Remember the aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ collapse? The then Treasury Secretary worked overtime and begged the congress and the President to bailout out Wall Street (specifically his old firm Goldman Sachs). Paulson and a bunch of others went on to say that if Wall Street is not saved, markets will swoon and take us into another great depression. Perhaps they were right. However, they were successful in overtly threatening the Congress into submission and passing the $700 bil bank bailout legislation. Paulson was very careful in not putting any strings to the bailout money banks get. Fast forward to Jan 2010. Thanks to Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner, the banks are able to give a tiny $140 billion in bonuses for 2009. [Sure, sure. They are smart and they deserve it.]  And I am sure Paulson will get his check eventually in some form or the other.

It is irrelevant which party is in power, the modus operandi is the same. Give us what we want, or else markets will tank! What we know from this process is that it is not the elected officials who are in charge. This is no democracy. This is an oligarchy. A bunch of fat cat bankers and large corporations are in charge. Not the Congress. Not the President.

Here is another unfolding example. White House Press Secretary, Mr. Robert Gibbs on FNS and the Treasury Secretary Mr. Timothy Geithner on Politico – both are essentially saying.