I don’t know who it is filling in for Bob Schieffer, and maybe it was the two guests (Grassley and Barney Frank), but it just seemed to be a completely different show and much better than the usual nonsense. I will have to read the transcript (I was cleaning and only sort of paying attention), but I don’t remember getting chest pains once.
If only the bankers knew about our great national mission
He should have gone on national TV and had the fireside chat with the country that is long overdue. That’s a talk where he lays out exactly how deep the crisis we are in is, exactly how much sacrifice we’re all going to have to make to get out of it, and then calls on those A.I.G. brokers — and everyone else who, in our rush to heal our banking system, may have gotten bonuses they did not deserve — and tells them that their president is asking them to return their bonuses “for the sake of the country.”
Had Mr. Obama given A.I.G.’s American brokers a reputation to live up to, a great national mission to join, I’d bet anything we’d have gotten most of our money back voluntarily. Inspiring conduct has so much more of an impact than coercing it. And it would have elevated the president to where he belongs — above the angry gaggle in Congress.
Leaving aside the fact that I don’t think that would have made anyone give back their money, it reminds me of this from David Broder about Bush:
But I listened in vain for any admission of what I and others consider the greatest moral failing of the Bush presidency — his refusal to ask any sacrifice from most of the American people when he put the nation on a wartime footing after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bush authorized torture, used every sort of trick to violate the constitution, literally fiddled while New Orleans flooded, and left the country in a shambles. How on earth could not asking for sacrifice be his greatest moral failure? Obama is facing a catastrophic banking crisis and the Geithner plan has been found wanting in many influential quarters. How can a fireside chat be job number one?
Don’t get me wrong: if by “asked for sacrifice,” Broder means “rolled back his tax cuts,” then this was a great failing on Bush’s part (though it is still nowhere near his greatest failing and it’s not clear that’s what Broder means at all). And I agree that Obama could do a better job of describing the financial crisis to the public.
But to suggest over and over again that the main duty of the government is to tell the population what to do and how to feel is hopelessly naive, the sort of thing no one over the age of 12 should believe. It’s the same kind of thinking that makes our punditocracy hail an idiot like Mikheil Saakashvili as a hero of democracy because he likes to talk about freedom, the same kind that caused the media man-crushes on Huckabee and McCain (and, yes, it’s also part of the reason they liked Obama better than Hillary).
The president of the United States oversees a multi-trillion dollar budget, a vast foreign policy apparatus, countless scientific and judicial issues. The decisions a president makes about these things have profound effects, not just on the U.S. economy but possibly on the future of human civilization (see climate change and nuclear proliferation). How on earth can a few fireside chats and calls for sacrifice be the primary thing by which they are judged?
If only the bankers knew about our great national missionPost + Comments (64)
Tournament Open Thread
WVU is out so my interest has waned. Got the bed put together, mapped out the garden plot and planned a preliminary course of action, and now am going to watch some crappy movies. I have Body of Lies, Twilight, and W. to watch.
*** Update ***
I would like to take a moment and inform all of the people on this blog and elsewhere in my life who recommended Twilight to me that at some point, when you least expect it, I will punch you in the neck.
A Word of Caution
I just spent an hour trying to figure out how to get a five piece queen-size metal bed frame together and still ended up with an extra piece. Anyone who thinks I have any idea what I am talking about regarding the financial crisis should keep that in mind. I am clueless and frustrated and just trying to figure things out, which is harder and harder to do because nothing stays still long enough to get a feel for things and as soon as you think you have an idea as to what is going on, things change dramatically.
Unlike the bed frame, which was stationary, and I managed to make a hash of that anyway. I really hope this extra piece was optional.
Another Rush apology
From The Hill:
That didn’t take long. After saying “Rush Limbaugh is meaningless to me” on Thursday, Republican New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco’s camp walked back the statement on Friday.
[…]Here is the full statement from Tedisco spokesman Adam Kramer
:
Jim’s comments were in response to a question about what voters are asking him about on the campaign trail. So far, the concerns he has been hearing from voters on the campaign trail have been local in nature, such as his support for lower property taxes, fiscal responsibility, and his opponents appalling support for the AIG bonus loophole. That was his point and any effort to characterize it otherwise is a distortion of the facts.
If this race ends up going all Pete Tong for Republicans, will they rethink the kowtowing to Rush and opposing the stimulus, or will they just fire Michael Steele? And, assuming they do fire the titular head of their party (Steele) and keep kowtowing to Rush, how can they possibly continue to argue that Rush is not the de facto leader of the party?
Things I Did Not Know
Via John Rogers, there is apparently a website for, of all things, pen addicts.
Taking this one step further, there are apparently pens which are better for left-handed writers and vice versa. I just thought a pen was a pen was a pen. Am I alone not knowing this?
At any rate, here is an open thread.
The Geithner Plan
The reviews are in on the leaked Geithner plan, and we are going to do something different here for a change. We are not going to listen to people who have been wrong about everything, and instead are going to listen to people who have been more right than wrong. The administration might learn from this approach. First up, Yves at Naked Capitalism:
And notice the utter dishonesty: a competitive bidding process will protect taxpayers. Huh? A competitive bidding process will elicit a higher price which is BAD for taxpayers!
Dear God, the Administration really thinks the public is full of idiots. But there are so many components to the program, and a lot of moving parts in each, they no doubt expect everyone’s eyes to glaze over.
With almost no skin in the game, these investors can pay a higher than market price for the toxic assets (since there is little downside risk). This amounts to a direct subsidy from the taxpayers to the banks.
Oh well, I’m sure Geithner will provide details this time …
The Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won.
The Obama administration is now completely wedded to the idea that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the financial system — that what we’re facing is the equivalent of a run on an essentially sound bank. As Tim Duy put it, there are no bad assets, only misunderstood assets. And if we get investors to understand that toxic waste is really, truly worth much more than anyone is willing to pay for it, all our problems will be solved.
If this were a medical emergency, it appears it would look something like this:
The Illness- reckless and irresponsible betting led to huge losses
The Diagnosis- Insufficient gambling.
The Cure- a Trillion dollar stack of chips provided by the house.
The Prognosis- We are so screwed.
If these guys are right, this will be the undoing of the Obama administration. Better enjoy this four years, libs.