Here is a strange question perplexing journalists everywhere, who we’ll just assume are playing naive for the sake of reaching their minimum word counts: why isn’t Washington listening to “national expert on financial matters” Michael Bloomberg about leaving Wall Street alone? Michael Bloomberg knows everything about finance and money, and so if he’s trying to warn Washington that financial regulatory reform could worsen New York City and state’s budget problems, out of the good of his heart, why isn’t Washington dropping the entire reform effort altogether? Why does anything need to be reformed, anyway? (One small note: financial expert Michael Bloomberg is also the mayor of New York City and therefore the leading advocate for its fiscal interests.)
NEW YORK — As Congress debates sweeping legislation aimed at guarding against another financial meltdown, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become Wall Street’s spokesman and defender amid a chorus of populist voices.
With President Barack Obama set to visit New York to push for passing financial reform, the billionaire mayor, who got his start on Wall Street in the 1960s and is considered a national expert on financial matters, argues that too much regulation could endanger the economy as much as others say it would protect it.
“The bashing of Wall Street is something that should worry everybody,” Bloomberg declared last week.
“We’re on their side,” he said this week.
There’s nothing wrong with Michael Bloomberg saying these things. It’s pretty (100%) doubtful that any regulation still under consideration would do much of anything to Wall Street profits, of course. But if you’re the mayor of New York City, your job in this debate would be to make sure nothing passes that seriously damages your ability to collect the revenue needed to balance your budget.
Which already is and will continue to be a very tough annual act for New York City and state, pretty much forever! But why would anyone even consider the idea that Washington should scale back its necessary reform efforts for the sake of a local government? One more time: WALL STREET FIRMS DESTROYED THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ECONOMY TWO YEARS AGO UNDER THE EXISTING RULES. So when the mayor of New York City declares that Washington needs to reconsider its plan to fix this in the slightest, his role as a “national expert on financial matters” may be compromised. He’s also kind of an asshole, so whatever.
[AP]
{ 45 comments }
“WALL STREET FIRMS DESTROYED THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ECONOMY TWO YEARS AGO UNDER THE EXISTING RULES.”
Yes. But I they all learned their lesson. So leave them alone, you big meanie. They feel just terrible about this whole thing.
-Mikey B
michael bloomberg also wants obama to take your guns away, also.
Of course, if everyone is convinced the game is completely rigged, that would discourage investment, too.
Meantime, in NYC, St. Vincent’s hospital owes $700M and is going to be shut down. [St V's has served Greenwich Village since the Civil War.]
I have a simple solution: we have the SEC go to Goldman Sachs and say, “Look, you either fork over $2 billion in fines out of your C Suite bonuses, your own personal pockets, OR you can take $1 billion of *corporate* money, invest it in the hospital, and get a seat on the board.”
If he’s so rich how come he isn’t smart?
Barry hates the jooz.
I think Bloomberg is just courting the crucial Employee of World Financial Center vote for his 2012 presidential election bid.
[re=562471]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: They felt so bad they took multi-million dollar bonuses just to medicate themselves out of depression! (with coke)
You know Bloomie, Wall Street fucked over NEW YORK CITY AND STATE’S government budgets along with the rest of the world’s. In fact one might say that the loss of tax revenue caused the financial meltdown to hit ESPECIALLY hard in New York. Don’t you think just MAYBE you want to stop them from being able to do that again? Maybe?
Obama to New York City: DROP DEAD!
“Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become Wall Street’s spokesman and defender amid a chorus of populist voices.” Uh, who’s in that “populist” chorus Bloomberg’s leading? Cudlow, Santelli, Bartiromo and Cramer?
Oh Jim, always with the inconvenient truths.
It’s nice that in the world of the modern media inheriting billions of dollars makes someone a “national expert on financial matters”.
Bloomberg’s chief argument in the financial reform debate is that companies will take their business to other countries if the federal government restricts the industry too much and taxes it too high.
Excuse me, but BULLFUCKINGSHIT. Did those fuckers leave Wall Street in the 30s after the Pecora Commission? Did we have a world financial center in NY before fucking Glass-Steagall was repealed?
Will somebody please smack Bloomberg and the so-called reporters in their motherfucking mouths? I hate it when reporters put in shit like “who is considered…..” Considered by fucking whom?
Sorry, but I got really screwed as a direct result of the meltdown, and I am in no mood to have it happen again. How much did Bloomey lose? Fucking fuckhead.
King Michael is certainly an expert in offshore accounts. Whining, hypocritical, twat.
It’s all Nick Clegg’s fault.
Bloomberg has a point, as the Feds crackdown on the Mafia already has taken away half of New York’s economy.
Also, the cops shouldn’t arrest the guy who mugged Bloomberg’s aunt, because the mayor got a ring and twenty bucks out of the deal.
First the insurance companies, now Wall Street. What’s next, the banks? Oh, the humanity!
[re=562484]V572625694[/re]: Exactly. When did these oligarchist chuckleheads become populists?
[re=562473]memzilla[/re]: Crap, I didn’t know that about St. Vincent’s — that is where I was birthed.
Now I have a real, true sad :(
In this sense Bloomberg is right: if you gave a bunch of pirates the right to pillage the rest of the country and spend it all on condos, hookers and blow in NYC, it probably would have a somewhat positive effect on the NYC economy.
Last point, I promise: Which reporter is going to think to ask where Mr. Expert was for the last 10 years? British reporters are so much better. I’m done. Time to drink.
the billionaire mayor, who [...] is considered a national expert on financial matters,
Honestly, I’m pretty sure Bloomberg here is speaking 90% as “the billionaire”, maybe 9% as “mayor”, and 0-1% as “expert on financial matters”.
[re=562484]V572625694[/re]: He had a pedestrian bridge built that went from a hotel to the convention hall so that the 10-gallon-hat set wouldn’t have to walk one fucking block on the street to get to RetardCon. This rube doesn’t know shit about New York.
Wall St. is becoming Main St. .. which means, it’s moving to Florida. So stop bashing Wall St. NYC because it’s not here anymore.
NYC has become a banker’s Disney World. Hopefully, they will have some hard times, ’cause NYC was much more interesting in the 70′s and 80′s when it smelled bad and was really fucked up.
We should understand that the people who make a living cheating, stealing and generally abusing the system only have our best interests at heart when they tell us that not allowing them to cheat, steal and abuse the system is bad for us.
I’m in New York now, and I’m just glad Bloomie let titty bars reopen in Times Square.
Do I detect a hostile tone toward Mr. Bloomberg?! But he is so moderate, and moderates can say and do no wrong. He’s so moderate, he actually is an Independent!! How dare you insult conventional wisdom so, and attempt to squash the next wave of adversarial news coverage. Blitzer is consoling a sobbing David Broder right about now. I hope you’re happy Wonkette.
Goddamn I hate those fancy lads.
[re=562507]Tim[/re]: Nobody even TRIED to mug me when I lived there. And I went way out there on the L, the N & W, shit I even took the D out to Coney Island and walked around with a man-purse.
Is Bloomberg going to run again for the 15th time? Because I don’t think running as “Wall Street defender” will play very well.
How long before we see the teabaggers, zombie vassals of Big Money (ie insurance companies) carrying posters saying “TAKE YUR HANDS OFF OUR WALL STREET”?
Whaddya mean, “kind of” an asshole? I looked up “asshole” in the dictionary and there he was. He’s sui generis.
I am, as I type, sitting in a small den in Queens. I am visiting my family with my kids while they are on break. My conservative, angry white man father is snoring next to me while the Mets play on the tee vee. Before he crashed, we were switching back and forth between the game and the news. I held my tongue amidst comments of “wealth redistribution.” But there was much discussion on how much this is going to “kill New York.” Much like HCR is going to kill their Medicare. Oh, and !Socialism!!1!. And Hannity seems to play on the radio here 24/7. I keep turning him off but he never goes away.
Yes I am drinking.
Tomorrow I go home to the great liberal state of Scott Brown. Thank God.
I work for CITI ( lowly call center cubicle phone slave, promise!)
We like to refer to our boss as ‘Vicrim Pandit, The CITI Bandit!’
Rolls right off the tongue….
<>
[re=562593]Marimba65[/re]: i always preferred the term “headset hooker” back in my call-center days…
[re=562506]DC Hates Me[/re]: Wall Street isn’t just becoming Main Street, it OWNS Main Street, everything on it. Currently, Wall Street plans to demolish everything on Main Street and fill it with a mixed-use development consisting of Starbuck’s, GAP’s, oh, and McDonald’s for the peasants.
Wall Street: All your Main Streets are belong to us!
Oh, and fuck Bloomberg and the miniature horse his little ass rode in on. Also.
Obama – Socialist, at best.
Bloomberg – Not.
End of story.
[re=562473]memzilla[/re]: Great plan for the socialist redistribution of money-communist! Like a hospital is more important than a wall street fat rich guy! Geezze!
[re=562597]Crank Tango[/re]: Headset hooker…yeah…perfect name for the job I refused to tell anyone what I did. It was worse than being a whore(I imagine) because I never made anything like whore diamonds and yet felt used and abused.
Let’s caps yearly income tied to median income. So if these Fug wads don’t want every extra dollar made going to the US Treasury (Pay down the debt)then they’re going to work hard getting that median income up. Give bonus money to more people like secretaries, mail clerks and janitors. Use your assets to invest in job creation instead of profit and earning maximization. Maybe then a rising Dow will lower the unemployment rate.
By the way:
The group of heretics mentioned above are actually called “RomanCatholics4RubberCondoms” — not “Catholics4Condoms.” Allow me to explain:
Roman Catholics are called Roman Catholics for a reason. You know: lions, Nero, Demetrius and the Gladiators, soldiers in helmets purchased from the Fuller brush man, etc. And rubber condoms are rubber for a reason. Most condom manufacturers advertise their best latex for its ability to conduct electricity without frying your partner in the process. This makes any heretical use of a condom — after all, God is watching the whole time — a virtual epiphany.
Give or take a plenary indulgence. But as epiphanies go — it’s guaranteed to be a safe one. No matter what the Vatican says. After all, the Church is much too busy trying to make a saint out of Michael Jackson to give a sh*t one way or the other.
But that’s only my male, chauvinistic viewpoint. Every woman knows when it comes to conducting electricity for pleasure, the answer is usually found in the night stand next to the bed.
As for Economics 101, the DJIA varies directly — not inversely — with the unemployment rate. Job creation, my a*s.
Comments on this entry are closed.