Kathianne
03-22-2009, 11:40 AM
Obama's Out of Control Spending Dwarfs the Wasted AIG Bailout Money - Bonnie Erbe (usnews.com) (http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/03/17/-obamas-out-of-control-spending-dwarfs-the-wasted-aig-bailout-money.html)
Blog EntryComments (19)
Obama's Out of Control Spending Dwarfs the Wasted AIG Bailout Money
March 17, 2009 10:21 AM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Obama's profligate spending habits are starting to look an awful lot like his predecessor's, and that's not good. Here, for example, are three things the president did yesterday. These are three things that simply cannot be done simultaneously with a straight face:
First, the President expressed outrage over the horrendous abuse of government bailout money by insurance giant AIG—the same issue that has the rest of official Washington zooming off into outer space:
President Obama vowed to "pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses." But that pledge might have came too late. About $165 million in retention payments went out Friday to employees at Financial Products, after numerous discussions with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
Problem with his outrage is, the government funds were used as bonuses on Mr. Obama's watch. President Obama could legitimately object to $165 million in wasteful government spending if he weren't simultaneously in the process of committing waste on a much grander scale....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?
By FRANK RICH
A CHARMING visit with Jay Leno won’t fix it. A 90 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses won’t fix it. Firing Timothy Geithner won’t fix it. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed. It would be foolish to dismiss as hyperbole the stark warning delivered by Paulette Altmaier of Cupertino, Calif., in a letter to the editor published by The Times last week: “President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived.”
Six weeks ago I wrote in this space that the country’s surge of populist rage could devour the president’s best-laid plans, including the essential Act II of the bank rescue, if he didn’t get in front of it. The occasion then was the Tom Daschle firestorm. The White House seemed utterly blindsided by the public’s revulsion at the moneyed insiders’ culture illuminated by Daschle’s post-Senate career. Yet last week’s events suggest that the administration learned nothing from that brush with disaster....
and the left's favorite economist:
More on the bank plan - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/more-on-the-bank-plan/)
MARCH 21, 2009, 12:30 PM
More on the bank plan
Why was I so quick to condemn the Geithner plan? Because it’s not new; it’s just another version of an idea that keeps coming up and keeps being refuted. It’s basically a thinly disguised version of the same plan Henry Paulson announced way back in September. To understand the issue, let me offer some background.
Start with the question: how do banks fail? A bank, broadly defined, is any institution that borrows short and lends long. Like any leveraged investor, a bank can fail if it has made bad investments — if the value of its assets falls below the value of its liabilities, bye bye bank....
Blog EntryComments (19)
Obama's Out of Control Spending Dwarfs the Wasted AIG Bailout Money
March 17, 2009 10:21 AM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Obama's profligate spending habits are starting to look an awful lot like his predecessor's, and that's not good. Here, for example, are three things the president did yesterday. These are three things that simply cannot be done simultaneously with a straight face:
First, the President expressed outrage over the horrendous abuse of government bailout money by insurance giant AIG—the same issue that has the rest of official Washington zooming off into outer space:
President Obama vowed to "pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses." But that pledge might have came too late. About $165 million in retention payments went out Friday to employees at Financial Products, after numerous discussions with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
Problem with his outrage is, the government funds were used as bonuses on Mr. Obama's watch. President Obama could legitimately object to $165 million in wasteful government spending if he weren't simultaneously in the process of committing waste on a much grander scale....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?
By FRANK RICH
A CHARMING visit with Jay Leno won’t fix it. A 90 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses won’t fix it. Firing Timothy Geithner won’t fix it. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed. It would be foolish to dismiss as hyperbole the stark warning delivered by Paulette Altmaier of Cupertino, Calif., in a letter to the editor published by The Times last week: “President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived.”
Six weeks ago I wrote in this space that the country’s surge of populist rage could devour the president’s best-laid plans, including the essential Act II of the bank rescue, if he didn’t get in front of it. The occasion then was the Tom Daschle firestorm. The White House seemed utterly blindsided by the public’s revulsion at the moneyed insiders’ culture illuminated by Daschle’s post-Senate career. Yet last week’s events suggest that the administration learned nothing from that brush with disaster....
and the left's favorite economist:
More on the bank plan - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/more-on-the-bank-plan/)
MARCH 21, 2009, 12:30 PM
More on the bank plan
Why was I so quick to condemn the Geithner plan? Because it’s not new; it’s just another version of an idea that keeps coming up and keeps being refuted. It’s basically a thinly disguised version of the same plan Henry Paulson announced way back in September. To understand the issue, let me offer some background.
Start with the question: how do banks fail? A bank, broadly defined, is any institution that borrows short and lends long. Like any leveraged investor, a bank can fail if it has made bad investments — if the value of its assets falls below the value of its liabilities, bye bye bank....