On critiquing Obama’s economic policy and other links

Critiquing Obama’s economic policy

• How Obama Got Rolled by Wall Street – Newsweek
• FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf – Obama was too cautious in fearful times
• Michael Gerson – Obama’s wandering economic message

My take:

• Barack Obama as Herbert Hoover
• The Democratic Party meltdown of 2010
• Grading Obama’s economic policy after one year
• Triangulating on deficit reduction, 2010 version
• Ron Paul has Barack Obama’s number

I would still sum it up this way as I did two weeks before Obama came to office:

The long and short of Krugman’s fuller analysis is that [Obama’s economic plans] will NOT be enough stimulus to provide the economy the boost it needs. Moreover, Krugman asserts that the lesson learned if it comes up short is that government spending does not work. Therefore, Obama will be less likely to receive monies if he tries to add stimulus a second go ’round.

I tend to agree with Krugman’s political calculus here. Obama has one shot. From a political standpoint, he should be opting for massive stimulus and look for that to be cut back to a more palatable level in negotiation. However, he seems to be treading a cautious line, looking for bipartisan support that he may not receive.

I see this scenario as very negative for the U.S. economy. First, you have huge government spending that requires additional borrowing by the U.S. government. But, this spending does not give the economy the needed jump start to pull out of the deflationary spiral.

Read more: https://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/01/obamas-stimulus-bill-is-a-tough-sell-so-far.html#ixzz0yHg3a9Na

The Usual Fare