I was really surprised not to see main page stories or rec'd diaries on the subject of Wall Street's outrageous $18B in bonuses (which President Obama castigated them for today). Keith Olbermann wondered tonight if it was time for the government to really take on corporations to an unprecedented extent, and while he appreciated the president's anger over the issue, he wondered about the later part of the statement where Obama seemed to be striking too non-antagonistic a tone.
I'm usually the last Kossack to talk about storming the gates, going hog wild with radically left wing moves--not because I disagree with the far left in principle, but because I like to be pragmatic and not make the perfect the enemy of the good. But this is just too much, and I also think we are at a confluence of events that create a "perfect storm" that could actually allow us to get away with totally wiping out these robber barons' empires and using the government instead.
We've got post offices in every town of any consequence, why not do the same with banks? Their fundamental mode of operation--borrowing and lending money--does not require capitalist middlemen to operate efficiently (unlike, perhaps, other more creative industries like Hollywood or even furniture manufacturing).
FDR considered the idea and backed off. I think this idea has finally come. I think people (that is, swing voters) are at this point so disgusted by Wall Street's greed and incompetence, and so concerned about the direction of our economy, that dire GOP warnings of "socialism" would likely be shrugged off.
(And while we're at it, single payer health coverage would also be nice, as this is another industry with plenty of useless capitalist middlemen.)