OBAMA'S
ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATION :
Insiders
sharing responsibility for the current economic collapse
Robert
Rubin - (#1 booster of deregulating the [failed] derivatives market)
- and his influence throughout the Obama Administration.
The active political philosophy in play is to expand a minimalist
public safety net while allowing Wall Street to do anything it
likes. (See: Rubin's Hamilton
Project)
Michael
Froman: headed Obama's
economic search committee, a
major fundraiser for Obama, while remaining in his executive position
at Citigroup during Obama's transition - as Citigroup & the
economy with it, melted. Froman is currently Obama's international
finance adviser at the National Economic Council, and is simultaneously
deputy national security adviser at the National Security Council.
While still serving as Obama's search committee head he brought
several of Bob Rubin's fellow travelers into the administration.
Timothy
Geithner:
Treasury Secretary, president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York through 1/09 after being appointed by
GW Bush. He oversaw the buildup to the collapse of the subprime
mortgage market. He also served under Bob Rubin in the Clinton
White House, and was heavily involved in bailouts at the time.
(So Froman - an executive at Citigroup - advised bringing on Geithner,
who helped create the bailout that would directly benefit the
still Citigroup employed Froman, who in January 2009 received
a bonus check of $2.25 million.) Geithner's counselors: 1) Lewis
Alexander
- former chief economist of Citigroup; 2) Gene
Sperling
and; 3) Lael
Brainard,
worked under Rubin at the National Economic Council. These and
other aids were all highly paid workers and lobbyists for Goldman
Sachs, and other investment houses.
Jamie
Rubin:
(Robert
Rubin's son), also worked for
Citigroup at $15 million/year. Bob Rubin, the father, had pushed
for the risky investments at Citicorp that later imploded, and
fought for repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, enabling a Citigroup
megamerger, and for the derivatives market to be deregulated.
After leaving the Clinton group, he joined Citigroup who paid
him $126 million over the next 8 years.
David
Lipton:
National Economic Council and the National
Security Council, worked closely with Bob Rubin at
Treasury and at Citigroup
Jacob
Lew:
Deputy Director at the State Department focusing on international
finance, a former Citi colleague of Bob Rubin's.
Larry
Summers: Director of the
White House's National Economic Council,
backed the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, created as a
response to the 1930's economic crash - regulating banks and disallowing
the activities of the past 10 years that lead to today's crisis.
He was a protégé of Bob Rubin's at Treasury.
Jason
Furman:
White House's National Economic Council Deputy Director,
worked for Bob Rubin in the Clinton White House, and was one of
the first directors of Rubin's Hamilton Project (pushing for deregulation,
globalization, etc).
Diana
Farrell: White House's
National Economic Council Deputy Director,
also worked under Rubin at Goldman Sachs. She later received over
$5.2 million in 2008 as a managing director of the hedge fund
D.E. Shaw. She is an advocate of off-shoring US jobs.
Peter
Orszag:
Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
regarded as the foremost Democratic Party expert on cutting entitlement
programs like Medicare and Social Security. Orszag was the first
director of Rubin's Hamilton Project.
Mary
Schapiro: Chairwoman of
the Securities and Exchange Commission,
a Reagan appointee. She was responsible
for regulating the US agricultural, metals, energy, and financial
futures markets and has been a vocal advocate for "self-regulation."
Penny
Pritzker: was Obama's
Campaign Finance Chair and was his top choice for Commerce Secretary,
but following the exposure of her
deep involvement in the failure of Superior Bank
- a predatory sub-prime lender - she removed herself from the
running 11/08.
Gary
Gensler: appointed to
head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
whose task it is to regulate derivatives trading. Gensler, a former
Goldman banker who worked under Rubin in the Clinton White House,
was instrumental in pushing through the Commodity Futures Modernization
Act of 2000 which prevented regulation of the derivative market
that was helped crash the economy in 2009.
Paul
Volcker:
Chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board,
pushed for driving up interest rates to unprecedented levels during
the Carter Administration, resulting in high unemployment, and
the crushing of worker rights. But, by 2008 was helping Candidate
Obama craft speeches stating that
deregulation of the preceding two decades had "excused and
even embraced an ethic of greed, corner-cutting, insider dealing,
things that have always threatened the long-term stability of
our economic system." The current position is said to be
toothless.
