Danny Schechter: Who Can We Bank On, Who Who Can We Trust, as Crisis Sharpens?

[marmar]

Published on Friday, June 12, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Who Can We Bank On, Who Who Can We Trust, as Crisis Sharpens?
Washington Seems Tethered At The Hip To Wall Street and Does It’s Bidding

by Danny Schechter


Can it possibly be true that the Congress can't walk and chew gum at the same time? This question is prompted by the announcement that financial reform is being pushed back as health care becomes the priority.

This makes me nervous for two reasons. First, it portends a long drawn out legislative battle on health care reform with more time for industry lobbyists and the Congresspersons and Senate persons on their payrolls to compromise away or wreck the change we so deeply need.

Second, it confirms that the lobbyists for financial institutions--the people responsible for the collapse of our economy--have been scheming and wrangling to gut the reforms that could stop another economic breakdown. Reviving this industry without restructuring and re-regulating it just guarantees another disaster down the line.

Bear in mind that that disaster is already underway despite what you may be reading about "green shoots" and signs that a turnaround is coming because unemployment didn't go down as much as expected--only 500,000 plus a month.

In fact, many observers see a deeper crash still coming with a depression quietly deepening, even if most us cling to our perennial optimism and trust in the changemaker we can believe in. The Telegraph's Ambrose Evan-Pritchard, who unfortunately has been more prescient than wrong, whines:

"Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns.

We learned then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms, and dissent from Goldman Sachs."

You may recall Dennis Kucinich asking his colleagues aloud if he was in the Congress of the United States or the "board room of Goldman Sachs" as if the former is a wholly owned subsisidiary of the latter. Or perhaps, there was a merger between the two in the sense that Wall Street may be down but by more means out. It is "clawing back" its influence with a new lobbying surge which is allowing Goldman and the big banks to pay back their TARP Money and get out from under the spectre of new regulations, compensation limits and the like. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/12-2