Addressing Wall Street, President Misses the Point

One depressing sign of how thoroughly corporatism has distorted our political discourse is that during a Wall-Street-caused economic crisis, the President of the United States addressed the corporate criminals and instead of having them all arrested, he asked for their help.

Even worse, the MSM praised this begging-on-bended-knee as "standing up" to the financial fuckers.

John Nichols at The Nation has a welcome corrective:

The problem with the conciliatory rhetoric the president was spouting Thursday is that it denies the reality that Wall Street celebrates when Main Street stumbles. If there has been one economic constant across the past two decades (since the victory of the free-trade absolutists who backed the North American Free Trade Agreement and the extension of permanent most-favored-nation trading status to China) is has been this: The stock price for a corporation does not rise when the CEO announced that he is hiring; it rises when he announced that the company is shutting U.S. factories and laying off U.S. workers.

Wall Street bets against Main Street.

Wall Street champions corporations that open factories in foreign lands, not along the Main Streets of American cities.

Wall Street rewards banks that refuse credit to Main Street businesses, homeowners and small farmers.

This is not some theory. It is the fundamental economic reality of our times.

Indeed, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders explains: "We have got to make it crystal clear to Wall Street that the era of wild speculation and greed is over. We need a Wall Street which invests in the job creating productive economy, and not one that continues the unregulated gambling activities which have been so devastating to the middle class of our country."

To suggest that the interests of Wall Street and Main Street are complimentary is absurd.

Candidate Barack Obama was right. If Main Street is going to thrive, Wall Street is going to have to change -- fundamentally and permanently.

It's like Bernie Sanders says: "With rampant unemployment and when small- and medium-size businesses are unable to obtain affordable credit, it is insane that our largest financial institutions continue to trade trillions in esoteric financial instruments which makes Wall Street the largest gambling casino in the world."

The message Obama should have taken to Wall Street is the one that elected candidate Obama.

It is the message that Senator Sanders continues to deliver when he says, as Obama should have on Thursday, that: "Disgust at Wall Street is profound. The American people want us to change in a very profound way how Wall Street functions, and Congress must deliver."

Of the rich and powerful on Wall Street, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said "I welcome their hatred."

President Barack Obama welcomes their support.