She was then demonized by the industry and the Right -- and now the Obama administration seems ready to abandon her, rather than fight for her. But we need her. Why? Because four years ago, the markets melted down, sparking a global crisis. The bailouts followed and a trillion-dollar bank-led "recovery" helped many banks recover. However, unemployment and foreclosures stayed high. Very high. And economic growth seized up. The crisis continues. And Elizabeth Warren understands the implications of all this for the average American, and she is our advocate.
So what was Obama's response?
He allowed his administration to be locked into an alliance with Wall Street. This alliance then killed proposals for structural reform and restraints on private economic power. And now the Obama administration is foolishly expecting an economic turnaround -- their version of faith-based politics -- even as jobs are not coming back.
In short, the Obama administration has no answers and is not prepared to fight any messy battles with the real power structure in this country, which consists of Wall Street and the big corporations. In the name of pragmatism, Obama has betrayed his own campaign compromises and tacked right, drifting ever closer to the Republicans.
They call it "triangulation." Their critics call it a sell-out. The Republicans retreated into knee-jerk simple-mindedness, blaming everything on Democrats and government spending. Then they began fueling a scare about "The Deficit" in the same way that their predecessors raved against "The Red Menace."
In Congress, supposedly wise men came up with a financial reform called Dodd-Frank. After stripping it of anything remotely radical, they offered up some pragmatic measures to increase regulation and try to force the finance industry to act responsibly with more transparency and accountability. However, the bill explicitly rejected proposals for any and all international standards and is essentially an empty suit.
Dodd-Frank passed, but then the real bargaining began on what the new rules should actually be. The finance industry mounted a lobbying force consisting of 25 high-powered lawyers and consultants for each and every member of Congress. The deliberations moved out of public view and into the corridors and closed clubs in Washington. The predictable result has now surfaced in the New York Times:
"Nearly one year after Congress passed financial changes to rein in the banking sector, more than two dozen of the legislation's rules are behind schedule, and no end to the wrangling over details is in sight."
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