Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Obama To Move Even More To The Right

Not a surprise, of course - straight out of the neo-liberal playbook of Bill Clinton.

Expect a reaching across the aisle on some proposals Obama can compromise on with the GOP - like raising the Social Security age and outlawing teachers unions.

Of course he took the wrong lesson from yesterday.

Here is the lesson he should have taken:

Create jobs.

Create jobs.

Create jobs.

Hold the bankers accountable.

Hold the bankers accountable.

Hold the bankers accountable.

He did neither.

That was the problem.

Plain and simple.

Barry at The Big Picture has a similar take.

It's really good, so here it is:

The President was swept into office on a wave of Anti-Bush sentiment. The stock market was in freefall, credit was frozen, the recession already 13 months old. As Rahm Emanuel said, “Never waste a good crisis.” A strong leader would have taken advantage of the moment, of the opportunity.

And what an opportunity it was: Over the prior 3 decades, the economy of the United States had been “financialized.” We became much more involved in ‘financial engineering’ than any other more productive engineering. Along with this financialization came increased revenue for the biggest banks and investment houses; greater profits, influence, and power. A wave of deregulation swept over the sector, freeing the banks from meddling oversight.

Thus, as the finance sector got larger and more important, it was paradoxically under ever less scrutiny, supervision, and regulation. With that new found freedom from oversight, the banks promptly blew themselves, and the global economy, to smithereens.

This was the environment in which the President came into office. What did he do in this scenario?

• He appointed two of the architects of the crisis to major White House economic positions: Lawrence Summers as CEA Chair, and Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary.

• He made the enormous tactical error of focusing on Health Care Reform, while the banking crisis was still in full flower.

• He failed to marshall adequate resources to respond to the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

The first item damned him to a mediocre economic team, one that failed to respond strongly to the banks that created the crisis. The second error earned him the enmity of the opposing party. The third error was political, and likely cost him the House, and possibly the Senate.

The great irony is that the man who ran on the campaign slogan of Change failed to deliver it in any meaningful way — at least, where the public wanted it — in getting the reckless runaway banks under control, and in stimulating the moribund, post-credit crisis economy.

I hasten to add, that from a political perspective, the President was a wimp. Had Al Gore been President from 2000-08 (and controlled Congress), the next GOP President would have flailed him for the recession and crisis bank relentlessly. Hell, the GOP still beats Jimmy Carter like a piƱata. Once Obama took office, that was pretty much the last we heard of the Bush recession. The public actually forget who authorized TARP, who bailed out Citibank, BofA, AIG, Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns, etc.

This amounted to political suicide.

Critics have debated Obama’s hands off approach to passing National Romney-Care, his giving up (?!) the winning issue of partial Bush tax cut extensions. I am perplexed as to why he would not force a full confirmation battle over the charming midwestern Elizabeth Warren as new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chair — Bnaks versus your grandma.

But as far as I am concerned, those are secondary political issues. To me, his presidency began its fatal downward spiral once he allowed Robert Rubin to determine his initial financial appointments. By passing over more pragmatic candidates not tied to banks and Wall Street, the president missed his opportunity to rise to greatness.

The opportunity existed to get the renegade banks under control — to reduce their leverage, their recklessness, and to get their hands out of the taxpayers pockets.

That opportunity was squandered, and Obama ended up as a defender of the banking status quo. It is where his presidency could have achieved lasting greatness, and instead was turned into just another elected official, who over promised and under delivered . . .


Squandered indeed.

9 comments:

  1. The logical outcome of a lefty (and incompetent and inexperienced) prez pushing a leftish agenda on a rightish country. No more no less.

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  2. This President, and Presidents in general are mere puppets of The Fed, and international banking powers. He had no choice in choosing Rubin and Summers. If it wasn't those two criminals, it would have been another dastardly duo. An example is Geitner, who is a puppet/chump. The Wall St. brand of casino capitalism has peeled away the thin veneer of the previous debt based consumer economy, revealing a ruthless,corrupt power elite If you think he has a real choice in certain decisions, I humbly call that a naive perspective.

    We are slaves to the illegal oppression of The Fed, and it should be eliminated. Yes, of course Wall Street is an equal evil now, but I'll group them with The Fed. We are quickly moving into a two-tier ruling and slave class respectively, and that's part of the plan. The destruction of teaching as a middle class existance is a glaring example of the future economic outlook in the good 'ol USA.

    If Obama ever got rough with Wall Street and The Fed., he would be destroyed one way or the other. He's also a slave to our embedded military industrial complex, and the Zionist based neocon infrastructure , but that's another subject.

    We are screwed . . .

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  3. Second Anon, I would have to agree with you completely. They're bringing back slavery - only this time "debt" are the chains they're using. And destroying good paying jobs and careers, busting unions and the like is the means by which they do it.

    First anon, do you REALLY think Obama is a leftie? HCR, education reform, the wars, food policy - all seem very corporate-friendly under the Obama administration to me.

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  4. RBE
    Lefty as in social agenda pronouncements, apologies for American exceptionalism, big government intrusions, and a disdain and suspicion for the views of the democratic citizenry.
    I am not writing that he is a particularly talented or dedicated lefty - he is sort of like those academic lofty lefties - half gibberish and half convenience.
    All can agree Obamacare and his other big government intrusions account for his unpopularity - let's just see if he doubles down to satisfy his tiny McGovernite/progressive Democratic base or if he does a post-debacle Clinton.
    And creating a few jobs - as opposed to lying about amorphous 'jobs saved' - wouldn't hurt.

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  5. All those things you mentioned - social agenda pronouncements, big government intrusions, and a disdain and suspicion for the views of the democratic citizenry - they describe George W. Bush too. NCLB, Medicare drug law, the Patriot Act - all Big Gov't intrusions (and giveaways for private corporations too!) Just like Obama has done with HCR, RttT, etc.

    I agree with Ron Paul who said Barack Obama is just like George W Bush - he's a corporatist looking to expand the power of the federal gov't in order to benefit corporations.

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  6. The last bubble debt scam were the suburban suckers remorgaging their McMansions for granite tops and SUVs.

    They BUSTED middle class Whitey with THAT one.Those people are wasted, and useless to them now . . .

    NOW the new corporate scam is to take over public education, wherever, and however they can. Education is a brand new host they can suck the lifeblood from, and BESIDES, it's all GUARANTEED TAXPAYER MONEY . . . !!! A nice EASY scam. AND, it'll be the gift that keeps on giving . . . once they snatch it, they won't EVER give it up . . . like I said . . . we're screwed . . .

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  7. RBE
    I think you've swallowed the kool aid if you think GWB was a lefty.
    I don't think Obama himself would object to the lefty tag.
    The most distinguishing characteristics of the looney left is a disdain for the unenlightened majority, big government blunders, and PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome): apoplexy at the mere mention of her name or glimpse of her visage.

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  8. I don't think George Bush was a lefty. I think he was a corporatist - looking to expand the power and scope of the federal gov't in order to benefit corporations.

    I think Barack Obama has done the same thing.

    Bush policy - nCLB; Obama policy - RttT
    Bush Policy - Medicare Drug Law; Obama Policy - Health Care Reform

    See what I mean?

    ReplyDelete