Think   of this: despite taking office in the midst of a massive financial   meltdown, Obama’s administration has not prosecuted a single   heavy-hitter among those responsible for the financial crisis. To the   contrary, he’s staffed his team with big bankers and their allies.   Under the Bush-Obama bailouts the big financial institutions have   feasted like pigs at the trough, with the six largest banks borrowing almost a half trillion dollars from uncle Ben Bernanke’s printing press. In 2013 the top four banks controlled more than 40 percent of the credit markets in the top 10 states—up by 10 percentage points   from 2009 and roughly twice their share in 2000. Meantime, small banks,   usually the ones serving Main Street businesses, have taken the hit   along with the rest of us with more than 300 folding since the passage   of Dodd-Frank, the industry-approved bill to “reform” the industry.

Yet past the occasional election-year bout of symbolic class warfare, the oligarchs have little to fear from an Obama victory.

“Too big to fail,” enshrined in the Dodd-Frank bill, enjoys the full and   enthusiastic support of the administration. Obama’s financial tsar on   the GM bailout, Steven Rattner, took to The New York Times to   stress that Obamians see nothing systemically wrong with the banking   system we have now, blaming the 2008 market meltdown on “old-fashioned   poor management.”

“In a world of behemoth banks,” he   explained to we mere mortals, “it is wrong to think we can shrink ours   to a size that eliminates the ‘too big to fail’ problem without   emasculating one of our most successful industries.”

But   consider the messenger. Rattner, while denying wrongdoing, paid $6.2   million and accepted a two-year ban on associating with any investment   adviser or broker-dealer to settle with the SEC over the agency’s claims that he had played a role in a pay-to-play scheme involving a $50,000   contribution to the now-jailed politician who controlled New York   State’s $125 billion pension fund. He’s also expressed unlimited admiration for the Chinese economic system, the largest expression of crony capitalism in history.   Expect Rattner to be on hand in September, when Democrats gather in   Charlotte, the nation’s second-largest banking city, inside the Bank of   America Stadium to formally nominate Obama for a second term.

In a sane world, one would expect Republicans to run against this consolidation of power, that has taxpayers propping up banks that   invest vast amounts in backing the campaigns of the lawmakers who levy   those taxes. The party would appeal to grassroots capitalists,   investors, small banks and their customers who feel excluded from the   Washington-sanctioned insiders’ game. The popular appeal is there. The   Tea Party, of course, began as a response against TARP.

Instead, the party nominated   a Wall Street patrician, Mitt Romney, whose idea of populism seems to   be donning a well-pressed pair of jeans and a work shirt.

Romney   himself is so clueless as to be touting his strong fund-raising with   big finance. His top contributors list reads something like a rogue’s   gallery from the 2008 crash: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan   Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citicorp, and Barclays. If Obama’s Hollywood   friends wanted to find a perfect candidate to play the role of   out-of-touch-Wall Street grandee, they could do worse than casting Mitt.

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