Happy New Year. I was down south visiting the 'rents for the holidays, and because I was traveling with a friend who couldn't fly (recovering from a collapsed lung), we drove. Quickly.
It took 16 hours from South Florida back up to DC, and I spent 13 of those hours listening to Matt Taibbi's "Griftopia." It should be required reading - not only for the population at large but for members of Congress and the Administration - all the way up to the President himself. Here's why:
Even if you disagree with some of Matt's conclusions (and I have one small bone to pick, but that's health care reform-related and best saved for another time), he hits the nail on the head when it comes to describing just how screwed up we are as a nation. Money runs our government. Even the smallest morsel of power corrupts absolutely. And while we are already more than halfway down the spiral waterslide that will dump us head first into complete economic and moral ruin, no one at the top is even thinking about how to make it stop.
Case in point. President Obama just picked William Daley as his new Chief of Staff. Former Commerce Secretary William Daley. Current Executive Board member of JP Morgan Chase William Daley. Brother of Chicago mayor Richard Daley. That William Daley.
And here is why this sucks.
1. Recycling the same old players is exactly what the American people voted against when they bought into Obama's rhetoric about changing Washington.
2. As we continue to get crushed by soaring unemployment and seemingly endless home foreclosures and still escalating health care costs, Wall Street's doing just fine. NYT:
In terms of overall profit, Wall Street is on track for one of its best years ever, although it will trail 2009, which was pumped up by federal bailout money and the rebound from the financial crisis.Even if only for perception's sake, is putting a Wall Street executive in charge of your Administration the right move? Does it send a message to the people that you care about them? I would argue it sends the exact opposite sentiment. It says to me that the White House cares more about the business community than anyone.
In the first three quarters of the year, Wall Street earned $21.4 billion, putting it on track to easily outpace 2006, when the economy was booming, and well ahead of the New York City government’s initial estimate of $20.6 billion for profit in all of 2010.
This year, Wall Street’s five biggest firms have put aside nearly $90 billion for bonuses.
3. In today's write about Daley, the AP reports:
Daley laid out his political ideology last year upon joining the board of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank.The left's agenda? A more moderate course? Repealing DADT polled consistently above 70%. The public option was always more popular than the Senate health care plan which was a centrist compromise (or sell-out depending on whom you ask).
"We must acknowledge that the left's agenda has not won the support of a majority of Americans — and, based on that recognition, we must steer a more moderate course," he said at the time.
I, for one, elected a Democrat. If the incoming Chief of Staff even uses a term like "the left's agenda," how can any of us feel good about what's to come? Can you imagine a Republican Chief of Staff ever using the words "the right's agenda?" I can't. The right knows the power of its base.
I don't know enough about William Daley at this point to assess much more than what I've heard and read recently, but there is this one additional gem that just sweetens the deal. Taibbi writes in "Griftopia" that Daley's brother, Mayor Richard Daley, proudly sold off part of his city to close a short-term budget gap. It now costs $5/hour to park in part of downtown Chicago because Daley - with the help of the fine greedy folks at Morgan Stanley - relinquished control of Chicago's parking meters for the next 75 years. Matt writes:
So basically Morgan Stanley found a bunch of investors, including themselves, to put up over a billion dollars in December 2008; a big chunk of those investors then bailed out to make way in February 2009 for this Deeside Investments, which was 49.9 percent owned by Abu Dhabi and 50.1 percent owned by a company called Redoma SARL, about which nothing was known except that it had an address in Luxembourg.He continues:
But the most obnoxious part of the deal is that the city is now forced to cede control of their streets to a virtually unaccountable private and at least partially foreign-owned company. Written into the original deal were drastic price increases. In Hairston's and Colon's neighborhoods, meter rates went from 25¢ an hour to $1.00 an hour the first year, and to $1.20 an hour the year after that. And again, the city has no power to close streets, remove or move meters, or really do anything without asking the permission of Chicago Parking Meters LLC.Even if William has nothing at all to do with his brother's asinine scheme, did no one in the PR shop consider this connection might seem problematic? You may think I'm taking a giant leap on this one, but after listening to "Griftopia" and hearing Daley's name mentioned as the possible Chief of Staff pick on NPR just an hour later, I easily put two and two together. I can't be the only one.
It may be a new year, but it sure feels like we're in for another two years of the same old same old.
