Bam's bank bumble: Panicked prez will slam NYC

NY Post ^ | January 25, 2010 | Nicole Gelinas

[Scanian]

In the wake of last week's Democratic loss in Massachu setts, President Obama launched an all-out war on finance. The assault isn't targeted at the sources of the 2008 crisis -- and the campaign gravely threatens New York's economy, even more than the collapse of Lehman Bros.

New York and the nation need Washington to regulate finance, not obliterate it. But a panicked president has ordered up carpet-bombing, with Gotham squarely in the line of attack.

Obama's finally acknowledging the public's anger, as Wall Street spews out multibillion-dollar bonuses even as it remains pathologically dependent on taxpayers. "Never again," the president vowed Thursday, "will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail." And if the banks don't like it, he swaggered, too bad. "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have."

[backhoe]