Obama compromised by Wall Street contributions, conservative group alleges
President Obama is too closely tied to Wall Street, claims a new web video that takes the tone of Occupy Wall Street, though it was produced by a conservative group.
The video, released by the American Future Fund, an Iowa-based organization designed to be “a voice for conservative principles” and “free market ideals,” alleges that raising tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street gave Obama reason to let (presumably culpable) Wall Street executives off easy:
“Nearly four years after America’s financial collapse, not a single senior Wall Street executive has been charged with a crime. Not one. Why? Could it be because Obama raised $49 million from Wall Street – more than any candidate in history? He rewarded top Wall Street donors and supporters with senior jobs. His chief of staff made millions from Wall Street — after Wall Street received billions in bailout money.”
The ad names Jon Corzine, the former Democratic senator and New Jersey governor who headed MF Global until it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall, as a particular example. Corzine “lost $1.6 billion in customers’ money but hasn’t been charged” the narrator says.
“Under Obama, Wall Street keeps winning, and Obama keeps taking their cash. Tell Obama to stop protecting his Wall Street donors.”
Watch, via the American Future Fund:
Washington Extra – Chickens come home to roost
Curses are like young chicken: they always come home to roost, to quote the title page of Robert Southey’s poem The Curse of Kehama, published in 1810.
The controversy over the handling of home foreclosures came back to hurt the nation’s biggest banks with a vengeance today. There may not be a lot of sympathy on Wall Street for people who missed their mortgage payments, but then again, there probably isn’t much sympathy on Main Street for the practice of “robo-signers” to approve home seizures, especially since banks probably shouldn’t have extended many of the defaulting mortgages in the first place.
Investors have no room for sentiment either way. They dumped bank stocks on fears a prolonged investigation into potentially shoddy foreclosures, one of the biggest legal probes of the mortgage industry in decades, will eat into profits. The fear: it will delay sales of bank-owned properties, draw fines from regulators, and spawn lawsuits from both homeowners and investors in mortgage-backed securities. Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan admitted it could slow down the recovery in the housing market, but said “we’re hoping it won’t kill it.”
On election watch, an interesting story on why the Afghan war is just not an issue for most voters, and another from Ohio about Democrats’ efforts to substitute organization for enthusiasm. Democratic strategist Chris Kofnis underlined what he called “the brutal reality” for his party. “Either we close the so-called enthusiasm gap before election day, or its going to be a really bad election day.”
There wasn’t much enthusiasm, though, when President Barack Obama held a televised “conversation” with an audience of young people. The brutal reality? We all know Obama’s ratings have fallen, but it was still striking how all that energy around “hope” and “change” had dissipated.
Finally, watch out on Friday for an expected announcement from the Treasury over whether to name China a currency manipulator. Political pressure is growing ahead of the elections, and the administration has been taking a tougher line with China, but on balance it still seems unlikely it will risk widening the rift with the largest U.S. creditor.
Here are our top stories from Washington today…
Washington Extra – Obama kills the bill
Last night Reuters correspondent Scot Paltrow revealed that a bill had sailed through the Senate last week — without public debate — which would have made it significantly harder for homeowners to challenge improper attempts to foreclose on their houses. The legislation, which was sitting on President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature, would have forced courts to recognize out-of-state notarizations, including those stamped en masse by computers in other states, a practice critics say has been used improperly to push through foreclosure orders. Computer notarizations, now valid in around a dozen states, would effectively have become legal nationally, and challenges to improper notarizations made in other states would have become harder and costlier.
Today, after the story became public, the White House announced that Obama was sending the legislation back to the House of Representatives for further discussion – a so-called “pocket veto.” Given the rising chorus of lawmakers calling for all foreclosures to be suspended, the legislation now looks dead.
As Reuters Breakingviews columnist James Pethokoukis wrote today, the foreclosure scandal is lousy timing for Wall Street, the fallout likely to further erode the financial industry’s standing among the general public and in Washington. That could make it harder for Wall Street to influence lawmakers and regulators next year as they seek to implement and flesh out this year’s sweeping financial reforms.
Here are our top stories from Washington today…
Obama will not sign foreclosure-friendly bill
President Barack Obama will not sign legislation that could make it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions, the White House said. The bill, which zoomed through the Senate last week with no public debate, would save bank and mortgage processors from liability for foreclosure documents that were prepared improperly. Its passage caught homeowners’ advocates, including lawyers and some state officials, by surprise.
For more of this story by Caren Bohan and Scot Paltrow, read here.
Two page bill quietly sailed through the senate with no record of who voted for it …. how low can these senators, congressmen and women can get? Thank you Mr. President for killing the bill.
from Summit Notebook:
Shift in power on the horizon in Washington?
Republicans stand poised to gain substantial influence in Congress, putting at stake billions of dollars in investment as a shift among power brokers throws legislative initiatives old and new into doubt. Reuters Washington Summit will bring together an influential line-up of insiders just weeks before Americans cast their votes, promising a must-read stream of exclusive news on the outlook for Congress and President Barack Obama's agenda. Editors and correspondents from the Reuters Washington bureau are sitting down with senior lawmakers, including GOP heavyweights in line for leadership, and regulators whose implementation of Wall Street and healthcare reform could be complicated by a change in control on Capitol Hill.
The Summit will generate exclusive stories, investable insights, online videos and blog postings, which will be immediately available only to Thomson Reuters clients during the Summit. Key interviews will air live exclusively on Reuters Insider - a new multimedia platform delivering relevant news, analysis and trade ideas presented through a personalized video experience. Visit http://etv.thomsonreuters.com/
Elizabeth Warren’s rap video
Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren is among a handful of candidates President Barack Obama is considering to become the first chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some ardent supporters clearly think the Harvard law professor (and chief of a panel monitoring the government’s $700 billion bailout of the financial system) is up for the task of heading the independent agency created under the financial reform bill signed into law last month.
A group called The Main Street Brigade, which supported creating the consumer agency, really wants Warren to be the boss. The group has taken its case to YouTube in a western-themed music video, “Elizabeth Warren Rap Video – Got a new Sheriff.”
The new consumer financial protection agency will regulate a range of consumer financial businesses from mortgage lending to payday loans and check cashing businesses. Its mission — to protect ordinary borrowers from abuses by lenders.
The idea for the new agency was largely Warren’s in the first place, The Washington Post notes in a profile which delves into why her candidacy is such a hot topic in political circles. “She’s either the plain-spoken, supremely smart crusader for middle-class families that her supporters adore, or she’s the power-hungry headline seeker her critics loathe, a fiery zealot disguised in professorial glasses and pastel cardigans,” the Post says.
Many on Wall Street fiercely oppose Warren, who has long been an outspoken advocate for consumers. However, she has the backing of some influential Democratic lawmakers and Obama’s liberal supporters. Whoever is chosen must be confirmed by the Senate.
Warren was at the White House last Thursday to discuss the job. Afterward, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said an announcement on a nominee was not expected soon.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Mike Theiler (Warren at the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington April 27, 2009)
Politics beckon again as Obama’s Maine getaway ends
After a laid-back family getaway on Maine’s scenic shoreline, it’s back to political reality for President Barack Obama.
The first family wrapped up a three-day mini-vacation in the upscale Bar Harbor resort and boarded a small presidential jet headed for Washington, where Obama will again face the daily pressures and policy battles.
In the coming week, he will weigh the latest dose of good news together with lingering concerns about the BP oil spill, sign a Wall Street overhaul into law and hold talks with new British Prime Minister David Cameron. Enduring problems like the struggling economy, high unemployment and the war in Afghanistan also remain on his plate.
Obama may have trouble readjusting after an idyllic summer weekend spent hiking, biking and boating with first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha in and around Mount Desert Island, home to rugged Acadia National Park.
For Obama, it marked a rare family vacation not interrupted by the demands of the presidency. The Obamas’ holiday plans have been overtaken in the past by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound jetliner and the death of Senator Ted Kennedy.
Even the Maine vacation stirred political background noise. Some Republicans used it to criticize Obama for continuing his “leisure activities,” including occasional golf outings, during the oil spill disaster. A few insisted the Obamas should have traveled instead to the stricken Gulf coast as an example for tourists.
The White House dismissed such complaints. Supporters pointed out that Democrat Obama had vacationed far less than Republican predecessor George W. Bush at this point in his tenure.
“You work 80 hours a week? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.”
Lights, action, cameras, U.S. congressional hearings!!!
TV cameras zoomed in on corporate executives squirming, a top federal regulator promising answers and U.S. lawmakers venting anger.
All of this and more unfolded during a series of nationally broadcast dramas on Tuesday as two congressional panels held hearings on the spreading BP oil spill, and a third probed last week’s mysterious collapse on Wall Street.
Such high-profile investigative proceedings have been a regular feature on Capitol Hill for years.
They’ve included examining: the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War; the 1912 sinking of the Titanic; the start of The Great Depression and organized crime in the early 1950s.
“The quicker a congressional committee can get on the front pages of newspapers the happier and more content they are,” said Stephen Hess, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.
“Sure, they want to show concern and even anger. But they also want to take a look at possible legislative and corrective action,” Hess added.
This is particularly true during an election year, like this one. Democrats face angry voters and are scrambling to keep control of the House and Senate in the November election.
from Summit Notebook:
ABA’s Yingling sees danger in rhetoric: it’s Wall Street, not banks
Ed Yingling, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, is a little worried about the rhetoric that's been flying around as Congress tries to produce financial reform legislation.
And he wants people to be clear that the problems are with Wall Street, not banks.
Though, the differentiation gets a little tricky here because some of the largest banks in the country and biggest players on Wall Street are members of his organization and received taxpayer bailouts. The thousands of other banks that his trade association represents did not.
"The general tone has I think been harmful, particularly to the banks we represent," Yingling said at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit 2010.
But at least one key person got it right -- President Barack Obama in his speech on "Wall Street Reform" last week, Yingling said.
"He never used the term bank in any pejorative sense," he said. "He used it in a factual sense."
"It was clear that they realized that they need to differentiate between banks and Wall Street activities," he said.
Frum Obamacare to Waterloo: Where do Republicans find themselves?
Have Republicans really met their Waterloo? George W. Bush’s former speech writer David Frum thinks so. And he may have a point, though making it in public has proved costly.
Only six months ago, Republican opposition to healthcare reform was whacking away gleefully at President Barack Obama’s approval ratings. An army of conservative Tea Party activists were flooding Washington’s National Mall in a show of force against the Obama legislative agenda. And Republican nice guy Scott Brown was on his merry way to a Senate upset in bluest of blue Massachusetts.
Now healthcare reform is law and newly energized Democrats are moving to counter those evils of Wall Street that voters love to hate. The grass-roots army has brought Republicans one or two liabilities. And Obama’s job approval rating shows signs of firming up.
Meanwhile, whatever happened to Scott Brown? Well, he actually took that bipartisan independent-thinking stuff seriously and joined Democrats to approve the Senate jobs bill. As a result, people back home say his folk hero victory has backfired on the GOP.
But Brown and Frum may not be the only Republicans at odds with the straight and narrow. Before Frum left the American Enterprise Institute, Joe Klein says he privately disclosed that the think tank had ordered its scholars to keep schtum about Obamacare. Why? Because they agreed with too many of the president’s objectives.
Republicans are now regrouping to contend with the remainder of the Obama legislative agenda for 2010. Meanwhile, campaign strategies for the November congressional elections are still a work in progress.
Who are you calling a “punk staffer”?
House Republican leader John Boehner’s comment about “punk staffers” involved in the writing of the financial regulation bill did not seem to sit well with White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers.
In an appearance at the National Press Club, Summers made a point of bringing up the comments by Boehner, who urged bankers to stand up for themselves and said they should not “let those little punk staffers” working on the bill take advantage of them.
Boehner may not have been spoiling for a fight, but he got one.
Summers pressed his criticism of lobbyists who the Obama administration accuse of trying to water down the proposals for tighter regulation of Wall Street.
“I do not think of the people who work on this project as ‘little punk staffers.’ I do not think that those who want to address these issues are ‘little punk staffers’ who need to be stood up to,” Summers said.
“And at a time when industry has hired –- has spent $1 million on lobbyists per member of Congress, at a moment when there are four lobbyists per member of the House and Senate working on this issue, we in the administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves.”
Summers, a former Treasury secretary, his deputy Diana Farrell and several Treasury staff members worked closely with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on the 1,336-page legislation the Democratic senator introduced this week.
Boehner is a lacky of the bank lobby, send him off to his lobbiest career this november.
pot meet kettle. Seriously, do they think the voters are stupid? Oh, wait.
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/01/05/223 2/hedge-funds-bet-heavily-republicans-en d-election
“A small network of hedge fund executives pumped at least $10 million into Republican campaign committees and allied groups in last year’s elections, helping bankroll GOP victories that changed the balance of power in Washington, according to a review of campaign records and interviews with industry insiders.
The review by the Center for Public Integrity and NBC found that some of the heaviest contributions from industry leaders came late in the campaign or were funneled through obscure “joint fundraising committees” and other independent GOP allies — some of which were set up to maximize campaign fundraising or to avoid disclosing the names of big donors. The Center and NBC analyzed campaign data compiled by CQ Moneyline and the Internal Revenue Service.
Bitterly opposed to economic and regulatory policies backed by President Barack Obama and Democrats — including proposals to increase taxes on some of their profits — top Wall Street hedge fund moguls were unusually energized during last year’s election. They held multiple fundraisers and coordinated strategy to direct what appear to be unprecedented sums into the coffers of GOP and allied political committees.
The net effect has given hedge funds important new allies at a time when they are fending off some regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and an aggressive Justice Department investigation into insider trading.”