Obama's Economists Slammed By Liberal Dems

The Hill:

Frustrated liberal Democrats are increasingly concerned that White House economists are too centrist and "theoretical" to fix the economy.

President Obama's economic thinkers have baffled some House members, who see more unemployed constituents in their districts and want bolder action.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[flossophy]

Oh, only two pages of comments on this story... meanwhile Pa|in is getting over 40 pages per story, and HuffPuff is running 3-4 Palin stories per day.

How does one describe this phenomenon?

[jmpurser]

I think Obama takes a lot more advice from BANKERS than Economists.

[edwcorey]

His administration is so bank-oriented that it's to the right of the Supreme Court right wing: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/06/bigoted-banks-0-eliot-spitzer-1

[olmossy]

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing Armies. Thomas Jefferson.

[smchp]

Let's start a game to see how many HuffPo misleading headlines use the world 'SLAM'. Gotta be several every day.

[Edmonsky]

Some people argue from the point of view of political ideologies and philosophies. The economic crisis we are facing today is not about wall-street versus main-street. Here is a short synopsis of the crisis.

Real estate crisis started with delinquencies in payments. It led to freezing of credits. It drastically influences consumer confidence, and people started to spend less. Subsequently it extends to orders for goods and services. Factories and small businesses started to layoff workers. The net impact was the deepening of recession.

The bottom-line is consumers are not spending. Giving small businesses low interest loans does not address lack of consumer spending.

[PATina]

You missed the first step...

Flattening­/declining wages caused delinquent payments..­.

[Tyler-Durden]

nice.

that's one strange comment, hm? "consumers aren't spending"???

CUZ WE GOT NO MONEY, DUDE! PAY US MORE!

[jmpurser]

And 30 years of financing our economy through debt while concentrating wealth into fewer and fewer hands.

We did not build this nightmare over night. Bush was just the happy idiot at the end of the fool chain.

[olmossy]

So you beliive "The bottom-line is consumers are not spending." That is the problem?
Not that we adopted a Banking system that has Allways led to an Oligarchy,and Serfdom. As it did in England. As we fought against in the 18th century, then adapted in 1913.
Not that we let the Investment/Bank/gov lead us into a spending bubble of imaginary wealth/debt, that had to break.
The people are not spending because they have NO Faith in their Government or Monatary System. With good reason!

Government should give the People the TRUTH. WE are broke. We are Bankrupt (can't pay our bills)
At least NOW we would know where we stand. The old system did not work. It has failed.
Nationalize the Fed, Issue OUR money (debt free). Put Our money into circulation with low or no intrest loans . All intrest gained go back to pay for government servicesNOT investment Bankers.
The OLD system 1913-2009 was rigged, dishonest, unworkable.
Crops need Growing, Groceries NEED buying. Workers need work. Projects NEED workers.
OUR Government can issue the money to make these things happen. The Federal Reserve and Wall Street are the Problem.
NOT the People.

[edwcorey]

"Real estate crisis started with delinquencies in payments."

Wrong. That's like saying a suspension bridge collapsed because cars started using it, even though the contractor who built it used flour instead of cement to make the concrete, and hemp instead of steel for the cables. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/mystery-missing-unemployed-man

[BeenieMon]

Obama is clueless on the economy...­..but we knew that going in.

we thought he would at least employ advisors who would act in the people's best interest.

we were wrong.

KUCINICH 2012

[RTIII]

Funny; I was just formulating what I'm going to tell Obama when I call his Whitehouse in a little while.

I was thinking:

1) Please reverse the Tongas timber sale decision and place a moratorium on all old-growth logging in the entire country.

2) Please state that you will veto any bill that does not have a strong "Public Option" regarding health-care.

3) Please abandon all attempts at "indefinite detention" of every form - there shall be no such thing, ever.

4) Please quit capitulating before you capitulate; Capitulation and compromise need not occur. You won the election, so get on with OUR agenda of "change we can believe in" instead of status-quo Republican Lite policies.

And finally;

5) Please quit acting like Bush III and more like Dennis Kucinich might have had he become president.
.

[mergina]

I can tell you one thing they do not have a clue on how to do? JOB CREATION.

[Adartist777]

It seems like America is on its way to becoming a welfare nation. If there is no work, people must survive. Is this a conspiracy by banking and major corporations? Is our government working towards this goal?

With the lack of funding for all sectors of our economy, with the exception of the banking and auto industries, our government has failed to help the average American or American small business.

What we're seeing is monetary help for large corporations, but hardly anything for Main Street. What were once healthy small businesses are now failing businesses. It appears that President Obama's economic advisers are missing the boat. Perhaps he should put some unemployed blue collar workers to work advising him on the real economy of real people.

[dillydawg]

See Economics 101. get a basic education about how things run.

[metalpipe]

I think you meant 'Trying to sustain our completely disfunctional system of wealth generation 101', didn't you?

I would agree with Adartist777 completely, accept I don't think the Obama crew actually helped the auto and banking 'industries', just the small group of powerful and connected people on top of those industries.

Every CEO of every major corporation who was culpable in the collapse of our economy (i.e. banks with toxic balance sheets, auto makers who refused to develope hybrids years ago, any corporation who shipped our jobs over seas en masse) should face expulsion, investigation, and be stripped of much of their wealth. We've got to send a message to these A-holes that they won't soon forget.

[edwcorey]

Here's how things run in America: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/mystery-missing-unemployed-man

[olmossy]

Adartist. You feel like that middle class and small business is being left out. I totaly agree, But WE have been losing ground for a long time. I think since around the early 80s.
Too many people in this country didn't notice the giant Sucking sound of the Money being sucked upward into the upper 10% of the population. And draining of jobs leaving this country.
Didn't start with President Obama.

The problem is the barrometer for this Countrys well being has been Wall Street. So on paper this country has been doing real well. Lots of money being made. Lots of trade. Lots of business.
The Hospital is doing VERY WELL! Yeah well so what if all the patients are DYING! The Hospital is doing Good!

To my mind, President Obama is using the very people who worked in the Very industry that Caused the Problem. They are only concerned with working on the Symtoms of the problem. The problem as they see it is that Investment Banks and Wall Street aren't doing well. To them if Wall Street is Roaring the littlle folks can take care of themselves.
He could find lots of Qualified People who agrees with us. He just won't find them on Wall Street and World Bank.

[Adartist777]

I completely agree with you olmossy. He's flooded his administrative posts with lobbyists. He's also getting one sided advice from these same people. Let's get some working people in the oval office to advise our president. After all, we are America!

[synic]

It's no secret Obama admires Reagan. At first I thought it was only his communications ability that Obama appreciated. However, it's becoming more apparent Obama has also embraced the trickle down theory (with Summers and Geithner spearheading the effort. Reagan started it, Bush and Clinton continued and enhanced it with deregulation, and the boy king brought its devastation home. The rich get richer and the workers get poorer. Since the 80s the only place this money is trickling is into offshore accounts and the pockets of the owners, while American jobs keep trickling overseas. Until Obama hired the Status Quo Economic Twins I thought he would be serious about at least attempting to moderate the idiocy of trickle down. I was wrong.

This is the guy I thought I was voting for:

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Democrat Barack Obama promised Wednesday that if he is elected president "American taxpayers will never again have to put their money on the line to pay for the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street."..­.

"When I am president, financial institutions will do their part and pay their share, and American taxpayers will never again have to put their money on the line to pay for the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street," Obama told 15,000 supporters gathered in downtown La Crosse. "That's a pledge that I'll make to you today, and it's one that I'll keep as president of the United States."

[PATina]

I think the "conspiracy" was to keep us on a perpetual debt cycle that would allow them to perpetually make mega profits. Problem... greed can never be satisfied.­.. and they kept wanting more and more... and got more and more people involved and things fell apart.

I do agree that Obama's advisers are not the ones he should have chosen if he really wanted to move to a demand side (or bottom up) economic policy.

[JDM73]

As with practically every other major issue, Obama is turning out to be a disappointment on the economy. Those of us who were worried when he voted to continue warrantless wiretapping, when he hired people like Rahm Emanuel and Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, when he violated his campaign pledge to remove all combat troops from Iraq...wel­l, we were right, weren't we? There's no satisfaction in it, but we were right.
Flowery speeches and charisma are not enough. When our next opportunity rolls around (and face it, it's going to be a long time; this country is fundamentally conservative and after Obama's tenure, we're in for another eight or twelve years of GOP madness), we need to avoid--like the plague!--the personality cult phenomenon that Obama represents, and pay close attention to the substance of the candidates.

[AAKAlan]

I agree

But you need to add: DADT, DOMA, Indefinite detentions, financial reform, bankruptcy reform (cramdown).

The list goes on and on.

I've never been so disappointed in someone I supported and voted for. And, like you, my suspicions were aroused when he started hiring all the recycled Clinton and Wall Street people.

[metalpipe]

OK, but try to imagine a country governed by a McCain/Palin ticket. Unimaginable. What we are really seeing is the system fighting him on nearly all levels. Entrenched GOP operatives, a military industrial comples that has a firm grip on the treasuries tit, a Congress owned and operated by lobbyists, and a health care industry that is quite comportable with the status quo. Nobody REALLY wants to change, because change is scary and uncomfortable and requires one to get off one's butt and think and act.

Obama is experimenting, and has the intelligence to know when to call it and try something new. I for one have enough patience and hope (especially with Michelle as his sounding board) to give the guy another year to turn this struggling ship in the right direction.

[edwcorey]

"OK, but try to imagine a country governed by a McCain/Palin ticket."

So again, someone advocates voting for the lesser of two evils? Did you think a Nader or Kucinich vote was a wasted vote? So many people have said that over the years that I think chips were implanted in their brains at birth. If more of us made it a HABIT to vote third party, imagine the changes these crooks would make to their governance.

[Tyler-Durden]

i also agree. but the majority of us that voted for O must build a new party. one that will actually do what obama promised.

which leads me to wonder, why? why hasn't obama delivered? is he ONE OF THEM? an elitist who simply fooled us?

or did he plan to do all the right things, when the REAL PEOPLE IN POWER said um, NO.

i have to believe it's closer to the second option. i don't trust the FED, i don't trust any CEO. they rake in billions and pay no taxes. they could hardly be considered the same species as the rest of us.

[jmpurser]

Agreed. I voted for Obama because I thought he WASN'T Clinton. Fooled me.

[allonfla]

LOL!!!!!!!!! This is news? Hello, this has been going on from Day 1 and will go on forever until he hires Paul Krugman - then give it a few months before the Liberals knock him down too.

[SangZe]

People are finally waking up to the fact that Obama doesn't have the slightest idea about the problems of the country, much less how to solve them. Worse, he lakcs the empathy and compassion he likes to talk about in his speeches. Hollow words don't make jobs.

[metalpipe]

Dude, he's just the president, not a monarch. Nor is he God. He has to work with a hugely disfunctional congress ruled (and hobbled) by the special interests of each elected participant. You just want to blame someone for your pain. What do you know of anyone's empathy or compassion? Seems to me you lack those same qualities.

[Tyler-Durden]

HEAR-HEAR! HEAR, HEAR, HEAR F-ING HEAR!

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

Flossophy, You are full of it!

"Whenever you raise taxes, you reduce economic activity."
Now, this is garbage! I don't know where to start tackling it. It is just nonsense.
Tiny tax increase for the extremely wealthy has NO effect whatsoever on the Economy.

"Whenever you enlarge the unproductive public sector, it reduces the amount of productive capital in the private sector. "
First, Public Sector is NOT "unproductive". It MAY (depending on who's running it) not be very competitive but even then it is NOT unproductive.
Secondly, why don't you call for the abolishment of Government then, and let Corporations run the Country?
Thirdly, how large or how small should the Public Sector be? Who decides the Optimum Size? You? If not the President, then why you? He was vetted and voted into office, whereas you are only a BIG anonymous MOUTH!

"When you raise taxes on the rich and corporations, they put their money away in savings instead of investing it in the market. "
Junk again! Nobody with good business sense will save his money when he has the opportunity to invest it in something and make MUCH MORE! The Government will have to tax them at an unrealistically high rate for it to make sense for them to rather save their money. You are full of it!

You call your ridiculous but pompous statements PRINCIPLES? Do you really know what that word means?

[Adartist777]

I thought the corporations were running the country. This government no longer represents the unemployed in my area. Benefits are about to expire for many here, which will make our local economy even worse.

[dillydawg]

Some people are looking for a handout instead of a helping hand. If the manufacturing based employment is no longer viable or existant, people have to seek employment elsewhere for means of support. It may mean moving to where the jobs are in another part of the country. It may mean having to educate and train oneself in a new trade or a career profession. What it definitely does not mean, is to sit there day after day complain and wait for a Messiah to turn water into coins of gold.

[Oakland]

Do you think? They bailed out the banks and left the homeowners and credit card holders high and dry. They have health care paid for with tax payer money, and everybody else is uninsured and on their own. They are the same people who made this mess with their tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of everything, and they haven't held anyone accountable for any of it. While Goldman Sachs hands out big bonuses with my money, they refuse to regnegotiate trade or stop offshoring. While Obama talks about more damned training for jobs that don't exist, they are offshoring the high wage green jobs.

[Adartist777]

This is true. Why pay a decent wage to workers in the "green" industry here in the US? Ship those jobs and our taxpayer money overseas, too.

In regards to the bailout of the banking industry, these economists were looking out for their own interests and appear to continue to do so. How many of them are involved in the banking industries? They're looking out for number one. They have no concept of the struggles of the average American working family.

[edwcorey]

"Why pay a decent wage to workers in the "green" industry here in the US? Ship those jobs and our taxpayer money overseas, too."

Already done. The Republicans and coal-state Democrats have hobbled the alternative-energy movement since Reagan took Jimmy Carter's solar panel off the White House. China, of all places, has a two-year head start on manufacturing green technology: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/business/energy-environment/14energy.html?ref=business

[AAKAlan]

You're right, with one exception: Goldman Sachs returned their taxpayers' money. They're giving big bonuses with their own money, laying a trail to do just what they were doing before. Greedy b*stards.

[Antifascist-08]

As much as I like Obama, I will just say one thing that is probably true: Economics is not his strong suit.

Here is why I say that (because many of you know that I am not a troll):

He keeps talking about getting people to spend again. I'm so sick of hearing those words, whoever says them. He did that a lot early on but has now sprinkled in some talk of saving money and has inserted "just trying to pay the bills" into his speech. So maybe there is hope. His preoccupation with reigniting the "debt society" is troubling. I don't think he is doing this on purpose as much as he has just had a lot of bad advice and he is not knowledgeable enough on the subject to lead like he can in other areas.

I do think he is learning, maybe because a lot of us are writing letters to him every night.

If he was as knowledgeable in economics like he is in Constitutional law, for example, I don't think he would have taken this path.

He should have done a Roosevelt and just closed the banks and set us up with a banking system we can trust and has the interests of the country at heart.

[Adartist777]

You're right Antifascist. He should have let the banks close down. If you are unemployed and in poverty, you probably could care less about Goldman - Sachs or Citibank. Perhaps new banking startups with new regulations would have been the way to go.

[higgins1990]

"President Obama’s economic thinkers have baffled some (insert any people group here)..."