>> Barack Obama: The oligarchs' president >> By Charles Ferguson
> CB: All presidents are oligarchs' presidents. right. But as Shane suggests, this hardly justifies voting for or supporting BHO. >> When Barack Obama was elected, he had an unprecedented opportunity >> to shape American history by bringing the country's new financial >> oligarchy under control. > CB: Bullshit. Yes and no. It's true that BHO could never get the financial oligarchs under the control of the working classes. But I think Ferguson is talking about something different: using regulations, BHO could have gotten them to look to the long-term health of the financial sector as a whole (rather than the special interests of the individual oligarchs). The Big Lost Chance occurred in 2008, when the bail-out could have been combined with putting the bailed-out institutions under conservatorship -- or simply insisting on being paid for loans with corporate equity (stock). (Call it "nationalization," if you will, but it wouldn't be socialism.) This would have allowed serious re-regulation, which in turn helps capitalism run better. Those of us who are stuck in the belly of the beast would thus do better also, at least for a while. (There are other forces besides the financial mess behind immiseration.) Maybe more could avoid poverty. If we're smart, we could use the respite to pressure BHO and other political oligarchs to do a better job and maybe (hope, hope) move toward socialism. As I've said before, the impetus for this move comes from outside the economic and political oligarchy, i.e., from below. We can't expect anything from the oligarchs. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
