Obama - Where's the change?

[c1ue]

'Bad bank':

the government should purchase them at values above the near fire-sale prices prevailing in the market.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...4oU&refer=home

New 'Guarantees':

the government will buy toxic assets below the banks "carrying value," which is basically market value, but not at fire sale levels, the source said.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/White-...-14262370.html

Um, what is the difference between the two from the taxpayer standpoint? From the bank standpoint, the latter delays reporting of actual losses - always a nice thing.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

"Fed lends two trillion without oversight," reads the headline to-day at this itulip website. So, "Where is the change?" a good question, indeed.

Bernanke has to go, and if people in the Obama Administration don't agree with that, then where is the change? Why do we keep the Federal Reserve Bank after this disaster, and this disaster was caused by the policies of the Federal Reserve?

Why isn't there an uproar against economics teaching in universities? an old question of mine.

The fact that gold is rather firm at $900 and appears to be now in a process of base-building tells me that the investment world is losing confidence in the dollar. Thirty-five dollar per ounce gold now base-building at $900 tells all that the theory of central banking is a farce.

[Mega]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

I watched "O-BEE-1" on Bloomberg, Bloody hell he was getting pissed!

I noticed with intrest that he is VERY KEEN on a fleet of High MPG cars, like he is expecting something BIG to hit VERY soon?
Mike

[Starving Steve]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

The world, including Detroit, has cars which produce >40MPG, and that is in U.S. gallons, so we don't really need any technology breakthroughs. There are many makes that produce this kind of mileage. Five-speed and six-speed transmissions, fuel injection, tiny four cylinder motors, front wheel drive, and light weight vehicles are the breakthroughs, and they have facilitated this revolution in fuel economy.

There should now be government fuel efficiency standards for anything sold anywhere. There is no reason for car companies to be selling Hummers now, no matter how profitable their sale price is, and car companies have to be given a coherent message from government.

From the Obama Administration, we need leadership. This Nancy Palosi in Congress has to help lead. So far, the leadership has been rather lacking, to put it mildly.

And here in Canada, the story is the same: a lack of leadership in the government. We have a government in Ottawa, that Harper bunch, that has provided no leadership on energy whatsoever. They get their message from the eco-frauds: no nuclear power, no tar sand development, no offshore drilling, no help for energy investors, fear and nonsense about climate change, solar energy nonsense, carbon tax, etc.

[petertribo]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

Why isn't there an uproar against economics teaching in universities? an old question of mine.

Here's iconoclast Nassim Taleb on your question if you have not seen this before:

So how can we displace a fraud? Not by preaching nor by rational argument (believe us, we tried). Not by evidence. Risk methods that failed dramatically in the real world continue to be taught to students in business schools, where professors never lose tenure for the misapplications of those methods. As we are writing these lines, close to 100,000 MBAs are still learning portfolio theory – it is uniformly on the programme for next semester. An airline company would ground the aircraft and investigate after the crash – universities would put more aircraft in the skies, crash after crash. The fraud can be displaced only by shaming people, by boycotting the orthodox financial economics establishment and the institutions that allowed this to happen.

http://www.agorafinancial.com/afrude...ty-bystanders/

[bart]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

"Change is not reform."
-- John Randolph (1773 - 1833), both Representative and Senator from Virginia

[we_are_toast]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

OMG! The economy is in the midst of the biggest crash in maybe it's history due to horrible mistakes over the past 25 years, and President Obama hasn't rid the country of all it's debt, restored everyone's job, and pulled the fossil fuel needle out of the country's arm in his 1st 2 weeks in office!!:eek:

It appears the iTulip community is a better reflection of the U.S. population as a whole than what I had thought.

Outside of the economy, President Obama is doing exactly what needs to be done to reverse the horrendous mistakes of the past. He is more than impressing me with what he's doing and how fast he is learning.

It appears there are 3 economic groups fighting for influence within the white house. The insiders, Summers/Geithner/G.S., those out on the porch, Volcker and the outside group he is supposed to be assembling, and the outsiders with a voice, Buffet/Soros/others... There already appears to be tension between the insiders and Volcker.

I find some of the events of the past week to be very interesting. Why would President Obama build such a structure? Why not just listen to what Summers/Geithner say and do what they suggest? Why reach to the outside? The bad bank idea is probably a favorite of the insiders, and could probably get bipartisan support. Where is it? Why is it being delayed?

Then there's the recovery plan. The 30% of tax cuts was an olive branch to an opposition party where a tax cut is the solution to every economic problem. But after no bipartisan support in the house and maybe none in the senate, we have the Washington post op-ed piece today. This indicates he now understands the opposition and he will go directly to the public for support rather than compromise everything away.

It appears President Obama does not know the best way to recover from the depression, but he's has opened the door to all possibilities. The insiders will get much of what they want in the 1st round, but the president will soon realize it's failure. The Goldman Sach's group will soon become irrelevant and Summers may be the 1st to go in the administration. The porch group and outsider group may combine to propose something that will take most economists by surprise. Maybe debt forgiveness?

After seeing the 1st 2 weeks of the new administration, I am more hopeful than I have been in some time. Not that solutions will be immediate, but the process is in place that will eventually arrive at working solutions that will slowly but surely lead us out of this disaster. The one think I am still waiting for, is the speech that calls for sacrifice from the American public.

It took 25 years and plenty of mistakes to get into this mess, it'll take more than 2 weeks and more than a few mistakes to get out.

[due_indigence]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

Is Obama clever enough to give Wall Street the first failure, settle those political chits and then seize a more transformative agenda? Could he have a one-step-two-step up his sleeve? If so, he may yet have FDR stature. Is he a progressive just itching to toss off his Wall Street handlers? That woud be the political coup of the century.

[Ghent12]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

we_are_toast, has Preident Obama not certified that he is, in fact, more of the same? What actions of his still leave you hope that he is trying to escape the old ways? I'm genuinely curious because you are a current Obama supporter that is a cut above others I have access to, so please enlighten me.

[metalman]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

paul volcker is complaining opening and in public... does that suggest to you obama has concocted a clever strategy to make it look like the outsider is getting bricked by the insiders?

volcker's a politician... a good one. going public with these frustrations -- making his boss look bad -- is thing a guy like him does after exhausing every other option. so everyone understands why he quits if he quits.

remember... obama was a senator. he's never run anything. that means his team is running him... and his team is insiders.

i'll put 50/50 odds at best that volcker stays long enough to get this outsider team together.

do you buy into the idea that obama has a first wave/second wave strategy... let the insiders fail then bring in the outsiders? how long does he need to give the insiders before they have officially failed? how long did rumsfed get on iraq? quite a few years. how do you think the usa econ will be doing in a few years at the this rate?

no, he had one chance... hire the outsiders from the start.

he blew it. it's already over.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

we_are_toast, has Preident Obama not certified that he is, in fact, more of the same? What actions of his still leave you hope that he is trying to escape the old ways? I'm genuinely curious because you are a current Obama supporter that is a cut above others I have access to, so please enlighten me.

Starting the process of shutting down Gitmo.
Salary freezes on some white house employees.
Tightening of lobbyist rules.
No effort to hide tax problems of cabinet members with 2 out of 3 now gone.
Freeze on Last minute oil and gas lease give away by previous administration.
Appointment of George Mitchell.
Alt-E proposals in recovery act.
Recovery plan was not prewritten by lobbyists and slammed down the throat of opposition.
Executive compensation limitations for TARP recipients.
Reauthorization of Children's health program.
Opening up of Faith based initiative program.
Opening up of Presidential Archives.
Revoking presidential order 13440 which allowed the torturing of prisoners.
Moving to the restoration of habius corpus.
...

While all attention is on the economy, he's been doing a lot of other very good things.

[metalman]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

Starting the process of shutting down Gitmo.
Salary freezes on some white house employees.
Tightening of lobbyist rules.
No effort to hide tax problems of cabinet members with 2 out of 3 now gone.
Freeze on Last minute oil and gas lease give away by previous administration.
Appointment of George Mitchell.
Alt-E proposals in recovery act.
Recovery plan was not prewritten by lobbyists and slammed down the throat of opposition.
Executive compensation limitations for TARP recipients.
Reauthorization of Children's health program.
Opening up of Faith based initiative program.
Opening up of Presidential Archives.
Revoking presidential order 13440 which allowed the torturing of prisoners.
Moving to the restoration of habius corpus.
...

While all attention is on the economy, he's been doing a lot of other very good things.

exactly... the political hot potato is the economy... the fire economy... and he ain't touching it.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

paul volcker is complaining opening and in public... does that suggest to you obama has concocted a clever strategy to make it look like the outsider is getting bricked by the insiders?

volcker's a politician... a good one. going public with these frustrations -- making his boss look bad -- is thing a guy like him does after exhausing every other option. so everyone understands why he quits if he quits.

The squeaky hinge gets the oil. A good test for Obama

remember... obama was a senator. he's never run anything. that means his team is running him... and his team is insiders.

No it doesn't.

i'll put 50/50 odds at best that volcker stays long enough to get this outsider team together.

Volcker is 81, Let's hope he make's it.

do you buy into the idea that obama has a first wave/second wave strategy... let the insiders fail then bring in the outsiders? how long does he need to give the insiders before they have officially failed? how long did rumsfed get on iraq? quite a few years. how do you think the usa econ will be doing in a few years at the this rate?

no, he had one chance... hire the outsiders from the start.

he blew it. it's already over.

Not a strategy, a mistake. And there will be more. But by taking input from this diverse group of people, and by trying to build a structure that seeks diverse opinions, I believe he realizes he will make mistakes, and is preparing to recover from them. The change is refreshing.

[*T*]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

Here's iconoclast Nassim Taleb on your question if you have not seen this before:

http://www.agorafinancial.com/afrude...ty-bystanders/

A friend of mine's doing a quantitaive finance course. Taleb takes part of it. So his ideas are seeping in, but it takes time.

[D-Mack]

Re: Obama - Where's the change?

remember... obama was a senator. he's never run anything. that means his team is running him... and his team is insiders.

At least he worked for a CIA front as some suggest

Some say he has taken some literary license in the telling of his story. Dan Armstrong, who worked with Mr. Obama at Business International Corporation in New York in 1984 and has deconstructed Mr. Obama’s account of the job on his blog, analyzethis.net, wrote: “All of Barack’s embellishment serves a larger narrative purpose: to retell the story of the Christ’s temptation. The young, idealistic, would-be community organizer gets a nice suit, joins a consulting house, starts hanging out with investment bankers, and barely escapes moving into the big mansion with the white folks.”

In an interview, Mr. Armstrong added: “There may be some truth to that. But in order to make it a good story, it required a bit of exaggeration.”

Mr. Armstrong’s description of the firm, and those of other co-workers, differs at least in emphasis from Mr. Obama’s. It was a small newsletter-publishing and research firm, with about 250 employees worldwide, that helped companies with foreign operations (they could be called multinationals) understand overseas markets, they said. Far from a bastion of corporate conformity, they said, it was informal and staffed by young people making modest wages. Employees called it “high school with ashtrays.”

Many workers dressed down. Only the vice president in charge of Mr. Obama’s division got a secretary, they said. Mr. Obama was a researcher and writer for a reference service called Financing Foreign Operations. He also wrote for a newsletter, Business International Money Report.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us...s/30obama.html

Barack Obama

United States President Barack Obama's first job after graduating from Columbia University was with the company. He held a position as a research associate in its financial services division, where he edited Financing Foreign Operations, a global reference service, and wrote for Business International Money Report, a weekly financial newsletter.

CIA

The company has been identified as cover organization for the Central Intelligence Agency, e.g. see Lobster Magazine, issue 14 in 1987. According to a lengthy article in the New York Times in 1977, a co-founder of the company told the newspaper that "Eldridge Haynes [the other founder] had provided cover for four CIA employees in various countries between 1955 and 1960".[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busines...al_Corporation