Why Obama May Be Wall Street's New (sic) Best Friend

[Enrique]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41136722/comid/2#comments_top

Why Obama May Be Wall Street's New Best Friend

Candidate Obama was an anti-tax cut, pro-regulation, anti-big business populist ready to take on Wall Street and any fat-cat CEO who stood in his way. President Obama? A bit of a different story.

The president's tack to the middle began with a trickle last year when he made some key concessions on health care policy and financial reform

But since the November election, after which he famously described his Democratic Party's defeat as a "shellacking" at the hands of reformist Republicans, the move has become even more pronounced.

The post-campaign president has hired Wall Street insider William Daley as his chief of staff in an apparent means to ingratiate himself with the leaders of corporate America, struck a high-profile bargain on tax cuts, and now has put burdensome job-killing regulations on the table.

While it remains to be seen how sincere the president's conversion is, it's been a winning ticket for investors so far.

(...)

"New" best friend? "Conversion"? :wtf:

[FrenchieCat]

1. Hillarious that CNBC would post this "story"......

Perhaps they need to twist things just enough so that the Left will be angry with Obama some more....
after all, that's one way of undercutting this President's support; via the Left.

Right, Enrique?

[vi5]

2. I don't think he needs CNBC's help.

He's doing all of that very effectively on his own.

[FrenchieCat]

3. I don't think we elected a President that was going to tear the business community down.....

but rather one that was going to provide strong enough rules of the road.

Of course, for those feigning not to know anything about economics, or how business figures
into our current system, they would choose to believe that one is either anti-business or pro-business with nothing in between; you know...the folks that only see black and white, as though all should be an extreme, one way or the other without nuance or complexities.

[Kolesar]

7. Yes. Very good

"Wall Street" will fund Obama again in 2012. I am sure they don't want Bush or McCain type insanity in the White House.

[vi5]

11. You can add as many shades of gray as you want.....

But there's no doubt he's a pro-business president and has stocked his cabinet with pro-business people through and through.

Which is fine. He's the president and it's his prerogative. But even his "achievements" (Healthcare reform, financial reform, etc.) are all built on a foundation that trickle down economics works and that private businesses and corporations do the most for this country and do it best with absolute minimum of regulation and interference.

And I have a fine sense of economics and how business figures into our current system, thank you very much. 20+ years of business and corporate experience has shown me exactly what business and corporations will do when left to their own devices and just how concerned they are with the well being of the American people and the American economy in general.

[FrenchieCat]

13. He's not leaving business to their own devices......

That's the myth that I reckon you are interested in perpetuating.
If so, then CNBC has been effective at its goal; making folks mad
cause Obama's magic wand didn't make all of world's boobooes better
in one extreme fell swoop.

[vi5]

18. Right.

Because I needed CNBC (or you for that matter) to tell me what he has and has not done. I've heard the speeches, I've read what he's written (most notably the recent WSJ editorial), I've read the legislation he's advocated and signed, and I know the history of the people he's appointed to the most prominent economic positions in the country and what their stances are on most major economic issues. And more importantly I see the impact (or lack of impact) every single day both working in corporate America and living in a fairly affluent, big business oriented area of the country and having many family and friends who make their livelihoods in the business/banking/corporate world and seeing exactly just how little anything has changed in that world.

If you want to be happy with what he's done, good for you. And if you want to assume that the only people not happy with what he's done and the direction he's taking the country and the party are either radical leftist revolutionaries living on communes, or naive, reactionary, uneducated rubes who don't know anything about business or the economy and are basing their opinions on a CNBC article then feel free. Clearly you are a font of business and economic knowledge and your acumen in this area is more than likely unparalleled so I will defer to you.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Thanks for being rational.......

and understanding that a system built over many years will not be torn down
in the way some envision that it should be, as they spout nothing but untested theories,
of what should be done....even when they, in their hearts of heart, understand that the complexity of our government along with an active mass media simply won't allow the kind of radical extreme change that they pine for.

[vi5]

22. I understand enough to know....

that it won't be torn down overnight or even in large chunks.

I also understand enough to know that the people who are in charge now (both the President and his appointees with any degree of power and influence) have absolutely no desire to change it in any tangible way. You may be willing to let him and them off the hook and blame any lack of substantial change on the mass media or the republicans or whoever else. The only things that have been changed or even attempted to be changed are little more than optics. For every one small thing that can be pointed to as change that benefits a majority of working/middle class Americans, there are about a dozen other things that are put into place to maintain the status quo and to insure that nothing actually gets changed that impacts business or corporations or the wealthy in any negligable way.

[truedelphi]

24. Wish I could recommend your post.

And in 2011, oil and food prices will be going up anywhere from 15 to 47 %, all the while our government officials are jawing away on the talking point that folks on Social Security don't need a COLA, as there is NO INFLATION!

[eleny]

4. Banker Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas (UBS) had thoughts on Obama back in 2008

From Business Week in 2008:
"On Sunday, Feb. 10, after he found out he'd won that day's Democratic Presidential caucuses in Maine, but before his appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) sat down at the keyboard of his computer to write an e-mail. Not to a media consultant or a delegate counter, but to banker Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas (UBS). The two men exchanged notes about the Senate-passed economic stimulus package and that weekend's G-7 economic summit, Wolf says.

"When I sat down with him, I found him to be unbelievably refreshing and smart and thoughtful," says Wolf, who first met Obama at the offices of financier George Soros. The UBS chief has gone on to raise more than $1 million for the Obama campaign.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, top contributors to Obama in 2007 included donors from law firms, investment houses, and real estate companies."

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080212_645487.htm

I'd say he made friends in the business, banking and Wall Street community.

[Enrique]

5. that's Wolf in the picture in the OP

our president's fare.

[eleny]

8. The BW 2008 article is from a footnote from Russ Baker's book...

Family of Secrets.

Baker says, "UBS retains its own strong interest in people on a path to the White House irrespective of party affiliation..."
From page 357 of Chapter 16, The Quacking Duck.

[FrenchieCat]

6. I'd say he has made friends and enemies.

But thanks for that one example! LOL!

[eleny]

16. Specific examples are always good and UBS is particularly interesting

Given it's history of being so dirty in its affiliations.

[FrenchieCat]

17. Like I said....I'm glad extremists

who only see good or bad and nothing in between aren't running shit....

[eleny]

23. And I'm sure the OP appreciates your thread kicks

[MannyGoldstein]

9. I'm glad that bankers will finally have a voice in the White House

The WH has been too insulated from Wall Street, appointees to date have never been exposed to that world.

I look forward to the bankers getting the little remaining meat on working America's bones. Thank God we have a President who's an adult.

(Do I rally need to say that this is sarcasm?)

[Enrique]

12. yes

you do need to say it's sarcasm. ;-)

[ProSense]

10. Well, this is better

than them whining all the time that the administration is anti-business.

[Brickbat]

14. .

[FrenchieCat]

15. He's damned no matter what he does.....

From either extremes in either party.

He's either a Communist/Socialist or a Corporate tool; whichever allows those whose hatred for him
surpasses even their own common sense and rationality to continue hating....while they try hard
to compel others to do the same as often as possible. Thank goodness those extremes ain't running shit anymore!

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Only one thing could have saved him

Clear success at unscrewing working Americans.

[FrenchieCat]

21. Just the fact that you use the past tense to make pronouncements

makes me unable to take you seriously.

[trayNTP]

25. I thought it was because he was the #1 recipient of Wall Street money in 2008. n/t

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

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

[dionysus]

27. classy, as usual.