Robert Scheer Asks: “Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?”

A pair of new government reports released this week paint a startling picture of where the country is more than a year after the economic meltdown. On Tuesday, the New York Comptroller Office said Wall Street profits are set to exceed the record set three years ago. The four largest firms—Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase—took in $22.5 billion in profits through September. The top six banks set aside $112 billion for salaries and bonuses over the same period. In a recent interview the CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein defended the bank’s massive profits saying Goldman is “doing God’s work.”

Meanwhile the Department of Agriculture has revealed that far more people are going hungry in the United States than previously thought. The Department estimates 50 million Americans—including a quarter of all children—struggled to get enough to eat last year. The number of children who live in households in which food at times was scarce last year stands at 17 million, an increase of four million children in just one year.

Robert Scheer, editor at Truthdig and author of many books, including The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.

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• Robert Scheer: "Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?"

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