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The State of the Union Speech You Should Have Heard

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Shaker Heights High School,Shaker Heights, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

If you watched President Obama give the State of the Union , you might be scratching your head over his failure to speak, except for a brief mention, about what will one day fill at least a chapter in history books as one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression.

Instead, the president appeared to be taking his cue from the story The Emperor’s New Clothes. Much like the emperor, the American public has fallen victim to swindlers – in this case the banks – with everyone believing that the nation’s economy is as splendid as the emperor believed was his fine clothing.

If I were King For a Day, my State of the Union address would have gone a little differently:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow Americans:
Let me start by saying I know it appears on the surface that the economy is improving, but look around you. Who among your family, friends, co-workers or acquaintances hasn’t suffered at the hands of the banking industry?

Those with any savings to speak of continue to get a pittance worth of interest. Those who purchased homes at the height of the economic crisis remain underwater and continue to face the prospect of losing their home. Our housing market is not healing at the pace it should and homeowners do not enjoy the protections they were promised.
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Tags: banking in the united states, economy of the united states, financial crisis, Obama, President Obama, presidents, real estate mortgage investment conduit, state of the union speech, Troubled Asset Relief Program, united states department of the treasury
Posted in Big Banks, President Barack Obama, Wall Street | No Comments »

Why President Obama Will Win

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo! Homes and is being republished on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.

Last week a reporter asked me whether or not I thought President Barack Obama had done enough during the foreclosure crisis.

I told him no, of course, and that if Obama does not win a second term, it would be because of housing. When Obama campaigned back in 2008, he campaigned as a populist, yet that did not hold over once he took office. He has at times seemed more interested in bailing out banks than homeowners.

If Gov. Mitt Romney had more strongly positioned himself as the candidate for Main Street, rather than as an advocate for big business, then perhaps this election would not be as close as it is.

But he too has failed to realize the importance of housing as a political issue. The folks in foreclosure and its impact on the real estate market, even days before the election, just is not being talked about by both political parties.

Most homeowners I have come across are keenly aware of this fact. So if neither candidate has done enough to address how to stabilize the housing market, then who wins?

I wasn’t certain before Hurricane Sandy wrecked havoc on the Northeast. But now in the storm’s aftermath, we are seeing a president who is taking charge, and as they say, being presidential. And when you have staunch Republicans like Gov. Chris Christie singing the president’s praises, you have to wonder if Romney’s window of opportunity has closed.
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Tags: bain capital, barack obama, consumer confidence, key issues, mitt romney, Obama, obama campaign, obama victory, obama will win, political positions of mitt romney, President Obama, presidents
Posted in Housing Market, Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama, Presidential Election | No Comments »

Presidential Debates Let Wall Street Off the Hook

Friday, October 26th, 2012

Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo! Homes and is being republished on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.

So we’ve managed to get through all three presidential debates.

But although the presidential election is (thankfully) in the home stretch, did we really learn anything new about either President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney?

And more importantly, what everyone should be asking is why neither candidate refused to acknowledge the 900-pound gorillas in the room. They were there, but they got a cursory glance at best. These issues are glaring and obvious, yet it is as if they did not exist. It is the reason why many voters are still scratching their heads and asking the following questions.

Why isn’t housing the No. 1 domestic economic issue in this campaign?

Both the president and Romney spent exceedingly too much time on the national debt, when our economy starts and ends with housing. For the first time since the Great Depression, the real estate market has not pulled the economy out of recession. Structurally that is huge, because it was in fact the real estate market that caused the recession in the first place.

But more importantly, the recession was caused by greed and a confluence of people falling asleep at the switch. You have the government that has not properly regulated the banks, who have used their cozy relationship with the regulators to grow larger and more powerful as our nation’s leaders stood idly by.

And now you are left with entire industries, including Wall Street, effectively overshadowing the role of government. At times it seems like moral character has been checked at the foot of Wall Street.
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Tags: bailout, bain capital, barack obama, debate, economic questions, financial economics, investment, key economic, mitt romney, political positions of mitt romney, politics, presidential candidates, presidential debate, presidential election, reactions to occupy wall street, the presidential election, the wall street, too big to fail, wall street, wall street bank
Posted in Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama, Presidential Election, Too Big To Fail, Wall Street | No Comments »

Behind the Veneer of Mitt Romney’s ‘47 Percent’ Comments

Friday, September 21st, 2012

Courtesy: Mother Jones

Remember when “Corporations are people, my friend!” was the strangest thing to come out of Mitt Romney’s mouth?

It speaks volumes about the problems with our political process that it took a speech we were never intended to hear to allow us to hear a politician speaking honestly and off-the-cuff.

Now I am not in the business of endorsing any political candidate. I have used this space on many occasions to criticize President Obama and his policies.

But I have had reservations about Romney and whether he has a firm grasp on the human centipede that exists between Wall Street and the regulators. And after watching the video of Romney talk about the so-called ’47 percent’, I still have my doubts. And that’s not because of anything he said on that tape. It is what he doesn’t say.

The truth is there are Americans who see themselves as victims, who consider themselves entitled to the government’s help, and have yet to take personal responsibility.

Except they are not the working poor, elderly or wounded veterans Mitt Romney tried to lump together.

The real “47 percent”? They are the bankers, the Wall Street hucksters who have happily accepted bailout after bailout, but play the victim card anytime the notion of added regulation is mentioned. It’s the banks, and not the working class, who have
brought our economy to a screeching halt, who have played fast and loose with the rules to suit their own bottom lines.

They have sucked our nation down to the marrow, and the fact that Mitt has not called them out gives me serious doubts he will consider breaking up the banks or do anything to reel them in.
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Tags: 47 percent, bain capital, latter day saint movement, massachusetts, mitt, mitt romney, mitt romney's, moochers, Obama, political positions of mitt romney, politics, pratt romney family, public image of mitt romney, romney, romney talks, romney tries, sway, veneer, voters
Posted in Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘President Barack Obama’ Category

The State of the Union Speech You Should Have Heard

Why President Obama Will Win

Presidential Debates Let Wall Street Off the Hook

Behind the Veneer of Mitt Romney’s ‘47 Percent’ Comments

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