[This week's issue of La Verdad Obrera, from Buenos Aires, carries a story that shows the "change" Obama promised is not even much of a change from the ruling-class faces that were running the country before November 4; as detailed below, Obama's current advisors and possible future Cabinet members consist of Clinton administration retreads, Rahm Emanuel, who may as well be a Republican, and some actual Republicans. For US readers, I have added the titles of some of the Obama advisors, to show how closely leading figures in the new administration (but the same old ruling class) are linked to existing elite institutions and centers of power in the US. As economist Robert Pollin observed, US workers vote Democratic and get Republican results; undoubtedly, Obama's administration will be no exception. -- YM]
From: http://www.ft-ci.org/
La Verdad Obrera 303/International/Thursday, November 13, 2008
US: The President's Men
Only three days after having won the elections, Obama has announced the names of those who are going to carry out fundamental responsibilities in his transition team and in the future administration.
This "dream team" for the interests of the ruling class and US imperialism is composed of directors of corporations, former officials from the Reagan and Clinton administrations and Democrats with a reputation for being "hardliners." Even the participation of prominent Republicans is not ruled out; among them, some analysts are already saying that the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the former CIA agent and "pragmatic" conservative who runs the Pentagon and is therefore one of those mainly responsible for the military policy of US imperialism, could remain in his job.
Some of the main members of the transition team are:
John Podesta, in charge of directing the process of transition between the Bush administration and Obama's taking office. He was Clinton's chief of staff and is a well known lobbyist for oil and defense firms.
Rahm Emanuel will be Obama's White House chief of staff. This investor, with very close relationships with the Wall Street financial elite, currently occupies a seat in Congress. He is well known for being one of the main representatives of the right wing of the Democratic Party. He supported the war in Iraq and is an active Zionist militant, from a lobby that has a lot of influence on US foreign policy.
Among the economic advisors that accompanied Obama in his first press conference on November 7, the same day that the alarming unemployment figures were announced, were no less than:
Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who in 1979 carried out "shock therapy" that consisted in tripling interest rates, which caused a profound recession, and, in 1982, led to the "debt crisis" of the semicolonial countries.
Clinton's former Treasury Secretaries, Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, who is Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup. And the current President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner. In summary, those who for the moment are advising Obama are some of the architects of the financial policies of the last few decades.
Just in case any doubt remained, in addition to these celebrities, executives of corporations like Time Warner, Xerox and Google, and even the multi-millionaire Warren Buffett, are among Obama's advisors.
From: http://www.ft-ci.org/
La Verdad Obrera 303/International/Thursday, November 13, 2008
US: The President's Men
Only three days after having won the elections, Obama has announced the names of those who are going to carry out fundamental responsibilities in his transition team and in the future administration.
This "dream team" for the interests of the ruling class and US imperialism is composed of directors of corporations, former officials from the Reagan and Clinton administrations and Democrats with a reputation for being "hardliners." Even the participation of prominent Republicans is not ruled out; among them, some analysts are already saying that the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the former CIA agent and "pragmatic" conservative who runs the Pentagon and is therefore one of those mainly responsible for the military policy of US imperialism, could remain in his job.
Some of the main members of the transition team are:
John Podesta, in charge of directing the process of transition between the Bush administration and Obama's taking office. He was Clinton's chief of staff and is a well known lobbyist for oil and defense firms.
Rahm Emanuel will be Obama's White House chief of staff. This investor, with very close relationships with the Wall Street financial elite, currently occupies a seat in Congress. He is well known for being one of the main representatives of the right wing of the Democratic Party. He supported the war in Iraq and is an active Zionist militant, from a lobby that has a lot of influence on US foreign policy.
Among the economic advisors that accompanied Obama in his first press conference on November 7, the same day that the alarming unemployment figures were announced, were no less than:
Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who in 1979 carried out "shock therapy" that consisted in tripling interest rates, which caused a profound recession, and, in 1982, led to the "debt crisis" of the semicolonial countries.
Clinton's former Treasury Secretaries, Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, who is Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup. And the current President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner. In summary, those who for the moment are advising Obama are some of the architects of the financial policies of the last few decades.
Just in case any doubt remained, in addition to these celebrities, executives of corporations like Time Warner, Xerox and Google, and even the multi-millionaire Warren Buffett, are among Obama's advisors.
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