Obama Defends His Economic Team's Rubin Proteges

New York Times Magazine:

On April 14, President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, trying to explain why he was taking on so many economic issues so early in his administration. He argued that the country needed to break its bubble-and-bust cycle and cited the New Testament in calling for a new economic foundation for the nation. This foundation would be built on better schools, alternative energy, more affordable health care and a more regulated Wall Street, he said. Later that afternoon (shortly before the Obama family introduced its new dog, Bo, on the South Lawn of the White House), I sat down with the president to talk about how his agenda might change daily life in this country.

Read the whole story: New York Times Magazine

Comments

[themodernleader]

There are people who read this blog who study the results of leadership. I am so happy to be in your presence.
Obama doesn't understand that education is low priority for Americans who originate from repeated generations where opportunity existed in theory only. Now look at all the college graduates who have no job relative to their schooling. Thanks to Obama's banks, they are burdened with debt that they can't pay.
In January my son, who's remaining debt I paid off two years ago, was laid off from an innovative engineering job. Now he has looked everywhere in vain. He is despondent and thinking of going into a new occupation. There is no incentive for education when opportunity vanishes.

[Rule Of Law]

And what's worse TML is that all his money probably bought him a second rate education compared to what this country once offered before the neo-cons began dismantling it.

[veracity]

Note that this article is loaded with typical, text-book NY Times establishment, authoritarian, "the wars are good, bailouts are good and should not be debated, lies-to-war were honest mistakes" news-speak:
< "President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, trying to explain why he was taking on so many economic issues so early in his administration. >

"TAKING ON ECONOMIC ISSUES" is EXACTLY what the American people voted Obama into the White House for.

The Iraq war continues much unchanged, the Afghan war is EXPANDING, and the US Torture Gulag actually continues on, with US PRISONS in Bagram AFB, Diego-Garcia, and other "OUTSOURCED countries" STILL beyond the purview of American justice and press/media coverage - so there really is NOT a whole lot of change in America's Wars policies.

Except for Krugman & Frank Rich, the NYT is really a despicable media organization - they are in the business of WHITEWASHING the LOOTING of of American taxpayers & consumers, as this Dec. 2006 "Goldman Sachs BILLION-do­llars-BONU­SES" story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/business/12cnd-earn.html
REFUSES to connect-the-dots between Goldman's FAKE profits (even by Dec. 2006, GS was dependent on back-door Fed "liquidity injections" bailouts) - and tens of thousands of American homeowners FACING EVICTION.

[Rule Of Law]

Whoa, veracity, get back to us when you have a real opinion about the times :))

I happen to think that they are the evil root of the reason why the Dems lost two elections--that they not only lied about important issues, but refused to pursue stories that would have changed history and actively hid information that mutilated the face of this country.

[PhilipTaylor]

WHY IS GEITHNER FIGHTING THE LOGICAL SOLUTION?

Banking industry grew from 10% of our Economic Profits to 40% by manufacturing Toxic Debts.

Now it must shrink back to its support role in a Production and Service Economy and automate its many mathematical and database functions to become a slim and trim service oriented industry!

Why is Geithner trying to fight this important trend by pumping up the Zombie Banks? Let them downsize and automate like they should be doing!

[smchp]

yawn, this article is nothing but tr0ll bait.

[Rule Of Law]

Yeah, looks like it--brought you in!

[Mike169]

The fact that Obama is willing to consider the opinions of his critics (at least ones that have ideas) is far and away better than the previous president whose name I forget.

[BabblingBrooks]

I think Daniel Henninger has hit the nail squarely on the head. Obama has a "gift," as he himself claims, for making speeches that appear to many. However, the ability to appeal to many means he spouts generally meaningless platitudes that can be interpreted several ways by different people.

"The Gift has been good for Mr. Obama. But in a still-dangerous world, in which one's listeners now have names like Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Putin, Hu Jintao, Netanyahu, Sarkozy and Merkel, the costs for the rest of us of being "misinterpreted" for a compulsive lack of clarity could be high."

"A compulsive lack of clarity...­"

That's Obama's current method of voting "present" rather than taking a strong stand.

He spouts platitudes until the poll numbers tell him what he can get away with...

[marinade]

The President has no problem with clarity. He has a problem with substance and commitment.

After Bush, it seems weird that neocons are concerned about what foreign leaders think.

[smchp]

keep babbling and ignoring facts. I would expect nothing else from pro-torture party supporters.

[madprogressive]

For the people suprised by Obama's "Centrism", you obviously didn't pay attention to his campaign. He is a man of the center, meaning he's a moderate republican. His belief in the "status quo" was never challenged in the campaign. Obama's deep and abiding affinity to Wall Street, NAFTA, moderate economic policies, etc was well known to people like myself. He is now putting the UAW on the line. Yes he supports the EFCA, but if he allows conservatives to push him to show his independence from liberals and progressives by reprimanding the unions and demanding they must "give up something" in this auto mess, then he is no better than the Clinton crowd. Where's the call for the heads of the crowd really responsible for this economic mess; Bankers. Liberals and Progressives have no one to blame but themselves. They allowed the primary to be about Clinton and Obama only. I commented on Huffington Post all during the campaign, progressives and liberals were going to wake up in 4 years, and essentially the institutions that have ruined America would still be in tact. He's now taken prosecution of Bush officials and single payor health care off the table. Now he won't make the needed changes in the banking system, by re-installing the Glass-Steagall Act. How's that prediction looking now. Yes he is miles better than Bush, but then again, that's not saying much, now is it. Good luck for the progressive transformation we seek, but will never get.

[outnow]

Obama is "mug on one side and whump on the other," as they used to say. Yes, if you listened clearly he said that he wanted to reach across the aisle and be another Reagan with Reagan Democrats. Sounds like Blue Dog heaven. Arnold and Mike Bloomberg are ready for a public-private renovation of infrastructured, financed by more bonds and debt. The DLC is in full swing, supporting the Bush ideas and Clinton/Rubin economics. Glass-Steagall, single-payor, Bush crimes ignored. Obama has, in effect, pardoned BushCo.

[veracity]

< "Obama has, in effect, pardoned BushCo." >

And it is far worse - than that.

To badly paraphrase then Senate War Pofiteering Committee Chairman Harry Truman, "Mr. war-plant executive, JESSE JAMES & his gang HAD TO WAKE UP EARLY, & ride long & hard, to ROB the Union Pacific railroad of a few thousands dollars.
You, sir, are able to ROB taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars, by knowingly FALSIFYING quality control reports, & billing the government for products you know are defective.­"

Today, that would go,
- "Mr. Obama, president Bush & (vice) President Cheney had to WORK LONG & HARD to STEAL a few billion dollars from American taxpayers - billion-dollar 'NO BID' Halliburton war-contract here, a billon-dollar Blackwater conract there, a few billion Bush & Cheney LET Enron EXTORT northwest electric consumers, millions in STOCK OPTIONS Dick Cheney still held in Halliburton after he misled American public that he was DIVESTED of them"....

..."But you, Mr. Obama, have take all that Bush-Cheney abject, in-your-face CORRUPTION, & TRUMPED IT, with HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of Taxpayer dollars shoveled out the door to YOUR BANKING FRIENDS at Citi, Chase, & GOLDMAN-SACHS -

- and you won't even give American taxpayers a SINGLE lousy AUDIT, for all our HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars, bailing out the very frauds & cads who landed the entire American economy in this nightmare.­" !!!!!


I agree with Arianna, this still deepening and STILL UNFOLDING Nightmare will be Obama's ACHILLIES' HEEL (a _fatal_ flaw).

[Samalabear]

I hate this assessment because it is so true. But there was no choice on Election Day. And, yes, the speeches are very pretty -- and didn't bother to listen last night. Three months into the Obama Presidency and his speeches are already predictable. I don't want empty platitudes, but I fear that will be the order of the day for some time to come. Miles better than Bush is definitely not saying much. When I resigned myself to vote for Obama I was optimistic that he would listen to the will of the people on key issues like health care and education, even Iraq and Afghanistan, but I don't believe anymore that will be the case. I hope I am wrong.

More and more people are clamoring for single-payer universal health care as more and more people become uninsured and those still having insurance are paying higher rates for less coverage and deductibles so high that having to use the insurance is an economic nightmare.

[lightningbolt]

So the banks own Obama too, not just Congress. That sucks. Who's going to fight the bankers now?

[tango2]

Yeap...And that is my problem as well as many whom supported this president
He have all the "Clintonian-Camp" and they are all from the center-to-right pro-banks.

I want to believe that the Dem-Party has much to do with it. And they are chocking Obama.

[smchp]

So how does that also make him a socialist or marxist or facist or whatever todays Fox talking point is? Awaiting your explanation.

[lightningbolt]

This actually makes him a fascist. When a government serves corporations and not the people, it is called fascism, by definition. This is completely the opposite of socialism. Those on Fox news are just calling Obama names for their own political gain. They call him a socialist because their base hates socialism, but they're completely wrong. Obama and the rest of our elected officials are fascists who serve the corporations who sponsor them.

[johnsonc20]

This was a very informative article. It shows the side of Obama that doesn't get much publicity - his conservative side. His defense of his economic team consists mostly of giving them kudos for calming markets and moving "cautiously" - though I think he is doesn't credit just how radically expensive to the taxpayers some moves by the Fed and Treasury have been. The cautiousness he values is the approach toward the established financial institutions.

I wish the questioner had asked him whether he strongly believes in trickle-down economics because of his emphasis on putting vast sums of money into the large financial institutions and neglecting help for the small borrowers.

Since he claims he reads and values Stiglitz, why not bring him into the administration? I would feel much more confident that Obama was getting a range of options than if we were counting on that from the softer side of Larry Summers.

[windup]

Everyone should keep up the pressure to get rid of these Wall Street cronies. Go to www.whitehouse.gov and click on contact to send an email. Or write. Or call. If they heard from enough people, Obama may take notice. Doubtful, but possible.

[outnow]

Geithner and Summers are laughing all the way to the bank. Ha, ha, ha! Obama appointed them because they are familiar with looting the middle class.

When the smoke clears, Obama will end up as did Clinton - helping free trade advocates send more jobs overseas while professing to "feel your pain."

Change that I can belive in is based on proof of policies that benefit the middle class. So far, I have witnessed Obama choose trickle down policies which favor banks.

Americans need a new political party that will serve the middle class by creating jobs here and stopping the outsourcing. Free trade is a British policy. Central banking is a European idea.

[Navision]

Outnow,

Finally, someone that gets it. I find most Americans are just plain stupid. They think when they see
their party of choice give to the other party on C-Span or an MSM interview that these politicans really care about the American People.

Behind, closed doors and in their committees, etc. Republicans and Democrats are the same.

SCAMMING the American Public

[outnow]

Under the skin, the donkey and the elephant are the same animal. Try the Progressive Caucus co-chaired by Rep. Lynn Wolsey. The Progressive Caucus in the largest in the Democratic party and know what's happening. Wolsey spoke on TV yesterday and I was very impressed.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

I'm afraid you're right outnow. After 100 days the writing is on the wall. It has become clear that the President has no lintention of trying to push through reform that will actually help the middle class and the poor. His embrace of Sen. (I will filibuster the employee free choice act) Spector shows that he has no intention of fighting for it. His health care plan is nothing but a plan to make you buy health insurance. His bank bailout is doing nothing but draining the treasury of the United States for the benefit of the rich. As of today I will not send another dime of my money to either Pres. Obama or the democratic party. They're both all talk and no action.

[outnow]

Well, we have a debt-based society and our political campaigns are not funded by public resources. The there is the MSM and its corporate masters calling the shots. Junk bonds and derivatives are all rip-offs of sorts, naked shorting, fractional reserve banking, fiat money, no global rules for finance, -- it's all appalling and very undemocratic.

The financial parasites will eventually kill their hosts - us!. But meanwhile they will make out like bandits looting us and turning us into a Banana republic, dependent on Asian financing and manufacturingt.

[kreoth]

read the interview, and as usual his words are loftier than his deeds, his sponsors/sycophants clearly made an excellent choice in putting him in the WH: this man is dangeously likable

however, he's now begun switching sides even in the abstract, and the idea of regulation (epitomized by the Glass-Steagall act) is starting to bother him, as would seem apparent from the NYT interview

to put it crassly and to perhaps better convey the concept we could say that we're now stuck in a "Goose-Seagull" financial regime, where the goose (the little people of the middle class and who put their savings in the commercial banks) is at the mercy of the seagull (the big shots, the investment bankers of "yore", who can now gamble with the little people's money freely)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Hospitalet_gaviota_seagull_eating_a_pigeon.jpg (that's a dead pigeon, not a goose, but the metaphor stands)

that was the idea behind the erection of the Glass-Steagall barrier in the first palce, to protect the little people (main street, the engine of the nation, not the wall street hustlers) and given all we've seen, we should be re-erecting and modernizing such barrier, rather than, as Obama childlishly thinks: "but look at Canada, they don't have regulations, why do we have to have regulations, why? why? why?"

who knows, Barack, maybe there's less crooks in Canada!

[veracity]

Thanks for dat. I swear I'm not making this up.. I was taking a tour of St. Peter's (yep, THAT St. Peter's) square in Rome - on a weekend getway from studying Renaissance arts & politics one summer in Italy - and I saw two sea-gulls tearing apart a pigeon in one of the large, platter shaped fountains in the square.
"The PERFECT metaphor for Rome & the Church during the bloody Renaissance" (and thereafter, for that matter) I thought to myself - those snow-white, pretty seagulls rending their prey.
All through civization, through all cultures, top-of-food-chain predators rending their prey has been an artistic icon, or motiff, of the aristocracy and nobilit, like sculptures of Lions taking down their prey, or wolves attacking a deer, or paintings of falcons in a stoop.

Those artworks help steel the elites for the ruthless frame of mind it takes to rule empire and keep the riff-raff in line.

[mollyjackson]

Obama said, 'We're going to have to tighten our belts.' What do you call 600,000 people losing their jobs every month, Mr. President? Is that not tightening their belts?

[Alexander Hamilton]

A Women on the Web interview with award-winning journalist Naomi Klein features her second attack in two weeks on Obama's chief economics adviser Larry Summers, and his vile effect on the President. Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine (2007), which included a dissection of Summers's role with Alan Greenspan in setting off the disastrous global debt bubble of the past decade, now disintegrated. "Somebody who played a key role in pushing shock therapy economic policy on Russia in the '90s, when 72 million people were thrown into poverty, should not be declared a genius."

Klein's sharpest charge is that Summers has made himself "gatekeeper" to President Obama's economic advice, which is thus all bad. "Summers appears to be keeping people away from Obama"—Klein names Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman—. "He's the gatekeeper. He's defining the terms of the debate, and they are outrageously narrow." Both Summers and Geithner are "not dumb ... They are corrupt," she says, and Summers is "presented as an academic, as if he wasn't coming straight from Wall Street," .

Obama, Klein says, may not be corrupt, but "the bank bailout ... it's a disaster, crony capitalism at the absolute worst.... Larry Summers and Tim Geithner came up with a plan to bailout the banks that is also a disguised bailout for the hedge funds—instead of nationalizing the banks and breaking them up.... This is very different from what FDR had the guts to do."

[outnow]

Read some articles by Michael Hudson. His latest article is about the looting of Iceland. He has criticized financial imperialism since the 50s, long before Klien was even born - no offense to her or others who have recently realized what is going on. Other have know this for many decades.

[sonofsamphm1c]

This is so stupid. Obama can read. He reads Stiglitz. He reads Krugman. He knows everything they have to say. A great deal of it will end up influencing policy.

They are not banking and finance people.

The prime economic influence of the last three decades has been Milton Freidman. The most influential government official by far has been Alan Greenspan. Compared to the influence of these two men over the last three decades, the influence of Summers and Rubin is not significant. They held no position of significant authority in economics, and no government power for more than 20 of the 30 years.

[mollyjackson]

I'm reading from some of the wizards of smart about today's economy, and they're saying, 'Well, it's bad, but we can't blame Obama. He's only been in office 100 days.' Why can't we blame Obama? Has not the economy been stimulated?

[Halfwit]

Are you serious? It was made clear that the stimulus would take a long time to kick in.
Pay attention, much?