President Obama's audacious economic address at Georgetown University today provided the last swing of the wrecking ball for the shattered remnants of free market fundamentalism. Even as dazed and disoriented members of the GOP stumble around the ruins in a state of cataleptic shock, mumbling over and over to themselves the consolatory phrase that Obama is a socialist, the president doesn't simply want to tinker with the economy; he's aiming to lay an entire new foundation over the shards of the failed one. His talk laid out a comprehensive program for what might be called the four R's: reform, regulation, restructuring, and revival.
Obama quite rightly spread the blame for the crisis evenly: "This recession was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street." Resorting to his favorite "some" gambit, he sought to debunk the naysayers who argue that his deficit spending will trigger hyperinflation. Spend now, Obama indicated, or pay for failing to do so later when the economy implodes completely.
But perhaps the most sobering part of his address wasn't his appraisal of the current state of the economy but what might loom in coming decades as the greatest danger America confronts -- being outpaced by foreign competitors.
Obama didn't make the connection directly, but the blunt fact is that investing in education and health care can help ensure that America is able to compete a decade from now with China, India and other countries that are trying to steal an economic march on it. In my view, Obama is clearly very worried -- and correct to be worrying -- about America's ability, after decades of self-indulgent profligacy, to remain an economic superpower. A crumbling education system and a patchwork health care system is a poor foundation for maintaining, let alone strengthening, American economic might. As Obama put it, "If we don't invest now in renewable energy or a skilled workforce or a more affordable health care system, this economy simply won't grow at the pace it needs to in two or five or ten years down the road. If we don't lay this new foundation, it won't be long before we are right back where we are today."
Obama is cranking high voltage to jump start the shift toward a new American economy. The program he announced at Georgetown should get some sparks flying. Now his administration and Congress have to implement it.
THE BANKS even with plenty of "taxpayer funding" WILL STILL NOT LEND TO THE CONSUMER...
is the bank going to extend you credit:
1. if you just lost your "high-paying" job
2. you might lose your "high-paying" job (credit card companies are already reducing the credit limits of people they deem at risk of losing their job).
3. you are ALREADY MAXED OUT on your ccs.
4. you collect unemployment and probably will get an extension of benefits
5. you are training as a WINDMILL MECHANIC (while you're collecting unemployment) and that as when you have completed your training...AND THAT WINDMILL FARM IS planned, built, and running for a while...(about 3 years out)...well those windmills WILL PROBABLY START BREAKING DOWN OCCASIONALLY...and you MIGHT YOU COULD TO FIX THEM...if you sell your house, move to the state in which they're built and get a job there.....
Obama: gov gets about 8-10 to 1 in leverage effect IF THEY FUND THE BANKS INSTEAD OF YOU DIRECTLY...SOUNDS LOGICAL...
problem is: IF THE BANKS WON'T LEND IT TO THE MANY WHO NEED IT MOST...like the "500k a month" losing their jobs...WHAT GOOD IS DOING IT THIS WAY!
take the BANKS OUT OF THE LOOP...and subsidize the CONSUMER MORE DIRECTLY...
THE BANKS WON'T LEND...can you FORCE THEM TOO, President Obama...
flashrob
It is amusing that the party that screams about not wanting saudis to profit from our oil consumption has no problem with china owning us.
This is criminal –period.
The first thing he needed to do was to put an end to those Hedge Funds and put severe oversight over Wall Street, but he failed to do so. Now he says we have some regulations by the end of the year. What kind of regulations – pretend regulations? And by the end of the year – that is unforgivable Mr. President.
He also thinks his stimulus package is fixing the real economy. Although there s a, lot f good in this stimulus, but it is too little.
We are losing and have lost up to 700,000 jobs per month over the past 10 month. That accumulates to a job loss of over 5,000,000 his plan is only creating about 3,000.000 jobs that would leave us with a net job loss of over 2,000.000. The real economy can’t take that kind of loss. This is really bad and will have fatal consequences Mr. President!
Everyone else except for the GOP has a plan to get us out of this messs.
Even those on the left are saying his plan is anything but "audacious"...by continuing to lick the backsides of the banks, and listen to the errant instructions of his two has-been economic czars, Gheitner and Summers, Obama has been laying a giant goose egg...
They fund it 100% you understand, not ever a charge to the student.
That's what happens in my country and it works great. People pay for their education via their tax after they leave university and get a job - hasn't been a glitch in the system yet.
A political party tried to change that a few years ago - to a "user-pays" US style system -and they didnt get very far!
Self indulgence has become America's curse. Wasteful lifestyles, poor support for education in too many places, a health care "system" that is an expensive nightmare. The country has to deal with these domestic issues...how about infrastructure? The hell with Iraq..our money needs to be spent here at home!!