Senator Elizabeth Warren's First Banking Committee Hearing (VIDEO)

Since you people seem to enjoy the sight of elected Senators actually doing...you know...their jobs:



Wouldn't it have been easier just to let her be the head of the Consumer Protection Bureau?

This is an intersting idea from #OWS...(VIDEO)

You do know that the Federal Reserve has turned 80.9 Billion dollar profit, right?

First caught by Ezra.

By the way, in case you couldn't tell by now, I'm not much of a Ron Paul supporter.  I don't like the guy.  I don't trust the guy.  I think he's a racist.  I don't buy his bull@#$% about the Gold Standard.  I generally understand what the role of the Federal Reserve is, but don't ask me to write a paper on it.  I've heard of the Panic of 1907 (a.k.a., the Financial Crisis everyone in America would still be talking about if it wasn't for that Great Depression thing).

So when I saw this story in the Financial Times (not exactly a stronghold of Liberal thought), I was...you know...pleased!

US Federal Reserve turns $80.9bn profit

By Robin Harding in Washington
Published: January 10 2011 18:04 | Last updated: January 10 2011 18:04

The US Federal Reserve made a record profit of $80.9bn in 2010 and sent $78.4bn to the US Treasury as income poured in from its programme of quantitative easing.

The figures show how the financial crisis has turned the Fed into the most profitable bank in history, earning income of $88.1bn in 2010 but paying only $2.7bn in interest and $4.3bn in operating expenses.

The Fireside chat for May 15, 2010 (VIDEO)

The President explains how Wall Street Reform will not only end bailouts and bring accountability for big banks, but empower consumers, shareholders and community banks.

Signed. Sealed. Delievered. (VIDEO)

I hope some of them college kids on stage got a pen.

Andrew Leonard also backs me up...

...with something I said earlier in the day. Andrew was talking about how Simon Johnson and Paul Krugman were the first to go apeshit at the President's remarks this morning, but:

It might be worth noting that both Johnson and Krugman dismissed Obama's words that day [when he called Big Bank Bonuses obscene] as politically motivated. Obama is in a tight spot. When he addresses the nation directly and explicitly acknowledges "public anger" he is dismissed, and accused of not meaning what he says. But when sound bites of an interview are selectively reported, they are taken immediately at face value and interpreted as negatively as possible.

It's a modern American political tragedy. We've got a guy in the White House capable of more nuance than anyone in recent memory, and a political culture that can't deal with any nuance at all.

The President didn't say what you think he said...

Krugman (among others) is kicking the crap out of the President for saying that he doesn’t “begrudge” the Bankers their bonuses. And if the President had said this, it would be well deserved.

Notice I said "if".

He didn't say what people are claiming that he said. There is no quote saying with him “begrudging” anything. There's only a lead in paragraph summarizing what Bloomberg feels the President said.

The money quote (apparently) was:

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

That's the closest the President comes to saying he doesn't "begrudge" anywhat. The whole context boils down to this: Holy shit, this is a lot of money. I don't want to crack on what people earn. This is a free-market economy, but damn.

It's a great system we've got set up. Obama criticizes Bankers, he's a Socialist. Obama defends the free market, he's clueless.

The Washington Independent has more.

"We Want Our Money Back, and We're Going to Get It" (VIDEO)

My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed. And my determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at some of the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people -- folks who have not been made whole, and who continue to face real hardship in this recession.

We want our money back, and we're going to get it. And that's why I'm proposing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be imposed on major financial firms until the American people are fully compensated for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street. If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers.

MSNBC: Keith's Interview with Elizabeth Warren (VIDEO)

For no other reason, than for Professor Warren's answer to Keith's first question.

OLBERMANN: The president said today, and let me quote it directly, “As galling as the assistance to banks may have been, it indisputably helped prevent a collapse of the entire financial system.” This is a theme of his. But there are two obvious questions that are raised by this statement. The first of them being—is that true?

WARREN: Yes.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There's what you know, and what you think you know... (VIDEO)

The thing I'm starting to discover about Government is that there's what something is, and there's what you think it is.

A lot of times, the people are way ahead of their Government. But sometimes they're not.

The screechy (pre-teabag) caller at the beginning of this video has a notion of how to Stimulate the Economy.

...and it would have worked, too...if there was...you know...an Economic System left standing after she was done.

Here's a hint: there wouldn't have been.

That's why...as unpleasant as it all is...the banks had to be bailed out.