I’ve had quite enough of Simon Johnson sounding the alarm over Obama’s nuances. This is ridiculous — an artificial Bloomberg-HuffPo panic. The quotes that set off an overnight sensation:
Bloomberg today reports President Obama as commenting on the $17 million bonus for Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and the $9 million bonus for Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs,
I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,
and
I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.
Taken separately, these statements are undeniably true. But put them together in the context of the Bloomberg story – we have to wait until Friday for the full text of the interview – and the White House has a major public relations disaster on its hands.
Really? Downplaying personalities and saying “I’m not here to undo the free-market economy” are, what, an admission that he won’t install Teh Global Socializms™ with finance reform?
Obama has been extraordinarily consistent on the overall picture of that reform: a consumer finance protection agency, a “living will” for firms that are too big, and better rules on fancy accounting tricks with large sums of imaginary money. All of this requires legislation, and said legislation must pass through the prerequisite constitutional sausage-factory. In other words, Obama has been the opposite of his right-wing image. His stand on reform in the SOTU:
Now, one place to start is serious financial reform. Look, I am not interested in punishing banks. I’m interested in protecting our economy. A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes. But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy.
We need to make sure consumers and middle-class families have the information they need to make financial decisions. (Applause.) We can’t allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.
Now, the House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes. (Applause.) And the lobbyists are trying to kill it. But we cannot let them win this fight. (Applause.) And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back until we get it right. We’ve got to get it right. (Applause.)
This marked his very first threat to write legislation with a veto pen. I’m going to disagree with Paul Krugman too: Obama knows that baseball players didn’t cause the near-depression. Which is why Obama keeps saying things like this:
I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.
In other words, I am not here to install Teh Global Socializms™. The right wants to define Obama as a class warrior; he is resisting the meme. Which leads us to the Gibbs presser yesterday:
“The president doesn’t have a different view on bonuses yesterday than he had ten days ago or ten months ago,” Gibbs said. “Ensuring that bonuses are paid in that way is a movement in the right direction. Does that justify the level of these bonuses when only through the taxpayer’s assistance would these banks exist? Of course not.”
In a way, this has worked to Obama’s advantage by keeping the spotlight on financial reform and off of health care reform. But would the left-wing media conspiracy please stop crying wolf? We’re the guys who are supposed to understand nuance. We’re not the reactionaries. M’kay?
