The heads of the country’s largest banks and stock brokers came to Washington, D.C., yesterday to meet with President Barack Obama. Washington is the center of our national hostage drama—to use an old phrase, D.C. is the kidnap house. But we have seen this part of the hostage-taking drama before. First, the extremist House Republicans, who are deeply dependent on Wall Street money, threaten to force the United States into defaulting on its debts to achieve political objectives that Wall Street supports, like cutting Social Security. Then Wall Street pretends to be horrified that the United States might default on its debts, Treasury bonds that underpin much of the world financial system.

Enter the wise old men of Wall Street, many of them around long enough to have been dispensing wisdom back in 2007, when their advice led to the collapse of the global economy. The wise men go to see Obama, and they say, “Mr. President, you have to be the grown-up here, we can’t afford to have the United States default. We know it will be painful, but you have to give the Republicans some of what they want for the good of the country, just like you had to bail us out back in 2009 for the good of the country.” Continue reading “Wall Street Visits Washington, the Grand Bargain Returns and Other Tales from the Kidnap House 3Comments”