Obama has said that there is only one president at a time, and indeed he is not yet invested with the executive powers of office. He needs to show a degree of respect for the president currently in office although Congressman Barney Frank may have had it right suggesting that currently there are no presidents in sight.
However, with all the "emergency" bailout money being requested by different sectors, it may be a good thing for someone to actually sit back and analyze the situation. No one doubts the seriousness of the crisis. The bad economic reports continue to roll out. For example, just today we found out that job losses in November totaled 533000, the worse drop since 1974.
The last great financial bailout in this country was during the savings & loan crisis in the late 1980s and that cost a total of only $160 billion. The current mess, when all the goodies are counted, has cost so far around $9 trillion, and no one now suggests that the payouts are nearly ending.
Many of us can remember the Chrysler bailout, but today all of the Big Three are facing bankruptcy and unlike 1979, things look a lot bleaker for American automakers. They failed to read the tea leaves and design cars for the future.
Clearly this is not an ordinary cyclical downturn. The current crisis is the result of continuously failing to address structural and policy problems by rolling them over with new debt spending. Supply-side economics, deregulated markets, and tax breaks for the super rich do not work, but no one is really ready to admit that yet by making the required changes.
It is now almost normal to see triple digit changes in the stock market, and drops of several hundred points are now hardly shocking as they have become so common. The volatility demonstrates the uncertainty, fear and the simple fact that most experts have no idea what is going on. They don't know that the system they have believed in for the last few decades -- the easy money system of rampant speculation, leveraging and fixed hedge fund markets for the wealthy -- does not work.
So, it probably is a good idea for the incoming administration to sit back a bit and analyze the problem from a distance. Let the current officials in power do their job and fulfill their responsibility. Figure out what really needs to be done and then develop a program to implement starting on Jan. 20.
We've already seen how rushing to the rescue of doomsday-warning corporations with trillions of taxpayer dollars does not work.
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 Seattle Post Intelligencer |
Washington Post -
By Lori Montgomery and Kendra Marr The chief executives of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford will take their plea for a rescue package to the House of Representatives today, appearing with the president of the United Auto Workers before a key ...
Ahead of the Bell: Auto execs head to the House
Auto bailout could be tied to gov't-run overhaul
1 comment:
The Government should consider issueing $10,000 incentive checks for those who will be willing to buy a car from Chrysler, Ford or Chevrolet. The checks can be used only as down payment for a new car from those companies. If used they could sell 2.5 million cars and solve their cash flow problems, keep employees working and be able to pay the government back via taxes etc...
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