The Obama administration should model itself after the Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression and World War Two, Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said in an opinion piece published Tuesday evening on the Wall Street Journal website.Can Jamie Dimon be far behind?
In the 1930s there was "extreme bitterness between the business community and the Roosevelt administration," Blankfein wrote. Corporate executives deplored President Franklin Roosevelt's policies. Roosevelt, in turn, said he welcomed their hatred.
Yet, the two sides eventually worked together, spurring a colossal increase in industrial production that lifted the U.S. out of the Great Depression and crushed its enemies.
Blankfein sees a similar opportunity now, and wants the Obama administration and the corporate community to compromise and reconcile so as not to derail the fragile recovery....
"Broadening the personal income-tax base by closing loopholes will generate substantial additional revenue while minimizing increases in marginal rates that could stifle risk-taking and robust growth."
Blankfein also stressed the importance of restoring confidence in public finance by implementing spending cuts, entitlement reform and revenue increases. He also wrote that tax increases, especially for the wealthiest, are appropriate so long as they are accompanied by serious cuts in government spending and entitlements.
The Huffington Post
Lloyd Blankfein On Fiscal Cliff: Obama Needs To Channel FDR
Reuters
Lots of other CEO's also chiming in. But the problem is that they are demanding debt reduction long term. While they are not deficit hawks, they are deficit doves. That doesn't augur well for the "Grand Bargain" as they pressure the president and other representatives of the people.
The Huffington Post
CEOs Sound Off On Dangers Of The Fiscal Cliff
Reuters
8 comments:
"while minimizing increases in marginal rates that could stifle risk-taking and robust growth."
ie 'Confidence Fairy' dust .... rsp,
ps Hi Tom ;)
And oh, by the way, we at GS would be glad to steward over the privatization of Social Security.
"Blankfein also stressed the importance of restoring confidence in public finance by implementing spending cuts, entitlement reform and revenue increases. He also wrote that tax increases, especially for the wealthiest, are appropriate so long as they are accompanied by serious cuts in government spending and entitlements."
How is it appropriate to take money from the poor just to appease the extremely wealthy whose taxes need to rise?
If you had two deep see divers trapped under water, and one had an hour of air left while the other had a full days worth, and the controller on the ship above said they were going to have to make an equal sacrifice of an hour of air each just to be fair.... Wouldn't we all see how ridiculous that situation was? so why don't the people in the media, politics or finance seem to get it? it's insane.
James,
That is a mathematical analogy (ie NOT A METAPHOR) you came up with there...
The people in those groups you identify here are not smart enough to be able to make the same analogy (deficient math skills).
Same with miller's observation in the other thread where these morons see nothing contradictory about in one moment saying "we're printing too much money!" and the next moment saying "we're out of money!"...
ONLY thru mathematics can you see the inconsistencies in these types of statements... semantics by itself has NO CAPABILITY to discern contradiction or equivalence....
all semantics has is "appeal to authority" and if the person in authority is a moron, you're f-ed.
rsp,
When inflation is low and unemployment high, there is plenty of room to expand the economy by increasing demand. As long as business doesn't choose to invest due to lagging demand and external saving remains elevated due to a CAD, then only government can increase demand by dissaving, i.e., running a deficit that offset nongovt saving desires. That means that taxes are too high and spending too low. Increasing taxes and offsetting it by decreasing spending, i.e., increasing govt saving, is the wrong way to go under the circumstances. This is simple algebra and arithmetic using nothing more than the fundamental identity of macro. plugging in some data, and doing the arithmetic. A high school kid could figure this out if taught correctly.
The "deal" Roosevelt worked out was the one where he agreed with fiscal hawks and raised taxes and cut spending in order to balance the budget. The result was the mini depression of 1937. Obama is about to do the exact same thing.
This is all bullshit. Blankfein is invoking the holy name of Roosevelt in an attempt to generate Pavlovian responses of favorable feeling on the left. But there is nothing Rooseveltian about his proposal. "Closing loopholes" is the time-honored conservative rallying cry when the pressure for revenues picks up. "Close some loopholes" is just his way of saying "keep your hand off of my wallet."
And deficit contraction is Hooverian, not Rooseveltian.
Post a Comment