Obama Speech To Wall Street

Right now on all the cable nets.

A preview....

"I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you," he will say, according to the excerpts. "But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort. I am here because I believe that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of our financial sector."

The legislation would grant the federal government the power to seize teetering financial giants and dismantle them the same way the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation now can seize failing banks. It would create a new financial consumer regulator, would boost the strength and budget of the securities and exchange commission and would impose new transparency rules on the trading of derivatives, the complex financial instruments that helped bankrupt Lehman Brothers and nearly wipe out American International Group and Merrill Lynch.

I love that a guy who has never held a real job in the productive economy is telling people on Wall Street they are a danger to the prosperity of America. Unlike say, er, the federal government.

It seems the biggest danger here is not the bailout fund, the actions of the last few years speak louder than the $50 billion sitting around in another slush fund. It's the idea that the executive branch will have the unilateral power to seize and breakup a company that, as Obama just said, "falters".

I missed the start of the speech so I'm not sure if there were any 'shout outs' or acknowledgments of people who are 'in the house'.

NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose city depends on the revenue generated by the financial sector, is not thrilled with Obama's bashing of Wall St.

NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who, having worked in the real world, knows how bad some of this stuff is decided to side with her patron Chuck Schumer and keep her mouth shut. Always nice to see such profiles in courage in a political figure.

Now he's talking about the SEC writing rules to give shareholders more power in corporate elections. Here's a novel idea, if you don't like the rights share ownership gives you....don't buy the damn stock. Crazy, right?

This speech is the worst of Obama...bad policy married to cloying rhetoric. All his 'false choices', get beyond selfish politics, I'm not an ideologue, it's just common sense, BS designed to hide his extreme policies.

posted by DrewM. at 12:03 PM

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