Obama’s phony banking “reform”

[Karmadillo]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/pers-a27.shtml

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Neither bill does anything to curb the power of the banks or limit their parasitic and socially destructive activities. What the media is calling the “most sweeping overhaul” of the banking system since the Great Depression in reality sanctions the ever greater monopolization of the financial system by a handful of Wall Street giants, imposes no limits on executive pay, and allows the banks and hedge funds to continue gambling on exotic and largely unregulated securities such as collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps.

The so-called bank “reform” is an exercise in mass deception—an attempt to placate popular hostility to the banks and provide the government with political cover while it continues to do the bidding of Wall Street.

The bills have been drawn up in the closest consultation with bankers and bank lobbyists. This collusion has been widely reported in the press and presented as a perfectly normal and acceptable fact of political life. The front-page lead article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal describes the intensive lobbying being carried out by billionaire investor Warren Buffett to alter the Senate bill’s provisions on derivatives.

Buffett, an Obama supporter, wants to exempt existing derivatives deals from collateral requirements in the current language of the bill—a change that would save him billions on his $63 billion derivatives portfolio. Both senators from his home state of Nebraska, one Democrat and one Republican, are championing his cause.

This is just one example of the web of corruption and bribery that extends from Wall Street to the White House and Capitol Hill. The banks have thus far spent $455 million lobbying Congress on the overhaul and handed out $34 million in 2010 election campaign donations, most of it to Democrats.

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There is plenty of money. The problem is that it is concentrated in the hands of a financial aristocracy. The immense concentration of wealth among these individuals is not only morally repugnant, it is a menace to society. It is the result of the plundering of the social wealth to feed criminal appetites, at the direct cost of the productive forces.

more...

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[spanone]

2. no thanks.

[Unvanguard]

3. WSWS would call banking reform "phony" whatever its contents.

They are as predictable as the rising of the sun.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. Then you must be thanking your stars that Republicans are wroking to stop it. n/t

[jefferson_dem]

5. WSWS opposes Obama's Wall Street Reform Bill?

:wow:

Funny that they hold the same position as Glenn Beck and the teabaggers...again. Just goes to prove that nuts are nuts, regardless of which extreme they are grown on.

[NNN0LHI]

7. nuts are nuts

Political persuasion is meaningless.

About a half a million rocket scientists voted for Nader after 8 years of Bush. That told me all I need to know about our lunatic fringe.

Don

[cali]

6. lol. it's world socialist (nut) daily

anything short of nationalizing all banks isn't banking reform to them.

[RC]

8. WSWS is much better than the WSJ or the Mooney Times.

The replier here seem to have a problem with Left slanted news. Why? Watching too much Fox News?

[cali]

10. I have a problem with tripe

and tripe from the left is still tripe.

[Unvanguard]

16. WSWS is not left-slanted, it is WSWS-slanted. n/t

[rgbecker]

9. Are the Republicans going Socialist, or the Socialists going Republican?

My head is spinning. Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, Glenn Beck, Rush...help, tell me what to believe!

[katandmoon]

11. Judging from the health "reform" I would say Wall Street doesn't have much to worry about

Bankers will have no trouble finding the loopholes.

[Nikki Stone1]

12. This is what I fear about this bill

Another handout to Wall Street

[blindpig]

13. No surprises here.

Neither from the OP nor the commentary from the peanut gallery upthread.

Given how the people got royally screwed on health care this is to be expected. Next up, Social Security.

k&r

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. I'm sorry. Do you and Hannah Bell write for this rag? These are the people...

who obviously think that everything should be state run. I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that, and I'm a lifelong progressive.

As others have said, nuts are nuts, no matter their political stripe.

[Unvanguard]

15. Obama could nationalize the banks and he still would be a puppet of the capitalists in their eyes.

As far as WSWS is concerned, anyone who is not a member of the Socialist Equality Party is some variety of capitalist sell-out, including other hardcore socialists who don't buy into their particular flavor of Leninism.

[Odin2005]

17. WSWS is about as good a "news" soure as FOX.

[cliffordu]

18. He is a complete failure as a President and a husband and a man of color

and needs to be replaced immediately.

:sarcasm:

For those too punch drunk to know when I'm joshin'

[DevonRex]

19. LOL! You mean Obama hasn't outlawed capitalism all over the world yet?

WSnuts probably want to go back to the barter system for health care. :rofl:

[amborin]

20. K&R (but still at zero....truth seems unwelcome)