{"id":2890,"date":"2010-01-16T20:19:27","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T03:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?p=2890"},"modified":"2010-01-16T20:54:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-17T03:54:37","slug":"does-anyone-really-care-admit-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/does-anyone-really-care-admit-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Anyone Really Care? Admit It."},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/b>his week, aside from the horror and hope in Haiti and Conan O’Brien’s defenstration, a little soon to be forgotten group called the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held ‘hearings’. Eliot Spitzer et al. assure us that a lackluster dog and pony show with Wall Street CEOs smiling like Cheshire Cats is a good thing.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nFCIC should use this first public hearing for two quiet purposes. The primary goal should be to develop information. The subsidiary goal is to put the CEOs on record as to what went catastrophically wrong, which will allow the FCIC to judge their candor as the facts are developed. The FCIC, and the nation, need the utmost candor. The CEOs must testify under oath, as is the norm now for witnesses testifying before the House Financial Services Committee. Precisely because it is the norm it does not impute any wrongdoing to any witness. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

S<\/b>pitzer helpfully provided 10 questions. Krugman was unimpressed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Well, if you were hoping for a Perry Mason moment \u2014 a scene in which the witness blurts out: \u201cYes! I admit it! I did it! And I\u2019m glad!\u201d \u2014 the hearing was disappointing. What you got, instead, was witnesses blurting out: \u201cYes! I admit it! I\u2019m clueless!\u201d<\/p>\n

O.K., not in so many words. But the bankers\u2019 testimony showed a stunning failure, even now, to grasp the nature and extent of the current crisis. And that\u2019s important: It tells us that as Congress and the administration try to reform the financial system, they should ignore advice coming from the supposed wise men of Wall Street, who have no wisdom to offer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q<\/b>uelle suprise<\/i>. Do Spitzer and company really expect Wall Street CEOs to be forthcoming beyond a gee whiz, who knew? Everything Krugman rants about — millions of families damaged or destroyed, mass unemployment, lives devastated. And no one really cares. As long as they have a job. They have health insurance. The Dow is back above 10,000. They’re still in their McMansions driving their Land Rover two blocks to the Food Lion or Safeway. And their unemployed friends are let go and become invisible unless they have the bad form to ask for help.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

T<\/b>hat’s why Barney Frank’s limp financial reform bill is toothless<\/a>. He’s got no mojo and everyone knows it. The public is still angry. Polls tell us so. But they’re focused on practical things. Sliding to the ranks of the permanent 10% unemployed is something that can be avoided like the H1N1 virus. Naturally the usual forms will be obeyed. The financial lobbysists (many whom the Stiftung dealt with and back in the day crushed once in a gloriously satisfying victory on House suspension) will scream and holler. We predict they will roll back Frank’s lame bill even further in the Senate. But in truth considering the scale of carnage since 2008 Frank doesn’t even slap their wrists. All this talk about Geithner’s head on a stick re AIG is so, er, bush league. How cheaply the masses are appeased.<\/p>\n

Who here takes Obama’s stamping of his feet over a ‘tax’ as an actionable threat? Doesn’t he need to find out what Max Baucus and Oympia Snowe think? Given what he’s done to date from Afghanistan to State Secrets to torture to health insurance, do we really want Obama getting involved at all? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, aside from the horror and hope in Haiti and Conan O’Brien’s defenstration, a little soon to be forgotten group called the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held ‘hearings’. Eliot Spitzer et al. assure us that a lackluster dog and pony show with Wall Street CEOs smiling like Cheshire Cats is a good thing. FCIC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-acolytes-in-media","7":"category-economic-meltdown","8":"category-pop-culture","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}