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March 13, 2009
Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists
Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists
Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.
A majority of the 49 economists polled said they were dissatisfied with the administration's economic policies.
On average, they gave the president a grade of 59 out of 100, and although there was a broad range of marks, 42% of respondents rated Mr. Obama below 60. Mr. Geithner received an average grade of 51. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke scored better, with an average 71.
However, economists' main criticism of the Obama team centered on delays in enacting key parts of plans to rescue banks. "They overpromised and underdelivered," said Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital. "Secretary Geithner scheduled a big speech and came out with just a vague blueprint. The uncertainty is hanging over everyone's head."
Mr. Geithner unveiled the Obama administration's plans Feb. 10, but he offered few details, and stocks sank on the news.
Mr. Geithner's latest marks are lower than the average grade of 57 that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson received in January.
"The Obama team has blown it," said David Resler of Nomura Securities.
Robert Samuelson labeling the President "the great pretender" in part because his budget does not do what he says it intends. That was on top of an earlier column where Samuelson said the President’s stimulus bill was "deeply disappointing."
Then, Stuart Taylor of the National Journal wrote that President Obama’s plans are "grandiose and unaffordable," that he is "watering the lawn" while "the house is burning."
Now comes Obama advisor and the billionaire Democrats love to quote, Warren Buffett, who said President Obama’s "economic message is muddled and undermining public confidence." He went on: "If you’re in a war, and we really are on an economic war, there’s a obligation to the majority to behave in ways that don’t go around inflaming the minority. [On] December 7th, when Roosevelt convened Congress to have a vote on the war, he didn’t say, `I’m throwing in about 10 of my pet projects.’"
Andrew Grove, the genius and technological innovator from Intel, puts it this way this morning: "In less than two months, the hopeful enthusiasm that welcomed the Obama administration has given way to growing worry and frustration. I find myself wringing my hands, not over the goals President Obama has set but over the ineffectual ways the administration has pursued them."
He continues: "Our health-care system may well be ripe for a major overhaul, as are our energy and environmental policies….But if the chaos that resulted from initiating such an overhaul were piled on top of the unresolved status of the financial system, society and government would become exhausted. Instead, the administration must adopt a discipline; not initiating a second wave of chaos before we have a chance to rein in the first."
And now, too, comes Newsweek’s Howard Fineman.
"In ways both large and small, what’s left of the American establishment is taking his measure and, with surprising swiftness, they are finding him lacking.
Obama may be mistaking motion for progress, calling signals for a game plan. A busy, industrious overachiever, he likes to check off boxes on a long to-do list. A genial, amenable guy, he likes to appeal to every constituency, or at least not write off any. A beau ideal of Harvard Law, he can’t wait to tackle extra-credit answers on the exam.
But there is only one question on this great test of American fate: can he lead us away from plunging into another Depression?
If the establishment still has power, it is a three-sided force, churning from inside the Beltway, from Manhattan-based media and from what remains of corporate America. Much of what they are saying is contradictory, but all of it is focused on the president:
* The $787 billion stimulus, gargantuan as it was, was in fact too small and not aimed clearly enough at only immediate job-creation.
* The $275 billion home-mortgage-refinancing plan, assembled by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is too complex and indirect.
* The president gave up the moral high ground on spending not so much with the "stim" but with the $400 billion supplemental spending bill, larded as it was with 9,000 earmarks.
* The administration is throwing good money after bad in at least two cases—the sinkhole that is Citigroup (there are many healthy banks) and General Motors (they deserve what they get).
* The failure to call for genuine sacrifice on the part of all Americans, despite the rhetorical claim that everyone would have to "give up" something.
* A willingness to give too much leeway to Congress to handle crucial details, from the stim to the vague promise to "reform" medical care without stating what costs could be cut.
* A 2010 budget that tries to do far too much, with way too rosy predictions on future revenues and growth of the economy. This led those who fear we are about to go over Niagara Falls to deride Obama as a paddler who’d rather redesign the canoe.
* A treasury secretary who has been ridiculed on "Saturday Night Live" and compared to Doogie Howser, Barney Fife and Macaulay Culkin in "Home Alone"—and those are the nice ones.
* A seeming paralysis in the face of the banking crisis: unwilling to nationalize banks, yet unable to figure out how to handle toxic assets in another way—by, say, setting up a "bad bank" catch basin.
* The president, known for his eloquence and attention to detail, seemingly unwilling or unable to patiently, carefully explain how the world works—or more important, how it failed. Using FDR’s fireside chats as a model, Obama needs to explain the banking system in laymen’s terms. An ongoing seminar would be great.
* Obama is no socialist, but critics argue that now is not the time for costly, upfront spending on social engineering in health care, energy or education.
* Other than all that, in the eyes of the big shots, he is doing fine."
Notice how most of the vector for all these problems, aside from resting with President Obama, himself, comes from Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner—their indispensable man, the man they twisted themselves into a pretzel over to get nominated even as most of the country could not understand how a man who did not pay his taxes could oversee the very department responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing the tax code.
Wild Thing's comment...........
"U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey."
Can you "FEEL" it?
Search the entire world, and point out a single clan, tribe, company, village, city, state or nation who improved their lot over time by means of socialism or Communist control .
Add to that scenario, the handicap of a Nation surviving the leadership of an inexperienced, ineligible poseur, inept pretender, pathological liar, sock puppet, closet Muslim, admitted Cocaine snorting black racist moron all rolled into one clown—— and then calculate the odds of success.
Posted by Wild Thing at March 13, 2009 05:50 AM
Comments
Excellant, obama's watering the lawn while the house is burning.
Posted by: Mark at March 13, 2009 09:34 AM
I wonder how many of these economists may have voted for The One.
I also wonder if Obama knows exactly what he is doing. Is he leading us into socialism via economic catastrophe? Or is he so inept that he is getting us there the same way accidently. This guy is just as radical as his opponents feared.
Posted by: TomR at March 13, 2009 12:37 PM
And I am still promoting the idea of O'Vomit taking a one way trip to a guillotine.
Posted by: cuchieddie-25th ID Vet at March 13, 2009 04:13 PM
Mark, what a great way to put it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 13, 2009 06:05 PM
Tom, from the feel of the article it feels like some of them did. If they did they are very disappointed as they should be.
Good questions!!
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 13, 2009 06:24 PM
HAIL Emperor Barack Hussein Nero Caligula Claudius
Obama? Just did a research paper on Nero Mark! PERFECT timing!!
"Obamessiah shoots HOOPS while DC CCCP burned?"
DC public schools are LAST in reading and next to last in math!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at March 13, 2009 07:07 PM
