Obama, Lincoln, & Financial Reform

George McClellan Redux?

Politicos will recall that much was made of Barack Obama's admiration of Abraham Lincoln during and just after the 2008 Presidential campaign.

In particular, Obama was said to have been influenced by Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, "Team of Rivals," which studied Lincoln's management style.

Clearly, in picking former adversaries like Hillary Clinton for his Cabinet, Obama showed that he subscribes to a similar philosophy.

Ironies

Almost two years later, the parallels with Lincoln's administration look apposite, indeed.

Unfortunately for Obama, the historical figure he is starting to most resemble isn't Lincoln, but George B. McClellan, Lincoln's top general during the early stages of the Civil War.

Like Obama, McClellan was a hugely popular figure; also like Obama, he lacked the "go for the jugular" instinct needed to vanquish a mortal enemy (Lincoln famously said of McClellan, "if General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time").

Of course, Obama's foe isn't the Confederacy.

Rather, it's Wall Street -- and the rigged, stupefyingly complex financial system it designed and (still) sits astride.

The turning point in the Civil War only arrived once Lincoln installed Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman as his top generals (after running through a series of others).

It remains to be seen who will be the U.S. Grant and William Sherman of financial reform, circa 2010.

Sacrificing the Body (Politic)??

Lincoln et al on Wall Street

"Often limb must be amputated to save a life; but life is never given to save a limb."

--Abraham Lincoln

In sustaining Wall Street while adulterating everything else about America, are we violating Lincoln's dictum?

What we should be doing now is isolating, minimizing, and ultimately replacing Wall Street and our current, dysfunctional financial system.

In the functioning, non-financial world, that's what happened after the 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis three years ago.

Instead, we're seemingly diverting all our (remaining) resources -- and then some! -- to saving our financial "limb."

As if there weren't enough bodies and debris already in the water?!?

Lincoln would have known better.

So would Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, et al.

A Financial Gettysburg Address: Redeeming the Crash

"Wall Street Dividend" vs. "Peace Dividend"

[Note to Readers: this post originally appeared two weeks ago. I'm re-running it now because it ran on a weekend, when traffic is light; because Nov. 19 is the actual anniversary date; and because it's the best piece I've written this year, IMHO -- even if The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc. declined to run it.]

Tomorrow marks the 146th Anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

What would he say about today's financial melt-down?

My guess is that it would sound something like this:

Three score and sixteen years ago, this country's leaders put in place a series of financial reforms designed to repair the damage from the worst financial collapse the United States has ever known -- and to prevent future such collapses.

They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Due to their efforts, America's capital markets -- and as a result, America -- enjoyed almost 70 years of economic growth unsurpassed in history, benefiting virtually every U.S. citizen, no matter their background or walk of life.

That prosperity is once again threatened -- indeed, has already been severely damaged -- by Wall Street greed and excess.

There is no way to undo the misery already suffered by millions of Americans, who have lost their homes, jobs, and economic security due to Wall Street avarice.

But it is fully within our power to make sure that that sacrifice shall not be in vain.

Let us therefore resolve to redeem this most recent upheaval by rededicating ourselves to the task begun more than three generations ago.

Namely, that we commit to rearranging our economy and financial affairs -- employing all the technological brilliance, resourcefulness, and wisdom that we can summon -- so as to render Wall Street not just tamed but obsolete, never able to wreak such havoc again.

One of the key reasons that the '90's were so prosperous was the so-called "Peace Dividend": the defense savings that Western economies -- and particularly the U.S. -- realized after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union crumbled, effectively ending the Cold War.

That would pale in comparison to "The Wall Street Dividend."