If the thesis presented in the title is true: why did this fighter for economic equality let foreclosure relief go down in flames in the Senate without a fight? No rallying the net troops no public ridiculing of opponents. No shaming the immorality of trillions for Wall Street but no crumbs for Main St.

This bill would have done two things, it would have addressed the root of the economic meltdown (IT'S THE REAL ECONOMY STUPID!) and increased the chances of middle class people holding onto the biggest chunk of wealth they have-their homes. You can't fight for economic equality and sit by and watch hundreds of thousands be shoved into destitution.

TALK IS CHEAP> WHAT HAS OBAMA DONE?

I know what my answer to that question is. What's yours, Mr. Reich?

Our present situation can't be understood without coming to grips with the kleptocracy that rules our world. It was a result of a criminal conspiracy involving government and corporation bureaucrats colluding to rip off the common wealth.

From tax and trade policies that grew a massive pool of capital in the hands of the rich around the world (and kept wages stagnant) for decades, to the Wall Street investment bankers who invented new kinds of mortgage backed derivatives so that money could have a productive place to be invested, to the mortgage brokers who invented new kinds of loans to fuel the demand for mortgages to securitize (they called them "liar's loans" for Christ's sake!), to the real estate appraisers who inflated their appraisals to justify larger loans, to the legislators who insisted that these new kinds of derivatives- and the non-bank banks that sold them- remain unregulated, to the industry lobbyists who insisted they do that, to the regulators that not only did likewise but actually instructed bankers on how to continue to defraud their customers and rip of the SLDIC (search term: Darrel Dochow) and yes, to the homeowners who bought houses they couldn't afford......

The reason for Alt-A and subprime loans in many cases, was that in a real estate market that was assumed to never go down, they would force homeowners to refinance every year or two, with more fees for the mortgage brokers and more loans for the bankers to securitize.The demand for loans to securitize, and the market for those securities, drove this process. It didn't happen by accident.OR because some janitor wanted to buy a house on a minimum wage job!

Criminal conspiracy is the only way to describe this mess.

I would just add; Shared responsibility isn't always EQUAL responsibility. The home buyers who got in over their heads-- after being lied to by the actors mentioned for the reasons described-- are at the bottom of the list of responsible parties.

Think on this: crimes unpunished are crimes repeated. ANd the Obama administration continues the Paulson policy of not only not punishing, but REWARDING, the criminals most responsible for this mess. Which guarantees that we will be here again, 10 or 15 years from now, with a $20 trillion bailout.

....are the ones who pose the biggest threat to the US. Take a look at history: women's health clinic bombings, assassination of "abortion doctors", bombing of government buildings (McVeigh was part of a white supremacist movement that identifies itself as Christian)

and now they are signing up for training in the US military, setting themselves up in military academies and in the military chaplain service to run a holy war against Islam. (The GWOT as a crusade. They talk of it this way.)

Muslim terrorists are the LEAST of our worries.

GEDDOUDAHERE! This has about as much credibility as Senator Vitter talking about the importance of chastity, for crying out loud! I expect more from Salon than to allow it to be a conduit for government propaganda like this.

I have much more trust in Major General Taguba, who said that such images of rape DO exist. He is in a position to know and has proven himself a courageous truth-teller. As opposed to the source of this puff piece, who hides behind anonymity.

when this was actually going on? If mark to market is such a "key rule," as the Journal claims in its headline, why didn't they notice the change when it was being discussed? Give them credit? For missing the story by three months? WHy do they report this now? How about doing it them when we were trying to raise some stink about this proposed change? No, I smell some nefarious political purpose behind the timing of this story. THis is NOT news at all.

MTM accounting reinstated in 2007? I don't think so. MTM accounting, and the manipulation of market prices, had a tremendous amount to do with the failures of savings and loans in the 1980s, and the crash of Enron in 2001. I gotta wonder where you get your history.

Yes there can be manipulations of MTM accounting. But without SOME sort of objective criteria for valuing assets, its ALL pulling numbers out of CEO asses, and we KNOW they have an interest in inflating asset values.

to Venezuela and Cuba's (and the rest of the world'S) GM. All aid and support, with NOTHING asked in return, versus, all sorts of demands before we'll even TALK with you.

The US is NOT an honest peace broker here. Everyone in the world knows it, except the US citizen.

...and modern composting toilets have proven themselves hot enough to deal with the threat of contagion. The heat of decomposition is enough to sterilize the resulting soil.

This is not new tech or rocket science.....

Only in economics and business. As a botanist and field biologist, I routinely deal with creatures that are hundreds and thousands of years old, with geologic processes that stretch into the millions. Unless we restructure our economics to be more in line with those processes and those kinds of life spans,human civilization won't be long for this world. Some humans may survive but civilization won't.