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The Hillary Groping Incident And Other Signs We’re Back in 1950
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Susan Walsh
Clueless white men, crass Hillary jokes, and Geithner’s “no girls allowed” sign. Is this the kind of change we’re meant to believe in?
Incident 1: The Big Three Bailout Hearings
Wow, what an experience. A bunch of white males (with the exception of Sen. Dole) who clearly understood little of the underlying dynamics of an industry puffing their collective chests out and asking a bunch of pre-rehearsed questions to another group of white males. Figuring out if taxpayers should spend another $34 billion of our hard earned money.
One of the best lines of the day was when Sen. Corker of Tennessee bragged in his opening remarks that “he spent recent days in New York speaking with various bankers and turnaround experts.” Gee, that made me feel a heck of lot better. I mean c’mon, 10 hours of education on the intricacies of auto industry restructurings is enough to get out the checkbook for a few billion, right? Does any one of the Senators sitting on this committee have an MBA and/or a background in finance?
Geithner wants to silence a woman that disagrees with him. Sound familiar?
Pew Research recently reported that in 43% of all U.S. homes, women make more of the decisions on household finances (men make more in 26%, and in 31% of homes it is equal). Why then is it that our automotive committee is composed of 21 senators, 20 of which are male. So while 43% of women make the decisions at home, 5% of our Senate Banking Committee is composed of women?
Incident 2: Geitner Ditches the Only Woman on Bailout Team
Bloomberg reported that President-elect Obama’s pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, wants to kick FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair off of the Bailout Team. Not only is Bair the only woman currently on the Bailout Team, but she is considered by many (including Jim Cramer of CNBC) as the only one who gets it.
Bair has been the lone voice advocating for a bottom up approach - e.g. curing the root of the problem (foreclosures). This is in sharp contrast to the disastrous TARP in which our government has dumped over $350 billion of the allocated $700 billion of taxpayer’s hard-earned money into a growing financial landfill. The program is certainly aptly named: tarp that covers the mistakes of a top down approach of pouring taxpayer funds into buying up the equity of certain chosen banks. And $350 billion that did nothing to thaw the frozen credit markets or make funds available to companies or homeowners.
And might I add a big “hats off” to Barney Frank for speaking against Geithner’s effort to jettison Bair. As reported in Politico:
Frank credited the current resistance to doing more about foreclosures to ruffled male feathers. “I think part of the problem now is that, to be honest, Shelia Bair has annoyed the Old Boys Club.” He likened the situation to several regulators “up in the treehouse with a ‘No Girls Allowed’ sign.”
Bair should retain her FDIC post in the Obama administration and even be given a “broader role in helping to formulate policy on mortgage foreclosures,” Frank told reporters after his speech.
So now, Geithner wants to silence a woman that disagrees with him. Sound familiar? Recently, the New York Times reported in an article titled The Woman Greenspan, Rubin & Summers Silenced that the three men refused to heed the warning of Brooksley Born, former head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Had the three listened to Born’s warnings on the dangerous derivatives market, our current financial crisis may have been averted.
Incident 3: John Favreau Gropes Cardboard Likeness of Sen Clinton
Check out what President-elect Obama’s pick for director of speechwriting at the White House does in his free time.
This is the guy who puts words in Obama’s mouth, right?
As discussed on The New Agenda blog:
These antics ought to be summarily condemned by president-elect Obama. He ought to fire Jon Favreau. If he does not fire Favreau, he risks fostering the perception that he condones Favreau’s disrespect toward Sen. Clinton. He also risks encouraging this sort of behavior in other young men toward women who are not merely cardboard cutouts.
Drinking and sexual assault are a pernicious and persistent problem on college campuses.
It is a national catastrophe that 32% of our college women are victims of domestic violence.
Is the type of “change” we are meant to believe in? Looks like more of the “boys club” “(only 27% of Cabinet picks to date are women—less than President Clinton and President W. Bush)” that seems to be developing at the White House under President-elect Obama.
Amy Siskind is co-founder of The New Agenda, a non partisan organization devoted to advancing women’s rights.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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robbeast
What the hell does household finance have to with macroeconomic policy?
slugabug
The phrase "taxpayer's hard-earned money" doesn't accurately describe what we are seeing today. The "taxpayer's hard-earned money" is long gone and was spent years ago. All the money for Investment Bank bailouts and Auto Manufacturer bailouts is being printed at the Federal Reserve. That's the major difference between this crisis and the Great Depression. This time around, the United States really has no assets left to deal with the crisis. We just keep printing money and assume it is worth as much as the last Trillion we printed up. Disingenuous Congressmen and Senators will tell you this is necessary because we are living in "extraordinary" times. But if you have the slightest understanding of basic mathematics, you must know this situation cannot continue indefinitely. At some point in time, your creditors (The Chinese and Saudis) will want their money back. When the rest of the World downgrades our currency and stops buying our T-bills and bonds, then you will see truly extraordinary times.
truthisgold
Brava Amy! It is only through the efforts of people like you, repeatedly setting the record straight, that we can begin to make progress against the strange tide of misogyny that has been gaining ground.
zephid
"Pew Research recently reported that in 43% of all U.S. homes, women make more of the decisions on household finances (men make more in 26%, and in 31% of homes it is equal)."
A more useful and relevant statistic would be the amount of women who make up holders of degrees in fields such as Economics and Business Administration.
And is Jim Cramer really the sort of authority to cite for keeping Sheila Bair? I agree with you completely, Geithner's a fool for considering dismissing Bair, but Cramer's the guy who said to a large television audience nothing bad would happen to Bear Stearns in the immediate future, it was just a bit of unsubstantiated panic.
milkbone
Two wars and a recession (depression) and you're bitching about someone groping a cardboard cut-out.Get a life!
ortega
Wich percentage do you consider to be a change?
Maybe a change would be to place the more qualified person and no to choose because he is a man or she is a woman? At least, this way allows to criticize people on a firm ground and not becuse of their genitalia.
drkaza12
Sheila Bair fortunately knows where the dead bodies are as a result of the insurgence of taxpayer cash in the stimulus package. It isn't that she's unwilling to be a team player; it's that she's consistent with the original agenda and can't be convinced to huddle up with the team diverting funds into a program that lacks transparency. Geithner attempting to dismiss her demands to be the online chatter.
In addition to Sen. Corker of Tennessee's comment regarding having, "spent recent days in New York speaking with various bankers and turnaround experts." If we're looking for reasoning as to congressional reluctance regarding a stimulus package for the auto industries as opposed to a bailout for Wall Street, Corker uncorked and let the cat out of the bag.
Where do old Congress men go when they've played their last hand; they don't grab a uniform and get shoulder to shoulder on the assembly line at GM. They join lock step with the avalanche of Monetarist on Wall Street, singing the praises of the free market.
They chat-up with various bankers and turnaround experts, and sh%^&t.
fleischb
refreshing and provocative analysis! thank you. it's amazing how little coverage this is getting. the predominant message is one about diversity in the White House cabinet, when it looks like the cabinet will look more like Bush I and Carter era - when it comes to appointing women. could the guy who called a reporter "sweetie" when she asked him a question (and then never answered it) have a woman problem?
Logical
I am now officially annoyed with the constant whining from writers here at the Daily Beast about imagined instances of sexism. I'm sorry but you have offered exactly zero proof of sexism as the underlying reason for Geitner wanting to dismiss Bair. It is possible that he wanted to get rid of her because they hold differing opinions without any relation to sex whatsoever. Are we to believe that if she were a man with whom he has significant disagreements that he would not do the same. This may make him petty or small but not a sexist.
Everything is not about sexism. As for Favrou, he is not unlike many 20 somethings. They do stupid things and put it on the internet, regardless of sex. I am a woman and will put this as kindly as I can. It is not a requirement that everyone become a member of the Hillary fan club in order to not be perceived as sexist. Obama should have a private conversation with Favrou about how to conduct himself in general but a public chewing out is not necessary. This has just become silly at this point.
patriciacolorado
Boys' Club: A bigger deal
My worry about the boys' club is its effect on the President elect's job creation scheme. From early reports, he intends to pour money into industries that have traditionally employed men. Remember that the Civilian Conservation Corps in the first New Deal gave jobs only to single men. We need to start thinking about what mechanisms will be used to be sure that women get a fair share of the putative New Deal.
Maryam
While I'm not sure what having a woman at the bailout hearings might have changed, I'm with you on Favreau and Geithner. As an Obama supporter, the Favreau thing (benign as it seems) bothers me most because the privilege of being in such an important means that you can't act like the common, douchey 20-something. As a college student, the boys-will-be-boys attitude of the transition team is the same way my university, officials and students, including women, regards sexual assaults on women and irresponsible behavior by both sexes. Geithner can at least be excused on the grounds that he didn't want Bair around due to idealogical differences.
Napoleon
So let me get this straight: cupping a cardboard breast encourages actual molestation which leads to more violent sexual assault ending up with a third of college women becoming the victims of domestic abuse--This is silly. Tenuous associative chains are hardly evidence for causal influence. This is precisely the sort of fundamentalist folly that leads to backlash....Let's hope that Obama's victory truly is a victory over the identity politics and resentment that so exercised our hippy parents. Columns like this are worrisome.
morris1030
Favreau is acting like a childish sexist pig infused with the flush of success which has given him the erroneous notion that making fun of Hillary gives him some sort of power. He is acting like a student. Geithner has possibly other reasons for wanting his own pick. But Clinton Derangement Syndrome is still a lingering disease among some Obama staffers, and it needs to be cured.
Women continue to be held to a different set of rules, and the guys in the sandbox continue to act like irresponsible adolescents.
tnimilah
Drinking and sexual assault? If you want to overeach please have the cajones to do it with your own words. It was cardboard. Anyone who doesn't understand the difference between doing something to a poster and doing it to a human being deserves their own padded cell. Funny, no -- disrespectful, yes. He's no role model -- take away his NFL contract, but give me a break -- this is about cameras and poor judgment. We ALL do inappropriate things -- some people make their living at it -- this guy would starve. We all have the responsibility to bury the bad ideas we've been fed -- or at the very least make sure we offend only those who will eventually forgive us out of love and/or pity. His actions are not a tacit endorsement of sexual assault -- let's not allow anger to make us lose touch with reality -- this is your garden variety sexist dig at a woman in power -- nothing more, nothing less.
fitzg109
You should mention the jobs that would be lost if the auto bailouts are not approved. Shameful.
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