2010 elections: “Completely out of control” for Democrats

The bailouts, deficit spending, and debate over health care are having a very nasty negative effect on the electoral fortunes of the Democratic party. Charlie Cook, a well-known and respected election pundit, writes (emphasis added): …President Obama’s job approval rating in both their August 16-18 and August 17-19 averages was just 51 percent, the lowest

What real comprehensive healthcare reform looks like

Yesterday I wrote a healthcare polemic which was mostly designed to discuss the politics of healthcare for the President. The essence of my argument was that Barack Obama has not shown enough willingness to fight for specific policies he espoused on the campaign trail. In a poor economic environment, this weakens him politically, as is

Obama: knowing when to be an asshole

Barack Obama’s health insurance reform initiative is clearly foundering. So, his administration has pulled out the big guns. Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius on the Sunday morning talk shows. Obama himself had a prime time press conference on the issue. He has hosted a number of town hall meetings. The President has even written

Obama and health care: Wasting political capital

President Barack Obama was elected last year in a sizable victory over his Republican competitor. Bolstering his position was the huge Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. Given these advantages, combined with intelligence and his natural talent as an orator, the President could pretty much chart his own course. He did so, immediately turning

GM gets the green light on its section 363 bankruptcy

Judge Robert Gerber has given General Motors approval to sell its assets under section 363 of the bankruptcy code.  Last month I indicated that this 363 sale was more questionable than Chrysler’s and could meet more resistance in court.  That has not happened and the GM bankruptcy looks likely to proceed according to the Obama

Ratigan, Spitzer and Huffington think Obama is captured

Here is more from Dylan Ratigan’s new show on MSNBC.  Arianna Huffington and Eliot Spitzer were guests.  They all have noticed that Barack Obama has spent an inordinate amount of political capital and money on the financial services sector without showing any stomach for serious all-encompassing reform.  Why is still unclear, but Huffington suspects capture

Obama takes middle road on stimulus and taxes that leads nowhere

I am re-posting this February article because it is clear that many of the policy dilemmas Barack Obama is now facing on the economy were wholly predictable. In this post and another from January, I argued that it was better to have zero stimulus than the half-measure proposed by Obama’s economic team. By not adding enough stimulus, Obama has discredited it as a policy tool and made it seem that stimulus is ineffective, something Alan Greenspan argues in an FT op-ed.

Moreover, it was equally obvious in January that California, at a minimum, was going to collapse economically, and cut back on spending, further reducing any positive effects of stimulus. Yet, somehow, California’s request for aid has been rejected, increasing the likelihood of a worst-case economic scenario in that state. Incongruously, big banks have received hundreds of billions of dollars in aid. Why the differential treatment?

If you are looking for change from the status quo, I imagine you might be disappointed at where things are headed. Perhaps the Obama Administration is looking to effect gradual change, but I am of the view that many policy decisions have a way of ossifying and becoming permanent – you get one shot and that is it. Paul Krugman opines that there is not enough audacity in this new administration.

If you want change, you will need to demand it as Robert Reich has suggested. Without a push, Barack Obama’s economic policy team may not deliver the change you want.

Below is the original article. Enjoy

Video of Obama’s speech on financial regulation

This is the video via Bloomberg News.  I will have more to say later today or tomorrow and provide a clip from a BBC Radio Five Live interview I did immediately following the speech

Reaction to President Obama’s speech in Cairo on Charlie Rose

From Charlie Rose’s site: “Reaction to President Obama’s speech in Cairo with Mohamad Bazzi, Roger Cohen, David Ignatius and Robin Wright.”

Barack Obama as Herbert Hoover

This is a post I originally posted over at Yves Smith’s site, Naked Capitalism, in April 2008. My intent here is not to malign Obama, Roosevelt or Hoover or make facile comparison but to identify important differences between the economic situation facing Obama and the one that faced Roosevelt. In my view, Obama faces a situation more akin to the one Herbert Hoover was forced to deal with because the economy is sill bottoming, unemployment is still rising and consumer spending is still falling. On the other hand, Roosevelt had the advantage of coming into office just as recession ended. This is an important difference in terms of political and economic constraints

Obama sacks Geithner and Summers, calls for change

This post was an April Fool’s joke. We all know this is not going to happen anytime soon

Obama remarks on auto industry

In 2 hours I will be on BBC World News Today talking about the recent government actions involving the auto industry. Afterwards, I will have more to say about this here. In the meantime, here is what Barack Obama had to say