Pathetic

[impik]

Once in a month Matt Taibbi spit his "Obama the traitor" mantra, and every "progressive" automatically sign on.

Well, bad luck this time. Because the House - Backed strongly by the president, who's original proposal was even stronger - just passed the most sweeping financial regulation since the great depression. Actions matter, not what some one-trick-pony Obama-hater spit every month, to the cheering of the bitter and obviously history-ignorant crowd.

Start Unrec please.

[derby378]

1. Are derivatives regulated in this regulation package?

If so, I fear the job isn't done yet.

[amborin]

19. not really

" The bill does very little to address industry structure. Wall Street and the big banks engaged in reckless betting under the belief that they were too big to fail - that they were protected by a federal backstop. The biggest banks are now bigger than they were before the crisis. The solution to the too-big-to-fail problem is to break up the big banks so that the system can absorb their failure.

The bill fails to impose limits on bank size. A related problem is the intermixing of commercial and investment banking in single firms and resultant excessive risk taking by federal insurance-backed commercial banks. The bill fails to separate commercial and investment banking, and otherwise address this problem. Financial derivatives and other exotic instruments - labeled by Warren Buffett as weapons of financial mass destruction - fueled the crisis. The bill contains very modest regulations over financial derivatives but leaves more than a quarter of the market free from regulation and contains loopholes to enable another substantial chunk to escape regulatory control. Even for derivatives covered by the bill, the new rules are very limited. The bill does not establish a regulated exchange for derivatives trades. It does not ban financial instruments that do little other than enable high-stakes gambling. And it does not require the purveyors of derivative instruments to prove that the benefits of their new products outweigh the costs and risks to the financial system.

The bill also fails to tackle seriously the problem of executive and high-level pay. Wall Street mocks the Congress - and the American people - by preparing to pay tens of billions of dollars in bonuses in the shadow of a vote on financial regulation and while the financial sector continues to benefit from trillions of dollars of public support. At a minimum, we need binding rules to mandate that bonus pay be tied to long-term performance."

from common dreams.org

[jgraz]

24. Far worse is the laughable 5% holdback requirements on securitized debt

Were these guys even paying attention last year? The secondary mortgage market brought the global economy to its knees. Why would they risk another bubble with such a pathetic, in-your-face requirement that banks only keep 5% of the loans they sell? When the market collapsed, the average holdback was around 11%. :banghead:

[timeforpeace]

2. When the House or Senate pass something the credit should accrue to them, not to whoever is

president at the time, wouldn't you agree?

[BklnDem75]

16. Wouldn't that be inconsistent?

Congress does something great = Way to go Congress.
Congress messes up or drags their feet = Failed leadership by Obama.

You can't have it both ways.

[phleshdef]

38. Will people apply that same standard to the downfalls of the healthcare bill?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[janx]

5. Yeap. n/t

[neshanic still]

4. I believe Matt. He's kinda like this guy in his "chicken little" moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2nZbo8SKbg&feature=PlayList&p=778FA4AA82ECF885&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=23

Matt and his article will be looked at again in the very near future and some will be asking why we did not listen.

[Cha]

21. I'm sure you'll believe him forever and ever. "The Errors of Matt Taibbi"

Cross Post..

Jackeens (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 04:26 PM
Original message

"'The Errors of Matt Taibbi'"

Matt Taibbi has done it again -- written a nightmare of a story for Rolling Stone on Obama's economic sell-out of his campaign. The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures (which I'll discuss in a post later today) and of course invokes the cold hands of Bob Rubin like a bogeyman at every turn. This is pernicious for a lot of journalistic reasons, but politically it's bad for progressives beacuse conspiracy theories stand in the way of good policy analysis and good activism, replacing them with apathy and fear. Here we go:

* Jamie Rubin. James P. Rubin is a former Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration and not Bob Rubin's son. He informally helped Hillary Clinton transition into her role as Secretary of State. James S. Rubin is Bob Rubin's son, and had a similarly unofficial role in the economic transition. Neither were on staff, on the advisory boards, or on an agency review team.

* Austan Goolsbee "didn't make the cut." Goolsbee remains one of Obama's key economic advisers and has the president's ear from his posts on the National Economic Council and the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He skipped transition work and went to work immediately in those posts.

It's the sweetheart deal of the century, putting generations of working-stiff taxpayers on the hook to pay off Bob Rubin's fuck-up-rich tenure at Citi." Actually, the U.S. structural deficit and resultant national debt is mainly a hangover from the Bush Administration, with economic remedies to the financial crisis and the recession making a relatively small piece of the pie. Obama will be rolling back most of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, but Taibbi deigns not to mention that."

More: http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month ...

<More>
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

matt taibbi is a chickenshit liar.

[jenmito]

6. 5th rec. He should go away until his new hair fully grows in. n/t

[HopeOverFear]

7. I love how Obama makes haters on the left and the right look like fools. n/m

[elocs]

15. All haters are fools, no matter how righteous they believe themselves to be. n/t

[abelenkpe]

8. Really?

You mean this bill:

House Passes Financial Reform Bill Riddled With Loopholes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/house-passes-financial-re_n_389267.html

In a close vote, the House of Representatives Friday afternoon passed a financial reform bill intended to re-regulate Wall Street and increase protections for Main Street.

The bill passed in a 223-202 vote. It calls for the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers that would police consumer credit products like mortgages and credit cards. It also establishes new rules for the trading of derivatives and increases the transparency of the credit-rating process -- two previously under-regulated parts of the economy that played a large role in last year's economic collapse.

Not a single Republican voted for the bill. Twenty-seven Democrats broke with the rest of their party to vote against it.

The fight to fundamentally reform financial regulations began soon after President Barack Obama took office. Public zeal, though, was tempered on Capitol Hill by bankers and other Wall Street titans, who united to fight against the kind of reform advocated by consumers, union groups, and academics.

In the end, the bill achieves some modest improvements, rather than the comprehensive reform that was needed, consumer groups say.

"The bill does very little to address industry structure," the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a statement. "The biggest banks are now bigger than they were before the crisis."

Despite the advocacy by financial luminaries like former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the bill does nothing to break up big banks or address the mixing of commercial and investment banking by giant firms like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

The bill takes a stab at regulating derivatives, but key reforms were either ignored or voted down. An amendment by Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) calling for increased transparency in trading, which was backed by a coalition of pro-reform advocates, was voted down 330-98.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess Huffingtonpost is just a bunch of progressive whiners?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

36. Of course Huffington Post are progressive whiners

So is Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, Jane Hampsher, Thom Hartmann, Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Glenn Greenwald, Digby, Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and um I must be missing someone. Oh yeah, me

The purging of progressives by the Obama apologists is far from over. By 2012 we wont have anyone left.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Did you notice the guy asking that Obama "declare war" on wall street?

And then a few minutes later he complained about this Wall Street reform and attacked democrats?

:crazy:

[dionysus]

31. they have made hypocracy into an art form....

[inna]

10. pathetic indeed. gladly oblige your request and unrec.

[Cha]

22. Oh? What's so "pathetic" about pointing out that Matt Taibbi

doesn't check his facts when he posts?

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2009&base_name=oh_matt_taibbi

[jgraz]

26. I predict we'll be seeing a lot of links to Fernholz's desperate swipe at Taibbi.

Of course, no one will have actually read it or analyzed what that corporate coprophile is blathering about. If they had, they'd be too embarrassed to post it.

[dionysus]

28. LOL, you cling to every criticism, even if it's a pack of lies, like a blanky...

:rofl:

[jgraz]

29. Newsflash: "lies" is not a synonym for "critical of President McDreamy"

Just so you know.

[dionysus]

30. you have nothing but bullshit strawmen and your loathing of obama.

[jgraz]

32. Do you actually know what a strawman is? It certainly looks like you could use a refresher.

Maybe we'll start with explaining what a lie is and move up from there... mkay?

[dionysus]

33. your strawman was acting as if everyone you disagree with thinks obama is "dreamy"

so that invalidates whatever opinion we have. don't patronize me.

[jgraz]

34. So, no. You don't understand what a strawman is.

Thanks for playing, better luck next time.

[HughMoran]

11. rec

.

[girl gone mad]

12. You mean that sham "reform" that was stuffed full of favors for lobbyists?

:rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

13. And there you go. NT

[mix]

14. .

[PBS Poll-435]

17. Rec'd!

:-)

[NYC_SKP]

18. And, not surprisingly, DU Posts about Tiabbi's POS article make the Greatest Page.

It's never been easier to see which among us are sentient and which are emotional or daft or just never liked the president.

I disagree with him often enough, but the bullshit and hatred is getting thicker and thicker in some of the posts and replies.

:kick:

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[girl gone mad]

20. Can you counter his piece, or is this lazy and trite ad hominem the best you've got?

I've been looking at the bill this afternoon. A couple of things:

Some of the most devastating parts of Taibbi's article were direct quotes from Democrat Brad Sherman, who happens to be very intelligent and informed on financial matters. Do you also take issue with him?

After reading through the bill and amendments passed today, Taibbi's criticisms hold up. While Geithner did not get the permanent bail out he sought, this bill is far from the serious reform we need. Its impact will be minimal, and I believe consumers could actually end up worse off, thanks to Melissa Bean (D-Corporations).

[Cha]

27. Yeah, matt's a liar. "The Errors of Matt Taibbi"

<snip>

"The Errors of Matt Taibbi."

"Matt Taibbi has done it again -- written a nightmare of a story for Rolling Stone on Obama's economic sell-out of his campaign. The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures (which I'll discuss in a post later today) and of course invokes the cold hands of Bob Rubin like a bogeyman at every turn. This is pernicious for a lot of journalistic reasons, but politically it's bad for progressives beacuse conspiracy theories stand in the way of good policy analysis and good activism, replacing them with apathy and fear. Here we go:

Jamie Rubin. James P. Rubin is a former Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration and not Bob Rubin's son. He informally helped Hillary Clinton transition into her role as Secretary of State. James S. Rubin is Bob Rubin's son, and had a similarly unofficial role in the economic transition. Neither were on staff, on the advisory boards, or on an agency review team.

Austan Goolsbee "didn't make the cut." Goolsbee remains one of Obama's key economic advisers and has the president's ear from his posts on the National Economic Council and the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He skipped transition work and went to work immediately in those posts.

<snip>


"It's the sweetheart deal of the century, putting generations of working-stiff taxpayers on the hook to pay off Bob Rubin's fuck-up-rich tenure at Citi." Actually, the U.S. structural deficit and resultant national debt is mainly a hangover from the Bush Administration, with economic remedies to the financial crisis and the recession making a relatively small piece of the pie. Obama will be rolling back most of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, but Taibbi deigns not to mention that."

<much more>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x51550

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2009&base_name=oh_matt_taibbi

[jeanpalmer]

35. Did they cap credit card rates?

prohibit the use of derivates? set reasonable requirements for mortgages? limit the looting of companies by executives? separate commercial banking from investment banking?

[NYC_SKP]

37. .

Dear impik,

I just want to tell you how much I appreciate that you are a DU member and that you're welcome here by many.

There are, as you know, many who disagree with you and with others, and sometimes things are said that are not very nice.

A belated "Welcome to DU" to you, friend!

:toast:

[azmouse]

39. yes Taibbi is pathetic