To paraphrase Atrios:

>Progressives were right about the financial crisis but were ignored. Will they be listened to now?

No.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

"They" walked away will billions. The financially crippled classes had nothing to do with the deregulation, and they'll have nothing to do with future economic policy.

The most we could hope for has already happened...the Republicans got voted out of the White House. But all "they" lost was a modicum of power for a moment, soon to be renewed when the next generation of suckers decides that what's in their short term interest trumps any and all other concerns. And another Reagan/Bush/Bush will step up to the podium and declare, "It's morning in America again."

I have not even read this article, except for the titles, though I will in a minute but the title triggers such an immediate response that I just have to answer that question off the cuff, no matter how rhetorical. No. The left will not be listened to. We have the Cassandran curse of being able to completely accurately predict many of the events of the last couple of decades. The left suffers from being correct. We knew Clinton would make a hard right in his ascention to the throne. We know Iraq and now Afganistan would/will be a disaster. We knew Bush/Cheney were/are sucking the marrow out of the bones of America, and eliminating any claim to decency and humanity along the way. We knew we were being spied on, we knew there were black sites and that rendition was being used, torture was being used, that american troops have been cavalier - as they have largely been created to be - about externalizing their hatred of the other, insuring their own safety at the price of countless innocent lives. And we know that almost no one wants to hear us. Most Americans would probably call me far left in their own definitions. And what is it that I so terribly represent? The pursuit of medical care for all, a reasonable education for all and opportunities for those who are in need. Not Stalin.

And now I see Obama, the only possible choice above McCain and Palin, made into a romantic figure of 'hope', and he is going to make it all better, or at least be substantially different, or at least not as bad as what we've just been through....except, beyond some insubtantial 'hope' what has changed, or will? He's just pretty. He's just the one we bought of the two offered. Too soon to judge? For those who aren't tracking, he and Congress are not going to prosecute Bush and his minions for any of their heinous crimes, many the same ones we prosecuted the Nazis for. There will be quasi examinations at best, and then it will be back to 'bipartisan' times, meaning the far right, which only looks center right compared to what we thought we just voted out.

Sorry to go on but, sometimes I get angry at our own stupidity.

I'll go read now, I know other things posted by Mr. Sirota I have found to be interesting reading.

In being right about any of this shit. I just pray that we can stop the "I told you so's" here. I really don't want to see Naomi Klein or Naomi Wolf writing this column several years from now.

no joy indeed. What do you call conspirecy theorists who're almost always right? Leftists.

Cassandra. Perfect.

In a country that has the illusion of choice ..... a two party system where both parties are bought and sold and the willfully ignorant, tranced-out, american people seem not to care.

Below are some quoted material from an article in the Tycoon Report dated Dec. 12, 2008.

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" Did Congress Sell Out the U.S. Economy?"

Tycoon readers, there is a stink in the air, and it's coming from Washington!

Not exactly the cherry blossoms in bloom...

I recently detailed in The Tycoon Report about the various Democratic congressmen who did their best to minimize and block the need for regulation at Fannie Mae (FNM) in 2004. Now this week CNBC reported that Freddie Mac (FRE) gave money and expensive sporting events tickets to several congressmen who were supposed to be overseeing what was going on at Freddie Mac.

Internal Freddie Mac documents, obtained by the Associated Press, show that two members of the House Financial Services Committee, Bob Ney (R-Ohio), and Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa) were given expensive tickets to the first Washington Nationals home game in 2006, right near the dugout, and next to Freddie Mac executive, Hollis McLoughlin and four Freddie Mac in-house lobbyists.

View of Nationals stadium, far above where congressmen sit...

In addition, 11.7 million dollars were paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants that same year, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was paid $300,000. According to CNBC, "Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model."

Furthermore, Freddie Mac reportedly spent $2 million on a Republican consulting firm called the DCI group to kill a tough regulatory bill sponsored by Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), John McCain (R-AZ) and others, before it could reach the floor for a vote. DCI targeted Republicans on Capitol Hill to put pressure on the party not to regulate Freddie Mac.

So much has been written about predatory lenders, crooked appraisers, and irresponsible borrowers who should have known better, and the debate has raged on for many months about who was at fault for the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that has now ravaged our economy.

But the real truth is, the people who should have been watching out for the folks, to quote Bill O'Reilly's favorite phrase, were not only asleep at the wheel, they were seduced with money to turn a blind eye to what was going on. Our elected representatives, the ones that are paid by our hard-earned tax monies, through their inaction, were doing everything possible to ensure that eventually the U.S. financial house of cards would come tumbling down. Remember that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae combined to own or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages, and that 20% of those loans were sub-prime.

After checking on their campaign contributions, Senators file back into the committee hearings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

Now we have a congressional "hearing" into how it all happened, with finger pointing on all sides. Yeah, that's the fox guarding the hen house all right. See what good it does.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) called for the resignation of Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, this week. Well I say it's time for Chris Dodd (who reportedly received a special low interest rate mortgage from Fannie Mae along with regular campaign contributions, and then sat on the committee to decide whether or not to regulate Fannie) to resign. And if Chris Dodd and the others in Congress who allowed things to get out of hand won't resign, then we the citizens will just have to vote them out when they run for re-election.

By the way, have you seen the chart of the top recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions between 1989-2008?

NAME

Office

Party/State Total

Christopher Dodd S D-CT $165,400

Barack Obama S D-IL $126,349

John Kerry S D-IL $111,000

Robert Bennett S R_UT $107,999

Spencer Bachus H R-AL $65,000

Roy Blunt H R-MO $96,950

source: www.opensecrets.org

Now I realize that politicians of both parties are allowed to receive campaign contributions from large companies, but don't you think they should recuse themselves from sitting on committees where decisions that have a major effect upon those companies are decided?!

Door sign at the entrance to the Capitol Building...

Speaking of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unfortunately things could be getting worse on the foreclosure front. Congressional efforts to help the so called "innocent borrower who was snookered by the big bad mortgage company into taking loans they could not afford", are not going well. There is a report out now that says that of those borrowers who were given loan modification programs, after only three months, almost 36 percent had 30-day re-defaults. After six months, the default rate was almost 53% and after eight months the 30-day default rate was 58%!

Obviously, holding hands and singing "Kumbaya" is not working here. Could it be time for some "Tough Love"? Months ago when I suggested mandatory direct withdrawal of loan payments from high-risk borrowers' bank accounts, some readers took me to task, saying it creates another level of expensive bureaucracy. While that may be true, I think the alternative we are seeing now is worse.

Lowering interest rates or principal is not enough when it comes to irresponsible borrowers. In my opinion, all high-risk borrowers (those who have defaults more than 60 days) should be mandated to take a financial education course, to learn how to budget, save, and get off the credit card merry-go-round. Don't want to take the course? Then give the keys back to the bank and go find other housing arrangements. If we don't take some drastic action, our permissive, nice guy attitude is going to bankrupt our country and strangle our future economic development!

Come on, Congress. Get it together!

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The american people must accept that they are living in a banana republic and they are the ones responsible.

I heard the Greek rioters on tv say "Burn Parliament, Burn".

I say, "Burn Congress, Burn".