President Obama made a very thought-provoking and scary analogy yesterday...

[kentuck]

He was talking to some people at a townhall meeting of sorts, I think it was Costa Mesa, CA? He told them that he would try to simplify this banking crisis for them. Then he went thru a few hand motions as if he were wrapping something around his chest and he told the folks it was like someone had wrapped a bomb around their body and they were holding the hand grenade ring in their hand, ready to blow up everything if we did not give them what they wanted. That rang so true. What can the President do? Realistically.

[knowbody0]

1. his comment affected me in the same way

it's how he really feels about the position he is in.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Here you go:

Obama Town Hall: A lesson on banking and how AIG is like a suicide bomber



We grant you that the whole AIG bailout and bonus debacle -- the credit default swap mess, the mortgage-backed securities swamp -- are very difficult concepts to grasp in detail. Which is why we hope in the future that when President Obama gets a notion to explain them to folks in town hall meetings, he polishes his spiel.

Or maybe a nice PowerPoint presentation would help.

We were with him when he began by saying, "Let me talk about the larger issue -- banks -- for just a second. I am so frustrated with this banking situation."

Then, he went pretty wonky about over-leveraging and the weakened housing market and we just thought, OK, fine, let's see if he can describe the mess in a way that makes sense and doesn't make people want to go to sleep. Our on-the-scene colleague, Tony Barboza, reports that people sat still, listened and fanned themselves with paper. No one but us fell to the floor in a swoon.

Obama tried to localize the issue and summed up the reason the Feds had to step in to save the banks.

"If you just got one small bank, take the community bank -- what was the name of your community bank?" he asked the woman who had posed a question earlier. "If Fullerton Community Bank fails, we've got something called the FDIC -- the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- that would take it over, guarantee the deposits and it would be able to kind of sort things out and sell the bank fairly quickly and it doesn't threaten the system as a whole.

"When you've got big big banks -- Citicorp or Bank of America or Wells Fargo -- that control 70% of the banking system and all of them are weakening, you can't afford to have all those banks going under, even though the deposits might be guaranteed. We had to step in, it was the right thing to do, even though it's infuriating. ..."

Well, OK, that all made sense, but then he compared AIG to a suicide bomber, and at that, we really perked up.

"Same thing with AIG," Obama said. "It was the right thing to do to step in. Like they've got a bomb strapped to them and they've got their hand on the trigger, you don't want them to blow up, but you've got to ease them off the trigger."

And the president held out his arm and pantomimed a hand on a trigger, and we were rapt, waiting for what would happen next.

But then he called for a final question from the crowd.

-- Robin Abcarian

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-town-ha-5.html

[FrenchieCat]

3. He was describing domestic terrorists over there in Washington D.C.

and that was the perfect analogy.

[aquart]

8. And we do have The Patriot Act to take care of such problems.

Don't we?

And for those of us who believe it was always intended for use on American citizens, why not put it the use for which it was intended? (Which should further my goal of having it rescinded nicely.)

[DCKit]

13. I've been describing them as economic terrorists since they started asking for money - or else. n/t

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. Adds kind of a sinister double meaning to "Too big to fail".

"See that guy with all that stuff bulging under his coat? Yeah, he's big ain't he. A little too big to fail, Capiche?"

[EmilyAnne]

6. Interesting way of looking at it. Very sinister, indeed. I completely trust Obama on this.nt

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Me too, my faith in him is unwavering. nt.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Terrorists. Implied.

I agree wholeheartedly.

[Waiting For Everyman]

9. Yup, it's all a big extortion racket.

Even down to the street-level, where if you want a home or car loan and the banks don't like you, you have to pay them off in unconscionable interest - extortion. (It has nothing to do with risk, or these defaults would be pre-paid for.)

And I think the big bonuses and salaries at the top are really hush-money, given to those who know the dirty details of what's going on because they're involved in doing it.

[Revlon10]

15. HUSH MONEY not bonuses

Thats the way that feel, a bonuses comes later, after the hard work, HUSH MONEY comes first guaranteed paid after the job is done good or bad
The banks not giving loans is just telling us who's the boss, if we don't get our way we don't want to play

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[BadgerKid]

18. We have some lovely parting gifts for you. n/t

[eridani]

10. In other words, blackmailers are threatening to kill the real economy to preserve--

-- their privileges in the fake financial one, and not even the president of the US can do a goddamn thing about it.

[Enthusiast]

17. This is what I was afraid of.

They, the blackmailers, built a financial house of cards that has up until now only partially collapsed.

[Postman]

12. Ain't capitalism great.

[Pale Blue Dot]

14. To extend this analogy,

There is no way to remove this bomb. Everything that Obama's done so far is simply putting off the detonation time while making the bomb bigger.

A wise man would be figuring out what to do after the bomb goes off.

[Pirate Smile]

16. He obviously disagrees with you.