Rapture Economic

Excellent Democracy Now interview with Naomi Klein, Robert Kuttner, and Michael Hudson.

Representative Barney Frank has mocked those who are criticizing Barack Obama's economic team choices. But who can deny that Obama's "change" is proving to be "the more things change, the more they stay the same."


THE ECONOMIC RESCUE TEAM

Nearly all of Obama's economic team to date hails from the Clinton deregulation mania.

Behind many of the "experts" is Robert Rubin, right up there with Alan Greenspan in giving us the current disaster.

Among the named "experts", Lawrence Summers joins Rubin and Greenspan as chief among those bearing responsibility for the deregulation insanity that has doomed the American economy.

And Timothy Geithner won the accolades of Wall Street precisely because the Street knows that Geithner won't change things.

The track record of this gang is not isolated to the United States. Summers, who successfully opposed any regulation of the derivatives underlying the crisis, was instrumental in the shock therapy approach to Russia which lead to the current cult of oligarchs.


TAXATION

During the election, Obama made much of wealthier Americans paying more, much of the injustice of Bush tax cuts. But Michael Hudson and others note, Obama is now changing his tune. Moreover, the rich do not primarily pay taxes through the income tax. If they pay anything, it is largely through capital gains taxes. Obama has never suggested increasing taxes on capital gains.


LABOR

Obama speaks of stimulus for American jobs, yet labor representatives are denied a seat at Obama's table.