President Obama picked Tim Geithner, and Lawrence Summers for his economic team (as well as unofficial but active advisor. Robert Rubin) and kept Ben Bernanke as head of the Fed even though these guys helped create or exacerbate the financial disaster.

And the result?  None of them want any effective regulation of the financial industry.

As Jonathan Tasini writes at Working Life:  "It may seem relatively small but there will be an excellent window through which to view the president's future intentions: will he be for the people or for the financial interests? Many people have already made up their minds--for good reason. But, this will be a moment--will the Administration veto the financial reform bill if it contains the Fed transparency amendment proposed by Bernie Sanders?

"Here is what we know right now:

" 'At its heart, the Sanders provision would remove restrictions on Congress's ability to audit the central bank. Congress currently cannot review the Fed's monetary-policy decisions, direct loans to commercial banks or transactions involving foreign central banks or governments. The provision would also require the central bank to disclose the low-interest loans and other financial assistance it gave financial companies during the recession.' "

"The White House's response:

" 'The White House said Wednesday: "We are working closely with Congress to encourage transparency and accountability for the Fed, but we would oppose measures that undermine the independence of monetary policy.' "

"This is one of the problems of the terms of debate. The 'independence' of the Fed is a concoction aimed at insulating the financial elite from playing with our money and our economy without any brakes. What the Fed does IS a political decision. We cannot have an institution making decisions on whether people will have jobs--which is the effect of Fed monetary policy--without accountability, oversight and, yes, direction from the individuals who are elected to represent the people."

Tasini calls this a defining moment.  And it looks like the Obama administration will continue to protect the "filthy rich" who became filthier and richer and crashed the economy and the hell with the other 97% of us.

And speaking about Fed unaccountability and lack of oversight, which seems OK with Obama, here's another fraud being perpetrated by Bernanke at the Fed with the assistance of the right wing American Enterprise Institute.

From Mike Whitney at Counterpunch:  "The right-wing white paper mill, the American Enterprise Institute, is helping the Federal Reserve to develop a strategy to transfer $1.25 trillion in toxic mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and non performing loans onto the public's balance sheet. Although it's unknown whether Fed chair Ben Bernanke will act on the AEI's recommendations, it does show that the Fed's Quantitative Easing program (QE)--which moved the bulk of garbage assets from the banks to the Fed's balance sheet--poses long-term problems that will need to be addressed. Bernanke never intended to keep these assets any longer than necessary. Now he is actively exploring options for getting rid of them.

"Ostensibly, the QE program was designed as the first leg in a two-step process to remove the bad paper from the banks balance sheets and then dump it on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as discreetly as possible. So far, Bernanke has been relatively successful in convincing people that he was buying the assets to increase lending, which was clearly never the objective. Quantitative Easing was a fraud from the get-go.

"There's nothing fancy about the AEI's strategy; it's a pretty straightforward "no frills" ripoff. Bernanke buys the garbage from the banks and then transfers it to the GSE's. No muss, no fuss.

"It's a shame that congress can't figure this stuff out. Bernanke is merely acting as one would expect. He's bent-over-backwards to save the banks from nationalization and to keep their political and financial power intact. He's also usurped congress's power over the purse-strings by initiating fiscal policy (in the purchasing of the toxic assets) which is well-beyond the Fed's mandate. Now he's putting the finishing touches on another giant bailout so he can clear the Fed's books and resume the arduous task of bubblemaking."

And the White House has the hubris to talk about an independent monetary policy trumping the people's right to transparency and oversight. 

Obama's retention of Bernanke was appalling so his coming down on the side of financial interests rather than being for the people should not be a surprise.