October 22, 2009: Obama Assaults Capitalism, Quivers on Foreign Policy

The Obama Strategy

While President Obama is marshalling troops for attacks on media critics and American businesses, he still refuses to make any decision on the situation in Afghanistan. He's like a Frosted Mini-Wheat in a slick suit - one side is a foreign policy weakling afraid of his own shadow and the other side is waging a vicious all-out war on Americans.

Here's the latest on the strong side of the Frosted Mini-Wheat-in-Chief:

The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at the seven companies that received the most from the Wall Street bailout. Total compensation for the top executives at the firms would decline, on average, by about 50 percent.

Source: FoxNews

Ninety percent. Nice. Did they pick that number out of thin air? Or was there a dart board involved? Maybe a Magic 8 ball? Ouija Board?

In the long run, this will either be overturned or it will be seen as a major milestone in the destruction of American capitalism:

In the annals of what used to be known as American capitalism, yesterday will go down as a sorry day: The Treasury and Federal Reserve announced wage controls on private American companies. So once again our politicians are blaming bankers, rather than addressing the incentives the politicians themselves created for bankers to take excessive risks.

Source: Wall Street Journal

The most immediate impact will likely be seen in New York State. An attack on Wall Street could rival what has happened to Michigan now that the auto industry is dead - massive unemployment, a depressed real estate market, homes selling for 3 or 4-figure auction prices, etc.

Take it from New York Governor David Patterson:

"That probably cost New York $1 billion," Paterson said. "And look, I'm not going to defend these people that run these companies. They've frittered away a lot of money in these reckless schemes. But the reality is, in the end, we've lost $1 billion dollars because of that act. And there goes that pipe dream legislators engaged in reacting to my cuts."

Source: New York Observer