Infighting begins within Obama’s team

We are barely two weeks into Barack Obama’s tenure and reports are surfacing everywhere that his “team of rivals” is at each other’s throat. President Obama had said just after the election that he was looking to pull together the best and the brightest. However, this strategy comes with a cost as the outsized egos assembled in his team are starting to jockey for political position.

A well-informed reader alerted me to the latest and most depressing story, which involves former Harvard President and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers shunting aside legendary ex-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. Summers is trying to exclude Volcker, who is legendary for righting the U.S. economy after the stagflation of the 1970s. If he succeeds in sidelining Volcker, we will be the worse for it

TurboTax: targetting ads to Obama’s team problems

This is pretty funny actually (Hat tip Michael Turk)

Seven reasons to be skeptical of Obama’s economic plans

Government policy must be well-crafted in order to avoid negative unintended consequences that arise when the government inserts itself into the private sector. And this is where I am having a problem with the Obama Administration.

Recently, Tim Geithner’s comments about currency manipulation put me over the top; I felt compelled to give you my seven reasons to be skeptical about the policy course now being charted

Did Americans think the US economy had bottomed in 1933?

Marshall Auerback here. Now that Barack Obama has been inaugurated, we should actually look back to 1933 to get a sense of perspective. How did Americans see the economy at the Inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt? The short answer is that Americans were actually anticipating worse to come in 1933, but Roosevelt delivered on his promises? I do not expect the same from Obama

Warren Buffett: Don’t expect miracles from Obama

You may have already seen the Warren Buffett interview on Dateline from last Sunday. In it, he gives a sober analysis of what to expect from the new Obama Administration in terms of economic policy. The long and short of it is that we shouldn’t expect a miracle turnaround. The recession will be deep and protracted regardless of how well Barack Obama’s team deals with economic issues.

Below is the video of Buffett. The transcript is linked as a source

Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

Jagdish Bhagwati: Obama is a protectionist

In an FT opinion piece, Jagdish Bhagwati, a famous name in economic circles on the issue of free trade, issued a blistering attack on president-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to free trade in the face of a deteriorating U.S. job market. Bhagwati was optimistic about Obama as a free-trader during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton. However, Bhagwati is now deeply skeptical of Obama and his free trade bona fides.

Are we headed for another bout of Smoot-Hawley? If you agree with Professor Bhagwati, you might answer yes. Here is a snippet of his remarks below. I have highlighted the pieces I most agree with

Obama’s stimulus bill is a tough sell so far

Update 07 Mar 2009: I am re-posting this in light of increasing evidence that Obama’s stimulus bill was in fact too small. Paul Krugman has a good post today called “One-sided debate,” which reminds us he made that argument but was essentially ignored.

President-elect Barack Obama has won plaudits for his management skills as he prepares for office in less than two weeks. However, his stimulus bill is coming under fire from both the right and the left. On the left, Paul Krugman is critical about the high proportion of so-called stimulus that Obama’s proposal gets from tax cuts. On the right, Republicans like the fact that Obama is not only living up to his tax cut promises for the middle class but is also delaying a return to pre-Bush tax levels for the wealthy. However, there is pause within Republican ranks about the size of this package and the debt load that will go along with it

Byron Wien: Ten Surprises for 2009

As the New Year unfolds, it is time for predictions. I have done my part, giving a full account of where I see things headed in 2009 in my post “Top ten predictions for the 2009 global economy” and where I want to see them headed in 2009 in my post “Top ten economic wishes for 2009.” I have also mentioned Byron Wien in passing several times because he has done this sort of thing ever year for the past 24 years, first at Morgan Stanley at now at Pequot Capital. Well, his list for 2009 is now out and I want to show it to you – along with my usual commentary (in parenthesis) of course!

Enjoy

Illinois governor in custody for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat

I have seen this all over the political blogosphere.  Blagojevich is reputed to have been under investigation for corruption and wire-tapping charges for quite a while.  They finally decided to pull the trigger and arrest him over this. Here is a very good account by Michael Scherer from Swampland. Note the reference to a story

Obama White House: Add Larry Summers and Robert Gibbs

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism is reporting that Larry Summers is to be tapped to head Barack Obama’s National Economic Counsel.  Summers had been considered for the Treasury position, one that looks likely to go to Tim Geithner, the head of the New York Fed.  It is notable that Robert Rubin held Summers position in

Geithner is the man at Treasury, Richardson and Clinton also in

So I go away for a few hours and the whole world changes? Apparently Barack Obama has made a decisive move to fill out his cabinet and we are about to witness three appointments: Tim Geithner at Treasury, Hillary Clinton at State, and Bill Richardson at Commerce. All three come steeped in experience on Capitol Hill and the U.S. Government. However, all three are fairly safe picks too. Whether this is change we can believe in is only time will tell. At a minimum, we know that Obama is going to make swift and reasoned if conventional decisions as President