Next step in Taibbi's Obama narrative: we've been had!

The point is that an economic team made up exclusively of callous millionaire-assholes has absolutely zero interest in reforming the gamed system that made them rich in the first place. "You can't expect these people to do anything other than protect Wall Street," says Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Republican [right-wing populism alert!] from Florida. That thinking was clear from Obama's first address to Congress, when he stressed the importance of getting Americans to borrow like crazy again. "Credit is the lifeblood of the economy," he declared, pledging "the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money." A president elected on a platform of change was announcing, in so many words, that he planned to change nothing fundamental when it came to the economy. Rather than doing what FDR had done during the Great Depression and institute stringent new rules to curb financial abuses [or follow Clinton's urging to adopt HOLC, natch], Obama planned to institutionalize the policy, firmly established during the Bush years, of keeping a few megafirms rich at the expense of everyone else.

Taibbi does do a great job of connecting the dots on the Wall St -- Obama admin, although the connections he outlines are limited to only the time period after Obama took office. (because really, how could anyone have predicted?...)

He winds up his piece with the (obligatory?) snotty potshot at tea partiers -- "These are the kinds of voters whom Obama's gang of Wall Street advisers is counting on: idiots" (what was I just saying about "progressives" never missing a chance to condescend?), which makes an interesting bookend to the starry-eyed questing for Nirvanic progressive change of Obama voters with which he starts his article. Because, some narratives neverchange, sigh.

The whole thing is worth a read.

Pac John has a Taibbi interview up which lays out much the same material in condensed form here. And Colbert's interview with Taibbi covering pretty much the same material but focusing on Goldman Sacks (avec some funny) here.