GRITtv: The F Word: Strangling the Vampire Squid

It is all going according to plan. Goldman Sachs is the first to achieve solid profits. On its heels, JP Morgan/Chase. And if the Summers/Geithner plan continues apace other banks will return to profitability as will other sectors of American business. We're told virtually every day that we Americans believe in Free Markets and we need, first and foremost, strong financial institutions. So bravo. We are on our way. The problem, as we have learned through Republican and Democratic administrations alike, is that in the new America one person's profit is another's demise. So, the making of those big bucks by Goldman, and others, is tied to some pretty dire and plain economic realities: No wage gains despite ongoing higher productivity; little if any mortgage help for those in need; 29% credit card interest for those most in debt; enormous, growing unemployment, especially for minorities and for young people; huge numbers of Americans, many working Americans, on food assistance. Strip it all away and there's very little of substance in the pipeline for vulnerable Americans. Look around, is there any meaningful plan in place to help a working family you know? Do people really believe that shoring up banks will improve their lives? Barack Obama is playing a treacherous game: what are all those political wizards in the West Wing thinking? That people will listen to pleas for patience, forever? The time to strangle what Matt Taibbi calls the Vampire Squid is now. Before it strangles all the life and breath out of us.