Richard Lazzara - #Banksters. Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign. Wall Street's worst day. Hmmm, so far today we've seen that Third Way op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and Sen. Chuck Schumer's comparing us to the teabaggers. Then there is DLC dinosaur Al From with a new book and rhetorical embrace of Hillary Clinton, unreconstructed racist Richard Cohen's blasting of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Fox News "Democrats" Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell in Politico are back for another stab at that whole "radical center" nonsense.
One or two of these would be random noise. All of this, all at once? It's a coordinated counterattack by Wall Street Democrats spooked by the party's embrace of politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Tammy Baldwin and Jeff Merkley. But this counterattack ... it's kinda pathetic. Wall Street can't possibly see a future in the Republican Party. For now, Wall Street and its allies are simply trying to claim that cutting Social Security and other social programs are a path to electoral relevance—a notion laughable on its face.
Occupy Wall Street Is Back And As Delusional As Ever. They’re back, yes them, Occupy Wall Street is back. Their gripe this week? Jobs largely occupied by teenagers and college students don’t make enough money for adults with six kids to live on. What a shame. Thursday they will take to the streets with no actual fast food employees and homeless people they PROBABLY paid to be there and complain that people who have no GED, no High School diploma and speak almost no English are entitled to the same hourly wages as a delivery driver at FedEx. It’s a shame because a recent study cited by Washington Free Beacon today states that raising minimum wages to unrealistic levels harms more poor people than wealthy people. What Occupy Wall Street and their allies do not realize is that places like Walmart and McDonalds are the centers for employment for everyone and anyone with no real marketable skills in the work world.
As wage demands increase, companies automate more and hire less. The Wall Street Journal’s pathetic attack on Elizabeth Warren. In a new Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler of the Third Way think tank warn that Democrats will only win if they ignore the recent success of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Elizabeth Warren and reject “economic populism.” Their argument is not convincing but, surprising no one, establishment centrists like Mike Allen of Politico and Ron Fournier of National Journal loved the piece.
Allen even went so far as to categorize it as a game changer (which evidently sent a thrill up the leg of whoever runs Third Way’s Twitter account). But for those of us who don’t already wish to see Social Security and Medicare benefits cut, Third Way’s piece was little more than a reminder of the selfishness (and increasing irrelevance) of the economically plutocratic wing of the Democratic Party. Third Way’s argument is basically two parts. That’s not the only instance of Third Way describing higher taxes in the same way as Grover Norquist might, however. Wall Street Toasts Blankfein and Judaism at UJA-Federation Dinner. Michael Priest PhotographyFrom left, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan; John S. Ruskay, chief of the UJA-Federation of New York; and Lloyd Blankfein, chief of Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs emerged from the financial crisis as the whipping boy of Wall Street. But on Monday evening, the firm’s chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, was feted like a king. Or perhaps like a rabbi. “Lloyd, I’d like to welcome you to your second bar mitzvah,” David K. “The only difference is that tonight the money goes to UJA.” More than $26 million flowed into the organization’s coffers as titans of finance lined the stage, seated in two rows on a long dais, for the UJA-Federation’s awards event. Mr. The keynote speaker, Police Commissioner Raymond W. “I have been known to actually blow this and make noise come out of it,” Mr. Mr. “I was hoping for the shofar,” Mr. The audience roared at the wordplay. It was a night for Wall Street to toast its leaders — and celebrate Judaism.
Mr. For Mr. Mr. But Mr. Later, after Mr. On the News With Thom Hartmann: Banksters Could Be Forced to Pay Billions for Crashing the Economy, and More. The Banksters are getting off easy... The banksters could be forced to pay tens of billions of dollars more in settlements for crashing our economy. But, these fees are just a small fraction of the price that American taxpayers paid for the economic collapse. So far, the too-big-to-fail banks have forked out about $80 billion dollars in legal fees related to the crisis, and the ratings agencies predict that the banksters will be on the hook for another 50 to 100 billion. Although that sounds like a lot, it's simply a drop in the bucket compared to the $6 trillion dollars that their gambling cost our economy. And, many of these settlements were so-called “no-admit-no-deny” agreements that did not even require the banksters to admit to their crimes.
To make matters even worse, many of these settlements could be written off of banks' taxes, which means that the actual amount that banksters are responsible for is even less than that $80 billion.