American Glob

How’s that new angry populism working out for you?

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

Comments like that could invoke fits of anger from staunch Obama supporters like Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Oh, wait…

There’s good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we’re running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private. And at the very least, you would think that Obama would understand the importance of acknowledging public anger over what’s happening.

But no. If the Bloomberg story is to be believed, Obama thinks his key to electoral success is to trumpet “the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies.”

We’re doomed.

If you want to know the real reason Obama has no problem with these bonuses, be sure to check in with Dan Riehl who asks “Why should Obama care, his party is getting its cut?”

These numbers come from an article on Politico linked HERE.

For the sake of brevity, we’ll break it down below.

Larry Summers, Economic Advisor to Obama:

2.7 Million from CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Corp. and Lehman Brothers. Plus 5.2 Million from D.E. Shaw.

Thomas E. Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor to Obama:

$3.9 Million from O’Melveny & Myers to represent two firms that received federal bailout funds: Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Greg Craig, Obama White House Counsel:

$1.7 million “in private practice representing an exiled Bolivian president, a Panamanian lawmaker wanted by the U.S. government for allegedly murdering a U.S. soldier and a tech billionaire accused of securities fraud and various sensational drug and sex crimes.”

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Obama Aide:

$852,000 from “Habitat Executive Services, a Chicago real estate development and management firm, plus nearly $350,000 in director’s fees from groups including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and USG Corp.”

So the big question is, when will ACORN be arranging bus tours to bring angry protestors to the homes of Obama’s team the way they did for AIG executives?

Oh, and also, what was that little thing about Obama being the only thing that stands between bankers and the pitchfork wielding mob?

It’s difficult to follow so much hypocrisy at once.