The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a launched a new marketing campaign to sell Americans on the idea that low taxes, less government regulation and unfettered trade is the thing that’s going to return this country to economic prosperity. I’m sure there’s a bridge somewhere in Brooklyn they’d like to sell us, too. To listen to Chamber President Tom Donohue, what this country really needs is a return to the days of . . . George W. Bush.
It seems the Chamber and its friends on Wall Street have very short memories. As Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said today, they mock us by handing out obscene salaries and bonuses, just a year after the American taxpayer bailed them out to the tune of trillions in cash and supports.
As troubling as the scale and audacity of these payments may be, what is most appalling is that they are, in large measure, the result of Wall Street resuming exactly the same speculative gambling and consumer rip-off strategies that crashed the financial system in the first place.
As the U.S. House Financial Services Committee debates creating a strong watchdog agency to prevent destructive and unfair financial practices, it’s hardly a surprise that one of the loudest opponents is, you guessed it,
