Posted on 03/05/2009 2:59:15 AM PST by Scanian
ON Wall Street, they're call ing the Obama economic team "the gang that couldn't shoot straight," after Jimmy Breslin's novel about a bunch of moronic mobsters.
If you really want to understand why the markets have been tanking, why the smart money is sitting in cash and gold - well, just study the policy, or lack of it, that these guys have come up with to address economic ills not seen since the Great Depression.
The sad thing is, the "gang" took office with high hopes on Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the former New York Fed chief, was supposed to have the experience needed to handle the banking crisis. Larry Summers, the head of the president's National Economic Council, was part of the brains behind the Clinton-era recovery.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Here’s my take: Obama has his plan and the economy be “darned.” He won’t listen to sound economic policy if it interfers with his master plan...thus the lack of “hearing from” his senior financial advisors. Geithner’s just a cheerleader saying the same thing over and over again, with a lot of “we’ll get back to you on that’s” thrown in for good measure.
I posted a comment on the NY Post site for that article:
In previous takeovers they threw too many investors under the bus in favor of creditors and depositors. At just the moment the banks desperately needed an influx of capital, the gov’t put up a “Do not Invest” sign. Not knowing how the “rules” may change tomorrow, investors are staying away in droves.
I laugh at the media pretending that could have been made better if only Geithner had been more articulate at his disastrous press briefing.
Gasparino’s a smart guy. But he seems to be dancing around the “confidence” problem. Wall Street’s lack of confidence is directly attributable to the HARM that’s been done, not some lack of soothing language.
What Clinton era recovery? The economy was already in recovery when Clinton was campaigning in 1992 by calling it the "worst economy in 50 years."
Don't take my word for it. As CNN’s Brooke Jackson reported in 2001: “Three days before Christmas 1992, the National Bureau of Economic Research finally issued its official proclamation that the recession had ended 21 months earlier. What became the longest boom in U.S. history actually began nearly two years before Clinton took office.”
There never was a Clinton recovery, although the economy did tank during his last year in office.
WTG, good post on the NY POST! I see a couple of ignotant OBorgs also posted, must be the Oborg Graveyard shift.
Geitner is still Treasury Secretary?
You got it. It’s all about power and control for this commie crud.
So Wall Streets best and brightest were fooled by Obama and supported him for President. I know many here on FR weren’t fooled, it didn’t take much to see through his smooth talking. If they are our best and brightest, we are doomed.
Geithner's a geek whose being told what positions to support. But like all geeks, he doesn't have the acting chops to really get his heart behind what he's told to say. A geek has a built-in repulsion to saying what's not true. That's why his performances are so lackluster.
For politicians, on the other hand, lying is standard operating procedure.
His finger gestures remind me of a crab, LOL. He’s always holding his right hand up, and pinching his thumb and forefinger together when he’s trying to make a point.
Thanks to all the class warfare produced by his boss, I'm told, Geithner can't find qualified people from Wall Street (the folks who know markets better than anyone else) to help solve the crisis. Instead, one saddened Obama supporter from Wall Street told me, "He's looking at a combination of bureaucrats and academics for these jobs."
Larry Summers? Everyone knows he's smart, but the word from Wall Streeters who are trying to pass him ideas for solving the banking crisis is that his ego's as large as his intellect. That is, they're finding him impossible to deal with.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Volcker, a true American hero who as Fed chairman tamed the stagflation of the '70s - but seems to be muzzled at a time when the country needs him most.
We have two Americas and the communists have taken the reins from the capitalists.
Look to Cuba and the former East Germany as examples of America's future.
Trust is the coin of the realm. And the ‘Rats are flat busted.
Wasn’t that sniveling know-nothing who testified before the Senate Finance Commitee yesterday Sec Geithner?
I’m not including myself in the characterization but I think that some of the best and brightest that I’ve ever communicated with are right here on FR!
They got what they paid for and we are all going to pay for what they got.
I doubt that any group of best/brightest could halt the necessary: the unwinding of 40 years of leverage, and a culture that forgot the wisdom of paying as you go. Or at least not getting over one’s head.
The business model of the last 20 years - namely, blowing capital gains in your house through re-fi - is no longer operative. It’s gone, and Larry Frickin Summers has nothing to say about it.
That was my first reaction, as well.
really good article
Glad you liked it
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