We didn't watch Mr. Obama's State of the Union Speech last night, and we've been working hard not to have to pay attention to it today. But over at ZeroHedge, we started reading a fast flowing and sensible look at Mr. Obama's speech last night... and when we read that Obama's SOTU speech "reminded...of all the rah-rah quarterly meetings that we had to attend as Managing Directors at Goldman" we couldn't help but think, W-T-F?!!
Then we looked at the by-line, Nomi Prins, and heaved a knowing sigh.
You see, Nomi Prins has, on her own, tried to compile the TRUE 'BAILOUTS' COST, to American taxpayers, of all the billions of taxpayer extorted dollars HANDED OVER to the failed, fraudulent, bankrupt bankers on Wall Street by Mr. Obama, Speaker Pelosi, the "Democrat" Congress (and with approval of many Republican Congressmen & Senators).
Now Ms. Prins isn't a Constitutionally sworn officer of the United States Government (like President Obama is), and she certainly doesn't have billions upon billions of dollars of U.S. government officials and government machinery backing her up, as President Obama does.
Nomi Prins accounting of the TOTAL BAILOUTS cost to American taxpayers since the "bailouts" for "TOO big TOO fail" banksters became INSTITUTIONALIZED over the past 2 years (of the OBAMA administration)???
As of October, 2010, Ms. Prins tabulates WALL STREET'S 'bailouts' cost to U.S. taxpayers at $7.8 TRILLION, nearly eight TRILLION U.S. taxpayer obligated dollars.
http://nomiprins.squarespace.com/storage/bailouttallyoct2010.pdf
Mr. Obama, the Pelosi 'Democrats,' and the Boehner/McConnell Republicans, have handed over nearly (at least!) EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS to Robert Rubin's "TOO big TOO fail" bankster friends!
One thing is clear: MR. OBAMA, SURROUNDED as he is by his millionaire "OF, BY, and FOR Goddamn-Sachs" Neo-Con banksters (the Robt. Rubin, Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, Peter Orszag, Jacob Lew, Jacob Bernstein, Dave Axelrod, Cass Sunstein, Mary Schapiro, Elena Kagan, etc., etc., etc., etc, ad naseum Israel lobby gang) CAN'T COUNT the "bailouts" billions (trillions), and he CAN'T COUNT the UNEMPLOYED out there in America.
Obama's Speech and America, Inc.update: Pseudonymous ZeroHedge publisher "Tyler Durden" looks where the smug and condescending "bubble boy" President Obama fails to look: at those hungry millions across the world, who find their lives this year (2011) even MORE economically INSECURE today, than they were in the year 2009, when Mr. Obama took over the U.S. presidency - THINGS HAVE BEEN GETTING WORSE since Mr. Obama became president, and he is patting himself on the back in smug self-satisfaction!
[aka Obama BETRAYS his "5 million new jobs" campaign 2008 pledge]
by Nomi Prins
posted at ZeroHedge.com Jan. 26, 2011 link
Watching Obama deliver his State of the Union Speech last night, reminded me of all the rah-rah quarterly meetings that we had to attend as Managing Directors at Goldman, where senior management would remind us all of how great we were, and if there were any areas of competitive weakness relative to our adversaries at other banks, all we had to do was step up our game, innovate and globalize (or something like that.)
Obama was NOT delivering a summary of what has, or is, going on for most Americans last night, no such negative status report. And, if you didn't expect him to, he gave good speech - full of reminders of how it is America's destiny and the American dream to be great and powerful, "robust democracy" that we are.
There was a massive pink elephant in the room called reality though. So, when he waxed proud when he said, "We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing." I had a different reaction.
My reaction was wtf? Two years after the worst recession? After? Really? What about the 26 million people unemployed or underemployed in the country? What about the 4.4 people applying for every job, compared to the 2.9 people per job after the 2000s recession? What about the 4.4 million jobs that should have been added, just accounting for a population coming of job age alone, forget any kind of growth, compared to the fact that instead, the job pool declined by a quarter of a million people in the past two years, because the time required to get a job is at record highs? What about the nearly 8 million FAMILIES that have been foreclosed upon because of the reckless investment bank race to create $14 trillion dollars worth of toxic assets in the five years leading up to the financial crisis and leave them to shatter lives and the non-stock market evaluated economy? What about the fact that the government fiscally stimulated the banking system by a multiple of 20 times more than it stimulated its citizens, with nary a fight from the politicians our democracy is so lucky to have as representation? What about all that warm, cuddly multi-trillion dollar support from the Fed and the Treasury Department on our country's way to Sputnikian economic greatness?
"The rules have changed," said Obama...
But, in the end, Obama's practiced eloquence in delivery, peppered with a few American success stories - who can deny the hero behind the Chilean mine worker rescue his due? - and the now-debated investment over spending word choice, belied a strong dose of something akin to condescension. If you don't have a job, it's because of the Internet, not the banks hoarding $1 trillion that we gave them at the Fed. If we're falling behind China in education, it's because bad teachers should be removed, good ones rewarded and parents (who apparently aren't doing as good as job as they could of this) are not focusing on the education process more at home. If America, has the 'most prosperous economy in the world' for its corporations and financial insitutions, its because we all share a common, attainable dream. (cont'd)
While the Fed [with, that is, President Obama's blessing] refuses to extract its head from deep within the sand of ignorant hubris that only a career in Ivy League education can provide, the world continues to burn, in many places quite literally. For all those who are finding it hard to juggle all the rioting, and confuse their Cairos with their Calcuttas, below we present an interactive map disclosing all recent documented food price hikes, protests, and riots. (interactive map, chart)
