Out-of-touch millionaires with close ties to Wall Street have steered our economic policy for too long. As Larry Summers leaves the National Economic Council, President Obama should replace him with a real progressive who will stand up to the banks and fight for an economy that works for all Americans.

The difference between the SERFS of the Middle Ages and the Consumer/Employee/Self-Employed Business Owner/Middle Class/Working Poor of today is that in the Middle Ages, the Serf had FOOD, CLOTHING, and SHELTER almost all the time short of natural causes. Today’s modern “Serf” has no guarantee of any of that. We no longer grow our own food, make our own clothes, or provide our own shelter on our own land. We have no more “Social Contract” with our Lords and Masters. At least the Serfs had that. They had a SOCIAL CONTRACT. The basic incidentals of HUMAN RIGHTS were provided in exchange for a lifetime of work and service.

Today, we are without that. We have to work harder and harder to earn less and less. And those BASIC INCIDENTALS – Food, Shelter, Clothing – are becoming more and more expensive. Not to mention the new basic incidentals of our time: Transportation and Health Care.

To the surprise of no one who’s paying attention to the American economy’s stall, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz yesterday called for a second federal stimulus, saying Americans face a significant reduction in standard of living because they no longer have home equity on which to borrow, spend, and live.

Barney Frank has lined up with the banks on one of the most important outstanding parts of the financial reform bills.

Gambling is not our problem!

As if we needed another reason to elect Bill Halter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Blanche Lincoln said there was room to negotiate on a proposal that would force banks to spin off their swaps businesses, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Lincoln, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she defended the policy, but was open to better ideas and suggestions.

“Better ideas and suggestions”? God FORBID this woman gets over 50% tomorrow.

The White House is now quietly working against a provision that would force banks to spin off their derivatives desks into separate entities if they wanted to receive federal insurance.

Before the crisis, Warren Buffett described derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction” that pose a “mega-catastrophic risk” not just for the firms that traded them but for the entire economy. Contracts were often difficult to untangle and some even appeared to be the work of “madmen.”

The fix is in. Democrats are planning to remove Blanche Lincoln’s provision on derivatives after her primary on Tuesday, killing a crucial aspect of financial reform. Robert Reich calls this provision the “biggest battle of bank reform” and for good reason.

A description of the IMF’s four-step plan of how to takeover nations, as laid out by investigative reporter Greg Palast in his 2001 article.