Stung by the shock defeat in the Massachusetts special Senate election, President Obama had proclaimed that he was prepared to curb the major banks and Wall Street. He referred to the bonuses in Wall Street –amounting to over $150 billion as “obscene.” “If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I am willing to have... Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail,” he said.
No more than two months previous to this Obama, speaking on the $17 million bonus handed out to JPMorgan Chase CEO, said: “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.” We had already seen the reappointment of Wall Street darling Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve by the Obama administration in January. This was a heavy blow to all those who were entertaining illusions about a change in direction for economic policy, or reform of the financial system after the disaster of last year.
Bernanke’s reappointment was a clear signal to Wall Street and the financial sector that, despite Obama’s tough talk, policies like derivatives trading and speculation that led to disaster will continue. The public will continue to be gouged so that a tiny handful of Wall Street gangsters and hedge funds will continue to make obscene profits and bonuses from the bailouts and subsidies provided by the public.
Ironically, it was the right-wing Republicans who attacked Bernanke’s appointment during the Senate confirmation hearings with Jim DeMint of South Carolina warning that it was “a continuation of the policies that brought our economy down.” These statements are in preparation for attacks we can expect from Republicans in this year’s mid-term elections.
the rest-
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article12.php?id=1279
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