The diary on the rec list and another one forthcoming are aimed at the same thing. That Obama has sold out everyone. However, it's disconcerting how easy it is to gloss over what is ACTUALLY HAPPENING.
Newsweek on Barney Frank: Newsweek Article
But I think the most galling thing that Taibbi did in his article and that folks seem to buy hook,line and sinker is that Gary Gensler who was appointed to CFTC and whom Sen. Sanders placed a hold on is, because of his former employment at Goldman Sachs, working to keep open the derivatives market and prevent the loopholes from being closed.
That's absolutely false. Gensler is not content with keeping the loopholes open. In fact, he's been prodding Barney Frank to close them.
But critics like the CFTC's Gensler have said that the exemption intended for nonfinancial companies might let many other players avoid regulation, including hedge funds, private-equity funds, and other financial firms. Other critics, such as Barbara Roper of the Consumer Federation of America, say some of the corporations themselves are being used by the banks. (Backers of the "Coalition of Derivatives End Users"—including the Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and National Association of Manufacturers—say they're acting on their own.) Roper, Gensler, and others have also argued that the corporations sometimes don't realize they could get better prices for their derivatives deals through open bidding on exchanges, even though it might cost them more upfront.
Nevermind that Taibbi says "GOLDMAN SACHS: BAD and anyone who worked for GOLDMAN SACHS is BAD." Of course, it would be nonsensical to look at his resume at just Goldman, wouldn't it. From Wikipedia.
Subsequent to his time at the Treasury he acted as a Senior Adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes, one of the authors of legislation that eventually became the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to bring greater oversight to the accounting industry and reform of corporate governance.
Wait Sarbanes, I've heard of that before. Oh yeah, that great accounting reform that was extremely tough on the financial system. But of course, that's dismissive, I mean, I'm sure Matt Taibbi knows better.
The point being, you can either bitch about it on the blogs or you can work the hill and make sure that they pass it correctly. We have a democratic majority (which includes, liberals, progressives, conservatives and moderates). We don't have a progressive one. The sooner people realize this, the sooner they could pressure their congressmen.