It's sad to see some diaries containing downright bogus propaganda about the economy being highly rec'd around the Progressive blogosphere.
I'm not going to call them out, but folks are conflating the criticism by many Progressives of some of this administration's economic policies with a lack of support for the President. But, our President has encouraged us to speak out and let him know what we're thinking if we disagree with policies as they're proposed for enactment; so, it's actually quite in-line with our President's wishes to speak our minds, especially about something as all-encompassing as our economy.
As E.J. Dionne tells us today in:"[
http://www.truthdig.com/...
The Nobelists vs. Obama and Geithner...]"
The Nobelists vs. Obama and Geithner
Posted on Apr 2, 2009 at truthdig.com
By E.J. Dionne
The great mystery of the Obama administration's economic agenda is whether its signature marriage of boldness and caution will prove to be a Goldilocks recipe that gets things just right, or a Rube Goldberg approach of unimaginable complexity and uncertain purpose.... ..Without question, President Obama's tax and budget proposals are daring, and his unwavering commitment to passing health care reform this year is both honorable and gutsy.
But his plan to bail out the banks reveals a deference to the existing financial system, deep worry about further unsettling an already troubled market, and a devout hope that the economic situation is not as bad as some economists, notably Nobel Prize winners Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, fear...
...That's the Obama enigma: boldness wrapped in caution rooted in an ambivalent relationship to the status quo. This is why Obama will, by turns, challenge not only his entrenched adversaries but also his natural allies.
Yes, we are the President's natural allies. And, we are being challenged. But, if you're going to put forth an argument that supports the administration's current tack, don't bullshit us about it.
Don't tell me one plus one equals three. Up is not down and down sure as hell isn't up.
They're not.
I don't want to hear "good news" unless it's true--and then not if it's just technically true; but tell me about how it impacts us positively on a practical level, as well.
In other words, if 1,000,001 people get laid off of their jobs the previous month, and 999,999 souls lose their jobs this month, don't tell me things are getting better. And, don't tell me 3,000,000 people got hired. To those 1,000,000--or whatever the number is--more folks that were laid off than hired...along with the other 3,000,000 that were laid off, their glass is not half-full!
From where I'm sitting, we just pissed away $3 trillion buck to Wall Street, and David Sirota puts this in words yesterday better than me:"$3 Trillion Gone...Nothing to See Here...Move Along..."
<b$3 Trillion Gone...Nothing to See Here...Move Along...</b>
By David Sirota
April 1st, 2009 - 5:27pm ET
So the tab is now in - about $3 trillion of taxpayer resources have gone out the door to Wall Street banks (and that doesn't include trillions in additional loan guarantees). Many of us - including me - were hoping that once George W. Bush left office, there would be significantly more oversight of and strings attached to the money. Not so, says the government's top watchdog, the esteemed progressive, Elizabeth Warren:
From ABC News:"[http://abcnews.go.com/...
Treasury Under Fire for Handling of TARP]"
Six months after the Troubled Asset Relief Program was signed into law, lawmakers and oversight officials, worried about the trillions of taxpayer dollars at stake, said Tuesday that the Treasury Department had not resolved problems regarding the program's accountability and transparency, nor a communications strategy.
"Our concern right now is that we do not seem to be a priority for the Treasury Department," Elizabeth Warren chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel told a Senate Finance Committee hearing today.
And, more from Sirota...
I might feel a bit better about all this if the government's special inspector general overseeing TARP funds wasn't also saying that he's concerned that bailout cash is being stolen and/or misused:
And, more from the Warren story...
US authorities have launched more than a dozen criminal investigations into possible fraud involving bank bail-out funds, the special inspector-general for the troubled assets relief programme told Congress on Tuesday.
Sirota concludes:
Certainly, it's good that criminal investigations are happening - but the fear is that if those are happening without much disclosure, they may only be netting a tiny number of infractions that are actually being committed. And I think that's a justifiable fear when the government's top watchdog is saying that the Treasury Department under Bush and now Obama is refusing to provide basic information to her panel.
As for Stiglitz and Krugman...I'll take their assessments over Geithner's and Bernanke's any day of the week ending in a "Y."