was too close for comfort with his direct involvement of AIG and Wall Street. This disclosure to the public does not wear well on him nor the Obama Administration. Again, when is this man's resignation going to be on the President's desk?

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Obama and the polls a year later, not looking good

Again, Barack Obama and his mismanagement of the health care debate is a major reason why his poll numbers are where it is at, along with siding with the continuous bailouts of Wall Street, banks, automotive industry with NO RELIEF for Main Street. This equals anger out here and it is real. Barack Obama has done some good things, moving towards transparency, putting science first, standing with the military, movement in changing the education system, looking forward to climate change. But Obama must show more LEADERSHIP come 2010 because for many he lacked it in 2009. Sure, he had divisive people like the Republicans in his way, but they were always going to be there, Barack Obama must convey to this country what EXACTLY he wants, but more importantly he must DELIVER. And jobs? People don't believe this White House is focused on it, it clearly is displayed in the polling numbers. With no jobs, losing jobs, fear of losing jobs and the White House nonchalant to many, this is why the numbers are shitty.

Remember, people voted for Barack Obama on his agenda not for what is coming out of the White House now. So, if the middle class, independents, young, and many other are angry all Barack Obama needs to look at is right in his White House.

Until his behavior change, remove some people change, these polling numbers are going to continue to erode.

Wake up, Barack Obama. You are not on the ballot in 2010 but the WHOLE DEMOCRATIC PARTY is and if it is a bloodbath for Democrats, the blame will be put squarely on your shoulders.

The anger is real out here and our President better get in touch or we are talking bad times in 2010 for the Democratic Party.

From morning joe:



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President Obama's remarks after meeting with Bank CEOs (Video)

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The White House is not listening to Main Street (Video)

From Michael Steele, a fumbling, bumbler, but he just may have hit a nerve that many people out here feel. Many do feel that much money, time have been given to Wall Street. For Main Street? Saving homes? 1 out of every 100 applications for the re-mortaging homes from the Obama White House plan, not even 100,000 applications have been approved. Homes are going into foreclouser in record amount, mosting PRIME MORTGAGES now, not sub-prime, those with good credit but families have lost their jobs, hours cuts, wages frozen. Yes, you and me. I have always said, at times, Barack Obama is too professorial, and needs to be blunt with emotion. Perception means everything to people who are hurting. I hope he figures this out.



Now, Obama is going after the banks. OK....



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Why is anyone surprised at this? Wall Street, "No Health Care Reform At All Is Best"

Well, specifically, Goldman Sachs. This is the same organization or BAILOUT BANK, that got preferential treatment by getting the H1N1 vaccine (or swine flu) before millions of AT RISK AMERICANS.

I mean, how low down is that? And Washington, DC does not understand the angst out here, especially on Main Street?

So, why are we surprised that Wall Street, of all places, do not want any health care reform. It is not in their best interest, monetarily.

A Goldman Sachs analysis of health care legislation has concluded that, as far as the bottom line for insurance companies is concerned, the best thing to do is nothing. A close second would be passing a watered-down version of the Senate Finance Committee's bill.

A study put together by Goldman in mid-October looks at the estimated stock performance of the private insurance industry under four variations of reform legislation. The study focused on the five biggest insurers whose shares are traded on Wall Street: Aetna, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, CIGNA and Humana.

The Senate Finance Committee bill, which Goldman's analysts conclude is the version most likely to survive the legislative process, is described as the "base" scenario. Under that legislation (which did not include a public plan) the earnings per share for the top five insurers would grow an estimated five percent from 2010 through 2019. And yet, the "variance with current valuation" -- essentially, what the value of the stock is on the market -- is projected to drop four percent. read more here...

If the Democrats screw health care reform and give us a watered down bill to say, "Reform", they are in a lot of trouble this time next year.

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Ed Schultz snaps on Wall Street bonuses and lack of regulation (Video)

Ed Schultz goes after Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and these continued bonuses, from the back of the American taxpayer.

The Obama White House needs to turn the light bulb on about Wall Street and these bonuses, AGAIN, with our taxpayer dollars. See, I talk about the Joe and Joesetta, not the champaign clinking crowd of Wall Street and the DC cocktail hour. It is these people that are disconnected with what is going on out here.

Folks still losing their homes at record pace, check.

Savings, retirement funds, 401Ks have shrunk to record lows, check.

Banks and Wall Street still doing what the hell they want and shafting the public, really a check.

Unemployment rate at 10.2% and the real unemployment with underemployment is over 17%, yeah big ass check.

NO JOBS OUT HERE, some out of work for months, some over a year, a disastrous check.

Sure Bush put us in this position, but the likes of Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers is not helping us neither. I am sorry, when you worked with the same people you BAILED out, you end helping them. That is what has happened.

Lastly, the public is angry about this. You can rally the shit out of Wall Street for the Dow Jones, but in the end it just help the status quo, the ones with all the money anyway. And this thinking of it will create jobs, the trickle down effect? Look at those unemployment numbers and tell me, who is really being helped.

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While the White House touts 650K jobs saved or created....

the public still wants to know where are the jobs for the upwards of 20M who are unemployed.

The White House touts jobs saved or created, but the majority of those jobs were teachers and for the record these jobs should be saved. The question now is, "What about everyone else?"

Now we are heading into 2010 and if the prospects of the holiday are any indication, it won't be a Holly Jolly Christmas for millions of Americans.

Flat incomes suggest more weakness ahead in consumer spending, reinforcing concerns about a ho-hum holiday shopping season and a sluggish economic recovery.

"This recovery is going to be very weak. Consumers are in no position or mood to spend. Their wages are down and they can't get credit," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University's Smith School of Business.

Concerns about the economy sparked by disappointing government data on spending and incomes sent stocks down Friday, erasing the previous day's big gains. The Dow Jones industrial average lost about 250 points, and broader indexes also fell.

Millions of Americans have been complaining about stagnate wages for years, now the reality is hitting hard. As everything else, GOES UP, our wages are not KEEPING UP. Those with jobs, like me, Christmas Time is scaled back drastically. After having major surgery this year with a whopping bill, the "Holly Jolly" will just move on by the icebergslim household this holiday season.

President Obama has inherited a major problem, the public is being patient, but when you have numbers of unemployed hitting 10% and millions are out of work, there really is nothing to be Holly Jolly about. Until the unemployment numbers turn around, wages increase, folks can find a job, 2010 is totally up in the air for the Democrats.

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President Obama's speech at DNC fundraiser in New York City, October 20, 2009 (Full Video)

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Greenspan, Rubin, Summers the financial meltldown: The Warning (Video)

A much watch video about the lack of regulation on the unregulated derivatives market, what made the financial meltdown on Wall Street. And all these smart, in the know men walked away scott free and some are now advising the Obama Administration.



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President Obama's memo to Wall Street during NY fundraiser (Video)

The financial industry joining the White House on financial reform? Folks, you think health care is a fight? The money is already flowing HEAVY through the halls of congress on NO CHANGE after the disastrous irresponsibility of Wall Street. In other words, the rich folks want to remain, RICH. It was Wall Street, the banking industry that paid so much money for deregulation it happened. Does it mean every time Wall Street 'eff up that we, the taxpayer are supposed to bail these rich crooks out? Hell to the naw, on that one, from me, but we saw what happened with Bush and Obama. This industry needs to be regulated and heavy. I don't want another dime going to these crooks. This is the industry that believes heavily in the free market and capitalism, yet they came running to the very government that they despise to save them. After what has happened, regulate them to the mo-fo hilt.



And if you don't get it? Watch the PBS Frontline: The Warning. After watching this you will scratch your head and ask, "Why are the same people who KNEW this was happening are still around? Like in the Obama Administration?"



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These Wall Street Big Bonuses are BAD NEWS

Yay, Whoop-de-dooo, the Dow Jones hit 10,000!!! Yay!!! The fat cat, thieves, company rapers have replenished their cash!!!! Yay!!!

That is the problem.

The average Joe and Joesetta don't give a mickey-fick about the Dow Jones hitting 10,000 points, THEY DON'T, but they understand that the rich people on Wall Street got over AGAIN.

That is the real problem.

Former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama forged ahead by bailing these crooked banks and Wall Street out with the tax payers dollars. We sat back this time last year and saw the bonuses out of this world, thanks to us, the tax payers making it so. Now we have to deal with this again?

The Obama Administration can talk all day and all night until the cows come home about Wall Street and greed, but until they fully are BEHIND regulatory measures to change what has happened to banking and this crooked industry, it will continue to be talk. And the public does understand the rich raking it up with a 10,000 Dow Jones and unemployment at 10%. Yeah, they get that picture fully.

It may be hard to believe but there was a time, almost 25 years ago, when Wall Street and Main Street weren't so far apart -- at least when it came to the average worker's salary and the average financial industry employee's annual bonus.
Back in 1985, the average annual salary for all workers across the country was actually a bit higher than the average bonus ($19,000 to $13,970). (Note: these numbers are not adjusted for inflation)

How times have changed - while the average bonus soared almost 14 times higher (by 2006), the average salary has essentially been stagnant sine the mid-1980s.

Though bonuses slipped sharply in 2008 amid the financial crisis, they're rebounding this year and Wall Street firms are set to pay out record amounts to their employees. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently told reporters that banks will be making "significant changes" to the way they pay their employees, and called bonuses being paid out by bailed-out firms "deeply offensive." read more here...

Well, Geithner said significant changes would be made when all this went down early in the year, and as we see it the game still remains the SAME with the banking industry.

Again, until the Obama Administration is for real about real banking regulatory changes, it is just words going in one ear and out the other.

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Fat Cats of Wall Street can pop champaign, the folks on Main Street are struggling to stay afloat (Video)

This is the reality. Where is the bailout for the American Public?

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"We are moving in the right direction", President Obama on the 10,000 Dow Jones day (Video)

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The Dow hits 10,000 for the first time in a year, but who cares?

Really, who give a mickey-fick that the dow hit briefly 10,000 points. Is that going to lower the health care bills of family A? Is it going to help the college student who can not find a job from family B? Will it give a promise of jobs to come for family C that lost their home? A guranteed of a livebale job waged for family D?

No, it is a reminder that the Bailout Kings of Wall Street still reign and the average family on Main Street its options are bleak.

That is the reality out here, not on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average has reclaimed 10,000 for the first time in a year.

The Dow crossed five figures in afternoon trading Wednesday, seven months after it hit a 12-year low of 6,547.05 on March 9. The comeback by the stock market’s best-known indicator is the most visible sign yet that investors believe the economy is indeed recovering from the financial crisis and recession.

Cheering erupted from traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as stocks briefly moved above the psychological barrier. They fell back into the 9,990 range in the normal ebb and flow of trading. read more here....

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