HONG KONG — U.S. President Barack Obama has used harsh words in denouncing the big bonuses that Wall Street is paying to its bankers and announcing new levies to claw back some of that money. "We want our money back, and we are going to get it," he said, calling the bankers "fat cats" and their payments "obscene." And, on Thursday, he announced a new proposal to limit banks' financial risk-taking.
It sounds tough, but the reality is that it is the roar of a lion safely held on a leash and unable or unwilling to break free of the grip of the financial men.
You have only to look at the state of the world's economies — those of the so-called advanced capitalist world anyway, to realize this. Larry Summers, the White House economic chief, has announced several times that "everybody agrees that the recession is over."