Robert Reich has a new post: "When Will the Recovery Begin? Never."
Obama went with the conventional thinking which was that, if you save the banks and get them working again, the rest of the economy (meaning jobs) would soon recover and people would start consuming again. But WHA HOPPENED! They must be scratching their heads and thinking they made a big mistake. If they did A, then B was sure to follow - at least that was the conventional thinking as espoused by Summers and Geithner who convinced Obama.
It is finally starting to sink in that they've made a big mistake. Their theory didn't work out. And to think - THEY'VE WASTED TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON THE BANKS!
What to do now? The money is gone. They don't have money for another stimulus. Stimulus, schmimulus. What's needed is not another stimulus but A COMPLETE RESTRUCTURING OF THE WHOLE FRIGGIN ECONOMY!
The Federal government is broke; the states are broke. The whole nation has pauperized itself with military adventurism and job outsourcing. Instead of spending trillions on the banks, they should have taken them over and restructured them. Instead they let banks take money and use it to lobby government not to impose regulations on them which is exactly what is needed to restructure the economy. They let the banks take money from the taxpayers and use it for obscene bonuses! How stupid can these guys be. But they're middle of the road, remember. Can't outlaw lobbyists even if they use bailout money for lobbying and bonuses.
Meanwhile there is no mortgage relief, no job growth, unemployment benefits running out, welfare benefits stopped. This is nuts! The Democrats and their stupid half-measures in the name of bi-partisanship have screwed things up even more, but this is nothing to the screw job that would have happened if the Republicans had their way.
Obama is a centrist when what is needed is someone at least as radical as FDR. Obama doesn't want to offend anyone and he is ever conscious of his legacy as the first black President. So he takes a middle of the road approach.
But Geithner and Summers are increasingly looking like fools as their approach of funneling money to the banks at any cost is looking like all it accomplished was, well, funneling money to the banks. Nothing else happened. B didn't follow A as it was supposed to. They've spilled too much red ink. Now there's no ink left. Well, they could stop two wars and close down 800 military bases and use that money. But they'd never do that. That's unthinkable. Not middle of the road enough.
Wait a minute...I know I'm no economist but if the banks had failed...then what? World wide depression or is that what RR is implying here? I think we dodged a bullet, don't you? What country can survive without banks? Blood sucking leeches, they are no better than the Insurance Mafia. Start prosecuting and lock up those criminals. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
I know the Administration tried to do what worked before but after 6-9 months we all realize that everyone is holding their money tighter. Who could blame them. Their job may be next. Who would have thought white collar jobs would disappear? Because some of us got educated like they told us we should and those jobs are now frozen or offered at slave wage levels. Lincoln freed the slaves and trying to survive right now is nearly as bad as torture.
If companies have no faith and continue the hiring freezes, then we're all screwed. Yes consumer based economies were set up to implode. I learned that in basic Econ class a few years ago. Now what?
Please Stop blaming Obama. I truly feel he has the best interests of the country at heart. If he doesn't, then I'll be shouting too.
Blame Congress for allowing run-away military spending, tax cuts for the rich, deregulation and nincompoops at the helm. Dems need to get a backbone and make a new plan. One that will encompass all aspects of this global mess.
/rant over
Posted by: Lisa | July 14, 2009 at 04:31 AM