These guys are just quaking in their boots:
President Obama’s meeting with prominent members of the financial services industry will be missing three key members: Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein (left), Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack and Citigroup Chairman Dick Parsons.
All three had been expected to attend the meeting but will miss it “due to inclement weather,” according to the White House.
The three planned to participate instead via conference call.
Apparently there were no flights on Sunday or any available five star hotels in DC for them to stay last night. I’m sure if we call them fat cats a couple more time while Ben Nelson and company water down the House’s regulation bill, they will really get the message.
Demo Woman
Well just fuck!… Last fall we should have just let the shit hit the fan.. I would like to rephrase it to make it more politically correct but not sure how. If someone can help me, I’d appreciate it.
Will
Obama comes to them. They don’t come to Obama.
Litlebritdifrnt
*cough* typo in title (unless it is an internet tradition of which I am not aware)
kid bitzer
sternly worderd?
typo? or joke i ain’t getting?
Notorious P.A.T.
Isn’t that like hosting a conference for Pittsburgh sports teams and everyone except the Steelers, the Penguins, and the Pirates shows up?
Litlebritdifrnt
@kid bitzer:
ditto
freelancer
times.
That is all.
Xanthippas
And this is the President we’re counting on to subversively institute sweeping socialism in this country?? Jeez.
Leelee for Obama
I’d love to see the Obama WH hand the repaid TARP money over to an enlarged and empowered SBA. Let that alphabet hand out money at vewwwy low interest rates to small businesses and tell the big banks there’s an executive order in the works to claw back every penny of profit that can be proven to have been facilitated by TARP funds. Then, we’ll tax everything they pay themselves for this year and next at Eisenhower Tax rates, roughly, 70%, right?
And, since the right-wing are already kinda having hard-ons about Obama’s newly discovered, by them, muscular attitude-perhaps a few Merry Fitzmas subpoenas before a Grand Jury or two for a Christmas present for us peasants. I think NY Southern District would be just the place.
Fuck them–i need that rusty pitchfork again, asiangrrl.
Notorious P.A.T.
maybe we should put Sternly Worded Letter in the Lexicon?
freelancer
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Immediately followed by an entry for “Sternly Worderd Letter”.
EDIT: “More than half of you are all the same typo.”
smiley
This kind of “fuck you” to the president of the United States will not go unnoticed. Right? Never mind…
Keith G
@Leelee for Obama: Would a Predator strike be out of line?
jeffreyw
Word is out the dems caved.
Notorious P.A.T.
Wow, so much Change we can believe in!
jl
Our overlords have the moral fragrance of bloated summer road kill blowing up on a fine windless sultry day. Mmmm-yummm. Drink it in.
“Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials approved last week”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/14/politics/main5976673.shtml
They just throw up intellectual trash, hoping that gullible or bought media blowhards will believe whatever they say (“they are rich, so they must be right”) about destroying the American way (which apparently is now the 100% smash-and-grab business plan and nothing else).
If it is a tax levied on the whole industry, how will such a measure put any one bank at a competitive disadvantage? If the British and the French are adopting similar set of policies (which they are) how will it hurt them internationally?
The little back and forth on Klein, particularly Chuck Lane’s nauseating contribution illustrate the putrescence. Wild and bizarre charges are thrown about that a clearly thinking HS student should be able to see are nonsense. The key is that they contain buzzwords that will incite the corrupt and ignorant media idiots and are designed to catch the attention of the supposed cranky independents.
Klein is partisan, for attacking an independent, nominally associated with the Democratic Party? And the partisanship is because Klein merely pointed out some obvious facts that show Lieberman makes no sense at all when he talks? And then Lane goes on to say that it is probably true, but so what? And then rationalizes Lieberman’s increasingly bizarre behavior and suggests it is somehow out of bounds or partisan or rude to point it out.
That noxious and depraved cynicism is Lane’s contribution?
The thing is the public is so used to the smell of bloated belly carcass rot, and have been so indoctrinated with noxious lies designed to smooth the way for the crooks who run our lives, that they probably do not even recognize it for what it is anymore.
My fixation on animal decay is morbid. But I can’t think of anything else that captures my disgust at what the political and media opinion leadership of this country has become.
Leelee for Obama
@Keith G: Possibly not. If we could be assured that there would be no collateral damage to innocent bystanders- and then salt the earth and put in a giant parking lot, with lower fees. The city would probably make out better, financially.
Violet
@Notorious P.A.T.:
It’s not already there? Serious oversight.
The whole TARP thing was poorly done. Just give away money with no strings attached. Where can I sign up for that?
geg6
jeffreyw @14: If this is true, that’s it. I’m done. That Lieberman wins is the last straw.
Notorious P.A.T.
Time for a new entry in the Balloon Juice Lexicon:
Eleven-Dimensional Chess — (noun) Game that his supporters claim Barack Obama is playing in an attempt to cast aany setback as just part of a large, incomprehensible master plan to achieve his goal.
“Barack Obama was impeached and removed from office? He’s just playing Eleven-Dimensional Chess. He’s got ’em right where he wants ’em!”
jl
@jeffreyw:
“Word is out the dems caved.”
To prevent it from being a total loss, I think we have to call our Congressional and WH overlords and masters, and politely request universal coverage is an absolute must.
That will be a high stakes gamble. It will be universal coverage at rates so high that few will feel much relief and many will be pissed. The weak regulatory reforms (eg, no rescission, no preexisting conditions) will be phased in so slowly, and with so many loopholes that it will also piss off people.
We will be gambling that people will value the security of some kind of shitty coverage enough that they will insist on keeping their coverage and press Congress for more reform.
If our corrupt and cowardly Congresspersons and the impotent (but trash talking Rhambo) drones in the WH know that any proposals to reduce coverage will be a political death sentence, then there will be continuous pressure for reform.
The risk is that pissed off voters will give the GOP enough power to blow the whole process up, and we will move to their plans, which is gangster and crony corporate capitalism, tearing itself apart; and then even what is good in the current US healthcare system will slowy destry itself.
Without universal coverage, such seriously flawed health reform may only entrench high rates and poor sloppy care for those who are not rich, or lucky enough to have good group plans.
But, what a disgusting demonstration of the failing, dysfunctional, sociopathic, irrational, corrupt political system the US has developed.
Montysano
@Xanthippas:
Just soshulizm? Not at all, according to the Letters to the Editor this morning:
Here’s a Soviet-style idea that I could get behind: forced education, with free history books for all.
jl
Put ‘one-dimensional checkers’ in the lexicon. Under the entry ‘n-dimensional chess’.
One dimensional checkers consists of
“Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”
“Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”
“Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”
“Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”
etc.
Why not blow up the filibuster? The GOP has already shown that it will destroy it as soon as they regain leadership and do not get their way. The sheer cowardice, incompetence and gutlessness of the Democratic leadership is breathtaking.
“Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”
Violet
I don’t understand why we can’t have a health care system like the Netherlands. It sounds like it works really well. It’s a mix of public and private and everyone is covered. The insurers and hospitals are private but regulated so they aren’t taking people to the cleaners or dumping them when they get ill. And people have the option to purchase extra coverage should they so desire, so all those rich people can still have all the insurance they can possibly want. But they don’t get to screw the little guy in the process.
Whatever our lawmakers are going to come up with is going to suck. Of that I have little doubt.
Notorious P.A.T.
Biggest laugh I’ve had all day: the last line of this Ezra Klein piece on budget reconciliation.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fifty_vote_senate
Notorious P.A.T.
Apparently, because Joe Lieberman’s widdle feewings were hurt.
Leelee for Obama
I think I speak for all of us when I say, “Green Balloons!” Hell, no dinner, no flowers, no candy, no wine. Nothing but this?
danimal
You never know when the camel’s back will break. Perhaps this is the beginning of the populist backlash from the left. Most liberals and left of center types have tried to play within the rules and worked within the system, and the entrenched powers that be such as Holy Joe and Big Ben have sincerely raised their middle fingers in response.
Rusty pitchforks aren’t good enough for the Beltway elite and their financiers in the banking/insurance lobby. They’ve been pushing their luck, but they really don’t understand the undercurrent of suppressed rage that appears close to being unleashed. We don’t need centrist Dems if they can’t vote for cloture on the most important issues of the day. The centrist Dems need to work with the base if they want to survive. I don’t think they “get it” yet.
Tsulagi
@Notorious P.A.T.:
That’s pretty good. I bet in those other dimensions the chess boards are rainbow colored floating on magical clouds.
Violet
@danimal:
One can hope.
Notorious P.A.T.
Remember: Obama deserves no blame for stuff like this. It’s all Congress’s fault! ! !
Rahm To Reid: Give Lieberman What He Wants
Change! Hope!
Tsulagi
@Notorious P.A.T.:
You don’t see the big picture. CHESSCOM in this dimension ordered Rahm to do so. It’s already been played out in Dimension #9.
mk3872
Let’s be fair … if the Congress hadn’t blown a gasket over the executives flying in private jets, they would have been there.
Those that flew commercial airlines got stuck.
That’s real life. It happens to me some times, too.
And then if they HAD flown in earlier and stayed in a hotel, Congress’s indignation would have rain down on them then too.
Comrade Darkness
@Notorious P.A.T.: I’ve actually sampled the health care in the Netherlands as a tourist. This was about 4 years ago. Called up a local clinic, got an appointment for 3 hours later, walked over to it, got in right on time, got a consultation from a very nice young man (I’ll call him 6’5″ inch Doogie Howser, shall I? He didn’t look old enough to drive.), got the test results, then . . . oh and here I ran into a problem. I had grabbed a 50 euro note to pay with. The woman at the desk just stared at it. “I don’t have change for that,” she said.
I paid with coins. The visit, including a lab test, for a foreigner (obviously outside the system), was 7 euros.
Montysano
@danimal:
From your lips to the FSM’s …. ummm… ears. I’d like to think that a non-partisan “vote the bums out” movement could gain some steam, but we may be too far gone as a culture. Because, ya know, Brawndo has electrolytes.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Comrade Darkness:
What a sad story–no insurance company executive was able to make a small fortune by inserting himself into the process and doing. . . whatever it is they do.
Montysano
@mk3872:
Bullshit. It’s 3 hours via the Acela train. I know…. the horror, the horror. But when the POTUS summons you to the White House, you ought to at least give the appearance of an effort, not just shrug and blow it off.
kay
I can’t imagine not bothering to show up when the President calls.
But that’s what they did. That’s just mind-boggling to me.
The Titans of Finance have spent so much time being carted around in the back seat like 1st graders going to a soccer game they’ve forgotten how to move independently from Point A to Point B.
I hope they had sufficient staff to assist with that phone call.
Corner Stone
Yeah. This was too damn easy to call.
Call my shot
NYT
From WSJ
“”The cost to Citigroup could have been far higher if not for a little-noticed ruling late Friday by the Internal Revenue Service. The ruling, following months of negotiations with Citigroup executives, concluded that Citigroup wouldn’t have to sacrifice a multibillion-dollar tax benefit if the Treasury sold significant amounts of its share holdings, according to Robert Willens, an independent tax analyst.
“This amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to Citi shareholders,” said Michael Mayo, a banking analyst with Calyon Securities.””
That was Friday. On Monday Parsons couldn’t be bothered to even show up to meet with Obama.
bob h
Blankfein obviously too busy doing “God’s Work”.
lou
They could have done what the American Express guy did and taken the Acela. Penn Station’s closer to Wall St than LaGuardia or Newark and Union Station is a lot closer to the White House than National.
gopher2b
Because its not like there is a bullet train from NYC to DC that can cut through a snow storm like Rudolph. Dicks.