Obama still wants his legacy to be reaching agreement with the Republicans to slash the safety net. He admitted in the ABC interview that virtually all the benefits of the weak recovery have gone to the Top 1 percent. He admitted that the result was the spread of grinding poverty to millions of additional Americans. His “solution” is to invite the Republicans to join him in betraying the public by cutting Social Security and Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the young, and food stamps for the poorest Americans. If Obama is able to commit the Grand Betrayal he will further weaken the recovery and hand control of the Senate to the Republicans in 2014.New Economic Perspectives
Larry Summers Got a Bad Rap on Stimulus: Obama is the Problem
William K Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City
11 comments:
Ouch!
At this point, Obama really has to be ranked as one of the worst presidents in US history. The wrong man at precisely the wrong time. A combination of extremely conservative instincts, a non-existent imagination and an obsequious desire to please established powers.
Maybe Summers will now hitch up to Hilary's bandwagon early and get her to agree to purchase large doses of Rubinite repellant (even though her husband brought them in originally) ... and she can pick up the pieces of a near destroyed Democrat Party in 2016...
She can still win even with a prolonging of this malaise imo if the GOP doesnt throw out the neo-confederate crazies from leadership and develop better messaging wrt economic justice.... this is what Bush did with his 'compassionate conservative' and what we have seen the right do down in Australia recently with some success...
even if the economy does not improve markedly she can still win if Dems continue to hold the high ground on economic justice ...
rsp,
Larry Summers is a very smart man and if you don't believe me just ask him. That said, it was obvious to see even with a low power telescope from the planet Mars that Summers would have a hard time getting confirmed. Looks like the Fed is running out of good old boys to run the shop because they all know that whoever is Fed chair will sooner rather than later have to push up rates and the shit will hit the fan all over again. Timmy (Not Me) Geithner comes to mind. Think 1994 only bigger and much badder. How about leveraged inverse floaters, Procter & GAMBLE, Orange County, and Mexican bailout all over again.
Obama may have to hold his nose and appoint Yellen because congress has already voiced their approval and he’s got other battles to fight right now. However, future rate hikes may leave her twisting in the wind as mushroom clouds erupt over bank trading desks. Enter Summers to the rescue who will likely sail through confirmation hearings in the midst of a crisis.
There's something wrong at that New Economics Perspectives site: they haven't published or moderated any comments for a couple of days.
Ralph, I just looked at the comments there, and there are only 12 or so that are in the queue. I think they are all for Bill's posts. He doesn't alwasy moderate his the same way most of the other authors do.
I watched Obama speak on Bloomberg this morning and I thought he looked fed up and tired. All the optimism and hope and lofty speech was pretty much gone as he spoke about mostly mundane policy objectives for the day or week. I think his head isn't in the game anymore and there isn't any big efforts to battle for the big social ideas, no more energy left in the man. He is looking like a lame duck that will take the path of least resistance.
Obama needs to call a meeting at Camp David where he invites Stiglitz, Krugman, Sachs, Mosler, Kuttner, Galbraith, Baker and a host of other economists and progressive activists. And he needs to tell Lew, Furman, Jarrett and everyone else in his administration other than the Secret Service agents to stay home.
why does NEP moderate coments?
Isn't it better to just let the comments flow, and then delete any offensive comments, or ban repeated offenders/ trolls?
No one moderates comments here beforehand..
I'm not sure Obama would be caught dead with liberal economists at camp david because he wants the cushy arms length Goldman sponsored speaking tour followed by ceremonial appointment$ after his term ends.
Usually NEP will let even disagreeable comments through but sometimes the moderation has a delay. I think NEP tries to appeal to an economic audience where the appearance of respectability remains important so if you are really radical in a comment, maybe the censor it? Thankfully here, Tom, Matt and Mike and the gang will let us post stuff that is a bit angry, disagreeable, foolish, frustrated or trollish at times. And best of all you can delete the comments after you feel foolish for pressing the post button
Right Dan .... its like he has to do whatever the Red Sox did in last off-season... he needs like a whole new team... rsp
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