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FROM AP: 10 Things to Know for Today
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
President Obama should ask Geithner for a completely new short list, one with three real candidates who all want the job, and all of whom can pass muster with the member countries of the World Bank.
Clearly people comfortable in the Washington-Wall Street axis have no sense of shame. They know all too well what Goldman and the other financial swindlers have been up to, causing so much misery for tens of millions throughout the world.
Sachs' public and worldwide campaign to lead the World Bank is unprecedented, but is entirely appropriate to our time.
If the global economy was indeed recovering why is the demand for gas at the pump falling? In reality, the global economy is very weak and the U.S. is very far removed from a sustainable recovery.
Given the World Bank's focus on poverty, economics and climate, and given Sachs' wealth of experience in all three, there is no better candidate.
In the wake of the worst financial crisis in 80 years, I thought it would be a no-brainer for the U.S. government to give up its longstanding policy of banning capital controls through trade agreements.
There is little doubt that the global financial crisis posed "unusual and exigent" circumstances that had to be met with a huge response by the Fed (and Treasury). It is not clear, however, that the response actually mounted was legal. It was certainly not transparent.
Over the intervening three years, what did Obama do? Well, we got a stimulus package, and then a year later an absurdly complicated new law that addressed everything except the most important issues. And that's about it.
If regulators do their jobs properly, the resulting institutions should be simpler, smaller, and safer. Those firms would be less likely to fail -- and less dangerous in the event that they do.
Whether Iraq's democratic-appearing government survives or not, the person who did more than any other behind the scenes to broker the deals and to play communications envoy between factions of Iraq's fractured political order was Joe Biden.
Instead of political pandering and promoting a reckless policy, Obama is making it clear that while he seeks to resolve the challenge from Iran, he also has policy red lines that should not be crossed.
Wall Street "veteran" Leon Cooperman has written an "Open Letter to President Obama" that provides us with a glimpse into the mindset of our 21st century corporate overlords. What's put a bee in Mr. Cooperman's bonnet is the president's "tone" toward billionaires like himself.
The president needs something big to establish his cred as tough on Wall Street. But fortunately, the thing he needs is right in front of him: the settlement talks with the bankers.
Just a few months ago Jon Corzine was on the short list to be Treasury Secretary, but now he's ignoring a request to testify before a subcommittee investigating the demise MF Global and setting up a showdown that could have major implications for the president's re-election.
Depending on whom you ask, the housing crisis is over, still going on, or entering a new and far more sinister phase.
Note to media: Please stop referring to Eliot Spitzer as the Sheriff of Wall Street. The title certainly doesn't fit now, and arguably didn't fit a decade ago when he took Wall Street to task for putting out conflicted research on stocks.
