Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Zombie Banks Run the Country, Thanks to Their Grand Protector in the Oval Office
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
01 Apr 2009
🖨️ Print Article

zombie_bankerA Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

micClick the flash player to listen to, or the mic at left to download a broadcast quality MP3 of this BA Radio commentary.


The Obama administration has allowed the investment bankster class to not only "virtually dictate the terms of their own rescue, but shape policy for the attempted recovery of the overall economy." A former Wall Streeter is in charge of the federal auto industry task force that is bludgeoning Detroit's workers and management, while the Obama administration provides "open-ended, luxurious life support" to "its walking-dead, parasitical friends on Wall Street." Banks are scheduled to undergo a government "stress test" later this month, but it doesn't promise to be very stressful, since hardly anyone "expects the feds to flunk any of the big banks, or even to share the results of the stress test with the public."



Zombie Banks Run the Country, Thanks to Their Grand Protector in the Oval Office

  A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The Wall Streeters have been given a license to destroy, not only their own, paper-money gambling enterprises, but the infrastructure of the real economy, as well.”

Although disgraced in the eyes of the American and world publics, nothing is more clear than that the U.S. investment banking class remains in political control of the nation. The zombies run the country, through the agency of their grand protector in the White House. They not only virtually dictate the terms of their own rescue, but shape policy for the attempted recovery of the overall economy. This reality is on stark display in the treatment meted out to the U.S. auto industry, a mainstay of the real economy, a producer of actual products and mass employer of people at  decent, union wages, as compared to the open-ended, luxurious life support the Obama administration provides to its walking-dead, parasitical friends on Wall Street.

The federal government has initiated a hostile takeover of General Motors, both its management and labor components, and appears ready to write off Chrysler as a lost cause. General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out by the feds, who have also taken on the role of union buster, bearing down like Mafia thugs on the United Auto Workers, whose only crime over last the seven decades has been to provide for its members a health and retirement safety net that the corporate-controlled U.S. government denies to the masses of its people. With the auto industry on the ropes as an immediate consequence of high crimes on Wall Street, who does Barack Obama put in charge of auto task force? A former Wall Street investment banker, Steven Rattner.

“Who does Barack Obama put in charge of auto task force? A former Wall Street investment banker.”

It was Wall Street, finance capital, that engineered the hollowing out of the American manufacturing sector, imposing a casino financial regime on producers of real goods, for the benefit of speculators who create nothing. Barack Obama has allied himself and the federal government on the side of the speculators, and placed one of them in charge of “restructuring” one of the last bastions of good, blue collar jobs in America. The Wall Streeters have been given a license to destroy, not only their own, paper-money gambling enterprises, but the infrastructure of the real economy, as well.

Even the bankster’s best buddies in journalism at the Wall Street Journal have noted the blantant double standard in the Obama administration’s treatment of banks versus the auto industry. The coddled mega-failures of the banking racket are scheduled to undergo a so-called “stress test” late this month, to determine which banks are viable enough to make it through these hard times. But virtually nobody expects the feds to flunk any of the big banks, or even to share the results of the stress test with the public. The Obama administration, which takes its cues from Goldman Sachs and other investment bankers, protects the banksters from both the wrath of the public and the challenges of the marketplace that they poisoned. Yet Obama’s people are not concerned in the least about the stress that is felt by literally millions of Americans whose livelihoods are linked to the auto industry.

A generation ago, finance capital killed productive, manufacturing capital in the United States, and seized political control of the U.S. government apparatus. Then they killed themselves. But Barack Obama won’t let the banksters die. Instead, he puts them in charge of the everyone else’s destiny.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Palestine Solidarity Under Attack: A Conversation with Helyeh Doutaghi
    11 Apr 2025
    Our guest is Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi. She was Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale University Law School until she was targeted by Zionist groups dedicated to silencing anyone…
  • The Break
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Break NYC and the Need for a Socialist, Independent Mayoral Candidate in New York City
    11 Apr 2025
    A new organization, The Break NYC, has recently formed and is dedicated to finding and endorsing an independent leftist committed to staying in the race and appearing on the ballot. Two members of…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Cory Booker, Confused Liberals, Obama's Reappearance, and the Dangers of a Fake Movement
    09 Apr 2025
    Any “movement” that leads protest back to the Democratic Party is, by definition, dangerous. Criticism of Donald Trump cannot be a defining feature of change. 
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: White Supremacy in U.S. History, Theodore W. Allen April 28, 1973
    09 Apr 2025
    “The principal aspect of United States capitalist society is not merely bourgeois domination but bourgeois white supremacist domination.”
  • Hands Off protest
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    HANDS OFF NATO? Not Palestine? Who got the memo?
    09 Apr 2025
    The Democrats’ HANDS OFF rallies included “HANDS OFF NATO” and excluded “HANDS OFF PALESTINE,” but not all rally goers got the memo.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us