Saturday, April 4, 2009

Watch What They Do, Not What They Say

Great story here of the duplicitous nature of the Obama Administration...talking out one side of its mouth about the horrors of executive compensation, leading the pitchfork brigade to string up Wall Streeters, and openly conspiring with the Pelosi-wing of the Democratic Party (is that redundant?)--all the while setting up special entities through which they will launder bail-out money so that firms who accept it will not have to comply with their (and Congress') current campaign of class warfare. It seems there are plenty of firms who are willing to sit on the sidelines and NOT take bailout money (they believe they are strong enough to survive)--even if it means slowing the national recovery from the current financial crisis. Executives at banks like this simply don't want to have the strings and control that come with the Obama/Pelosi brand of socialist banking, and I don't blame them.

The problem here is a political one; Obama knows he needs results on the economy sooner rather than later--because that's what his grasping, entitlement conscious constituency wants. If major portions of the financial industry simply say they'll wait out the storm without government money...Obama fears a glacial recovery, one that puts the Democratic Party in a bad position for 2010 mid-terms and one that even jeopardizes a second term. To solve the political problem, they've moved to create dubiously legal entities through which they can wash recovery funds in a way that firms can accept it WITHOUT succumbing to restrictions on compensation and other matters. That such a plan openly flouts the will of Congress seems secondary to the Chicago mob running the White House...largely because they'll do so with the tacit support of Reid and Pelosi.

2 comments:

Sally said...

Where's the story on the Fannie/Freddie retention bonuses? I'm curious if Barney Frank and Maxine Waters are outraged about them. What do you think?

Mudge said...

If I were one of those holdouts, I'd be very very wary of any "trust me, it won't apply to you...just take the money...did I say 'trust me' yet?" deals. I'm curious just how far the administration will go if the holdouts remain holdouts. Might they attempt to nationalize those NOT in financial trouble because they aren't playing according to the administration's plan?

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