Why Wall Street Should be Nervous
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
Whatever one thinks of the Occupiers and the Tea Partiers (and most Americans view the Occupiers far more favorably), one thing should be painstakingly clear to the crowd on Wall Street: the likelihood of their getting bailed out again is next to nil.
While most of the goals of the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are diametrically opposed, Joe Biden did identify the one common thread:
“There’s a lot in common with the tea party,” Biden said at forum in Washington, D.C., when asked about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. “The tea party started why? TARP. They thought it was unfair — we were bailing out the big guy.”
Both the Left and the Right in this country are furious about the bailouts of the financial sector. Both sides, amazingly, view Wall Street figures variously as pawns and/or puppetmasters of the other side. In modern America, that’s about as close to legitimate popular bipartisanship as anyone is likely to get.
Which leads to an interesting dynamic. No, the “too big to fail” banks have not been broken up. No, naked credit default swaps haven’t been banned, nor has high-frequency trading been even taxed, to say nothing of banned. Logistically speaking, nothing is preventing the financial sector from blowing up another bubble.
But the common person can take solace in this at least: there is no more Greenspan put. If the financial sector blows up again, there won’t be anyone but establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats (the same thing, really, on everything but LGBT and abortion issues) to back them up. And increasingly in America, establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats don’t amount to enough of a coalition to push back against the base of either party. True, the conservative base is currently stronger and has a louder voice than the progressive base. But the Progressive Caucus in Congress is growing, not shrinking, and the Occupy movement has re-energized core progressive Dems.
From a legislative point of view, Wall Street may still be able to get away with murder and crash the economy again. From a political point of view, there won’t be enough legislators willing to catch that falling knife. The financial sector is finally starting to realize that.
In a world full of half-empty glasses, that glass at least is half full.
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