President Obama's supporters have long been disappointed — 29 million of them didn't show up at the polls.  It seems time to set down a marker and there is no better issue than the Bush tax cuts.  These were always a wedge intended to destroy social  programs, and quite frankly, no one would really mind if they were allowed to lapse — except the very rich.  The middle class get about $800, the poor (lowest quintile) about $45 per year.  Both groups would rather have Social Security and Medicare strengthened than these paltry amounts.  The total savings … about $13.7 trillion in the next decade — would be a boon to our decaying infrastucture if our elected representatives are willing to do something about it, and if the President is willing and able to push a program which will bring jobs and enhance our competitiveness.

Obama's recent travels (travails?) have amply demonstrated the power shifts emerging from a wounded U.S. economy.  But the architects of our misery are enjoying a  luxurious retirement:  Sanford Weill has purchased a vineyard in California paying top dollar.  This in addition to a 14-acre estate in Greenwich, Conn., a $42.4 million penthouse in New York City and 120 acres in the Adirondacks.  Ah! yes, the fruits of hard labor for another "savvy businessman".  He sought an exception permitting the merger of his Travelers Group with Citibank because the former had an investment banking arm and the merger would have violated Glass-Steagall.  He ended up with having Glass-Steagall repealed altogether on November 12, 1999 through the agency of Secretary Bob Rubin and his successor Larry Summers.  Mr. Rubin moved on to a $15 million a year job at Citi (plus enormous bonuses) and Summers earned $10 million in consulting fees.

In the meantime, millions of lives have been destroyed (no doubt including suicides), the economy is in tatters, the tax payers are paying the bill — about $350 billion in loans and guarantees to Citigroup alone which was destroyed by Weill's gambling.  In many countries such behavior would lead to long prison terms, in others, like China, much worse.  But in our beloved country the man buys a vineyard.  We are, however, busy prosecuting a man for a bombing in Kenya, and the jury has just found him innocent of all 280 substantive charges.  So they got him on one charge of conspiracy.  They used to say you can convict a turnip on a conspiracy charge.  But then, the lawyers would know better — Sanford Weill certainly sleeps safe in all his beds.

Meanwhile the NATO meeting in Portugal supposedly planned (or initiated the planning for) an exit strategy from Afghanistan.  Here is an exit strategy — leave!   Nothing could be worse than the planned exit (of combat forces?) we have just concluded in Iraq.

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