Frank Luntz Hasn't Read '13 Bankers' (And That's A Good Thing)

Simon Johnson
HuffPost

Frank Luntz is in the midst of making one of the great mistakes of modern American politics. He seems to have completely missed the change in plot line on financial reform over the past few months -- ever since Ted Kaufman waded into the fray, started to bring other key figures with him, and really moved mainstream thinking (as manifest, for example, in the Goldman Sachs hearing this week).

This is about the "arc of the fraud". The financial system committed fraud during the boom (liar loans and misrepresentation to customers of all kinds); fraud during the bailout ("if you ruffle our feathers, we will collapse"); and now fraud during the serious attempts at reform (e.g., the astroturf/fake grassroots nonsense.)

Luntz thinks this is about higher costs being passed on to consumers and wants to fight in November on "the Democrats are just about special interests". That would be terrific -- for the Democrats --and Mr. Luntz should be encouraged in this endeavor.

Mr. Luntz insists that it is not about what you say, but about what you hear. I couldn't agree more -- this is readily apparent as I travel the country talking to many people about fixing the financial system and what we need to do going forward.

(More here.)