Embedded In Wall Street from Open Left

Jbearlaw in quick hits points to an article by David Corn and Jonathan Stein at Mother Jones as "More Evidence Geithner in Wall Street's Pocket", but I don't quite think that's the right metaphor.  Nor is Geithner necessarily the one to focus on.  Rather, I come away from the article feeling, more than ever, that the entire Obama Administration is embedded in Wall Street.

It's not a question of doing Wall Street's bidding, because they won't, necessarily.  Rather, it's a question of thinking Wall Street's thoughts, of having absorbed them by osmosis for so long, and through so many channels that even when they seek to oppose Wall Street on some issue or another, the form it takes is virtually indistinguishable from agreement to anyone who's not an insider themselves.  But let me run it down on the flip, and see what you think for yourselves.
The story concerns Geithner's Chief of Staff, Mark Patterson, and the setup for the story reads:

As a Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson once worked against a bill to curb executive compensation. The legislation's sponsor: Barack Obama.

But the reality is, the bill Obama sponsored wouldn't have curbed executive compensation.  All it would have done was give shareholders the chance to hold an advisory vote saying if they thought a CEO was getting paid too much.  In short, it was a bill to create the possibility for occasional minor embarrassment.  It was a perfect example of the aggressive toothlessness touted by Cass Sunstein, of Nudge fame.  Not that we can blame him for this one, as it started in the House, before Obama took it up in the Senate:

n 2007, Frank, the chairman of the House financial services committee, introduced H.R. 1257, the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act. The bill required public companies to allow shareholders to hold nonbinding votes on executive compensation plans. The measure-dubbed "say on pay"-was a modest step, though only one of the few attempts then to address exorbitant salaries. It did not limit pay for corporate managers; the legislation would merely permit shareholders to express their displeasure with compensation packages. Corporations would be free to ignore the outcomes of these symbolic votes. Still, the banking industry opposed the bill. And Goldman Sachs, for which Patterson was a registered lobbyist from September 2005 to April 2008, was no fan of "say on pay." Sachs' chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, who took home at least $70 million in 2007, has argued that shareholders are "less sophisticated and have less understanding" of compensation issues than corporate board members.

REST http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12374