Matt Taibbi: Fuck the business community!

[asterism]

This is an interesting read, the left wing Rolling Stone got three Progressives to discuss the Republican victory this month. Peter Hart and David Gergen have some very good points, but Matt Taibbi is just so simply out there it's downright comical. Some snips:

Hart: I agree with David. When two out of five people who voted last night say they consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, we make a huge mistake to suggest that they are some sort of small fringe group and do not represent anybody else.

Taibbi: I'm not saying that they're small or a fringe group.

Gergen: You just think they're all crazy.

Taibbi: I do.

Gergen: So you're arguing, Matt, that 40 percent of those who voted last night are crazy?

Taibbi: I interview these people. They're not basing their positions on the facts — they're completely uninterested in the facts. They're voting completely on what they see and hear on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, and that's enough for them.

Gergen: If you talk to many CEOs, you'll find that they're very hostile toward Obama.

Taibbi: Who cares what these CEOs think? I don't care — they're 1/1,000th of a percent of the electorate. They're the problem. Obama needs to get other people's votes, not their votes.

Gergen: It's not their votes he needs to get — it's their investments and jobs.

Taibbi: I'm sorry, but Bob Rubin is exactly what I'm talking about. Under Clinton, he pushed this enormous remaking of the rules for Wall Street specifically so the Citigroup merger could go through, then he went to work for Citigroup and made $120 million over the next 10 years. He helped push through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated the derivatives market and created the mortgage bubble. Then Obama brings him back into the government during the transition and surrounds himself with people who are close to Bob Rubin. That's exactly the wrong message to be sending to ordinary voters: that we're bringing back this same crew of Wall Street-friendly guys who screwed up and got us in this mess in the first place.

Gergen: That sentiment is exactly what the business community objects to.

Taibbi: Fuck the business community!

Roundtable: The GOP Victory, the Tea Party Ascendancy ? and Obama?s Next Steps | Rolling Stone Politics

This demonstrates the problem Progressives have, they think the solution is even more government and when the voters say otherwise they lash out. Taibbi obviously has contempt for businesses and look at what he says when told that's what the business community feels from Washington. Taibbi seems to not understand that if the contempt the White House has for business is a problem, even more contempt from the likes of him is worse, not better. Obama didn't get shellacked because he compromised too much, it was because he compromised too little.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Oh look! Liberals who think they're smarter than everyone else. I've never seen this before!

"I can't convince anyone with my arguments so I'll just call them crazy and/or stupid".

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Taibbi is a walking preconceived notion.

 

[Toro]

I don't agree with "Fuck the business community" but he is dead right about Obama bringing back Rubin and his Wall Street crowd, the ones who monstrously fucked up, were bailed out by the government because of their own bad trades, and are now making more money than ever before.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I don't agree with "Fuck the business community" but he is dead right about Obama bringing back Rubin and his Wall Street crowd, the ones who monstrously fucked up, were bailed out by the government because of their own bad trades, and are now making more money than ever before.

Annnd...remember "too big to fail"..well...they are bigger now than when that was said in 2007.

 

[loosecannon]

This is an interesting read, the left wing Rolling Stone got three Progressives to discuss the Republican victory this month. Peter Hart and David Gergen have some very good points, but Matt Taibbi is just so simply out there it's downright comical. Some snips:

Hart: I agree with David. When two out of five people who voted last night say they consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, we make a huge mistake to suggest that they are some sort of small fringe group and do not represent anybody else.

Taibbi: I'm not saying that they're small or a fringe group.

Gergen: You just think they're all crazy.

Taibbi: I do.

Gergen: So you're arguing, Matt, that 40 percent of those who voted last night are crazy?

Taibbi: I interview these people. They're not basing their positions on the facts — they're completely uninterested in the facts. They're voting completely on what they see and hear on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, and that's enough for them.

Gergen: If you talk to many CEOs, you'll find that they're very hostile toward Obama.

Taibbi: Who cares what these CEOs think? I don't care — they're 1/1,000th of a percent of the electorate. They're the problem. Obama needs to get other people's votes, not their votes.

Gergen: It's not their votes he needs to get — it's their investments and jobs.

Taibbi: I'm sorry, but Bob Rubin is exactly what I'm talking about. Under Clinton, he pushed this enormous remaking of the rules for Wall Street specifically so the Citigroup merger could go through, then he went to work for Citigroup and made $120 million over the next 10 years. He helped push through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated the derivatives market and created the mortgage bubble. Then Obama brings him back into the government during the transition and surrounds himself with people who are close to Bob Rubin. That's exactly the wrong message to be sending to ordinary voters: that we're bringing back this same crew of Wall Street-friendly guys who screwed up and got us in this mess in the first place.

Gergen: That sentiment is exactly what the business community objects to.

Taibbi: Fuck the business community!

Roundtable: The GOP Victory, the Tea Party Ascendancy ? and Obama?s Next Steps | Rolling Stone Politics

This demonstrates the problem Progressives have, they think the solution is even more government and when the voters say otherwise they lash out. Taibbi obviously has contempt for businesses and look at what he says when told that's what the business community feels from Washington. Taibbi seems to not understand that if the contempt the White House has for business is a problem, even more contempt from the likes of him is worse, not better. Obama didn't get shellacked because he compromised too much, it was because he compromised too little.

Taibbi is the man. Like him or not you gotta take what he says seriously. He is one of the best investigative newsmen in the nation and his articles on the causes of the recession are all outstanding.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

Taibbi?s Takedown of ?Vampire Squid? Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone Politics

Just one of many brilliant exposes.

 

[georgephillip]

"Obama seems to be campaigning for his own defeat!

"Thanks largely to the $13 trillion Wall Street bailout – while keeping the debt overhead in place for America’s 'bottom 98 per cent' – this happy 2 per cent of the population now receives an estimated three quarters (~75 per cent) of the returns to wealth (interest, dividends, rent and capital gains).

"This is nearly double what it received a generation ago.

"The rest of the population is being squeezed, and foreclosures are rising."

Possibly the biggest problem Progressives have is finding candidates willing to state what's completely obvious to businessmen like Warren Buffett:

"It is a reflection of how one-sided today’s class war has become that Warren Buffet has quipped that 'his' side is winning without a real fight being waged."

Obama's Greatest Betrayal

 

[asterism]

I don't agree with "Fuck the business community" but he is dead right about Obama bringing back Rubin and his Wall Street crowd, the ones who monstrously fucked up, were bailed out by the government because of their own bad trades, and are now making more money than ever before.

He's correct in that it happened, but he's incorrect that the "business community" somehow sees that as a good thing, and it's not at all why the voters rejected Obama's policies.

 

[asterism]

This is an interesting read, the left wing Rolling Stone got three Progressives to discuss the Republican victory this month. Peter Hart and David Gergen have some very good points, but Matt Taibbi is just so simply out there it's downright comical. Some snips:

Hart: I agree with David. When two out of five people who voted last night say they consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party, we make a huge mistake to suggest that they are some sort of small fringe group and do not represent anybody else.

Taibbi: I'm not saying that they're small or a fringe group.

Gergen: You just think they're all crazy.

Taibbi: I do.

Gergen: So you're arguing, Matt, that 40 percent of those who voted last night are crazy?

Taibbi: I interview these people. They're not basing their positions on the facts — they're completely uninterested in the facts. They're voting completely on what they see and hear on Fox News and afternoon talk radio, and that's enough for them.

Roundtable: The GOP Victory, the Tea Party Ascendancy ? and Obama?s Next Steps | Rolling Stone Politics

This demonstrates the problem Progressives have, they think the solution is even more government and when the voters say otherwise they lash out. Taibbi obviously has contempt for businesses and look at what he says when told that's what the business community feels from Washington. Taibbi seems to not understand that if the contempt the White House has for business is a problem, even more contempt from the likes of him is worse, not better. Obama didn't get shellacked because he compromised too much, it was because he compromised too little.

Taibbi is the man. Like him or not you gotta take what he says seriously. He is one of the best investigative newsmen in the nation and his articles on the causes of the recession are all outstanding.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

Taibbi?s Takedown of ?Vampire Squid? Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone Politics

Just one of many brilliant exposes.

I take what he says seriously, and that's why Progressives are seriously fucked. There was a clear trend in this election, the voters moved right in response to the previous two years where the government moved left. Moving further left wouldn't have made that result any different.

 

[asterism]

"Obama seems to be campaigning for his own defeat!

"Thanks largely to the $13 trillion Wall Street bailout – while keeping the debt overhead in place for America’s 'bottom 98 per cent' – this happy 2 per cent of the population now receives an estimated three quarters (~75 per cent) of the returns to wealth (interest, dividends, rent and capital gains).

"This is nearly double what it received a generation ago.

"The rest of the population is being squeezed, and foreclosures are rising."

Possibly the biggest problem Progressives have is finding candidates willing to state what's completely obvious to businessmen like Warren Buffett:

"It is a reflection of how one-sided today’s class war has become that Warren Buffet has quipped that 'his' side is winning without a real fight being waged."

Obama's Greatest Betrayal

Nowhere in the Progressive model is an acknowledgement that people who made money tend to know how to make money and government handouts don't create prosperity for those who don't know how to make money.

 

[loosecannon]

There was a clear trend in this election, the voters moved right in response to the previous two years where the government moved left. Moving further left wouldn't have made that result any different.

Naaaa. The voters just asserted their displeasure about the shitty economy. Nothing more.

 

[antagon]

i'm on some fuck the business community shit myself, although i add the caveat that i'm not referring to the small-business community. big firms successfully co-opted the pro-business message this election with advocacy of what is starkly in contrast to small business concerns. there is no effective way to concentrate small business funds to carry the same weight as bigger businesses. the chamber, of which i'm a member, has simply been hijacked by big biz and it seems like they've heard us out, taken our money and gone to washington, the press and the propaganda parade with some completely different megabiz shit which stands little chance of benefiting those small businesses which employ the vast majority of americans.

 

[asterism]

There was a clear trend in this election, the voters moved right in response to the previous two years where the government moved left. Moving further left wouldn't have made that result any different.

Naaaa. The voters just asserted their displeasure about the shitty economy. Nothing more.

They did that in 2008 also, the voters moved right. Moving to the left didn't work.

 

[loosecannon]

i'm on some fuck the business community shit myself, although i add the caveat that i'm not referring to the small-business community. big firms successfully co-opted the pro-business message this election with advocacy of what is starkly in contrast to small business concerns. there is no effective way to concentrate small business funds to carry the same weight as bigger businesses. the chamber, of which i'm a member, has simply been hijacked by big biz and it seems like they've heard us out, taken our money and gone to washington, the press and the propaganda parade with some completely different megabiz shit which stands little chance of benefiting those small businesses which employ the vast majority of americans.

And yet small buziness is THE engine of employment growth, go figure.

 

[Toro]

I don't agree with "Fuck the business community" but he is dead right about Obama bringing back Rubin and his Wall Street crowd, the ones who monstrously fucked up, were bailed out by the government because of their own bad trades, and are now making more money than ever before.

He's correct in that it happened, but he's incorrect that the "business community" somehow sees that as a good thing, and it's not at all why the voters rejected Obama's policies.

Yeah, well, the rest of his rant was pretty dumb.

 

[loosecannon]

They did that in 2008 also, the voters moved right. Moving to the left didn't work.

The voters moved neither right or left in either case. They just expressed voter's remorse at their last choice.

The electorate hates both factions, both parties. They just want results.

 

[asterism]

i'm on some fuck the business community shit myself, although i add the caveat that i'm not referring to the small-business community. big firms successfully co-opted the pro-business message this election with advocacy of what is starkly in contrast to small business concerns. there is no effective way to concentrate small business funds to carry the same weight as bigger businesses. the chamber, of which i'm a member, has simply been hijacked by big biz and it seems like they've heard us out, taken our money and gone to washington, the press and the propaganda parade with some completely different megabiz shit which stands little chance of benefiting those small businesses which employ the vast majority of americans.

I've got no issue with noting the protectionist, inefficient, and ineffective model most large businesses use. The difference is that I want less government involvement both ways there, less big-business influence and less government crony capitalism. We don't get that by saying "fuck the business community" or even "fuck big-business." We certainly don't get it by having more ham-handed government micromanagement.

We get it by having more effective government oversight and less government regulation.

 

[asterism]

I don't agree with "Fuck the business community" but he is dead right about Obama bringing back Rubin and his Wall Street crowd, the ones who monstrously fucked up, were bailed out by the government because of their own bad trades, and are now making more money than ever before.

He's correct in that it happened, but he's incorrect that the "business community" somehow sees that as a good thing, and it's not at all why the voters rejected Obama's policies.

Yeah, well, the rest of his rant was pretty dumb.

He's a Progressive tool. Oh sorry, you just said that.

 

[asterism]

They did that in 2008 also, the voters moved right. Moving to the left didn't work.

The voters moved neither right or left in either case. They just expressed voter's remorse at their last choice.

The electorate hates both factions, both parties. They just want results.

I can see your point, but I disagree. The trends were very right of center, from national races all the way down to local races; even races where no incumbents were running the Republican won most of the time.

 

[antagon]

i'm on some fuck the business community shit myself, although i add the caveat that i'm not referring to the small-business community. big firms successfully co-opted the pro-business message this election with advocacy of what is starkly in contrast to small business concerns. there is no effective way to concentrate small business funds to carry the same weight as bigger businesses. the chamber, of which i'm a member, has simply been hijacked by big biz and it seems like they've heard us out, taken our money and gone to washington, the press and the propaganda parade with some completely different megabiz shit which stands little chance of benefiting those small businesses which employ the vast majority of americans.

And yet small buziness is THE engine of employment growth, go figure.

its a real ass-kickin. the nevada development authority and the las vegas chamber did this huge all-weekend small biz round-table farce in september, whereby it was determined that one of the top pieces of tax policy sought by small businesses was a revision of the AMT provision, should a renewal of all/part of the bush tax policy come to pass. i understand from other biz peeps back in san diego that the same was concluded there, and that they had advocated such be considered by every congressional session.

the regional chamber manifesto made no mention of the issue whatsoever. it is a book, and seems like it was printed in august or september without any consideration of the round table which i add was a fundrai$er.

the only thing the chamber's got going for it is the networking mixers. the NDA can at least grease things in the state. small biz advocacy is hurting. i think the cabinet-level position for the SBA needs to be permanent. i think the SBA lending facility needs to be taken on-board like the student loans in the obamacare rider. i think a lot of shit that has no way of getting to DC.