Community Matters

(Community Matters) I woke up thinking we should consider imposing a windfalls profit tax on financial institutions – who borrowed $10B or more from TARP –  equal to 50% of profits prior to any bonuses.  We should collect this until we recover all taxpayer monies outstanding as a result of TARP, Treasury guarantees and Fed lendings as a result of the Sept ’08 crisis – including those to bailout AIG and GM.

join Americans Against Obscene Bankers’ Bonuses

(Community Matters) San Francisco, Boston, Albany, Atlana . . .

(Community Matters) Only kinda funny – we haven’t been able to schedule drinks or dinner with our next door neighbors, professors Markovits, for months. May finally here in London where they maintain a pied a terre.

(Community Matters) I’m with Frank Rich, Americans are waking up to the realization that the economic deck is increasingly stacked against them.

There isn’t fair play – too big to fail, easy buys & tens/hundreds of millions in bonuses if you’re a financial institution exec – nothing similar if you’re a small business man/woman much less “just a consumer, a hard worker.”  If the men & women elected to represent us don’t get this, we need to take ’em down and elect new ones.  If business leaders and other enlightened types fear unraveling of Fed independence & other American capitalism underpinnings, they ought to spend some of their hundreds of millions in lobbying monies persuading Congress to be responsive to populist concerns; otherwise, there’s gonna be broader fianncial carnange on the street – don’t be fooled that people won’t hurt their own interests to ensure the pain is felt more broadly. And, if I am being pushed toward a populist backlash, you ought to figure it isn’t just a leftist or tea party sentiment.

wow, I’m starting to realize how some might vote for the most outrageous populist politicians

(Community Matters) Reading between the lines in Vanity Fair’s article on Goldman Sachs, it occurred to me these bankers are thinking they deserve to make at least as much as hedge fund guys.  You can almost feel how pissed they are that they made only nearly $90mm the previous year vs the billion plus made by some of their punk peers.

(Community Matters) First, screw Lieberman.  Second, the Senate should invoke reconciliation procedures and pass healthcare reform with a robust public option.  Quit being so ginger about everything and fight like warriors.  Your constituents want this done!

(Community Matters) maybe President’s Platinum Elite isn’t out of the question after all

no MM I’m not really doing this, just humorful how far folks willing to go

(Community Matters) 27 Democrats voted no – along with all 175 voting Republicans – against a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and other enhanced consumer protections.  No big surprise, the Blue Dogs voting with the big banks.  No surprise, Waco’s Chet Edwards also voting against protecting consumers and for the banks.  I don’t understand why nationally, Democrats continue supporting Chet.   The Nation

Chet voted against the House health care reform bill

He voted against inclusion of LGBT community in Hate Crimes

(Community Matters) Don’t F#@k with us!

(Community Matters) Despite my enthusiasm & loyalty for President Obama and his administration, I’m teetering on the edge of becoming a populist.  Our failure to rein in out of control greed and self-interest in America’s financial system threatens our democracy as much as any external forces.

btw, it’s not as if we shouldn’t expect the warriors to fight (or the financiers to be greedy).  It’s our elected representatives who we expect to regulate and legislate.  That many are too weak to resist persuassion otherwise is the problem.

(Community Matters) Just arrived LHR. Congratulations Mayor-elect Parker. Colt, you were robbed.

(Community Matters) Met Steven in NYC last night, dinner out with our dear friend Rob Oppegard, crashing at his East Village lair.  It’s a beautiful day here in the City, headed out for breakfast at 7th St, some errands, lunch with director/actor Katie Pearl (in the middle of the run of her show, Terrible Things), then our interview with immigration and customs.