Gene Sperling, Leading NEC Director Candidate, Made Millions On Wall Street As Economy Tanked:
“It’s striking that he’s not concerned about the image,” Baker said, referring to the president. “It might be better to keep them at a little distance — not to have everyone on this staff be a former Rubin person.”
“Once again, you would have someone who owes Goldman in a top economic position,” said Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the American Prospect and co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s such an emblematic example of how these guys work.”
Please share widely!
Frankly, I have no idea how Mr. Sperling would or could perform in the NEC Director’s position.
<
p>I am concerned that the good ‘ole boys club recycled from the Clinton years, when outsourcing became the route to corporate profits and America’s manufacturing decline, continues to dominate much of the Obama Administration’s policies and personnel picks.
<
p>The average American sees no difference between the two major parties. The revolving door of the multi-millionaire financiers alternating between policy makers and corporate executive is the root of the problem.
<
p>It is abundantly clear that working Americans are not the concern nor the priority.
<
p>Tea partyers are screaming from the right of the Republican party and progressives/liberals are screaming from the left of the Democratic party for reform.
<
p>What we all really want is to have the American people own and operate the country. The corporate puppet masters and their stable of economists and attorneys cannot and do not police themselves.
…but the Clinton crowd WERE also the stewards of the longest sustained economic expansion in history.
They called it “balancing the budget”. What’s not to love in government accounting?
<
p>Maybe we deserve the oligarchy. We have failed as a republic.
<
p>We saps could care less as long as the Jersey show is on and we get the latest news on Lindsay.
Wasn’t Social Security sacrosanct? As I recall Clinton talked about how we must “save Social Security first” and Gore ran on the Social Security “lockbox”.
<
p>What part of 22 million new jobs did you not like?
<
p>The 4 rating was primarily for the incoherence.
They were in control during the dot-com bubble, which was great while it lasted. It may have been sustained growth, but it was in no way sustainable. They were very lucky to govern when they did.
<
p>Sperling (and Summers and Rubin) was also the one primarily responsible for deregulating and allowing our delightful housing derivatives-based catastrophe to take shape in 2007.
<
p>Sperling is the type of guy that’s great for the rich people, pretty darn terrible for the majority of Americans, and not good at the long game.
Wow.
…is when you read analysis of foreign and emerging economies, this is the sort of thing that is flagged as a huge red flag. People cycling between the board that sets monetary policy and the Fidesz governing party in Hungary is cited as a gigantic problem, for example.
<
p>Yet this stain of nepotism and cronyism cited as an obstacle to fair treatment, decent credit ratings, and accession into multinational organizations for emerging economies is somehow acceptable for the United States.
This is a very important point and it would be good to expand it.
When did he become such good friends with all these guys? Would it kill him to associate with an uncorruptible idealist or two?
I’ve posted these stories stories here before – HERE is one, and it’s one of many. Here’s the ‘money quote’ as it were:
<
p>
.
<
p>There weren’t just warning bells, there were sirens – but nobody wanted to listen.
The difference between the Clinton, Bush and Obama economic teams is the difference between the 5th, 6th and 7th floors at Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren is only window dressing for the Obama Administration.
<
p>Clinton signed Gramm Leach Bliley (repeal of Glass-Steagall), written by Gramm because Citicorp had created an entity that violated Glass-Steagall, after which Rubin left for Citicorp.
<
p>Now Goldman Sachs is going to reap millions in commissions as the sales agent for the “quantitative easing” when the government essentially buys money from itself and pays Goldman for the privilege of doing so.
<
p>Then there were all of those banks that got interest free loans from the government. Did they lend it to businesses? No, they bought T-Bills with the dough, so we get the pay them for taking our money interest free.
<
p>Can you say bag job? Sure you can. Merry Christmas.