Wall Street Gets a Public Flogging;Politics or Theatre?
Posted by JimAmerican history provides a mother lode of dramas such as is now occurring on the Hill. For those not following the news too closely, Congress has hauled in several miscreants from Goldman Sachs for a serious finger-wagging session. When it was all over, Goldman’s heavies left town, no less richer but with the knowledge that the game was going to change, slightly. Senators made sure they got a good tongue-lashing.
There was excellent theatre with Senators dishing up huge amounts of umbrage and outrage for the Goldman lackeys to swallow. But something was accomplished. The rock-heads in the GOP finally realized they were on the wrong side of the financial reform discussion. By allowing debate on the President’s financial reform bill in the Senate, Republicans were in full retreat, probably prodded on by the cavalier attitudes exhibited by the Goldman Boys. They were a PR disaster for the cause of less regulation. The GOP flip-flop was not motivated by moral outrage but by hard politics. November is looming and the GOP has been a bit feisty, feeling the tailwinds of public support. After the show on the Hill, they were determined not to give the Dems a golden opportunity to resurrect the ghost of Father Coughlin.
