At last! As usual Bill Moyers manages to pull together the most interesting talk show and political discussion of the week as seen Friday night 1/23. I hope a lot of Kossacks saw Moyers, Sirota and Frank in action. They at last brought up a good questioning discussion on where Obama really is on the matter of the banking element of the bailout. How progressive, even radical will he really be - or will he go for the status guo and just throw money at it. It's one hot problem!
Read on:
Tonight Bill Moyers got square on the table, with the help of Thomas Frank, the historian and columnist, and David Sirota, the progressive columnist and sometimes Kos poster, the key issue of the early days of the Obama administration: how much will Obama have to honor the establishment vs. the cost to him of doing so vs. realization of the progressive agenda on which Obama has so clearly campaigned.
It was a marvelous discussion -- all hands were on board for the free exchange of ideas. All three men, and each of them is brilliant and interesting on his own, more or less agreed that Obama's big challenge is how far to go in accommodating the establishment (read: conservative Republicans), in order to push his reform agendas and how much will they be diluted in the process. There are facts, anecdotes and opinions all over the place, but it is far too soon to know the outcome.
Much is being made of the appointment of a Raytheon Corp. man to a management post in the Department of Defence, and should be! I do not for one minute trust the military industrial establishment to police itself, even if Secy Gates has proven a reasonaly decent executive at DOD. But even more was made tonight by the Moyers group in discussing the big bank black hole -- which gets bigger and blacker and more bottomless with every passing day. Tom Frank pretty much came down on the banking scandals as central, at least at this point, to all other Obama efforts.
Last week I posted that Tim Geithner should not be approved as Treasury Secretary, not because of his tax dodging but because he is a member of the New York banking establishment and his mind-set is that of 'save the banks, the rest will fall into line.' I do not believe that is the correct approach. I agree with Dave Sirota and Paul Krugman that spending a trillion dollars in aiding home-owners, in building infrastructure and public works and in stimulating manufacturing and productivity will do much more to improve economic conditions than yet more billions poured down the New York Banking rathole. Geither comes from that rat hole, in fact he has helped to build it into what it is today. And our discussants tonight at last got very focussed on nationalizing banks -- if you are going to do it, and we are, do it all the way and take full control and run the damn banks, literally, and direct how they spend their bailout money. This topic is getting more airing by the hour and needs to -- it is essential that MUCH more control be exercised over the banks. Even Geithner in his Senate hearing admitted he should have exercised a lot more supervision and awareness in the all the binges of speculation and false equity investing the banks were doing. With rather a blank face and glassy eyes he said, "Yes, I should have done more." Sort of same tone of voice as "Yes, I should have done my taxes better." Jeeze Louise!!!
What do you folks really think of Geithner? I watched his Senate hearings; he was weak. He looks weak, even a little scared; his voice and body language sounded it; he did not show a strong streak of personality that I want to see in a man for such a key position as Treasury. He looks like a big-brained staff man; a good corporate vice president supporting a powerful chieften. The counter to such concerns, of course, one might argue -- he's agreat technician and he'll do what Obama tells him!! OK. So now we are back to Obama -- it all depends on him.
State, under Clinton, looks solid and reliable; DOJ under Holder (if they every get him in!), looks interesting and active; but Treasury under Geithner? By damn, I just don't think so. And I am sorry to say it. Obama may have some other stuff up his sleeve, other appointments and certainly new directions for Geithner and Treasury to follow. So...all may be well; we just can't tell right now. One thing is ever clearer this week: You cannot depend on the top bank executives to police themselves. As Moyers said, it's getting hard to tell the bank robbers, the bandits, from the bankers themselves.
When I posted some of the above thoughts last week, I was much disputed by disdainful Kossacks who felt Geithner was exactly the right man! And who am I, anyway, to publically support such a show of doubt against Obama! Well, now I have company -- none other than Bill Moyers, Tom Frank and David Sirota (and by implication Krugman and dozens of other forward thinking and sophiticated economists and columnists). They are professionalss. I am not, but you don't have to be a genius to see that THUS FAR Obama seems to have embraced the status quo New York banking establishment with his appointments. God! I hope not!