Last Call

With Wall Street all irrationally exuberant about bank profit reports again, Double G reminds us that it pays to go back and recall just what led up to Goldman Sachs being able to report any sort of profit whatsoever in 2009. Glenn has an excellent timeline up, but here's what grabbed me:

It's worth recalling this bit of central truth, blurted out in April by the number two Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Dick Durbin:

And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.

That was nice and blunt. That same week, it was announced that the newly-hired top lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, Michael Paese, was -- immediately prior to his hiring -- the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. If one's goal were to make all of this as blatant as possible, what else could one do besides what's being done?

The Republicans may have decimated the economy, but the Democrats have no intention of giving us anything other than smoke and mirrors. They're the ones in charge right now, not the GOP. While we're struggling for scraps, remember who's eating at the head table.

In fact, forget who's at the head table...remember who owns the food, the table, the dining hall, the castle, the county, and the kingdom. And it ain't us serfs.