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12 May 09

Democrats Give Wall Street a Big, Wet Kiss | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

And Obama lets them.

www.alternet.org/..._wall_street_a_big%2C_wet_kiss - Preview

wallstreet democract lobbying

10 May 09

Bill Moyers Journal .Dick Durbin on plutocracy in congress

Sobering and maddening.

www.pbs.org/...watch.html - Preview

democracy usa wallstreet capitalism lobbying

The Senate voted no, 51 to 45, and they did so despite the fact that there have been 800,000 new foreclosures in the first three months of this year alone.
BILL MOYERS:
When you say they fought you, help us understand what actually happens. What do they do?

SENATOR DICK DURBIN:
Some won't even sit at the table. The American Bankers Association walked away. The Community Bankers walked away. Some credit unions would take no part in this conversation. They wouldn't even discuss the possibility of what we could do to deal with this mortgage foreclosure crisis.

Others participated initially, and when the time came, turned and walked away as well. I was left standing, having basically accepted many of their changes. Meanwhile, they were working feverishly in the halls of the Senate, going office to office, trying to convince people to vote against Durbin's bill. And I knew that I had an uphill battle. They're pretty convincing. They're pretty powerful.

And I have to say that the group I was trying to help, the people facing mortgage foreclosure, don't have that kind of political clout. By and large, these are people who are on the skids. They're running into trouble and voting is perhaps, you know, a sacrifice for some of them. Being involved in lobbying is beyond anything that they'd ever done or could consider doing. So I really was trying to speak for some of those people against some pretty powerful political forces.

SENATOR DICK DURBIN ON THE SENATE FLOOR:
Why is it in this country, in America, that we can find hundreds of billions of taxpayers' dollars from hard-working people all over the United States to come to the rescue of bad banking decisions, rotten investments, mortgages that were fraudulent on their face, but can't summon the political will to do something about 8 million families in America who are going to face foreclosure? That is where we are.
2 more annotations...
- BILL MOYERS:
  What would your provision have done for those people?
  
  SENATOR DICK DURBIN:
  If you're facing foreclosure and at least 60 days delinquent in your mortgage payments, you would have to present to your mortgage institution all of your documents to apply for a new mortgage. They would look through your income statements and your net worth and decide if you could qualify for a mortgage at a lower interest rate or a principal that brings it down to fair market value. If they didn't offer you a mortgage, you could raise it in bankruptcy court. Just as people can do now, legally, when it comes to a vacation home, a farm or a ranch.
  
  SENATOR DICK DURBIN ON THE SENATE FLOOR:
  The law prohibits the bankruptcy court from rewriting the terms of the mortgage of a person's home. Why? Why does that make any sense? If the bankruptcy court can rewrite the mortgage on your vacation condos, your farm, or your ranch, why can't they do it for your home? That is what this bill does.
- BILL MOYERS:
  What you just acknowledged is that there is a two-tier standard here. What did the lobbyists say, when you said to them, "Look, rich people can get this provision. They can get their mortgages renegotiated, but ordinary people can't." What did they say to you?
  
  SENATOR DICK DURBIN:
  Well, they argue about the sanctity of the contract, Bill.
  
  BILL MOYERS:
  Contract with--
  
  SENATOR DICK DURBIN:
  With the original mortgage, and I have to tell you that it is a little hard to swallow, when we're dealing with a banking industry that has entered into so many bad contracts, creating these rotten portfolios of mortgage securities. And then in desperation, turn to the taxpayers at large, who had to come in and bail them out with hundreds of billions of dollars. Their holy contracts that exploded in their faces really weren't that holy, when it came down to it. They were ready to take taxpayers' money to stay in business. But I offered this same amendment a year ago. At the time, the projection was two million homes in foreclosure in America. Moody's now projects eight million. That's one out of every six home mortgages in foreclosure. That means that there'll hardly be a block untouched in America, without a foreclosed home, which will affect the other people around them, and the value of their property.

09 May 09

Ed Schultz: Insurance Companies Are At The Table, Why Not Single Payer? | Crooks and Liars

Great clip. Outrageously spineless behavior from the Dems. We may as well have elected a Republican congress.

crooksandliars.com/...ltz-insurance-companies-are-ta - Preview

corruption healthcare obama lobbying

16 Apr 09

The best investment money can buy | Salon

www.salon.com/...index.html - Preview

corruption politics usa lobbying

For example, the banking industry recently paid Rahm Emanuel $16 million for about two years of work. That investment was recently paid back when, as President Obama's chief of staff, Emanuel led the January campaign to release another $350 billion in bank bailout funds. Turning a $16 million down payment into a $350 billion payout -- that's huge!
Likewise, Goldman Sachs hired former Senate aide Mark Patterson as one of its lobbyists -- an investment that proved a huge winner when Patterson became the Treasury Department's chief of staff and the agency subsequently killed proposals to limit executive compensation at bailed-out banks. Cha-ching!
And the hedge fund industry paid economist Larry Summers $5.2 million in 2008 for part-time work -- an investment that hit pay dirt when Summers became Obama's top economic aide and the administration resisted tough international hedge fund regulations that some G-20 countries wanted. Show me the money!
That's right, the surest way to make big cash is not to invest in people with proven business experience or in valuable entrepreneurial ventures, but in blue-chip members of Permanent Washington -- career politicos and bureaucrats who inevitably get back into positions of power and payback!