(no subject)

[randomness]

So after a year of doing it the Geithner/Summers way--kissing up to the banks--President Obama is finally bringing Paul Volcker in from the outer fringes of his administration, where he'd been languishing unheeded for months. I have no idea whether the President actually believes that Volcker has an answer but it sure seems like Tuesday night's election results had an effect.

Rahm Emanuel famously said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." Well, this administration may have let the banking crisis go to waste. If they'd worked on financial reform when everyone was in a panic they'd have had that opportunity. Now the bankers have had a year of rising markets to regroup.

I've thought since the inauguration that the economy will make or break this administration. James Carville's phrase from 1992, "The economy, stupid" is even more true now than it was then. And if I could see that, it should have been obvious to them.

In any case it's quite a return to the limelight for the man who broke the inflation Reagan inherited from Carter.

Comments

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yup. I can understand, from a dispassionate point of view, why they were so enthusiastic about hippy-punching on things like gay rights; relatively small group of voters that they had confidence had no choice to vote for them. But anyone with any clue can look at electoral history and see that the party in power *must* get the economy improving -- and by that, I mean jobs for voters, not stock market prices -- or pay the price. Their timidity about getting the size of stimulus needed, their killing of cramdowns, the general refusal to contemplate anything like real controls on banking... that never made sense.

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

Paul Volcker? Does that mean we're in for 20% mortgage rates?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Only if Obama manages to bring back the economic triumphs of the Carter administration and inflation goes to 13.5%.

(I mean, it could happen. I don't think Bernanke and Geithner are really up to the heroic feats of Miller and Blumenthal, but maybe they just need more time.)

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Dude spells his name wrong.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Also, from Tracy Corrigan's blog for the Daily Telegraph: "His middle name is Adolph (well, his parents weren’t to know – he was born in 1927)."

[blipvert.livejournal.com]

Well, this administration may have let the banking crisis go to waste. If they'd worked on financial reform when everyone was in a panic they'd have had that opportunity. Now the bankers have had a year of rising markets to regroup.

Yep, and now the market is sinking like a stone. It will be interesting to see where this leads. I'm not certain the opportunity is quite yet wasted.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yep, and now the market is sinking like a stone.

Well, it was going to do that sometime. The timing is interesting but I hesitate to ascribe any link.