I did a lot of TiVoing this week-end of the Sunday talk shows ,CSPAN,6o Minutes and the two hour housing crisis documentary titled “House of Cards” on CNBC ;so I could try and make some sense of how we got into this financial mess; and hear some assumptions on how long it will take us to get out of it. I already know we will get out of this mess but I just wanted to know the how and when.
I am not thrilled with the watered down version of the stimulus package that was passed. We are in a gigantic mess, so I don’t think $827 billion is enough to quickly instill consumer confidence. President Obama will probably have to come back and ask for more funds. I do think the package will create or save about 3 million jobs, to slow the rising trend of unemployment but if the housing, banking, and credit market does not show improvement in 9 months, more money will be needed for infrastructure projects. This is the best bill Obama had a chance to pass, considering the political atmosphere.
The GOP have now become deficit hawks and tax cutters for the next four years. They are becoming the party of “NO” without an alternative plan. The GOP and the blue dog democrats, all come from conservative districts ,that approve of those tactics. True bipartisanship will not happen in the next four years. Old habits are hard to break. I understand politics (cherry picking and exaggerating)but unless the GOP offers some solutions to the banking,housing,and credit problems ;slogans like “generational theft”, or” orgy of pork” will only satisfy the base and do nothing to prevent another 2006 or 2008 election result. Hissy fits, slogans, or theatrics will get you on “Fox News” but it is not a substitute for rolling up your sleeves to help us get out of this mess.
The Obama administration did not have a perfect first three weeks but it did pass the largest bill in legislative history in record time. Treasury Secretary Geithner did not explain how he was going to solve the banking and housing crisis and Wall Street plummeted because they were expecting another bailout. This time around Barack Obama (explainer-in-chief) will lay out the plan until Geithner gets his authoritative sea legs under him. The banks will not like the stress test audit they will be undertaking and nationalizing them will probably be the next step because I am sure many will fail the test.Nationalizing them (not in the Sweden way) will not be as bad because no one in Washington knows how to run a bank and we have many banks who will merge with others or fail.
The Obama Administration and Nancy Pelosi know that if this economy worsens in the next 9 months and the stimulus package is seen as a failure, Barack Obama will be a one term president, and the GOP will gain some seats in congress.
“I find it amazing that the Republicans who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it, gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing him for spending money.
Bill Clinton
Historians recently picked Clinton 15th in a ranking of 42...George W. Bush was 36th and Ronald Reagan was 10th in comparison.
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Alton
February 18, 2009 at 9:32 a.m.I am 63 years years old and I cannot see the correlation between Reagan’s economy and this one because this is a world financial rut we are in, everything we do will influence the world economy. This involved credit default swaps, CDOs, loosened financial regulations, and no oversight.
I am surprised you buy into the right-wing blog rumors about Nancy Pelosi’s big push..The president himself urged the rush..Do you really think he cared about Pelosi’s trip? Senator Sherrod Brown came back from attending a funeral service for his mom to cast the deciding vote…Do you honestly think Mr. Brown cared about Pelosi’s trip? Ted Kennedy came in suffering from a brain tumor to vote on the first round..Do you think he cared about Pelosi’s trip? I gave you more credit than that.
This is not about Obama, Reagan or Clinton; as Clinton himself said….This is a temporary jump start to try and stop the upward trend of job losses.
Yes,I read the GOP plan and it was half the cost and loaded with about 65% in tax cuts will no stimulus…If it had been adopted the GOP wouldn’t even vote for it because it would not work and would doom them further down than they are now...They dreamed of it and put it in writing in a period of three days.
A stimulus is devised to jump start the economy with spending and stop the bleeding…IT IS NOT a long range economic fix.
I am humble enough to say I really don’t know what is going to happen because I suspect we have not hit rock bottom. When we are convinced that we are at rock bottom we can get an assessment of housing values, then we can make changes we know will work and I think the bank audit stress test will weed out the banks that are in really bad shape….We will let them fold.
Frontline have a terrific documentary on this current crisis last night.
Mike it sounds like you never read the Republican proposed bill. I can not believe you supported the passage of this bill that was read by anyone before voting on it. The big push for passage was because Nancy had to be at the airport for an 8 day trip to Europe. Otherwise it could have been voted on yesterday, and still signed by President Obama today. It also sounds like you are too young to recall the fact that President Regan inherited a economy that was even worst than our current one. Even when both houses were controlled by Democrats, he spent less money, and stopped the climb of unemployment at 10.7 %.
February 17, 2009 at 11:05 p.m.I predict that within the next 12 months the next big financial crisis will hit---commercial mortgages/leases will "belly=up". I doubt they will form an RTC to solve the banking problems, but instead nationalize the banks. I will be shocked if unemeployment does not reach 12 % in the next 18 months.
More jobs were created during President Clinton's term than President Bush's.