Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team–Recipe for Disaster?
By Larry Johnson on November 24, 2008 at 1:01 PM in Current Affairs
Is this change you can believe in? We are facing, so we are told by President-elect Obama, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and he offers the nation this team? You have got to be kidding me. These are nice people, don’t get me wrong. But genuine expertise with capital markets and creating jobs. ZERO!! Take a close look at the sparkly resumes of these so-called “Economic” superstars. Two government bureaucrats, one mediocre academic, and one hill staffer. Please find me one person, just one, who has created jobs and run a business. Just one please. Here they are:
Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury
Timothy Geithner currently serves as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he has played a key role in formulating the nation’s monetary policy. He joined the Department of the Treasury in 1988 and has served three presidents. From 1999 to 2001, he served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Following that post he served as director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund until 2003. Geithner is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Lawrence H. Summers, Director of the National Economic Council
Lawrence Summers is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University. Summers served as 71st Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006. Before being appointed Secretary, Summers served as Deputy and Under Secretary of the Treasury and as the World Bank’s top economist. Summers has taught economics at Harvard and MIT, and is a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the American economist under 40 judged to have made the most significant contribution to economics. Summers played a key advisory role during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Christina D. Romer, Director of the Council of Economic Advisors
Christina Romer is the Class of 1957 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has taught and researched since 1988. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley, Romer was an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Romer is co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has been a visiting scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Melody C. Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Melody Barnes is co-director of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Team, and served as the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to Obama for America. Barnes previously served as Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress and as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee from December 1995 until March 2003.
Heather A. Higginbottom, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Heather Higginbottom served as Policy Director for Obama for America, overseeing all aspects of policy development. From 1999 to 2007, Higginbottom served as Senator John Kerry’s Legislative Director. She also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign for the primary and general elections. After the 2004 election, Higginbottom founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. She started her career as an advocate at the national non-profit organization Communities in Schools.
How do people who have never, ever worked in the private sector qualify to create 2.5 million new jobs? These are intelligent people, but the reality is that they have spent most of their lives as academics or government bureaucrats. If the task is to create more government or university jobs they are mightily qualified. But as far as the rest of the economy is concerned, not so much.
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
well said, Larry. I never thought of that. You make a valid and compelling point. Academic and bureaucratic experince is woefully inadequate to manage the biggest economy in the world.
This is Susan here. I loved Larry’s piece and scurried about adding the photographs, mostly because i wanted to see what all of these people looked like, and had a hunch that you would like to see their photos. I tried to find photos where they were actually DOING something, not just portraits. (And Larry is far, far too busy to do those tasks, and I love doing them for him.)
I LOVED that photo of HIllary giving Melody THAT look. There are lots of photos of Melody but that one won hands down.
BUT! I had a heck of a time finding a picture of Heather Higginbottom.
Then I found one with a clear caption that definitely assured me that it was she.
Well, bless my naughty soul. Guess where I found that image.
Remember NQ’s stories about the endorsements that Obama for the Democratic Socialists of America in Chicago? Heather was featured at the Boston chapter of DSA.
Summers’ remarks on women draw fire
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | January 17, 2005
CAMBRIDGE — The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a role discrimination plays in the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/
……..
So, misogyny was not simply for the election cycle it is some kinda gold they found and hope to continue to keep on using, in the form of such sexist thinkers as Larry Summers.
Oh yeah. Right up until obama hooked up with summers the giant orange stupid wanted summers tarred and feathered. Now that summers is in the obama-sphere not so much. They are shameless obamawhores. Oh, stupid and ugly to.
The truth is, there is no more effective US government, to represent the people of this country. Pelosi and now Obama are only puppets of the corporate globalists and the offshore crooks in charge of the Federal Reserve. Summers is a well known misogynist, having stated that women are intellectually inferior to men and can’t compete in the science and mathematics sphere. These Obama picks are despicable on many levels.
Watching Summers on the news this morning, I first wondered where his chin went, he seemed to have gained some weight, since I last saw him.
(And he’s just not firing on all six cylinders, IMO).
And real executive would look at the corruption, and be outraged, so Obama either doesn’t udnerstand it, or he’s a part of it.
First thing he should have done is send a message of accountability, and justice, to Wall Street.
THAT would help restore investor confidence, (blue chips, not the kooks blowing 10,000 a night on blow)…
Obama bent over, just another Wall Street tool, enabling the crooks who put him in the Presidency (as he was supposed to), telling them they won’t be held accountable for destroying the treasury, they won’t even have to pay taxes on the money they stole.
(A real psychological aspect of corruption, btw, avoidance of the corrupt by those with legitimate business concerns — they will be driven further and further away, including the gifted, until the talent pool is destroyed).
It will not get better, maybe a few dead cat bounces, but no solutions until they get rid of this CORRUPT deadwood, they’re still bailing the crooks out, with pretend money.
It’s so easy to yell “misogyny” in a crowded field… Check this out.
Science and the Gender Gap
http://www.newsweek.com/id/45646
Right after reassuring the rich that their wealth is set aside, the rest of us are asked to sacrifice
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/cuts-and-sacrifices-but-from-whom/
What it shows is a complete lack of imagination as well as an acceptance of his own paper thin resume. As you recall the market was tanking since his election until it was leaked that Geithner would be Treasury Secretary.
Was anyone on his short list (or long list) someone that actually ran a corporation or started a business and as you said created jobs? I doubt it.
The jobs that Obama is speaking of are not real jobs. They are going to be government jobs similar to what FDR did after 1933. The result was poor because real sustainable job growth has to be in the private sector. To accomplish that requires innovation and experience in the private sector either running a company or starting one.
Between the bailouts and the massive government jobs all of our taxes will be raised because someone will have to pay for it.
S. Markom,
You’re blaming Obama for the drop in the stop market? the market wasn’t too good before he was elected. As far as his remedy for the situation, just giving tax cuts with the hopes that people will buy and companies will hire doesn’t take into account that as a nation we’re not manufacturing goods like we did in the past. if you get a tax cut and spend it at Walmart the money goes to Walmart and companies in China (or other foreign companies) and thus isn’t pumped back into the economy. in any event, give President-elect Obama a chance (I like the sound of that). he is going to be a great president.
The precise time that the market started fading can be connected to the precise time that it appeared Obama would win the election.
75% of all employers did not support Obama..
Obama is BAD for business
Perception and confidence is everything
Warren Buffet should be the treasury secretary or maybe Mike Blooomberg.
Bloomberg would have been ideal, but he would never go along with Obama’s left policies and could never be controlled by Obama.
I’m not looking at it from a policy standpoint. Only from a job creation perspective.
If the economy continues to tank to a more frightening than the already frightening level, watch for Bloomberg in 2012. Not in Obama’s cabinet.
But, as a candidate. For President.
If the right will tolerate him (i.e., if they learned their lesson this time).
You read it here, first.
Bloomberg would have been an excellent choice because he thoroughly knows both business and government. If he were running for President this time around, I would have cast a totally enthusiastic vote for him.
How bout Meg Whitman?
She doesn’t have the right gender equipment.
Ebay isn’t the same since she left. It’s totally screwed up now. But she was responsible for creating thousands and thousands of new small businesses.
Yep. That’s why I suggested her — but the equipment issue is a problem, sadly, shamefully.
Wait …. is that sound more heads exploding or am I just projecting?
Bill Gates or Steve Jobs could be treasury secretary, too. I don’t know if Gates could take time away from his own foundation though.
I was hoping for Bloomberg too. Perhaps this is Barky fulfilling his promise to his ACORN homies that they would have a voice in his decision-making from election day forward. Sure seems like decisions by committee.
Geithner’s okay …he’s got a longstanding backgroundin development and his time at the FED should’ve taught him something. Summer’s no slouch, but just more of the same stuff from the Clinton years. Romer’s wonky but not bad.
I’m still trying to figure out who and what the bottom two are … never heard of them. This is where you need the nuts and bolts people. They look more like political hacks than anything else …
would’ve been nice for him to reach across the aisle and appoint some one like Meg Whitman perhaps or Carly Fiorina instead.
dak Melody is from the center for american progress, the podesta thinkgroup
she is an attorney, I dont know higgenbotthom
http://tinyurl.com/69nol8
Fiorina not so much.
Dakinikat:
I agree with everything you write here:
I said sth. similar about the last 2 in a comment below.
The Clinton years were very good economically. From biggest deficit to biggest surplus, many new jobs, many good things.
Summers was there from the first, as Under Secretary of the Treasury, promoted on up to Deputy then Secretary.
Infrastructure projects take years to come on line.
Lower the damn capital gains.
” BREAKING ”
Alan Colmes Leaving “Hannity & Colmes”
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/alan_colmes_leaving_hannity_colmes_101631.asp?c=rss
The headline was cut short, and should have read “Alan Colmes is Leaving “Hannity & Colmes”, but Nobody is Really Expected to Notice”.
I guess they just should have announced that Hannity & Colmes was changing its name?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire Fox lineup is changed over the next year. Hannity is probably burned out from this campaign.
I wonder where Glenn Beck fits in
I love Glenn Beck!
I can’t stand Colmes.
Bloomberg should have been at least considered for US Secretary of the Treasury…
http://ontheseventhday.wordpress.com/
The Obama Administration Motto:>/strong>
“Everything old is new again.
What was politics of the past
is now change for the future.”
oops
Love it! Great motto. Someone needs to post it on the Orange site.
Agreed! Whatever happened to ridding Government of all those pesky Boomers?
I’m not real upset that some Clinton folks will be in there but this is just another Obama “bait and switch” tactic. It appears that That One is running scared because of the mess he’s inherited and all of a sudden experience actually matters.
In his TV appearances, he also looks haggard and depressed. Looks like the guy needs an extended vacation already.
Is this change you can believe in?
No.
And certainly is not what the liberal-shrill-osphere had in mind. Yet not surprisingly [not really] most of the liberal-shrill-osphere is silent.
All during the primaries and general the liberal-shrill-osphere couldn’t stop screaming racist at anyone that didn’t hope for change. Now, now, when ‘we’ are looking prescient and they look like the dumbass’ they always looked like not a word from the shrill-osphere. What a bunch of fucking jasskacked morons. Nothing, absolutely nothing is more pathetic than the liberal-shrill-osphere. Nothing.
Hey you knuckle dragging mouth breathing brain dead members of the liberal-shrill-osphere: What say you now! You cretins!
I think they are just having a primal scream with the volume muted so as not to hear the told you so’s that they so richly deserve.
On the other hand, people with long-term private sector experience somehow got us to where we are today. There might be something to be said for the objectivity of outsiders who can see the big picture.
That was “save or create 2.5 million jobs” :
President-elect Barack Obama today announced a bold initiative to save or create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years.
change.gov/newsroom/entry/2_5_million_jobs/
Yeah. He bambloozed and hoodwinked the okie dookied press. “save or create” ? What the hell does that mean? Nothing. Two years from the easiest thing in the world for obama to say is: See I gave the store and we didn’t lose 2.5 millon jobs we would have if I didn’t give the store away.
And ‘liberals.’ They are so cute. obama wasn’t about to be nailed down on anything during his latest press conference. Of course the obamamedia wasn’t gonna force any specific answers from him anyway. Isn’t that great! Yeah just great. We have no clue but tons of hope! Yipppeeee! There is nothing dumber than a ‘liberal’ except a ‘liberal’ with a blog.
I completely agree….save or create.
Geez…who thought that gem up?
That press conference…is definitely ‘more of the same’.
He does the same thing Bush does. Recycle the same talking points among his answers and says nothing.
The press actually asked questions he already answered in the previous comments and opening statement.
We’ve seen this play before with Bush….now softball questions planted for Obama will be the policy.
Here is hoping Helen Thomas is on the case.
2.5 million jobs?? WOW is that not a bit over ambitious geez and to think the media is not running with that line and asking how this is going to happen.
I don’t think its right for any President to make such silly promises
2.5 million is probably a reference to the number of American workers that will be without jobs if the U.S. auto industry collapses.
Those private sector guys who stepped off their private jets in Washington with their hands out this past week didn’t seem to have any ideas of their own. Other than getting a quick cash fix, of course.
From cynic - “On the other hand, people with long-term private sector experience somehow got us to where we are today. There might be something to be said for the objectivity of outsiders who can see the big picture.”
cynic - don’t overlook the fact that the objective outsiders who can see the big picture, sat on the sidelines while all this was developing. Their presence now doesn’t give me any sort of reassurance. In fact, the only thing it really does, is make me feel a whole lot smarter than I did before.
SIGN THE PETITION TO FORCE BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA TO PRESENT HIS QUALIFICATIONS.
PETITION FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
To: Electoral College, Congress of the United States, Federal Elections Commission, U.S. Supreme Court, President of the United States, other controlling legal authorities
Whereas, by requirement of the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, no one can be sworn into office as president of the United States without being a natural born citizen;
Whereas, there is sufficient controversy within the citizenry of the United States as to whether presidential election winner Barack Obama was actually born in Hawaii as he claims;
Whereas, Barack Obama has refused repeated calls to release publicly his entire Hawaiian birth certificate, which would include the actual hospital that performed the delivery;
Whereas, lawsuits filed in several states seeking only proof of the basic minimal standard of eligibility have been rebuffed;
Whereas, Hawaii at the time of Obama’s birth allowed births that took place in foreign countries to be registered in Hawaii;
Whereas, concerns that our government is not taking this constitutional question seriously will result in diminished confidence in our system of free and fair elections;
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81550
The above article appears on WorldNetDaily.
It’s never gonna fly. You’re spinning your wheels. The Constitution doesn’t say you need a birth certificate.
The Constitution does say you have to be a natural born citizen.
How does the Constitution outline how you prove that?
Common sense.
Since everyone of age in the 1790’s had been a citizen of some other country, Article 2 has the original colonists “grandfathered” in. It is very explicit in the requirement for any successors to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest.
Birth certificates weren’t widely used in the U.S. until 1946. Is/Was everyone born before 1946 grandfathered in as well?
Hank Paulson has been awful, I actually think Tim Geithner is a better replacement.
Nobody wants this economy to fail. If it does, we will lose money in our retirement account; we won’t even have place to put our cash, even if we still have some; we might lose our jobs. So let’s give his team some chance to prove themselves.
Besides Hillary, the only choices he’s making is either employing and trying to duplicate the Clinton Administration, or choosing insiders and disasters that he owes to (oh, I know, not his rhetoric).
And the one thing he isn’t trying to copy the clinton Administration on is his success, WHY? He’s bragging he will try to create 2.5 million jobs in 2-3 years? WHAT? He didn’t even suggest net gain, and is again relying on ignorance. So we’re supposed to not realize percentages and population growth….and THE NEED FOR MORE JOBS. The Clinton Administration created 22.5 million jobs in 8 years, and O-shit! is tossing crumbs already with 2.5 million TARGET in 2-3 years.
Change we don’t need or want.
or choosing insiders and disasters that he owes to (oh, I know, not his rhetoric).
Yup. The media will not notice the number of mega donors now with jobs on obama’s transition staff or actually picked for jobs. The obamamedia will simple not mention that fact. Mega donors given sweet jobs. Change you can hope in!
Bundlers working for the Obama transition
becoming44.org/content/bundlers-working-obama-transition
OH, look at one of his first appointments.
TOM DASCHLE as Health and Human Services Secretary. Oh YES, he SCREAMS CHANGE! Especially considering nothing in his background would suggest he be the proper candidate for this position, expect for the fact that he was one of Obama’s first promoters working for the lobbying firm whos clients are Health and Human Services. - roflmao Oh wait, that’s ok, because he wasn’t REGISTERED as a lobbyist.
…change you should refuse!
Wasn’t he indicted or similiar? Daschle was booted out wasn’t he? He is an egotistical pig.
Earth to adrians:
He is the president of the united states, deal with it.
you people are silly and a bit sad.
Earth to oborg: We are. You deal with that.
roflmao
obviously he can’t deal with much reality.
Another dopey for changey and hopey?
Its sad that you will never open your eyes and see the truth. I’ve seen this various times in the past. You’ll learn in time.
are you part of that same group that didn’t want to question him, this chicago politican, on anything, including his major flips on so much, but would declare (wait, let me inhale some helium, so I can sound like the others suffering from lack of oxygen to the brain) “We’ll hold his feet to the fire once he gets elected”.
lmao
And how do you propose holding his feet to the fire (yes, WE know it won’t work AFTER he’s elected-but you apprently did). You don’t even want to question him. LOL
exactly; that “hold their feet to the fire” stuff is such b.s.. the only “fire” that matters is the election. politicians care about one thing only: winning. once they get elected they don’t care what anybody thinks, unless there is a realistic chance that people will VOTE AGAINST THEM and cause them to LOSE their next election.
Eric,
Because of our patriotic dissent Obama is forced to govern from the center.
In fact Obama may be the conservatives choice for president next time..Ha Ha!
How about that Goldwater republican as SOS…
Hillary sure is going to shine on that world stage
Get over it!!
F— you.
We didn’t accept Bush, and we won’t accept Obama.
So go jump off a cliff.
thank you Larry, another excellent point made. Obama is rattling on about creating 2.5 million jobs but they will be related to government in the private sector. I have found that 9 times out of 10 most managers are just like the people Obama plans to appoint. They may have an education but no idea what goes on down in the trenches and they dont’ care or want to know. If a person knows how to grow tomatoes and we need watermelons, it doesn’t mean shit. And hands on experience will beat book smarts any day of the week.
Here’s some fun facts about Mr. Geithner.
http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/orgchart/geithner.html
“Timothy F. Geithner became the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on November 17, 2003. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group responsible for formulating the nation’s monetary policy.
Mr. Geithner joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1999 to 2001 under Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. Before joining the Treasury, Mr. Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Mr. Geithner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in government and Asian studies in 1983 and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a master’s in International Economics and East Asian Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan.
Mr. Geithner serves as chairman of the G-10’s Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems of the Bank for International Settlements. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Group of Thirty.”
Hmmm…a youthful dalliance with Kissinger, time at the IMF during the Asian econ crises (check out Chapter 13 in your copies of Shock Doctrine) and a good working relationship with that shit-pig Summers.
Hopey Changey Goodness? Not so much. Just another winky-nudgey signal to Teh Market that all is well and happy and status quo.
This disaster in the making does not surprise me.
Obama is incapable of creative thinking — and his leadership style of known as Chaos.
He seems to think that if he somehow pulls in Clinton retainers that he might be able to re-create a Clinton success. However — Bill Clinton knew how to listen, synthesize the best ideas and turn that into action. Obama does NOT have that ability — he can only copy he cannot create.
He is also an academic so he will be drawn to the academic gadflies like himself. People who have been on the front lines, built and run successful businesses are probably seen as inferior by 0-zero.
Basically 0-zero doesn’t have a clue about the economy — and this shows in his selection of economic advisers. All he knows, is that to buy Mrs. 0’s dream mansion, he needed call his best buddy Rezko. And so he was able to buy a mansion he could not afford — perhaps he never realized that regular folks like us could never get away with the slick tricks he pulled to get Mrs. 0’s mansion.
Academic Gadflies will probably make the economic situation worse — because they have no idea what the real world is like.
So this faux black guy, with no executive experience is going to “fix” the economy . . . NOT.
Oh hell — I guess we have to wait a few months before we can yell — We told you so!
Looks like The Pretender’s bringing on board people who are just like him - completely lacking in experience or qualifications for the job they’ve been selected to do.
The Pretender’s like a baby, mesmerized by the rainbow prism on the wall, grabbing for the pot of gold at the end of a non-existent rainbow. He’s an illusion, the administration he’s building is an illusion, and any belief he can get this country out of the mess we’re in is an illusion.
I wonder if he’ll ever wake up and realize that the lives we’re all living, the lives he’s screwing with, are NOT illusions? And if he even cares? Probably not; narcissists don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Narcissistic Illusionist — as well as passive aggressive.
Hey nice choice Howie Deanie — and Donna (racist) Brazillion.
Not even Hillary Clinton can save this sinking ship.
Great Article:
I wonder how the Obots will like filling Obama’s jobs. You know, be there at 8 AM, two weeks off a year, be on call, get off your azz and work type jobs. What?
But, Obama is gonna pay my bills!!!! (snark)
OBOTS: Obama is your president. Deal with it and get to work!!!!
Didn’t Bush lose something like 2 million jobs this year? Maybe that’s why the 2.5 million figure.
I can’t believe I’m about to write this but how about Mitt Romney. This guy has executive experience in both the corporate and government world. His work in the private sector was directed at cost cutting and making the most out of a bad situation and he was a Republician governor in Massachusetts for pete’s sake. If your going to build team of rivals then he would have to be on the list, unless your worried about facing him 2012. That said making him Sec. Commerce would either force him to help you succeed or fail himself. Finally I just want to state that i have never voted for him or supported him in the past.
I’m still surprised he was the GOP nominee. He would have been far more formidable and would have run a far better canpaign.
He would have probably declined because he is looking toward 2012, but he would have been a good Treasury Secretary and a great Commerce Secretary.
At the very least I would appointment him to advise on the Big Three bailout given his background including the fact that the auto business is in his blood (his father was Chairman of American Motors).
I have a theory that the media crowd were hghly worried about him so they ran documentaries about the Mormon massacre, published stories in which they ALWAYS mentioned that he was a Mormon (but Harry Reid, who is also one - never). The NY Times endorsed McCain, only to savage him once he secured the nomination. I believe they know that Romney, with his good looks (something that appeals to MANY MANY voters), artiulate speech, sense of humor, and business experience, posed a tremendous threat to Obama, so they did to him what they did to Hillary and everyone else posing a threat to Obama. (Of course we can’t forget to mention Sarah Palin, who also worried the media tremendously. They are still after her because they are afraid she might run against Obama in 2012).
Very interesting theory.
I can’t say I know a good deal about Romney as Governor — I know he has some bug reputation as a businessman but I thought he did not do well fiscally for them? Anyone got the real scoop on him?
Looks like he’s trying to imitate Franklin Roosevelt’s “Brain Trust.” In addition to this great post by Larry, there’s also some interesting stuff at Wikipedia on the “First New Deal” and the “Second New Deal” as well as a recovery after Roosevelt took office and started experimenting with stuff (a recovery followed by a recession in 1937). I looked under Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Wikipedia. Obama’s “job creation” proposal is a copy of Roosevelt’s CCC and WPA programs. While Obama may be populating his administration with former members of Bill Clinton’s administration, he (Obama) is using FDR as a role model. Whether he hits a home run or strikes out remains to be seen. The jobs he wants to create are manual labor jobs, not the service industry/white collar jobs which have dominated our world in recent years.
And what part of FDR’s policy do you see Obama doing, besides all the talking points that he disseminated throughtout the media as “is Obama going to create the New New Deal”? LOL
Obama is nothing but trying to copy pieces of everyone in the past. Again, what happened to new politics. LOL Change????? Copying Bill, Copying Reagan, Copying Lincoln, Copying JFK. Copying FDR.
A cheap copy cat.
FDR’s model may be a good one, whoever’s idea it is to use it now (Summers’? Hillary’s? Bill’s?) Instead of buiding dams and painting murals, use the idle auto plants to make electric cars.
As for creating manual labor jobs, where do you get that? In the third world?
[...] Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team : NO QUARTER The Clinton Wars +++ Sidney Blumenthal’s most recent, and smartly prescient, book: The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party · Amazon.com Widgets · Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton … [...]
My dad worked in government starting in 1933 (as a teenager) in one of the forerunner programs from FDR. His biggest complaint all through the years: The ones in charge were mostly from academic backgrounds and had no idea the reality of the programs and work duties of those hired to carry out the mandates.
In other words, the heads of the programs didn’t have a clue how to do a day’s work at the levels they were overseeing.
Apparently, this is the change Obama is yammering about. Absolutely no change.
The New Deal didn’t work. Try something else. We need a new industry. How about building robots.
I hope sooner rather than later, many Americans are going to wake up and realize that this election was not a cure for our problems but a symptom of the disease. I think this is what our crashing financial markets are telling us. The failure of communism and socialism is not that far behind us. Yet Americans cannot seem to recall that it happened — and why it happened. What characterizes these systems? Government control. Central planning. And Godlessness.
By the way Larry, The LDC (whatever the name) blogtalk show was excellent. I like his long explanations. It’s not easy explaining the finacial systems.
LJ: Who would you have liked instead?
I like Tim Geithner. He seemed a good choice to me…
As for Summers yeah he’s a sexist and thinks he’s smarter than he really is. I lied Rubin but not Summers during the Clinton years. He’s written some thoughtful articles on the WSJ recently about the crises. But I was glad Geithner got Tsy. and not Summers. We need a “street” guy; not an academic in Tsy.
On the other hand Summers (now named chair of the NEC) will be the next Fed Reserve Chairman in 2010….
I don’t know the other you list. But I am disappointed Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC has not been
named for a post. She’s smart and yes she make a proposal on mortgages that Barney Frank asked her to look into. But she’s also a Republican, a fiscal conservative and independent minded person.
Yeah, sheila is great … totally admire her, i have a good friend from my fed days that works for her now… she’s pragmatic, down-to-earth, knows how to put the wonk into the real world… but again she’s republican … the two bottom look like kennedy and kerry poli wonks… just a couple of poltical hacks
Assuming Blair is all you say she is … still remember the Peter Principle. She is doing a good job where she is. If you move her from FDIC into Treasury, then you have a whole string of lesser experienced people coming up the ladder in FDIC to replace her. And she will be coming into Treasury with no Treasury experience and have to catch up (assuming that she is qualified to catch up).
Better to bring the Clinton 90s Treasury people back into their old jobs, or as near as possible — we know they were qualified and eventually familiar with the requirements, as they got good results cleaning up after Bush Sr.
BLair is an unknown quantity as far as Treasury jobs go — the only sure thing is that we’d be destabalizing a working FDIC just as it’s about to be stressed more than ever.
At least the FDIC works so far; don’t fix it.
LJ: I grant you that
Melody C. Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council
and
Heather A. Higginbottom, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council
are absurd: they are political appointments completely divorced form economic experience…..
I would have to find out about Prof. Christina Romer.
I don’t know why you refer to her as a mediocre academic?
she’s married to THE ROMER ….
You people and Lush Rimbaugh should team up and start sourgrapes.com or something. What a bunch of whiners. I guess you noticed that Obama didn’t Need your votes. You could at least give the guy a chance but you all would rather run your lip out and look like cry babies. I can’t wait to watch you fawn over Sec. of State, Hillary while bashing Obama.
Most of this bunch think she should stay in the senate rengade … now BEAT your meat some where else …. and I mean that in the nicest possible way
darling.
Frankly, no one here cares what a drip of a troll like you thinks. Go try your luck at HuffPo, which is down the hall on the far left behind the dumpsters.
and it isn’t the dumpsters that reak!
beebop is right that most of the posters here want her to remain in the senate as leader of the alternative-to-Obama Democratic government. But we are respecting her for her ability to play the game she is forced to play. Respect by the way is EARNED. Therein lies the rub with your guy.
Take your “sour” ass over to Kos or HuffPo with your dumb rantings. The adults are talking here - no children allowed.
[...] Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team–Recipe for Disaster? : NO QUARTER Pingback by Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team : NO QUARTER at Hillary Clinton On Best Political Blogs | 2008-11-24 15:05:50. [...] Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team : NO QUARTER The Clinton Wars +++ Sidney Blumenthal’s most recent, … [...]
Thank you for this very insightful post, Larry. Your analysis is absolutely to the main point here, which in my opinion is that, whatever the economic state we may find ourselves, government micromanagement by folks who have no experience in the real market system is only going to make the pain worse and longer lasting. If anything, the best course of action now is to stand aside, let the market mechanism deal with this (i.e., Chapter 11 for GM, Ford etc), and let Americans themselves deal with this, I would much rather trust the entrepreneurial spirit of millions of small business and big business types than the thin experience of a bunch of politcos
as far as I can see, only GM needs chapter 11, Ford still has cash from selling Ranger Rover, Jaguar, etc. No idea what Chrysler’s deal is since it went private after Daimler sold it off …
to me, good time for some applied game theory and see what shakes up …
offer any one who goes chapter 11 help AFTER chapter 11 if they need it …
put LOTS of strings on $$$$… it’ll shake out the wall of sound … each of them are in different starting positions, it’ll shake them off the same theme song
Many of the so-called “market mechanisms” as you say is what got us into this problem.
The only thing that can get us out of this mess is the government. Both Republican and Democrats agree on this and frankly all countries around the planet also agree. Where they disagree is on the level of government support.
There is a role for government in the economy. It plays it everyday.
Trust everything to big business and you will be working at third world country wages, with no healthcare, and living on an environmental garbage heap.
What we need are the type of entrepreneurs who have built a business from the ground up. A Michael Dell who started Dell Computers in his dorm room. Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak who created Apple. Martha Stewart who created her company in her kitchen. David Filo and Jerry Yang built Yahoo! in a trailer on Stanford’s campus. Jeff Bezos who started Amazon first desk was made out of a door. Sergey Brin and Larry Page -the Google guys built Google in a friend’s garage.
Every single one of these highly successful companies started out small and grew to employ thousands of people. What’s also important is that the company founders have all with the exception of Google, have all experienced the highs and lows of business and have guided their companies through the storms.
Now, now. Why on earth would we hire people who can actually produce results?
Haven’t you learned anything? All you need an ivy league degree and you are qualified for anything.
Yahhh… put a bunch of executives in there and in charge and you get the great economic Bush years… what a disaster…… big deficit other than during Reagan years, big trade imbalance, lowest value of the U.S. dollar, a huge housing bubble, and now the biggest recession since the great depression… great results by the corporate executives that ran economic policy during the Bush years…
Is that how you define results?
The people Obama has choice have phenomenal results. Geithner has helped solve one economic crisis after the other throughout his career.
The economy under Summers stewardship did pretty well during the Clinton years.
Everyone needs to listen to this video and help fight this !
http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/home/18-headline-item/518-shariah-compliant-finance-jihad-with-money
These are intelligent people, but the reality is that they have spent most of their lives as academics or government bureaucrats.
Larry, it actually doesn’t surprise me at all, because that is exactly who Obama is. He should have been a professor, because he lives in his head. It’s all abstract philosophy to him, and that’s also why it is so difficult for him to take a firm stand on anything. It’s all relative. We’ll see if any of his more pragmatic appointees like Rahm will help to ground him and actually execute policy.
Mr. Johnson, this goes to a recent point that Gruny Old Man was making about the role academia and the dawning of the age of Obamacrats.
It looks good on paper and does not speak to Seattle Moss’s reality and millions like him.
We nationalize private industry while being critical of folks like Chavez…Ironic.
When something is judged to “to big to fail” then when does the Anti-trust laws etc. take effect? when the bottom falls out and floorboards have all rusted away?
Hope won’t feed my family. Change will be made in the new coin of the realm, Baraks. Can’t wait for my mint set to be delivered.
Larry what do you know about economics? ZERO!
Obama’s team is a very good and qualified team. Bi-partisan support.
Geithner is exactly the right man for the job. Non-partisan and an expert on financial crisis.
Summers is one of the smartest economic minds we have in this country. His economic track record during the Clinton years was very good.
The resumes that you give for each person says nothing about their track record and achievements. Just of a list of jobs and education.What do you want a corporate executive in there? There are plenty that are advisors. You need people that know there way around government and can get things done. They have to also be able to understand the complexities of policy and the complicated economic issues this country is dealing with.
Go find out what each of these people have actually done in their life and their achievements before you critize.
Larry stick with your national security experience and stay away from economics. You have nothing to add, except superficial cheap shots. The election is over, deal with it.
I can tell you what they all have in common and it is the name of a great president much maligned during the primary with the name of another great president in the middle …
The election may be over to you because you don’t care about morality or legality or the “niceties” of constitutionality, but for some of us — like those of us who never supported shrub — it isn’t over as you so quaintly put it.
It isn’t over until this stain on the Democratic party is wiped clean.
The only stain is the big stain the Republican party has left on their way out the door. They have been a complete disaster for this country. The Democrats now have to come in and fix all the problems.
Your standard of living is about to go down because of Bush’s recession.
[...] Obama’s Bureaucratic Economic Team–Recipe for Disaster? (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter) Is this change you can believe in? We are facing, so we are told by President-elect Obama, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and he offers the nation this team? You have got to be kidding me. These are nice people, don’t get me wrong. But genuine expertise with capital markets and creating jobs. ZERO!! Take a close look at the sparkly resumes of these so-called “Economic” superstars. Two government bureaucrats, one mediocre academic, and one hill staffer… How do people who have never, ever worked in the private sector qualify to create 2.5 million new jobs? These are intelligent people, but the reality is that they have spent most of their lives as academics or government bureaucrats. If the task is to create more government or university jobs they are mightily qualified. But as far as the rest of the economy is concerned, not so much. It’s typical of Democrats to appoint academics to economic advisory positions. But Democrats have had a much better record on financial matters than Republicans. [...]