Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, writing on Salon.com, offer an eloquent critique of Barack Obama’s efforts on behalf of the American financial system, efforts that have been characterized by a obeisance to Wall Street and the folks who got us into this mess in the first place.
Consider Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council and the president’s chief economic adviser. As Moyers and Winship point out, Summers has earned a lot of money over the years from the firms at the root of the mess, which could explain the meandering and ineffective way in which the president has addressed the crisis in the financial markets (as opposed to his aggressive — though not aggressive enough — approach on the economy as a while). Summers, they write,
was intoxicated by the exotic witches’ brew of derivatives and other financial legerdemain that got us into such a fine mess in the first place. Yet here he is, serving as gatekeeper of the information and analysis going to President Obama on the current collapse.
We have to wonder, when the president asks, “Larry, who did this to us?” is Summers going to name names of old friends and benefactors? Knowing he most likely will be looking for his old desk back once he leaves the White House, is he going to be tough on the very system of lucrative largesse that he helped create in his earlier incarnation as a deregulating treasury secretary? (“Larry?” “Yes, Mr. President?” “Who the hell recommended repealing the Glass-Steagall Act back in the ’90s and opened the floodgates to all this greed?” “Uh, excuse me, Mr. President, I think Bob Rubin’s calling me.”)
That imaginary conversation came to mind last week as we watched President Obama’s joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. When a reporter asked Obama who’s to blame for the financial crisis, our usually eloquent and knowledgeable president responded with a rambling and ineffectual answer. With Larry Summers guarding his in box, it’s hardly surprising he’s not getting the whole story.
Summers, of course, is only part of the problem. There is the ineffectual Timothy Geithner running Treasury, as well, meaning that far too many of the players involved in the creation of the financial house of cards — dating back to the Clinton administration and its role in the deregulation of the industry — are still in place, trying to balance the desire to right the economy with a bias toward protecting their own.
Geithner, at least, is salvagable. I can’t say the same for Summers, who should be dispatched from service and replaced as quickly as possible. It’s not like better, more progressive alternatives aren’t out there. Obama could — should — turn to anyone on this list: Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, Sheila Bair, Robert Reich, Leo Hindery, etc. There also are reporters like William Greider at The nation and Gretchen Morgenstern at The New York Times who’s take on the financial collapse is much more in line with the pitchfork-wielding public.
Coddling the bankers is bad policy and bad politics.
Hank Kalet 
Despite signing up with multiple employment agencies and sending out approximately 30 resumes per week, I have been unemployed since the end of August, 2008. During this time, I have been collecting unemployment benefits.My original unemployment claim was exhausted, and I was to be switched over to extended unemployment benefits. When the Division of Unemployment was doing this, they had a bit of confusion, which resulted in benefits being withheld until the confusion was worked out.At this time, I received a phone call from the Monetary Adjustment Department. Their claim was that the Division of Unemployment erroneously included severance pay when making their original determination of benefits. After discussing this with their employee, I agree with that assessment. Their employee said that they would have to make a monetary adjustment which would result in a refund due to the Division of Unemployment but that I should not worry about it as the refund amount would be taken out of the balance of the extended unemployment benefits.At this point, I already hadn’t received unemployment benefits for a little while and was behind on my rent. My landlord was protecting his rights and filed for eviction. I was going to pay all back rent with the unemployment checks, thus keeping us from being homeless.On May 5, 2009, I called to file for unemployment benefits, as was scheduled. The recording said that I must speak with an employee before the claim could be processed.After being on hold for over an hour, Lee got on the phone. She explained that she would have to take the information from me and have the Adjustment Department cut a check.On May 6, 2009, I called the Division of Unemployment Information phone number to ensure that a check was cut. Per their recording, it had not been processed.I called the Regional Office and once again spoke with Lee. She stated that since there was a refund amount due, the Division of Unemployment was taking the benefit amount to reimburse themselves for the overpayment.I was flabbergasted. I explained to Lee that the Monetary Adjustment Department told me that the amount of overpayment would come from the balance of the extended unemployment benefits. Lee said that was not the way it works. I explained once again that it was due to an error by the Division of Unemployment and was not actually an overpayment. The claim should have been switched over to the extended benefits sooner. It was not my fault that this did not happen. Lee said there was nothing else she could do for me, but gave me the phone number for their Refund Department.The fact that the Division of Unemployment has an entire department devoted to overpayment of claims tells me that errors such as this are common. However, the employees of the Division of Unemployment have not idea, nor do they care to understand, how their errors affect people’s lives.I called the Refund Department and spoke with Mr. Gonzales. He stated that the law allowed the Division to withhold all benefit amounts in order to repay any overpayments. I explained to him that this was not technically an overpayment; this was the Division of Unemployment’s error in not switching the claim to the extended benefits when it should have been switched.I ended up speaking with Mrs. Hollica, the supervisor of the Refund Department. She clearly did not want to discuss anything that didn’t fall within her category of “overpayments”. Mrs. Hollica stated, in a very unkind way, that the law allows for them to withhold all unemployment benefits in the event of an overpayment. Mrs. Hollica did not care how the overpayment occurred nor what I was told from the Monetary Adjustment Department. They were withholding all benefits until the overpayment amount was refunded to the Division, which means that if I am still eligible for unemployment benefits on May 29, that is the date that I would receive another check. I tried to explain to her that I am a single mother of two boys, this was not MY error, this was an error by an employee of the Division of Unemployment and I cannot have no money coming into the household for another month without losing everything I‘d worked for all my life. Mrs. Hollica was uncaring and said that it was not her problem.I immediately contacted Governor Corzine’s office. If you ever want to be treated like a piece of garbage, I suggest calling there. The first person I spoke with was a receptionist, directing my call. I briefly explained the problem to her. She asked if I had spoken with the Director of the Division of Unemployment. I stated that I had not and had no intention of speaking with the Director at that moment. I wanted to file a complaint with the Governor’s Office.The receptionist transferred me to Liz. Liz snorted and told me that the Division has a right by law to withhold all unemployment benefits until any overpayment is refunded. I explained that I was aware of this, having been told it no less than three times already, and I wanted to speak with someone that could do something to help my family out since we were on the verge of losing everything due to a Division of Unemployment error. Liz suggested that I contact Social Services. Nice, eh? Anyway, I informed her that I wanted to file a complaint with the Governor’s Office. Liz then transferred me to Carol.Carol began the same way that Liz did. Once again, I explained that I was aware that the Division has a right by law to withhold benefits due to overpayment, but that this was a Division error and my family was suffering and would be homeless due to it. Carol put me through to Robin Tams of the Division of Unemployment.Ms. Tams began the same way that Liz and Carol began. At this point, I was tired of hearing about the rights of the Division. What about the rights of the people that the Division was created to help? I explained to Ms. Tams that the law that allows the Division to withhold benefits until overpayments are refunded is punishing people that had nothing to do with the overpayment. I also explained that my children and I would be homeless by the end of next week due to their error, I had no money to put food on the table for my children and would thus lose custody of them. I explained that just because they have the “right” to do something by law doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do. Does this law allow for common sense?Ms. Tams then suggested that I leave a message for her supervisor, Mr. Marich. Mr. Marich was out of the office yesterday but I was assured that he would call me back on May 7.Mr. Marich did call me back. He stated that he reviewed the case and determined that it was a Division error and could move this into that category. What that means is that instead of having my entire unemployment benefit check withheld until the overpayment is refunded, they will withhold HALF of the check. So, now my children and I get to try to live on less than $1,000 per month for two months.We\’ll be living in my car within two weeks. See you at the soup kitchen! If you falsify information to the Division of Unemployment in order to collect benefits and then go back to work, you can make a payment arrangement with the Division and pay back all overpayments at the rate of $69 per month.Why, then, do I have to be penalized for their error to the point that I will lose my home and my children? What is the reasoning behind this?