Our Elites Are Extremely Isolated from Real Life in America -- and That's Dangerous

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/our-elites-are-extremely-isolated-real-life-america-and-thats-dangerous

In 10th century Japan a “pillow book” was a form of diary, a place to gather notes, lists and other scraps of paper and reflect upon them before retiring to bed. A “court lady” to the Empress used hers to depict life in the royal household, and today “The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon” is considered an invaluable record of a pampered and long-vanished Imperial court’s customs and beliefs.

Someday we may look at former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s memoir “Stress Test” the same way.

Imagine for a moment you’re Tim Geithner. You’re intelligent, competent, and hard-working. Your friends like you. Your bosses appreciate you. You’re a good family man. You worked under extraordinary pressure to save the financial system. And all you get for it is grief. Naturally you want to write a book to set the record straight.

It’s all perfectly understandable, at least from Geithner’s point of view.

[Divernan]

1. A booklength version of W's "Mission Accomplished" banner.

Geithner's dangerously distorted worldview rewrites history and should not be allowed to stand unchallenged and unridiculed.

Now imagine that you’re a middle-class wage earner who’s worked hard all your life. You bought a house, perhaps sometime in the 1990s. The talking heads on TV said it was a great investment, your bank’s assessor said the house was valuable, and politicians from both parties had been telling you for decades that homeownership is the American Dream.

But you were defrauded by lawbreaking bankers, and then abandoned by presidential administrations of both parties. You’ve been unemployed for years now – thanks to a financial crisis that the banks created by manipulating people like you – but in Washington they’ve stopped talking about job creation. You’re slipping down the economic ladder, rung by rung. Maybe you’re suicidal, like some of the people who wrote to me back in 2010.

Nobody’s asking you to write your memoirs. In fact, nobody seems particularly interested in your story anymore. If you’re a little bitter at all the attention Tim Geithner’s new memoir is receiving, that’s understandable. A lot of the economists and bankers who ruined your life are featured prominently and flatteringly in Geithner’s book.

But you? You’re barely mentioned at all.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[tridim]

3. I was defrauded by lawbreaking bankers and NOT abandoned by the Obama administration

I received a settlement check from my bank only because of the Obama administration's direct actions. Thousands of others did as well.

So no, I was not "abandoned by presidential administrations of both parties" as the author states as fact.

That said, I have no interest in reading Geithner's book. Why would anyone?

[Divernan]

5. How much did you lose and how much was your check for?

Full value? Pennies on the dollar? What program was that? I lost 80% of my retirement savings and got zilch back. What bankers have the Obama Justice Department prosecuted?

[tridim]

7. I recieved less than I lost...

Because the value of my house dropped by about 70% during the Bush financial collapse.

The only people that cared at all and helped was the Obama Administration. http://www.nationalmortgagesettlement.com/

[malaise]

4. 100% correct

Wish I could rec

[bullwinkle428]

6. Here's a particularly painful passage:

Geithner attempts to avoid responsibility for this failure to protect the economy by caricaturing his opponents as a bloodthirsty fanatics. Geithner wasn’t alone in his reluctance to provide outrage where it was economically – and morally – justified. “The President once told me he felt uncomfortable playing a populist,” Geithner writes, “like he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit.”

[Autumn]

8. Pretty much a kick in the ass there.

[nashville_brook]

9. painfully clear, indeed.

gah!

[Mojorabbit]

11. Gosh I hope that last statement is not true. nt

[Doctor_J]

10. not for the elite

When it becomes dangerous for them, things will start to improve

[MisterP]

12. not an accurate comparison: people willingly read the Pillow Book