The president, however, has not shunned Wall Street. He has courted financial executives for campaign donations, including inviting them to a campaign gathering at the White House. He has attracted more money for his campaign and for the Democratic National Committee from financial firm employees than all of the GOP candidates combined — a total of $15.6 million. – Wall Street’s resurgent prosperity frustrates its claims, and Obama’s
The largest banks are larger than they were when Obama took office and are nearing the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data.
Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show.
Like George W. Bush, Pres. Obama has failed to inspire financial institutions to increase lending to “prime borrowers.” More:
A recent study by two professors at the University of Michigan found that banks did not significantly increase lending after being bailed out. Rather, they used taxpayer money, in part, to invest in risky securities that profited from short-term price movements. The study found that bailed-out banks increased their investment returns by nearly 10 percent as a result.
“If the goal was to support lending, it would have been sensible to require a portion of the money to support credit origination,” said Ran Duchin, one of the finance professors who completed the study. “Lending to prime consumers was not the most profitable use of their capital.”
The bigger the bank, the more money they make for themselves.
Profits have also rebounded. The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year. – Wall Street’s resurgent prosperity frustrates its claims, and Obama’s
This concludes yet another chapter in the Barack Obama marketing and myth story versus reality, brought to you by your hostess, the recovering partisan.
The party’s over, baby.
The right has spent the last 4 years calling President Obama a socialist. I wonder how they are going to square this circle.
Incompetence.
Of course their profits are soaring. They got a 750 billion dollar TARP gift of free money to prevent the total collapse of the global financial system which they used to invest in other money making schemes. Only problem is that Obama wasn’t President when the TARP money was given, Geogre W. Bush was.
Although, he voted in favor of the measure.
President Obama wasn’t in office when TARP passed but he was when it was all back back in full! All 750 billion wasn’t handed out immediately upon TARP passage, some was handed out during the early days of President Obama’s term. I know you Obama haters don’t want to hear or accept that reality.
If I were a republican I’d vote for Obama. He’s tough on national security, terrorist’s, immigrant’s, likes the military and spending money on it, wall street and lobbyists. He disses the middle class and poor and wants to cut entitlements; what more do they want. He’s certainly a better choice than any of their candidate’s.
fangio-BRILLIANT! The republicans have been looking all over for the ideal candidate and you found him. Eureka!!!
He is not tough on National Security. He is not tough on immigrants. He doesn’t like the military.
cjoblak@hotmail.com 07 November 2011 at 3:03 pm
He is not tough on National Security. He is not tough on immigrants. He doesn’t like the military.
You just won the Fact-Free, No Credibility award for today.
Too funny.
Do you even know what you’re writing about??????
Talk about “no credibility”. It’s a common occurrence on this blog.
and no, he is not tough on National Security, illegal aliens and he does not like the military.
Besides, where are your facts??
Immigration deportations:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44599016/ns/politics-more_politics/t/obama-set-outpace-bush-deportations
Osama bin Laden right a bell? Ever read up on our Pakistan policy & drones?
Of course not, because Obama is president & you don’t like him, so you prefer fact-free charges.
I’d say read Glenn Greenwald’s post on Obama parroting Bush, but I know that’s too much to ask.
As for the canard Obama “doesn’t like the military,” it proves why I refrain from commenting most of the time, because I don’t like debating ridiculous & false talking points, something you have in abundance, from people.
I dont know if this is fair though.
The first part on campaign contribution is slightly misleading and does not adequately make the difference between contributions from the banks themselves (often decided by the board of directors or their shareholders) and contribution from employees of the banks. It seems that Obama gets contribution from the employees and not the institutions themselves in which case I am not sure I see where the issue is. I have pro-Obama family members working in financial institutions, many of them not in senior positions with just average salaries, they are probably making contribution to his campaign, who knows. They are the farthest things from lobbyist, just earning a living. So I dont buy the employee of wall street = wall street institutions.
As for the part on regulation th very flawed Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was adopted by Congress after much heartbreak for us progressives who felt it did not go far enough, debates and drama in Congress, the usual obstruction from Republicans, and the usual caving from Democrats. The goal was to control Wall St and big bank, clearly it is not working as well as it should (and was probably intended to have limited impact). But still Congress makes law in this country not the President. Not sure how Bush or Obama could “inspire the banks” to do anything if the laws that are finally passed by Congress provide loopholes and cover.
Issis~ My advice to you is to get a copy of Ron Suskind’s, The Confidence Men. Obama had both the opportunity and the power to regulate the banks and he protected them.
I understand that your instinct is to give him the benefit of the doubt. Suskind’s book removes all doubt. He is NOT on our side,period. He is a paper tiger when it comes to fighting any of the entrencheded powers. He is plenty smart but he lacks something big when it comes to leadership,spine.
What exactly is your side LakeLady. The 7% of the general population that has a rigid, inflexible extreme Progressive ideolgy who demand loyalty to every Progressive list of demands.
Your side, by attaching themselves to the wall street occupiers has turned public support for the movement upside down. You can join Michael Moore who elbowed his way in front of every TV camera he can find and has taken control of the movement or the shrill screeching of the Rachel Maddow’s and Move-On.org’s or the Daily Kos’s who have turned the public against the wall Street occupiers. Congrtulations for drowning out the voices of those who have legitimate grievances
“the shrill screeching of the Rachel Maddow’s”
sexism alert
Inacurate to say the least. If he had said condescending or always lecturing one might be able to listen. I wonder if he just makes up stats to suit his screech? 7% of what? who? I am among the majority of Americans who have noticed that Obama is not getting much done because he constantly caves to power centers: banks, big pharma, AMA,hospitals,Republicans.
um… These are FACTS, according to the report. They’re not fair or unfair, they’re FACTS.
I wish people would realize it is the hedge fund managers that need to be investigated.
Agreed. However, people barely understand Wall Street so they would really have trouble if it became about hedge funds. Including politicians.
Why would anyone be shocked to read this?
Millionaires became billionaires, and billionaires will eventually become trillionaires. Money attracts money, and return on capital for the upper echelon is expected to grow exponentially. That kind of money isn’t ‘worked’ into the system, it has to be reaped from anyone more vulnerable to high-interest loans and taxes than they are….one big economic pyramid in which each successive level of the hierarchy feeds off the ones below it.
IMO, politicians can be blamed for laws related to economic regulation/firewalls, but that can only slow a mathematical process that is destined to end in debt implosion (you can stop the excess gambling, but how can you stall the expansion of debt?)
Ok, Taylor, I give you that about Osama Bin Laden, but, that is about all he has done.
Looks like you can crunch the numbers any way you’d like Taylor, and you can take your personal comments about me and eat them.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-19/politics/politics_deportation-record_1_ice-director-john-morton-undocumented-immigrants-criminal-alien-program?_s=PM:POLITICS