What do you get when you cross Wall St., U. of Chicago and Rahm Emanuel?

[change_notfinetuning]

BUSINESS AS USUAL!

As an Illinois resident, I was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama in his senatorial bid in 2004, and an early supporter of his run for the presidency. No one was happier than I was on that night in Grant Park. Unfortunately, his appointments of advisers and cabinet members were abysmal. The ideas are stale and the decisions are safe to a fault. Fine tuning at best; business as usual in many cases. I still have a lot of hope on all fronts, but I have never seen anyone win at chess by only taking pawns.

Yet, seeing and hearing liberals touting a return of the Dow to 10,000, I just shake my head and want to barf. According to a recent AP story, there are 6 jobless people for every job opening now, compared to 2 for every opening in 2007. A 10,000 Dow means little when I read article after article saying that higher profits are the reason and that they are a result of cutting costs (layoffs with more productivity, downsizing and outsourcing) and higher too-big-to-fail-bank profits, thanks to the bailouts.

Despite rising unemployment and foreclosures, combined with reduced spending, most economists say the recession has ended and we are now in the midst of a recovery.  Since there is little basis for this other than the steadily rising Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500, the Bulls have hit the jackpot.

I guess that's what you call a "BULLS HIT" recovery.

[spanone]

1. no, that's what YOU call a bullshit recovery...nwmhtt

[change_notfinetuning]

20. Wow! I didn't even see that play on words. IMO, though, the only recovery

is for the bulls. You can characterize it any way you want.

BULLS HIT! BULLS HIT! BULLS HIT!

[FiveGoodMen]

2. You get robbed

[yurbud]

3. the political equivalent of an ugly hooker with cold sores?

No offense to ugly hookers with cold sores.

[Captain Hilts]

4. U Chicago is a right wing creep factory. I've known some terrific folks

that went there, but even they acknowledge the right wing cranks the Business and law schools there have turned out.

[Peregrine Took]

6. I think the undergrad school is ok but forget the graduate schools altogether.

[Captain Hilts]

8. There are some terrific folks there, but the B and L schools are scary.

THE guys that hunted Clinton were UChi Law grads. Paul Rosenzweig, etc.

[frazzled]

10. Oh really

My leftie son is a PhD student in the mathematics department at the U of C and finds no problems about it being "okay."
I know the head of another graduate program, who is probably more liberal than you.
Piffle. If there were a equivalent term for "racism" to be applied to schools, your comment would probably qualify for the tag.

[change_notfinetuning]

14. I'll bet some of your best friends are lefties - just kidding, you set it up.

[truedelphi]

21. One good guy who seems unblemished from his time spent there

Is independent journalist Greg Palast - author of "The Best Government Money Can Buy"

[Captain Hilts]

23. There are some good folks there, indeed. nt

[Peregrine Took]

5. I live in Illinois, too, and 'have been very disappointed, too.

He's a DLC'r through and through.

[Greyhound]

7. K&R

Back to zero.

[gratuitous]

9. So, it would be better if the Dow was still at 8,000?

I guess I'm not understanding all the doom and gloom. No, the DJIA at 10,000 isn't the answer to all problems economic, but I haven't seen anyone here say that it is. Most people seem to understand that it's just a number among a lot of other numbers. It does signal a certain confidence among investors, confidence that has been quite absent from the equation for the last year and a half.

There's still a lot to be done, but I think that generally the country is on a much righter track than it was 18 or 24 months ago, and I'm encouraged to think that it will continue to do so.

Of course, we could be sitting here complaining about President McCain and Vice President Palin, and I think some folks posting here would actually prefer that to what's going on now.

[change_notfinetuning]

12. No, you don't understand the doom and gloom. The 10,000 Dow is a

product of the higher unemployment. They are proportional. When employment is less than it should be, profits go up. The Dow follows. When confidence of investors takes a back seat to well being of working Americans, that will be the day that our economy will soar.

Nevertheless, I do find one thing we could agree on. You said that the country is on a "righter track". Granted, but the change most of us voted for was a lefter track!

[Greyhound]

16. It would be far better if the dollar was worth even $.25 and the DJIA was at 4000. n/t

[madrchsod]

18. there`s no reason why it should be at 10,000

wall street`s numbers have no relationship with the true economic condition of this country.

[flyarm]

26. you are 100% correct!!!! too bad many people aren't smart enough to realize that!

[kenny blankenship]

11. Shut up! We're all supply-siders now!

[justinaforjustice]

13. U of C Reeks of Reactionary Milton Friedman, Obama Got Gassed.

Thanks for your excellent post. I too am an Obama supporter. He's so smart, so articulate, so charismatic -- and so disappointing.

Wall Street appears to be doing well -- thanks to billions of dollars in tax payer funds the Administration has used to keep the banksters' casino going. I suspect the big boys are making one last looting run, and the average small investors will, as usual, get screwed. Meanwhile, most of the U.S. is in a real depression. One out of every six people are out of work. That is the real economy and it continues to tank.

According to the Friedman school of economics -- unregulated capitalism is paradise. Although Friedman is dead (raptured?), his strangle-hold on the U of Chicago continues and guides Obama's reactionary economic team. Gaither, Summers, Bernanke -- all the deregulators who had a big hand in allowing the trashing of our economy are Friedman progeny of one sort or another. Columbia and Harvard Universities were equally infected, so Obama got a triple dose. I find it very difficult to reconcile the Obama who left Colombia, read Saul Alinsky, became a community organizer and then a Constitutional Law professor with the Obama who worked for a big financial firm, went to Harvard Law and apparently agrees with the capitalist de-regulators he appointed. Bizarre contradictions.

I think Hugo Chavez of Venezuela hit it on the mark when he talked about the two Obama's -- the one who eloquently talks of peace, world nuclear disarmament and a humble American foreign policy and the other Obama who builds 7 new military bases in Colombia, supports NAFTA and its progeny, hires Summers, Gaither and Bernanke, continues two wars and runs away from universal health care. Maybe its that the inner Obama is a liberal with a conscience, while the President Obama is owned by the corporations which funded his presidency. They certainly own the rest of our government lock, stock and barrel.

The inner Obama may try to do a few good things, but the corporate deciders obviously keep him on a very short leash. (Rahm Emanuel is the DLC appointed dog-walker). Very sad. Until we get corporate funding and lobbyists out of our government, that's our dismal, Friedmanite reality. Getting rid of capitalism altogether is the real solution. It's killing us all and our planet. In the meantime, we dream of strict corporate regulation and, thanks to Friedman, don't get any regulation at all.

[change_notfinetuning]

17. If we could only harness the energy from Alinsky spinning in his grave.

[madrchsod]

19. sometimes people forget who brought them to the dance....

[truedelphi]

22. + 1. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

24. The UC law school gave us the key folks that hounded Clinton over Whitewater and Monica. nt

[madrchsod]

15. ya sure do..

if rahm was`t from chicago he`d run as a republican. rahm and arne are chicago corporate democrats.

until we have trade reform,bank regulation,and real healthcare reform we be digging deeper into the well.

[Vidar]

25. K&R

[bvar22]

27. Not just Rahm, but the entire "DLC New Team"

...Progressive Democrats Need Not Apply


When I saw the "New Team",
I KNEW Americans who Work for a Living were in for an ass fucking.
Republicans and Health Insurance Lobbyists (Billy Tauzin) have more access to the White House than the Progressive Caucus who have been reduced to Writing Letters to the White House.