Obama’s Debt Ceiling Doubletalk

Michael Hudson argues that President Obama says one thing, and he does the opposite. Here’s basically the charade that’s happening when he’s trying to be reasonable. In order for him to move way to the right and to continue the Bush administration policies, he needs the Republicans to move even further to the right

Obama offers up Social Security cuts

The larger question is the economy. If it improves from here, the President gets re-elected. If the debt ceiling and budget cut debates tank the economy, the Republicans will get the blame and Obama wins too. If the economy sours without a debt default or massive immediate cuts, then the Republicans will take the White House

This is what happens when there is a public record, part 2

Even if the debt ceiling showdown ends without default, there will be more shutdown attempts when the federal budget comes up for review in the fall. Get ready for more gridlock – and a US sovereign debt ratings downgrade

Post credit bubble fiscal austerity leads to depression

My hope is that, despite slowing in Europe and China, the global economy will have enough pop to get the US through its experiment with expansionary fiscal contraction. But this is just a hope

David Stockman Hawkish on the US Federal Budget

David Stockman was on Bloomberg yesterday reviewing the Obama 2011 Budget proposal. His view dovetails with the view on the budget I presented yesterday, when I said: The key, however, is that no one actually wants to cut the items in the budget which account for the lion’s share of spending: defense, Social Security, and

Initial Thoughts on the Obama Budget

I was on the BBC this morning talking about the Obama FY 2012 budget proposal. Here’s what I said and what I think about the proposal so far (If I get the video, I will post). This post will be more about the political tactics and positioning than about advocating a specific policy course since the budget and the framing of its objectives is a purely political process. I will give some broad strokes on the advocacy front, however.

The Obama Agenda

Clearly, President Obama is in full re-election mode now – and that means everything he does from here on out will be done with an eye to how these policy moves will be perceived in a 2012 general election. The Obama budget shows a lot more budget cutting than the President announced during the State of the Union address last month. This is probably by design because the President wants to exceed expectations on the deficit cutting front to paint himself as fiscally responsible in his efforts to beat back the Republicans efforts to paint him as a tax & spend liberal.

The Effort to Claim that Economists Support Obama’s Capitulation on Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

by William K. Black You know the administration is desperate when it creates a web page citing economists who support its capitulation on taxes. The web page cites the support of five economists. Peter Cardillo, the Bank of America, Greg Mankiw, and Wells Fargo (are the second through fifth economists on Obama’s list). Who are

Voodoo That I Don’t Do

If you want to cut taxes and say you prefer them to increased spending, fine. But let’s not act like tax cuts reduce the deficit. They don’t. When I say economists and policy makers abuse economic ideology for political purposes, this is what I’m talking about. Hat tip Andrew Samwick

Gallup: Obama’s approval at new low because of 12% Republican approval

Gallup shows President Obama’s approval rating tied for a low of 48% in the most recent polling. But if you look at the data split by party, it’s like we’re living in three separate worlds. Obama’s personal numbers have fallen mostly amongst Republicans – directly contradicting some of the recent evidence we saw last week

Palin: Asia speech re-casts her as Libertarian and slams Obama on China

Sarah Palin the populist has become Sarah Palin the free trader. In a wide-ranging and well-received speech in Hong Kong, Palin supported a more Libertarian free-market approach, slamming the recent imposition of tariffs on Chinese tires by the Obama Administration. Palin spoke at a closed-door investor forum organized by CLSA in which no media representatives

Delivering a brilliant healthcare speech

Tonight we saw a brilliant performance from Barack Obama. It was Obama at his best, using his command of the English language to inspire and connect on a grand stage as only few politicians can. For sceptics like myself, he surprised. For his base, he reaffirmed. For his adversaries he reached out with an open

Arlen Specter to switch parties

This is a bombshell from the political world. I believe that means Al Franken will make Obama filibuster-proof. Obviously, this is very bad news for Republicans. I suspect that the deal is that Rendell and Casey will pull out ALL the stops to get Specter re-elected too. Confirmed that Sen Specter will become a Democrat