Tag Archives: President Obama

The White House has over 1.75 million followers on Twitter. 

The latest presidential tweet is a bit stale (17 hours ago), but right on target.

“Obama to Senate GOP blocking increase in oil company liability: “stop playing special interest politics” http://bit.ly/d65jfY“

The White House needs to send out the exact same message, but replacing “increase in oil company liability” with “financial reform”, and then linking to the Merkley-Levin amendment and the imminent failure of the Volcker Rule and meaningful financial reform.

How hard can that be?

Update (12:40pm): at about 10:30am, the president’s staff put out this tweet (@BarackObama; i.e., http://twitter.com/BarackObama, with nearly 4 million followers):

“It’s time for Wall St. reform that gives greater security to folks on Main Street. Call your Republican Senators today: http://j.mp/cwhtg7“

Good tweet – but the president should call explicitly for Merkley-Levin to pass; this is his own Volcker Rule, after all.  Here’s Senator Jeff Merkley, to the point: http://twitter.com/senjeffmerkley

By Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover And The Next Financial Meltdown

Update: The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has a petition that takes you to a page with your senators’ names and phone numbers, as well as a script to use when calling them.

The president’s rhetoric today at Cooper Union was impressive and his body language indicates a major shift in administration attitudes towards the big banks over the past year.  This is commendable.

But there is still the awkward question of legislation that would actually reduce the political power of big banks – and make our financial system significantly safer.  The latest indications from the Senate are that there will be some sort of “Dodd minus” compromise bill brought to the floor early next week.  The Republicans have substantially backed down from Senator McConnell’s “hell, no” position of last week because the polling is crystal clear: Anyone perceived as opposed financial reform will lose badly in November.

But the Democratic leadership is not seizing on this advantage and on the opportunity presented by the SEC case against Goldman Sachs – key figures in the Democratic establishments are too worried about upsetting financial sector donors.  As a result, come November, independents will view the Democrats with scorn, while the Democratic base will be far from energized; you do the math.

What can you do?  What makes sense in both economic and political terms? Continue reading →

By Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown

On Thursday, President Obama will give one of the defining speeches of his presidency.  Most presidents are remembered for only 2 or 3 policies or events during their tenure.  The SEC case against Goldman Sachs means, like it or not, the legacy of this administration is wrapped up with the outcome of this and related cases.

The president is apparently lining up to give a fairly conventional “support the Dodd bill” speech.  This would be major miscalculation.

The Democrats are afraid that if they truly take on the big banks, they will lose campaign contributions and be placed a major disadvantage for November 2010 and 2012 – “don’t push it too far” is the message from the White House to the Senate.  But this just shows the White House has not fully comprehended the modern nature of banking. Continue reading →