Has anyone else done as much damage as Larry Summers and still been praised and given power?

[yurbud]

Seriously, the guy was a major force behind deregulation and the Milton Friedman shit, and by all rights, he should be broke, in prison, or at least hiding out on the French Riviera avoiding cameras.

Instead, he has the presidents ear and the media still calls him a genius.

The only way this could be possible is if the radical free market agenda wasn't a failure--at least not for the top tenth of the top tenth of the top one percent of the wealthy.

Middle class and even the lower reaches of the wealthy do better in calm waters, but the very wealthy make out like bandits riding the waves. Doesn't matter if the wave is going up or down, they'll profit.

Given Obama's background, I think he sincerely wants to look out for the middle class, but to do that, he somehow has to neuter guys like Summers, Rubin, Geithner and the other moral filth that enable and protect Wall Street.

It gets further out as a possibility all the time, but I imagine something like the end of the Matrix trilogy when Agent Smith punches Neo, Neo becomes him, then explodes him.

Is there some way Obama can be speeding their demise by letting them have their way?

How could he do that without tainting himself?

I guess that's a different question than I started with, which was why an epic failure and moral filth like Larry Summers is still treated like a cross between Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk when he is more like the chief safety inspector at Chernobyl.

[Hissyspit]

1. Also, sexist and falls asleep in meetings.

:)

[leftofthedial]

2. not among Democrats.

He'd have LOTS of company among repukes.

[aquart]

3. Greenspan?

[yurbud]

4. he at least admitted he was wrong.

[aquart]

18. Did he admit he was wrong about this, too?

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5573254>

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Not About His Monetary Decisions, Though

He admitted mistakes, you're right. He did not admit that his overmanipulation of interest rates in order to hold off non-existent inflation actually caused a comopression of the economy in late '99 and 2000.

He never admitted that was an error. And to me, it was his BIGGEST mistake.
GAC

[MannyGoldstein]

5. So Why Is He In Charge Of Our Economy?

It totally blows my mind.

[yurbud]

6. he is Wall Street. Like Dick Durbin said the other day, they own Capitol Hill

so they are paying Congress to run our Titanic into more icebergs.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. So What Does That Say About Obama, Who Appointed Him?

Or am I being bad by mentioning this?

[yurbud]

16. nope. Either Obama is playing a very long game of chess with these parasites or they own him too

[chill_wind]

8. I don't know the answer, but I certainly admire the question (s)

and especially the analogies. I really like David Axelrod. I'd love to be able think this wasn't his top pick..(recommendation)..

I know Pres Obama didn't personally go out of his way to get Geithner-- I remember reading that he didn't know him, had never met him.

Who came up this guy? Who?

[ThomCat]

9. Obama couldn't get elected without big money. Summers and

Geithner and Rubin are the collar big money put around his neck to keep him in line. x(

They are the ones making sure that Obama serves his true constituents more than serves us, and so far they've been successful at it.

No matter how progressive people want to think Obama is, he's giving everything to Wall Street and nothing to Main Street. I haven't seen any 70 billion dollar bailouts for job training programs, food banks and other direct help for the rest of us. But the direct give-away to Wall Street in now several hundred billion and growing.

[waiting for hope]

11. Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner!

[northernlights]

20. several hundred billion? if only...

Several trillion to them through the back door, from what I understand. :evilfrown:

[bvar22]

10. Summers hasn't gotten a "Medal of Freedom"....yet.

Paul Bremer, 1st Viceroy of Iraq received a Medal of Freedom for ruthlessly imposing the US Corporate/Colonial structure on Iraq, reducing Iraq to the status of an 18th Century colony who must now give their resources to US Corporations. The colony status WILL be enforced by the US Military.


Then there was the Medal of Freedom for George Tenent who phonied up the "Intelligence" allowing Bush to invade a country that didn't and couldn't threaten the US. Tenent, good germen that he is, sat directly behind Colin Powell during his bogus presentation of PROOF at the UN. Powell had been going wobbley the night before, so Tenet sat directly behind Powell to keep him on track during the phonied up presentation. Powell actually used cartoon drawings as PROOF that the Iraqis had WMD. (LOL, if it wasn't so pitiful).

Still, the damage done by those two assholes will probably be bush league compared to the damage Summers has done to future generations who will be picking up the tab for failed Wall Street Bankers while the Bankers themselves retire in unimaginable luxury.

[bajamary]

12. and don't forget Rahm

Don't forget Rahm Emanuel

This from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_emanual)

After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel resigned from his position in the Clinton administration and became an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002. In 1999, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office. Emanuel made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, according to Congressional disclosures. At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.

Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton in 2000. His position earned him at least $320,000, including later stock sales. He was not assigned to any of the board's working committees, and the Board met no more than six times per year.

During his time on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities. The Obama Administration rejected a request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel's time as a director.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for Congress.

[heronkid]

13. you guys are wrong.

Summers, Emanuel, Geitner are the guys we need to break the country down so that we can rebuild it.
Can't make an omelet without breaking the eggs.

[Donnachaidh]

14. WTF?

Break the country down so we can rebuild it? Tell that to the millions out of work, losing their homes, living in tents, going to food banks that are running out of food.

Spoken like a true armchair quarterback. :sarcasm: :eyes:

[yurbud]

17. they will eat the omelet and not give us anything but the bill.

[ThomCat]

21. Does anyone but Goldman Sachs get to eat that Omelet?

x(

So far all they are doing is finding new and more interesting ways to channel more money to wall street. I don't see them doing squat to help the rest of the country.

Summers and Emanuel have been big fans of NAFTA and Free trade. We have all seen how wonderful that has been for. Again, the whole country except for Wall Street suffers, but Wall Street profits.

What the hell makes you think that these are the people WE need?

[MisterP]

15. Obama wouldn't have to "speed their demise" had he not appointed them!

and if he really is "letting them have their way," then he's as vile as the last Pres, since that means the impoverishment of millions: it's as morally abysmal as spray-painting the gay people in a crowd and then handing Neal Horsley a loaded AK, just to let him "hang himself" and show that he's a nut

[JeffR]

19. I can remember a few people over the last 8 years.

In fact, a lot.

But you're right. Summers should have slunk off to join the rest of them in eternal disrepute. Or been made to.