Yves Smith on the nomination of Antonio Weiss to head Treasury, and the ensuing attacks on Elizabeth Warren. Go read it all, it’s fascinating. But this is a key point:
So what Sorkin is trying to spin as a plus is something we warned about earlier: that the Obama Administration is now making important policy roles into patronage positions, to be handed out as prizes to important fundraisers. Before, that sort of thing used to be limited to ambassadorships and secondary posts like head of the Export-Import Bank. Now it’s going to unquestionably important roles.
Hasn’t this always been the case? When most Secretary’s of the Treasury have come out of JP Morgan for the last 100 years you know something is up. In order to get someone confirmed by the Senate they must be acceptable to the Senate. Isn’t there something very wrong with that picture? Our entire government is owned and operated by the oligarchy. We vote for politicians who are handpicked and then fully funded by the oligarchy. Ours is not a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That may have been the original idea, but that ideal was shit-canned long ago by the wealthy.