Where have you been, Mr. President?

By Luz Calvo

Photo by Kevin Tivon Gregory

Welcome to Oakland, Mr. President. Our people are suffering. We have a huge foreclosure crisis. Please take a tour of deep East Oakland and see our problems first hand. Our schools are being closed. Our children are hungry. Our youth have no future. Most of us are underwater on our mortgage, if we have not already lost our homes. 

Meanwhile, on July 31 our city will pay 2 million to Goldman Sachs on an interest rate swap that is unfair and unjust. 

Where have you been, Mr. President, in the midst of all of our suffering and despair? Side with us, not Goldman Sachs.

September 3, 2012 is the SWAP DEADLINE

Goldman Sachs has a limited amount of time to review and drop the interest-rate swap it has with the City of Oakland.

The Little City That Could...and Will...

All of our coalition members agree that last Tuesday, July 3, 2012, "...was a huge victory for both the city of Oakland and for the people throughout the world living under the boot of interest rate swaps."  City Council voted unanimously (Pat Kernighan was absent) in favor of the resolution to refuse to do business with Goldman Sachs if the swap isn't terminated, penalty-free.  Initially, there was some trepidation and confusion amongst the council when Brunner announced that the vote would be postponed in order to investigate the legality of excluding Goldman Sachs from future financial dealings.  

Sentiment regarding City staff's willingness
and ability to drop the swap

After brief discussion, council moved forward.  Throughout the evening, our coalition members and its supporters asserted thoughts about the swap in a multitude of ways.  By the end of the evening, Libby Schaff intoned that this resolution might not go far enough. Amazingly, Deanna Santana  asked the coalition to provide its legal analysis.


It will be vital to monitor the buzz in all sectors as the sixty-day negotiation period passes.  Will Goldman Sachs do the right thing and terminate the swap penalty-free, or will Oakland be the first city to boycott Goldman Sachs?