Maybe Obama needs to give Merkel a back massage.

Like Matt Taibbi said, “We are fucked.”

Maybe what we should be saying is keep your hand out of our wallet Mr. President.

But choco rations are up! Double-plus good!

Many European papers are saying that Obama asking for more in the way of stimulus out them is a non-starter. This morning a major hedge fund pulled out of the public/private partnership. So other than the Federal Reserve printing more make believe money to prop the country up, it would seem that the current poker players are pulling their chips off the table and heading home. Joe Conanson’s piece that was mentioned by EmptyWheel yesterday began to peel back the darker layers as to why our tax dollars would enter AIG and then leave through the back door. Follow the money and you find a web of off shore tax havens that have been used to cover bets that are on the losing end and now US tax payer dollars are being used to bail out those like Goldman Sachs, Barclay’s and others. The question that requires an answer from the administration is why they are doing this and who are they trying to protect?

Pretty strong meat at the g20-meltdown site. It’s bang-on.

Josh at TPM says that Obama’s meeting with the Bank bigwigs kinda confirms his sense that they feel secure in their Big Dog MOTU position (Masters Of The Universe). Have to say, I am more disappointed in Obama than I thought I would be

It seems as though the U.S. gov’t is being held hostage.

Obi wants nothing more than to put a smiley face on corporatism. Signing the death sentence on the auto industry says it all. If this were a Western European country there would be millions in the streets if not a revolution. In the U.S. the “citizens” have become accustomed to merely fighting over the scraps that fall off the banquet table of the elites.

I’m double-plus relieved!

There is only one nation in the world right now that can muster the nerve, energy and financial muscle to overthrow, overhaul and re-construct the banking industry, shaking it loose from the old, burdensome and out moded European model. That is us. Even if Obama wanted to try (and I don’t think he and Geithner really want to…or are creative enough), trying to do it at this G-20 meeting would be like trying to empty the Pacific Ocean with a bucket. Meanwhile, Taibbi, Krugman, Galbriath and Reich are alone on the shore with a 100-ton beached whale an a pocket knife.

One question President Obama:

Taibbi, Krugman, Galbriath and Reich…Why are you not listening to them?

Go on the record and explain why you are not listening to the best economic minds…

Thanks Jane.

thanks, jane, for the link to the draft g20 communique. i just scanned it for a statement on the doha round negotiations:

13. We are committed to reaching rapid agreement, on the basis of progress already made, on modalities leading to a successful conclusion of the Doha Round which would boost the global economy by at least $150 billion per annum.

for background on what this means, here’s lori wallach from her recent testimony before the house foreign affairs committee hearing (where she appeared with simon johnson):

Agreeing to review and re-negotiate these WTO financial deregulation terms must be a key element of the G20 process aimed at addressing the crisis. Simply putting more stimulus money into operation under the current rules is not the solution. But even as Congress and the G20 and other international configurations are struggling to figure out to re-regulate finance, many of the same people in governments are currently pushing for expansion of the WTO financial service deregulation regime. For instance, the G20 summit in DC in November of last year was supposedly convened to lay out the coordinated response and re-regulation, instead the communique call for completion of the WTO’s Doha round. Yes, the Doha round has one of it’s three pillars further financial service deregulation. Let me repeat, the current Doha round agenda has as one of its three main elements, more financial service deregulation. Calling for completion of that agenda has no place in the G20 agenda. Again, I am not discussing passing tariffs, I am not discussing trade, but rather undoing a system that limits Congress’s and other legislators policy space to put into place the array of policies needed.

my bold.

Linky?

Well-spotted. It’s beyond grim.

“energy and financial muscle to overthrow, overhaul and re-construct the banking industry, shaking it loose from the old, burdensome and out moded European model. That is us.”

Oh. I’m sorry, I must have misread the news. The melt down was the fault of the stogy European Banks? And the US financial system, so proper it all its dealings, is the solution?

It’s the last link in the post above.

disclaimer: i haven’t read the g20 draft, and it’s only a draft (so i’m going to hope that bit of “free trade” bullshit is withdrawn), but so far the only sane proposal i’ve seen (and this one i have read) is that just came out of the UN committee (chaired by stiglitz). if no one beats me to it (hint hing *g*), i’ll try to find time to write a diary comparing the g20 draft with the UN (in affect g192) committee draft.

Look forward to your analysis.

Btw, isn’t it true that things are decided before such meetings are convened and that all that takes place during a meeting is just window dressing and an opportunity for the ministers to strut around?

Bullseye.

I seriously doubt that the US is in any position to change the system. Change will be forced on us by those that hold our debt and that’s China, Russia and other bric countries that for far too long have not had a voice at the table. Our banks are insolvent if they can only survive on handouts from the tax payers. The Chinese and the Russians have quietly been purchasing natural resources and adding to their gold and silver reserves. We were supposed to get the results of the stress testing at the end of this month and now it has been put off until the end of April. Yesterday, Geithner let the cat out of the bag by stating that more TARP money will be required to keep some of the major banks afloat. If countries refuse to purchase out debt, just where is all this money going to come from? Take a look in the mirror.

It may be more painful to let large institutions fail that were previously thought to be too big to fail, but rather than prolong the agony whether it be banks, insurance companies or automakers, if we as a country truly believe in free market capitalism, then let them fail while private enterprise rebuilds something better from the ashes.

damn. i guess that means you’re not planning on “beating me to it?”

re the meetings, i don’t really know. i expect, during normal times that is the case (everything is pretty much decided before hand), but these are not normal times. there seems to be quite a bit of dissent (the proposal for a change in the global reserve system for example). during these times, i think anything is possible. hoping for big protests too.

i remember the miami ftaa meeting in 2003. the ftaa negotiations collapsed after that, and i don’t think it hurt for leaders of smaller countries to see how much dissent there was here. when the elites aren’t united is when i think we, the people of the world, have an opening to in push our own agenda. well, that is if we can act in the spirit of solidarity.

rofl – that would probably be better received coming from bo then it did from bush.

remember her face? teehee

http://mediagirl.org/graphics/bushmerkel.jpg

In the upcoming issue of the Atlantic Simon Johnson of MIT fame and former chief at the IMF has some chilling observations to consider….

The Quiet Coup
MAY 2009 ATLANTIC
by Simon Johnson

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government-a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

These G–20 scammers are learning the lesson now– that there’s nothing they can do. And the same lesson is coming for the Obama Administration as well. The sooner the better: then we move on to the part of this catastrophe that actually matters. Here’s the Rule: bankrupt regimes fall– always and forever. Read your history: there are no exceptions.

There is no authentic, unique US banking model: everything we have is modeled after and spun-off from British banking which is taken over from earlier Euro models. That model, in a new, flat world, no longer works very well and we made it worse in 1999 when we enacted the Glass-whoever bill/act and let banks, insurance companies and non-bank financial agencies co-mingle funds. Stir in Wall St. corporate greed, trickle-down economics and massive de-regulation from a government that wasn’t paying attention, and, Voile’, you have today’s mess. The Europeans are nervous because if we rip our “system” to shreds and re-construct it, they will have to do it next. The old aristocracy doesn’t like that idea, much.

OH, I agree. We would only have the muscle if we had our act together…which we don’t. Between the old Euro stalwarts and the power of the Chinese and Russians,we are in no position to change anything. And if we try (which we probably will not) we will get tremendous opposition, because everybody else likes the way the old system works. The only “final solution” is to let these guys fail and start over, and nobody wants to touch that with a ten-foot pole. It’s a loverly bunch of coconuts.

You are flamebait right? The US and the UK have been the lone defenders of the banking industry against tougher regulations on the last G8 summits and it seems nothing will change but the tone under Obama.
And what is with the Merkel-bashing on US blogs, she is just stating that there should not be more money presents to our banking overlords without a little bit more regulation, is that so threatening to your country?

Watch this in slow motion–

Firing Waggoner is just a decoy (making Barry look tough for the people) but for the EVENTUAL SMASHING OF THE UNIONS, ONCE AND FOR ALL, WITH THE SAME BANKRUPTCY FOIL USED BY THE AIRLINES. Then they will all merge again, business as usual…

Thanks again, Barry. I can’t believe you will really screw the unions that elected you, but you have surprised me before. (too many times).

That’s exactly what I put in my question to him for the online townhall meeting. Somehow he didn’t get around to answering….(/s)