Economy-destroying Larry Summers' right-hand man on Obama's short-list to replace Summers

[brentspeak]

Revolving door keeps the fleecing of America's future alive and well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/22/sperling-nec_n_800167.html

Gene Sperling, Leading NEC Director Candidate, Made Millions On Wall Street As Economy Tanked

First Posted: 12-22-10 06:00 PM | Updated: 12-22-10 06:22 PM

Gene Sperling, a leading contender for a top economic post in the White House, made millions on Wall Street even as the economy faltered.

snip

Sperling, if appointed, would be expected to take a stance similar to that of Summers and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, said those familiar with his history. (Rubin became chairman of Citigroup after leaving the Clinton administration and later resigned from that post in disgrace.) Sperling worked under Rubin in the early Clinton years, when Rubin was NEC director. In Clinton's second term, during Sperling's own tenure as NEC director, Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, prompting a rule-easing that allowed Citigroup to become the world's largest financial services company.

Citigroup later required a $45 billion taxpayer bailout.

"He saw nothing at all wrong with the pattern of growth we had in place in the '90s," Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, said of Sperling. "He was not thinking at all critically, seeing that there were even any issues here."

[AtomicKitten]

1. Thanks for the boogieman update.

[DJ13]

2. Was Sperling really a leading candidate?

He's a slimy kind of guy, of course, that seems a prerequisite to be on Obama's economic team.

[boppers]

3. Well, the 90's were such a horrible time, after all.

:sarcasm:

[brentspeak]

4. Glass-Steagall wasn't repealed until Nov, 1999

How would you rate the past ten years since that essential firewall was torn down?

[boppers]

6. Sometimes decent, sometimes crappy, but not primarily because of Glass-Stegall

Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, GM, AIG... which one of those were gambling private banking deposits into stocks without the investors knowing?

Maybe Glass-Steagall didn't do what you thought it did. SIV's were risky, but not because of Glass-Steagall being ended... the problem was that they were *rated* wrongly, and all kinds of organizations bought into them.

In short: The recent meltdown wasn't because the banks pumped all their money into stock speculation (which was the target of Glass-Steagall), it was because all kinds of *other* entities decided to gamble on "investments".

[golfguru]

18. Repeal of G-S was the single worst financial decision of 20th century

That is what enabled the banks to take your savings and gamble
on risky highly leveraged schemes and cause the banking crisis.

[democracy1st]

5. this is where the rubber meets the road, we'll see how this turns out.

[DavidSegal]

7. Megabanks vs Whistle-blowers

Crimes committed by the big banks helped crash our economy -- and WikiLeaks is saying that a whistle-blower has sent them enough evidence to take down Bank of America. So now the big banks are fighting back by trying to get the government to muzzle future whistle-blowers.

They want rules to force whistle-blowers to go to their bosses before going to the government -- giving employers the perfect chance to shut them up! Even the Securities and Exchange Commission admits that its proposed rules could "discourage" whistleblowers.

Will you help us protect financial reform, by telling the SEC to implement strong, pro-whistle-blower rules right away?

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/whistle...

PETITION TO THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: More whistle-blowing about corporate crimes could have made the foreclosure crisis and economic meltdown less severe.

Whistle-blowers should never be forced or encouraged to take their concerns to their potentially corrupt bosses first: Those who go directly to the government deserve the strongest rewards and protections allowed by law.

[ClarkUSA]

8. In the past 2 yrs., Summers helped guide this economy from the brink of another Great Depression.

It's not as if he was a phony baloney populist who joined a hedge fund "to learn about poverty".

[Hello_Kitty]

9. Summers also wrote a memo recommending exporting pollution to poor countries

Since the people who live in them tend to die too soon to succumb to cancer caused by pollutants.

He's scum.

[ClarkUSA]

10. Well, Clinton approved of mountaintop removal and invented extraordinary rendition.

By your yardstick, Clinton is way beyond scum yet he has plenty of supporters among Democrats.

BTW, my original point scoffs at the OP's disingenuous and unsupported claim that Summers destroyed economies. I don't approve of Summers' writing that memo, but the OP's claim is ridiculous.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Actually I do think Clinton is scum.

He's a philandering pig.

[ClarkUSA]

12. Well, at least you're consistent. I find it impossible to disagree with you, of course.

My disagreement with the OP's title stands, however, as it's clear from the past two years that Summers is not a destroyer of economies.

[Jakes Progress]

13. While advocating leaving in place

all of the "special arrangements" that led to the brink. A brink from which the common man has not recovered and will see his future and hid children's future much reduced. A brink from which Summers' friends on Wall Street have profited very well, the richest .5% making more money now than ever.

Summers will retire to the rewards his Wall Street friends will give him. The replacement will act in such a way as to receive the same rewards in two years. It is a crock.

[Name removed]

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[Jakes Progress]

14. Same as it ever was.

If Obama appoints Sperling, we will know just whom our president works for.

[ClarkUSA]

16. Yes, god forbid he appoints people who will continue the economic recovery, right?

To follow your logic, when Obama appointed Elizabeth Warren, we knew then "just whom our president works for", right?

Or do you get to cherrypick "just whom our president works for"?

[Jakes Progress]

17. Crock. What recovery?

Average people are suffering though a prolonged period of unemployment and underemployment. Summers and his cronies brought about economic recovery for the richest 2%, but the rest of us aren't seeing it.

Whenever the issue of Obama's economic advisers and their role in getting rich off of our misery comes up, the usual group tosses out Elizabeth Warren. Every time. You never trot out his other wall street appointments. That is because he has one - count them, one - good appointment for economics. All the rest are wall street fat cats and blood-suckers. If the president really thinks Warren is a good idea, let's see him appoint her as Summers' replacement. Now that I could celebrate. Of course, the Obama in 2012 team would have to kiss bye-bye to the money they think they are going to get from their wall street supporters.

The truth is, he's going to get stiffed for all the service he did them. He keeps trusting republicans and corporations and the rich. They keep shitting on him and he keeps thinking the next time it will pay off. What he is going to need in 2012 is the supporters that he had in 2008, the kind that would applaud a Warren appointment to a position of real authority.

I do understand why you keep trotting out Warren. I think she slipped in and has been doing good stuff. I think they didn't think she was that sharp and that she could be handled. If, as you prate, the president actually works for the people, we will see a Warren appointment to Director of the White House National Economic Council. Then he could top that off with Krugman for Sec. of Treasury. Then we would know that the president is working for us. If, instead, he goes with more wall street insiders, we will get that message too.

[ClarkUSA]

19. Denying good news about the recovering US economy is what Fox News does.

Obviously, they are not the only ones.

Check LBN for the past week's worth of economic headlines and compare the headlines with those of 2008 and you'll see what I mean... that is, if you're at all interested in facts.

I'm not interested in your rhetoric because I know very well what is the true source of all that bile and it bores me.

[Name removed]

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