Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/14/2009 9:05:49 PM PST by Steelfish
Putting Obama on Hold, in a Hint of Who’s Boss
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN December 14, 2009
President Obama didn’t exactly look thrilled as he stared at the Polycom speakerphone in front of him. “Well, I appreciate you guys calling in,” he began the meeting at the White House with Wall Street’s top brass on Monday.
He was, of course, referring to the three conspicuously absent attendees who were being piped in by telephone: Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; John J. Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley; and Richard D. Parsons, chairman of Citigroup.
Their excuse? “Inclement weather,” according to the White House. More precisely, fog delayed flights into Reagan National Airport. (In the “no good deed goes unpunished” category, the absent bankers were at least self-aware enough to try to fly commercial.)
That awkward moment on speakerphone in the White House, for better or worse, spoke volumes about how the balance of power between Wall Street and Washington has shifted again, back in Wall Street’s favor.
Now that Citigroup has given back its bailout money — and Wells Fargo announced late on Monday that it would, too — whatever leverage Washington had over the financial services industry seems to be quickly eroding.
Executive compensation, leverage limits and lending standards were all issues that Washington said it planned to change — and when the taxpayers were the shareholders of these firms, it probably could have done so. But now the White House has been left in the position of extending invitations, rather than exercising its clout. And in the figurative and literal sense, it is getting stood up.
Those who attended the meeting — Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan flew down on a private jet and didn’t take any heat for it ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I think I heard the Gipper chuckle...
That damn global warming no doubt!
They could have been referring to the “weather” in the WH!
Payback time for the joker’s “pitchfork” comment to these private industry executives early this year.
I can’t wait for the day this loser is defeated in 2012. Or, impeached before then.
Now that I think about it, what a great idea. Why burn all that fuel and add to the carbon footprint for these meetings when they can "phone it in"?
I think they should have stayed home and told Obama they had used up their carbon allowance for the month or something. :)
Why can't he speak better than this:
Well, I appreciate you guys calling in
They will make a deal to pay off the socialists with something that will screw their institutions and the economy just like they did with the “low income loan” program with Clinton.
Bawney Fwank is not going to be happy if he can’t totally boss them around anymore. He was really loving that power.
The jig is up.
Is the NYT trying to scold them?
Seems to me maybe they’ve learned their lesson about being involved with this administration if they are paying back the debt to be free of it. I’d like to believe they’d have paid the money back either way but I don’t. They just didn’t want to be shackled to Obama anymore.
That was my first thought, too. How low-class and uneducated can you get?
But I guess we should be thankful he didn’t exclaim a Joisey “youse guys.”
The “ Bwanking Qween “ will be in his hissy fit now...
I have "Conservative Republican" family members who absolutely love O'Reilly. I can't stand that arrogant moderate. Tonight, he was discussing ZER0's grading hisself as a B+ (16-18 million unemployed Americans I'm sure wouldn't be so kind). O'Reilly ACTUALLY said that he disagreed "but in all fairness, he [ZER0] has done some things right. I would like to know exactly *WHAT* ZER0 has gotten "right!"
The CEO of Goldman Sachs doesn’t travel to meet with an idiot he has bought for a mere pittance.
The idiot travels to meet with the CEO of Goldman Sachs - if he is granted an appointment.
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