By Simon Johnson
The case for appointing Elizabeth Warren to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was, at the end of the day, overwhelming. She had the original idea, she helped build political support, and her own credentials have been only strengthened by her work as head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP. On Friday, the president will reportedly appoint Professor Warren as an assistant to the president and special adviser to the Treasury Secretary, with the task of setting up and initially running the CFPB.
Some of Ms. Warren’s supporters think this move is something of a half-measure – they would have preferred a conventional nomination, with all the fanfare of a classic confirmation battle in the Senate. There is something to be said for that, but the interim appointment route is by far the best way forward for three reasons.
First, this form of appointment puts Elizabeth Warren to work right away – on the issues of consumer protection that are first order both for ordinary families and for the macroeconomy. You really cannot build a sustainable economic recovery on the back of exploitative or abusive behavior by the financial sector. These issues are urgent and need resolution as soon as possible.
Second, the president finally has an adviser who understands the financial sector and who has healthy skepticism about its intentions and actions. As we documented at length in 13 Bankers, too many top policy people – both in this administration and all its recent predecessors – have been overly inclined to accommodate the interests of finance, particularly the big banks. In this regard, putting Ms. Warren directly into the White House with the highest possible level of access is exactly the right thing to do – much better, for example, than making her purely a Treasury appointment.
Third, this step does not avoid a debate in the Senate – it merely postpones it to a more advantageous moment. Presuming that Ms. Warren is nominated as for a five year term as head of the CFPB, she would go before the Senate Banking Committee with a real track record of achievement as interim head. The debate would not be about what the agency could do, but rather what it has already done – and what it is set up to do next. These are exactly the right terms on which to bring out into the open all those who think that the financial sector only ever behaves well – or that enforcing sensible rules on lenders would somehow bring the economy to its knees.
Barney Frank has the right overall assessment, telling the New York Times:
“I congratulate the administration on its creativity. There’s no possibility she would take something like this unless she was fully empowered to do the job.”
The Baseline Scenario 
special adviser to the Treasury Secretary
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room…
“There’s no possibility she would take something like this unless she was fully empowered to do the job.”
We’ll see. I think this is more likely to be a stepping stone to marginalization (a la Volcker) than a stepping stone to nomination.
But I am sure T. Geithner will give her “advice” all of the consideration he feels it deserves.
Maybe at least a small step in making sure that U.S. corporations make their money without cheating and killing people.
I hope your right, sir. I’m one who viewed this as a half-measure which bowed to Wall St and the Treasury Secretary. However, after reading your analysis, I may have been selling President Obama (and Ms. Warren) short.
As they did Christina Roamer
Given the actions so far by the Obama WH, I see no inclination that they will place the wellfare of the AMerican people ahead of TBTF banks.
I am hoping that Ms. Warren can begin to counterbalance Summers, Geithner, and Bernanke, and represent the American people rather than bailout banks.
I wont vote for them until I see some results.
Don’t forget Brooksley Born. Although that was under Lawrence Summers and Greenspan, but still I think the comparison is more apt in some ways. Although I suppose bringing out the figure head to calm the natives and do a song and dance fits the Volcker comparison more.
Congressman Frank says she wouldn’t take the job unless she was fully empowered. Why do the names Volcker and Stiglitz suddenly pop in my head??? I know Stiglitz was very appreciative President Obama always had an open ear to him. When Stiglitz left his meetings at the White House he was probably pondering if he could have been much more helpful to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival.
At least she’s in for now, and we don’t have to guess where she really stands on bank regulation and consumer advocacy.
The reason Obama overruled Geithner and made the appointment is surely because he’s been reading the polls and watching primary elections. This is a rerun of Obama’s sudden decision to give Volcker a prominent role right after Brown won the MA Senate seat: Obama wants to firm up support in the Dem base, which is (naturally) weak now. When Volcker was “promoted,” many pundits claimed he would now be listened to more than Geithner, but of course that prediction was absurd. Since Warren is a pre-election trophy appointment, it’s probable Obama has a very different view of her than Frank (if Frank is actually being honest), though both men are will use the same rhetoric in public. The only way Warren can make progress is if her work as head is completely transparent and attempts by Geithner and Obama to muzzle her after the election are made public and protested. If her work is surrounded by secrecy, as is the current deconstruction of Social Security in Obama’s problematic Deficit Reduction Committee, Warren’s work will surely be diluted and contolled. Obama only makes concessions to liberals when lots of focused pressure is applied, so constant pressure will be needed from now on, though it’s likely to be diverted by the struggle to protect Social Security.
The predatory class depends on its hired tools for legislating the most favorable hunting conditions. The hired tools depend on the predatory class for re-election $upport. There is no logical reason to expect that Warren’s advisory role will remake the playing field. Did ‘financial reform’ accomplish real reform? Leave it to the lobbyists. I don’t think Simon allows his better (cynical) side to write enough of his posts. The bloggers do a great job, however. Warren is a pawn, and she will regret her move.
You’re much closer to her than we are. I’m sad that she’s not going to chair the TARP COP anymore, but that’s life. It’s her agency and her idea. With the promise of more GOP in control of the Senate, and her having to work for Geithner (awkward), well I’m not sure how this is going to last more than a short period.
I have one question for you Dr. Johnson. On page 118 of the latest TARP COP report, did you just backhandedly call America not a “serious country”?
I’ll fight anyone to the death who defends TARP, October 3, 2010 cannot come soon enough!
There are many different interpretations to this move. The most convincing is I think Yves Smith’s. She takes into account the whole history of the CFPB, how from independent it became an appendage to the Fed. It’s all in her interview with BNN:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/09/your-humble-blogger-nearly-does-a-pratfall-on-bnn.html
Only line missing in the fine argument made by Simon
is “Trust me” at the very end.
:-)
Yes. If she really cared about them the way her idolators think, she’d have refused to be “in” under anything remotely like these circumstances.
By now she has enough fame that if she instead attacked the system from outside the MSM would still have to pay attention to her. They’re the ones who built her up. So the fact that she’s willing to cave in so despicably, all for the same of some wretched careerism and miserable “respectability”, proves she’s really just one of them in the end, as I’ve always said.
Third, this step does not avoid a debate in the Senate – it merely postpones it to a more advantageous moment.
…when there’s more Republicans.
LOL, how the best thing for the Democrat’s phantom “progressive” agenda keeps changing.
Let’s recap the changing unmet prerequisite:
1. “We can’t fight as a minority. We need to win back the Senate. Then you’ll see progressive action!”
2. “We can’t do anything about the filibuster* on our own. We need 60 votes. Then you’ll see action!”
(*That’s doubly a lie since no one even has to filibuster any more, just declare an intent: “If people still ahd to filibuster, I would do so now.”)
3. “We now have 60 votes, but we still can’t do anything because…..” (they never did quite reach coherence on that one, but they were clearly extremely embarrassed to actually have 60 votes).
4. And now Simon and the hacks are bringing us back full circle – “We need more Republicans. That’ll be a more favorable situation. Then we’ll have’em where we want’em! Then you’ll see action!”
Yep. It won’t bother Obama much if the GOP wins big in Nov. If they do, it will allow him to diss progressives even more by claiming he’s a truly “bipartisan” prez now and therefore doesn’t need to do anything that’s difficult, er, that’s not pro-business.
Perhaps it was one of your compatriots who described second marriages as the triumph of anticipation over experience.
Chris Dodd was adamant in his non-support of Warren
because she could not be confirmed… too much Republican opposition. I wrote to my Republican representative about the matter and phoned my Dem senators. All seemed happy, complacent, supportive of Warren.
Outside of Democract Dodd’s refusal to support Warren, because of “supposed” Repub opposition, has any Republican ever spoken out against her confirmation? On what basis? …any links, quotes…?
Is there a possibility that this was a Democratic smokescreen to sidestep Warren by the Dems and blame it on the Republicans? ….Lady in Red
As I see some real heavy-weight consumer finance issues not being tackled at all, or very little, I must confess that I am a bit skeptical about the worth of anyone particular in a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Let me just mention two of the issues ignored.
The debtor should always have the right to know exactly who he owes his money to and who he can discuss with any difficulties so as to be able to renegotiate if need be.
Absolute perfect credit scores mean that credit is transacted at perfect prices and therefore no special profit margins are caused. In this respect there is a vested interest in the market, on behalf of some lenders to have imperfect credit scores, as this will allow perfectly better profits for them. FICO scores that for instance do not take into account the worth of punctual lease payments are not worth one iota.
http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/warren-cpfb-2668809-1.html
“Warren will not be seen as the independent voice lawmakers intended when they created the bureau in the regulatory reform law, potentially undercutting her and her agency’s credibility.”
“Regardless of the merits whether you like Elizabeth Warren or you are an opponent of Elizabeth Warren, it’s hard to see how this is a very satisfactory result….”
Warren: ‘Tricks and Traps’ are over
September 17, 2010: 8:26 AM ET – excerpt
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement opposing the president’s move to make her an adviser.
“This maneuver is an affront to the pledge of transparency and consumer protection that’s purported to be the focus of this new agency,” said David Hirschmann, president of the chamber’s center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.
Some, including Senate Banking chief Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., noted that Obama’s move doesn’t solve the question of who will ultimately run the agency.
“There’s always been discussion about having Elizabeth involved in some way,” Dodd said. “The issue still remains, who are we going to consider.”
http://tinyurl.com/2934fch
Yes, our heroine may indeed know exactly what she’s doing. LOL You know, in the end, what counts in the best circles? The CV.
I can definitely see her getting the Brooksley Born treatment. Knowing what a sycophant Geithner is to the banks, Warren might need a hall pass just to go to the bathroom. And that would be quite the ironic switch…the professor having to get a hall pass from the child.
Elizabeth Warren To Lead Search For New Consumer Chief, Could ‘Pull A Dick Cheney’
09-17-10 12:08 AM – Huff Post
http://tinyurl.com/36paw8a
I hope you are right. I worry that her access to the president will be curtailed by his handlers, and that she may not have the opportunity to make her case. Morever, turf wars, which happen in all administrations, could also derail her work.
But I will not be blinded by an overcommitment to the belief that nothing will be changing because of past policy choices by our leaders. Maybe the politics and policy are aligning somewhat.
Call me an optimist (ow, that hurt), but I think Obama is trying to please everybody and to move as slowly down the middle of the perceived populist road as he possibly can, staying ever mindful of the need to defend American interests (give something to business), to maintain policy continuity (no anarchy in Iraq and Afghanistan), and to slowly bring around the helm of this massive ship of state towards a course that might also include promotion of the general welfare (financial regulation).
He may be saddled with an unplayable hand, he may be viewed by historians as a wise man, he may be the last gasp of the center-left to wield any power before we topple into feudalism and an Orwellian fascism. Or we may simply be left behind as China plans for a world without cheap energy. To wit, they are buying precious metals suitable for the next generation of electronics this week.
And the CV to date extols her dedication to bank regulation and consumer protection from banks. Becoming the banks lapdog would wreck her credibility altogether, even though she’d probably get a lucrative job at GS or something.
There really are people out there that are driven to be the good guy, and are incorruptible. While only time will tell if Dr. Warren is one of these people, her appointment is at worst status quo.
Personally I see that job more as regulating the next generation of banks once the TBTF and Fed implode. The current system if left alone is insolvent and irreparable.
Samuel Johnson. Hope, not anticipation, and in all fairness he referred to a particular second marriage.
My greatest hope in this case lies in Warren’s survival instinct. She has shown herself to be someone who likes effective work. If the negative expectations turn out to be correct and she finds her hands tied, she is likely to get out, and that would at least provide very public notice that a different system was needed. For now, there is a possibility she can accomplish something, and we can wait and see.
September 17, 2010; 7:00 AM ET – Washington Post – excerpt
“In a blog entry posted on the White House Web site early Friday, Warren said the new bureau “is based on the simple idea that if the playing field is level and families can see what’s going on, they will have better tools to make better choices.
However, Warren continued that “nobody has ever thought or argued that the consumer bureau can fix everything.”
“Lost jobs, stagnant incomes, rising costs for college, dwindling retirement savings–there’s a lot of work to be done,” she said, alluding to her yet-to-be-clearly-defined role in the White House to protect middle class families.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/09/elizabeth_warren_to_be_appoint.html
Godot is in the House! Thank you K. O’Donnell, and all you teabaggers for making the WH understand, hopefully, not too late, it is a good thing to do something for your base, if you intended for them to show up to vote.
I don’t like people who were their reading glasses low like that. They’re pompous.
First of all, thank you Simon for responding to the appointment.
Secondly, It’s really up to Warren how much she is or isn’t allowed to do. If she fails, it will be for one of two reasons – either she allows the Geitner / Summers pasty white boy club to win the arguments, or she isn’t allowed to make them. From everything I’ve seen of her, if she is actually given access to the President she will win a lot of those arguements. If she isn’t given the access (and let’s remember Volker is like 300 years old and didn’t work full time at the white house) then she needs to have the gumption to resign and take her arguments to the press.
This article seems to smack of desperate optimism.
Proverbs 29:4 The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.
Deuteronomy 16:19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Our campaign finance and lobbying laws legalize and institutionalize conflict of interest, injustice, croneyism, influence peddling, political patronage, etc… These have infected both parties so much that governance doesn’t seem to change much between one and the other. The corporate press oligopoly seems a fat somnolent watchdog, or has perhaps even become a fox in the henhouse.
We have a culminating threat to our national security. The question is, will we continue down the road to kleptocracy even so?
Are those really that original?? I mean I think Yves is a better than average blogger, but do we need to congratulate her for reinventing the wheel?? Next week shall we give her credit for rediscovering peanut butter if she posts on that???
And this mentioning ourselves third person style like Bob Dole is getting extremely old by the way. “Yves here, …….” No F__king kidding, I thought it was Soupy Sales.
All of a sudden, everybody is ON BOARD. yeah!! It’s the best solution all-around, evidently. Now we’re hearing that Warren never wanted the 5 year appointment to begin with. LOL Does anyone SMELL a deal here? Anyway…..the SPIN is ON. Everybody’s a WINNER. yeah! Ain’t politics RANK.
After Summers Comes the Fall
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/after_summers_comes_the_fall_20100914/
Posted on Sep 14, 2010
” Demand that Summers and Geithner be fired the next time you receive an appeal from the Obama fundraising machine asking for yet another contribution to the movement for change.”
By Robert Scheer
When will the president give Lawrence Summers his pink slip? He can thank him for his years of service and use the excuse that his top economic adviser wants to spend more time with his family. I don’t care how he sugarcoats it. But Summers deserves the same fate as the millions of workers laid off because of the banking debacle he helped cause, the dire consequences of which he has done precious little to mitigate.
It was Summers who, as treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which opened the floodgates to the toxic mortgage-backed derivatives that still haunt the economy.
Summers claimed that the suggestion of the prescient Brooksley Born, who headed the futures regulatory agency, to rein in those scams would have killed the golden goose of a derivatives market which, thanks to Summers, was allowed to run wild.
Ask Summer’s protégé and now Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner why he bailed out those market manipulators when he was head of the New York Fed working with the Bush administration.
Summers got his cut from those grateful bankers, receiving $8 million in consulting and speaking fees from major Wall Street firms while he was a top adviser to the Obama election campaign. For just one speaking appearance, Goldman Sachs paid him $135,000.
“Now, Summers opposes Obama’s selection of Elizabeth Warren, who in the mold of Brooksley Born has earned a strong reputation as a consumer advocate, to head a new consumer agency. The man has no shame and has uttered not a word of contrition over his sorry record.”
In other words, you disagree and default to insult.
One small step for an outstanding woman. One giant step for mankind.
Anyone noticed how Rubenesque Larry Summers has been during his tenure as economic advisor? :-)
Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, the Laurel and Hardy of economics.
Imagine being competent and having Stan Laurel as your boss and Oliver Hardy as his constant companion. It boggles the mind.
I saw her give a talk at a college. She stretched ten minutes of material into an hour. The college “talk” scam is no different than the scams the banks use.
Russ is right. She’s a hypocrite.
Warren should bring in Born as her assistant. That would stick a thumb in Summers’ eye.
Maybe Brett in Manhattan just didn’t have the attention span for a hour-long explanation. It’s apparent from the vast depth of his insight that Brett is more comfortable with the “Fox and Friends” version of the world.
Pompous + hypocrite. Wonder if that makes her overqualified to advise Timmy? Sounds like those are both assets for someone headed to Washington. But is she ruthless enough to push her agenda?
Re: @ Wright___I agree totally with your realistic assessment. Obama has shown time in and time out he’s in it for the long (legacy) run…caring little about the little guy, period! He will use her up for pre-election political window-dressing and feed her to the wolves post election. The poor woman will be “Born’d too Death” via Obama’s hit men. Pathetic is he as a president not to challenge congress for such a lame excuse of a floor fight? Funny…it never fazed him with “FinReg / Health Care Bill”, and the no-name Supreme Court nomination to do battle with Congress? I hadn’t and never would vote for this charlatan ( I’m an independent and didn’t like the choices given, thus never voted for him because I have seen this “Change & Transparency” phenomeum play out for decades) dressed in “The Equality Garb of a Hedonistic Ideologue”! Pawn she is,…so very sad.
Re: @ Russ___I 2nd that!!!
Re: @ Katherine___This president as all (but especially Obama) others are told when to sign on the bottom line. He is by far the laziest and unenvolved president I can ever recollect other than Reagan in his final four years, and ironically this is what Obama is gaming for? God…I hope there are better options for 2012 – no experience, no fight, no leadership,…nothing but empty rhetoric, pathetic!
her appointment is at worst status quo.
So you want the status quo dragged out?
Friday, Sep. 17, 2010 3:02PM EDT
Washington — Associated Press – excerpt
“Mr. Obama did not nominate Ms. Warren to be the bureau’s director, however. Instead he is creating a role that allows her to avoid a lengthy confirmation fight with Senate Republicans who view her as too critical of Wall Street and big banks.
The 61-year-old Harvard professor can assume her duties immediately…..
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sidestepped questions about whether Ms. Warren herself would be in the running for the director’s post, saying only,
“The President will nominate a director and Elizabeth will be instrumental in filling that position.”
http://tinyurl.com/2ab6ksh
“We are here to make limbo tolerable, to ferry wounded souls across the river of dread to point where hope is dimly visible, and to stop the boat, shove them in the water and make them swim.”
I do not know which is more staggering, your tortured rationalization or your political naivete.
If Warren accepts Obama’s “advisory” demotion, she has already “failed.” The avoidance of confirmation hearings is as much to shut her up as to avoid the yap dogs of the GOP, who frighten Obama. Her designated role is a fig leaf after the Volcker model. Like him, she can make “progressive” noises that will come to nothing apart from padding her ego/resume–something that academics are very good at trading for integrity. Her “access” to Obama is a joke–if the latter wanted her views, he could check online like the rest of us. More reformist illusions from Prof. Johnson!
Well here we go again. Killing the snake by putting the mongoose as its boss. U fail to mention that her advisor role has her report to douchebag timmy geithner. So bank buddy tim can tell her what to do.
Listen, until voters get their act together and start voting these jerks out of office, this country, and the world, are perpetually screwed.
Obviously, there was a deal whereby Warren agreed to say that she was never interested in heading the new agency, in return for BHO promising her ‘x.’ Being a law professor, I hope she got everything in writing, because whoever heard of a politician being a liar, right? LOL Warren sold-out, essentially.
I’m both stunned and elated. Appointing Warren could either be the first embryonic step in righting the horrible wrongs of the predatorclass den and thieves on Wall Street, and curbing their abusive and criminal machinations – or a stealth, Trojan Horse attack on what little remains of the US socalled regulatory apparatus.
Time will tell. But I cannot wipe this smile from my face.
I love how liberals are so quick to label someone as intellectually inferior, ignoring the “Inconvenient Truth” that a person’s IQ is just as genetically predetermined as their race, gender, sexuality etc.
Not too “Progessive,” is it, Rich?
There’s something to be said for empty rhetoric, please recall Bush the two. Full of empty, yes but rhetoric? Well let’s not misunderestimate. By the way, Obama is not lazy, beholden to Wall Street and the usual suspects perhaps but not lazy.
Just say “PRESENT.” This is a reprise of the healthcare debacle. If only we had someone with integrity in power, really committed to ‘change we can believe in.’ But what we instead have is ‘no we can’t.’
I’d agree that Obama has shown little of the steely backbone some had foolishly hoped for, (I include myself among the daft, so daft in fact, my poison was Kucinich). However to be fair, Obama never had sixty de jure Democrats in the Senate; Bernine Sanders and Lieberman, one a liberal Democrat by another name and the other a Democrat in name only, if that, and then Ted Kennedy died. Nor 60 de facto votes, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Bachus, Chris Dodd and his fancy footwork in committee, et. al. A collection of bought reprobates that sabotaged Obama’s health care from day one, and they were supposed to be on his side good god.
Obama has a lot to answer for, appointing Geithner, Summers and Clinton, backing off campaign promises to close Gitmo, not ending rendtions, respect for Habeus, the list is depressingly long but please recall that the man is not emperor, there are others culpable, the odds are long.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer still. Is perchance the WH idea of containment. That said, I do wish Ms Warren well.
What I think you may be missing are her political aspirations. Care to count the plus side of the equation. I’ll start. i) female, ii) beloved by the left, iii) more than accecptable to the independents, iv) midwestern dirt under the finger nails true grit persona, v) wide media exposure in a positive light, vi) she’s not barbie.
She may find a draft notice in her email one day. Just a thought.
I’m sorry, but I see this as one more example of Obama doing the easy (cowardly?) thing instead of doing the right thing. Apparently Obama feels incapable of fighting for a worthy cause, of explaining to the nation in clear, easy-to-understand terms WHY Elizabeth Warren is the right person to head this agency.
I fear that Obama missed his best window of opportunity by not not putting her name in nomination now or even months ago, while the Democrats have a larger majority in the senate than they will probably have after the coming election.
I can see a scenario — based on Obama’s past actions as president — where he will shy away from EVER putting Elizabeth Warren’s name in nomination and/or will nominate someone else. At that point Obama will explain to us that Ms. Warren is “un-confirmable” (aping the odious Chris Dodd’s statements along those lines).
I predict Obama will never nominate Warren to head this agency or, if he does, will do little-to-nothing to build support for her confirmation.
By putting Ms. Warren in the position of having to answerer to Timothy Geithner, Obama is in effect hobbling her and probably preventing her from doing anything that would rile the Big Money boys from whom Obama expects to get large campaign contributions for his re-election in 2012.
sorry . . .
I had meant to write:
“I fear that Obama missed his best window of opportunity by not putting her name in nomination now or even months ago, while the Democrats have a larger majority in the senate than they will probably have after the coming election.”
If Obama had any presidential skills, he could have put those who opposed Ms. Warren’s nomination on the DEFENSIVE and REQUIRED them to explain to the American public why Elizabeth Warren’s consumer protection goals are not worthy and supportable goals.
“desperate optimism” – perfect turn of a phrase to describe the psychobabble
“don’t be negative”
“perception is reality”
how else can someone be so delusional as to expect everyone to believe the paper that a small group of men issued claiming that they OWN IT ALL.
still trying to figure out why the delusion is being perceived as reality – with so much EVIDENCE of perfidy, unless someone jumps up screaming “we were just kidding”
and claim this disaster was just a practical joke to teach the gullible a life lesson,
I don’t see any other CHOICE – “force” – all of it beginning with laws they haven’t rewritten yet – must be applied to put these clowns in the proper institution for containment.
Ask a million other women – beginning with Brooksley Born – how BELIEVING you can “change” a man – is delusional.
Who must walk into a den of vipers as a “first step” to “helping the middle class”? Almost like some kind of primitive walk over hot coals to prove you have majik juju. If you make it past the gauntlet, grab that freekin’ Patriot Act and burn it.
That’s why I’m not buying any of this…
MSM is an absolute joke. Since it’s “privately” owned, all you get is a talking head channeling the world view of the owner – and the owners are TRULY nuts and delusional…
Imagine if Stalin had never been born? What was God thinking, eh?
That would have irritated the chamber of commerce and Obama has strived to be an exemplary tool to his financial supporters. He and the congressional mule gang don’t want to alienate their benefactors. Obama learned during the healthcare fiasco that making waves doesn’t pay.
But my point would be that Obama never made a good fight for REAL healthcare reform or REAL financial markets reform.
As soon as Obama meets with any opposition, he melts away into the woodwork.
Remember how he showed his leadership mettle during the Gulf crisis? LOL Look, his place in history is assured thanks to the CAMPAIGN that got him elected. What a masterful display of smoke and mirrors that was!!
It is interesting that no one — regardless political
proclivities — has questioned Warren’s quals, commitment, etc. in this blog.
I still find it strange that Republicans, who lost
two easy Supreme Court battles over incompetents (in my estimation) would have fought against — and presumably won? — a woman like Eliz Warren.
Methinks the Dems protest too much. It’s the Dems who
hate Warren, wish to marginalize her, no one else
(except the Chamber of Commerce…. who be they? Certainly not the SEIU.) The Repubs would have supported Warren. ….Lady in Red
Re: @ myshkin___The president has spoken many times…quite loudly I might say – that “This is My Presidency and I Call the Shots”! Granted the democrats could have done themselves a big favor by standing on the sidelines and let the “GOP” clean up their ”
Un-Godly Mess” by letting them win the WH? Nobody can put back “Humpty-Dumpty” as we know it (the USA?) for at least a decade (IMHO). In your argument/discourse regarding President Obama…I must admit his poor selection of right-hand men has put him, “Behind Their “EightBall”? Interesting too say the least for the motive…but who am I to question authority? Here’s a tidbit you might find interesting regarding Bush #43 Tax Cuts from 2001. There were twelve (12) US Senators, and twenty-eight (28) US House Representatives… all “Democrats” that voted “Yes” for the tax cuts. I’m not going to name alot of them, but only a few – D. Feinstein; M. Lamdrieu; *Blanche Lincoln*; and Ben Nelson…funny these bedfellows be as they lay their “BedBug Eggs” at epidemic proportion where no exterminators can ever be found?
are you a lady or a queen ?
Re: @ Anna L___ Just look at the “FOIA” tranparency that was and now gone under M. Schapiro. These literally neo-vampires will ghoulishly devour Ms. Warren’s laurels as they have so many other good public servants. Please realize if it does get nasty in the next 18 months…she could/should excuse herself and file a lawsuit while having chronologically documented everything now…from the get-go past to the present.
Re: @ Lady in Red___I like how you think. May I say “Good Call”! :-))
Annie, don’t Bogart that joint. :-)
What Can Consumers Ultimately Expect?
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — “With Elizabeth Warren as an adviser, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is officially en route to becoming a tough new regulatory body on behalf of consumers.
The set-up process is expected to take 10 months, with an official launch date of July 21, 2011, according to the Treasury Department.
What can consumers ultimately expect? More disclosures and fewer hidden fees.
“The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over,” Warren said on the White House Website.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was the signature piece of the Wall Street reform bill that Congress passed and the president signed into law in July.
The new regulatory bureau will be independent. It will have the power to create rules curbing unfair practices in mortgages, credit cards and a plethora of consumer loans issued by banks and payday lenders, private student loan lenders and check cashing companies.
Here are some of the things that the bureau is slated to tackle when it gets set up.
Simpler mortgage disclosure forms: The new law requires the agency to set up a standard type of mortgage disclosure form. Lenders won’t be required to offer the form, but they may have incentives to use the simpler forms.
Overdraft fees: The regulator will have the power to craft new rules that would make it clear what kinds of fees banks can and can’t slap on consumers who overdraw their accounts.
Credit scores: All consumers have been able to get one free credit report a year from the credit rating agencies. But the law allows a consumer to get an actual credit score along with a report, and the agency will oversee that.
Ban on ‘liar loans’: The regulator would be charged with ensuring lenders are documenting borrowers’ income before originating a mortgage and verify a borrower’s ability to repay the loan.
Pre-payment penalty fees: The law requires the consumer bureau to crack down on penalty fees consumers often face when they pay off mortgages early.
Mandatory arbitration contracts: Many mortgages, credit cards, gift cards and auto loans force the buyer and seller to hash out disputes before a neutral party called an arbitration panel. These arbitration contracts prevent disputes from going to court, with an eye toward forcing parties to work things out and cut down on lawsuits. The act directs the agency to study the contracts while giving it power to ban them as well. ”
http://tinyurl.com/What-To-Expectt
“… it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
English novelist (1812 – 1870)
Pssst… TonyForesta, (How do you put up with the skinheads at ZH?)
the joint dementia is evident in those who still use that line
* Slightly off-topic
O’Donnell In 1999: ‘I Dabbled Into Witchcraft’ (VIDEO)
09-18-10 03:20 PM – The Huffington Post – excerpt
“Another damaging past statement from Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell was revealed on Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time” last night. Maher played a clip from an episode of his previous show “Politically Incorrect” in which O’Donnell said she “dabbled into witchcraft.” From Think Progress:
“I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do. One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and I didn’t know it.
I mean, there was a little blood there and stuff like that.
We went to a movie and then had a little picnic on a satanic altar.”
http://tinyurl.com/a-little-blood
* You can’t make this stuff up.
Like I said, it’s up to her. If she allows that to happen then she’s not the person we’re all hoping she is in the first place. Otherwise who is there, where is the white knight that has the electability and the stones on the progressive side of the aisle. We elected Obama because we thought he was it, he’s still the best of the bunch.
Yet another unapproved, unvetted, unqualified commissar for the new improved regime.
Remember kids, some women are inherently good. The kind you make future plans with, and well, you’re not going to take any guff from Mom if she finds an excuse not to like her (Example: Elizabeth Warren). Then there are other women…. well…. I don’t want to say….
Don’t wish to put a ‘fly in the ointment’, but from my vantage point as a Brit sitting in Hong Kong, it may well have been better for the Democrat’s and the USA itself if Hilary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination and then the US Presidency.
To put it bluntly, she’s got ‘balls’ and knows how to fight.
Tis a shame Obama made her Secretary of State as its probable she’d have won the 2012 Democratic Primaries after the hash Obama has made of things.
Like Tony Blair, Obama offered hope and then delivered for vested interests – is this not what ‘Dodd-Franks’ and health reform actually means?
Obama didn’t appoint her, they struck a deal. She would rule the world and he the States. So far, the world is in better shape.
What Ms Clinton could not bring to the table was enough votes to clinch the presidency. Rather than prove who had balls, the deal was made.
American politics at its best!
Health Care Reform and Dodd Frank a prime example of our system at its worst.
“What Ms Clinton could not bring to the table was enough votes to clinch the presidency. Rather than prove who had balls, the deal was made.”
Bull puckies – the Sheikhs will not recognize a woman as President – the “deal” was an OPEC threat.
And the head of the German government is?
Ms. Thatcher was?
It’s not as if the Sheikhs haven’t dealt with western leaders of the opposite sex.
Perhaps the Wall Street Taliban had other ideas in mind? Always follow the money.
Actually, Obama did fight hard — to kill the public option. When Lieberman said he wouldn’t support the public option and then opposed lowering the age for Medicare, Obama made only a single call to Lieberman that was just pleasantries. At the same time, he sent Rahm to see Reid and force Reid not to negotiate with Lieberman or twist Lieberman’s arm. In return for being the fall guy who took the heat for blocking the public option and deflected responsibility from Obama, Lieberman didn’t lose any committee appointments and remains on warm terms with the president. Then, when it turned out the public option could be passed by reconciliation and Pellosi and Reid said a deal was possible, Obama suddenly claimed Congress was acting too slowly and created a “bipartisan” TV extravaganza that upstaged Congress and allowed him to force on Congress his own jerrybuilt agenda for reconciliation, one that did not include the public option. He’s a skilled sleight-of-hand artist, and he works hard to hide his skill.
Yes, Hillary would probably at least have delivered a public health insurance option, and she would have done a lot more to create jobs. After watching Rubin and Summers at first hand, I doubt she would have oppointed either Summers or Geithner. Unfortunately, State is still under the thumb of the White House, so she’s basically the fall-woman who mainly has to take responsibility for Obama’s international failures.
If Hillary quits State in time, she could still run by promoting a national salvation program.
Hee, hee, hee :-)
Ted you’re a bad boy.
Madame Bhutto gunned down…
Sheikhs have far less influence in Germany and England than in the USA because both countries have CULTURE.
Burn the Patriot Act which put a bulls eye on USA CITIZENS for PSYCHO GLOBAL war lords and drug lords – which is where the “money” is, as you put it.
Which means “money” has NO VALUE when that’s who has it.
It’s INSANITY if we don’t disconnect from that “currency”.
From the conservative side of the church:
Czarina Elizabeth – it’s not just the confirmation end run we should worry about
Saturday, September 18th at 7:06AM EDT
Criticism of President Obama’s appointment of Elizabeth Warren to oversee the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – the Dodd-Frank Act’s contribution to growing the federal bureaucracy – has focused on Obama’s end-run around the Senate confirmation process. By making Warren the White House czar for the CFPB instead of the agency’s director, Obama allows her to “effectively run the agency” (quoting the New York Times) while skirting both the Constitution’s requirement that “officers” of the federal government be confirmed by the Senate and the troubling questions about Warren’s anti-business bent that would inevitably have been part of her Senate confirmation hearings.
While the President’s attempt to defeat the constitutional checks and balances provided by the confirmation process is troubling enough, Warren’s appointment as White House czar is undoubtedly also intended to defeat the checks and balances provided by Congressional oversight. Such oversight typically involves testimony by Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials before Congressional committees and the subpoenaing of agency documents.
In sharp contrast, the Obama White House has made it clear that its czars cannot be compelled to testify before Congress and will not be allowed to testify voluntarily. Thus, Warren’s appointment guarantees that the powerful new CFPB will be largely exempt from the openness and transparency Obama promised for the entire government. That exemption will come in particularly handy for Obama if the GOP takes controls of either house of Congress in November, giving Republicans oversight authority as the CFPB begins its mischief-making next year.
The late Senator Robert Byrd foresaw this problem in February 2009 when he wrote to Obama to express his concern about the President’s excessive use of czars, warning that czars
are not accountable for their actions to Congress, to cabinet officials, and to virtually anyone but the president. They rarely testify before congressional committees, and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, [they] have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency, and reduce accountability.
Under the terms of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Treasury Department, rather than a White House czar, should be running the CFPB until a director is named. But Obama got around that requirement by giving Elizabeth Warren a dual appointment as a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. While Congressional committees cannot compel Warren to testify in her capacity as an assistant to the President, Congress may argue that she can be so compelled in her capacity as a Geithner adviser. But don’t get your hopes up since executive privilege provides the Obama Administration with counterarguments.
At the end of the day, Warren is likely to be as unaccountable as the President’s other czars, but with an added and dangerous twist. Obama’s use of White House czars to exempt long-established, largely stable agencies from transparency and accountability has been dangerous enough. But this latest attempt, aimed at shielding from accountability a brand new, poorly understood agency – one likely to be riddled with the mistakes and misjudgments found in any startup – is recklessly irresponsible.
“Ms. Thatcher was…..?” I don’t remember how the joke went, but it had something to do with extreme cold and the female genitalia.
But yes, Miss Thatcher cut many deals for oil from the Mid-East. The sheikhs have a special way of casting religion aside when someone is cutting them a check. And taking bribes, but that’s another story for the Arab hillbillies to displace their anger on America for.
Thatcher was ages ago. Bhutto’s fate is what women will increasingly face worldwide – it’s so miserable being a woman, Chinese are cutting their number by half.
Some may argue about the mistakes and misjudgments of any inner circle that slithers in with a new Prez.
If Congress and the Senate did their jobs as ELECTED officials, no need for all these appointees and lobbyists.
Re: @ Anonymous____”The Invisible Man”…a telling paradox in post WWII american politics? This quasi-symbiotic zeitgeist – fully implemented, and virtually ubiguitous dumbing down of america. Indeed this adopted travesty of deception has manifested itself from a embryonic state of nascence…thus morphing into a nocturnal edifice of a metastasized indoctrinated reality! The privileged…that is too say only the diabolical oligarch framers can visualize through their fiendish, and ghoulish nite-vision – gifted only to those neo-fascist cloaked in the wassailling hightened gavotte…this gallantry of evil united, baptising their mutated offspring called “Serfdom”! We are, or have become the “Invisable Hand of a Permanent Dictatorship” giving up our freedom for freedoms via “Habeas Corpus”! Sleep tight America?
The GREAT RECESSION IS OVER!!!!!! The government just announced in a desperate attempt at reviving the smoke and mirrors trick that gave us BHO. Just in time for November elections. How timely.
Yes. One more dynasty ending in a hail of lead. As to who exactly engineered the coup you may take your pick.
“A recent poll has shown that 80% of the American people don’t trust their government and when you add the 22 million government employees and their families, one could say zero percent of productive Americans in the private sector trust the government. So why should global investors have any more confidence or faith in Washington than the American people? ”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland28.1.html
Mom, apple pie and baseball. We’re a simple people. We are still in the process of empire building and have not found our limits.
Unlike the great cultures, we really aren’t all that interesting. To the point of calling our selves a Nation of Laws. Now that is ironic don’t you think?
The currency expended in the global drug terrorism trade is an investment in governance. It is a tax on capitalism.
As we here in America are simple people, we require a secular quest.
Bringing Democracy to the World.
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-47-is-available-The-Global-systemic-crisis-Spring-2011-Welcome-to-the-United-States-of-Austerity-Towards-a-very_a5168.html
Excerpt:
“The coming quarters will be particularly dangerous for the world economic and financial system. The Chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke passed on the message as diplomatically as possible at the recent meeting of world central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming: even though the policy to revive the US economy has failed, either the rest of the world continues to fund US deficits at a loss and hopes that at some point the bet will pay off, avoiding a collapse of the global system, or the United States will monetize its debt and turn all the Dollars and US Treasury Bonds held by the rest of the planet into funny money. Like any power at bay, the United States and is now forced to introduce the threat of pressure to get what it wants. Barely a year ago the rest of the World’s leaders and financial officials had volunteered to « refloat the USA ship ». However, today things have drastically changed since the noble assurance from Washington (the Fed’s, like that of the Obama administration’s) proved to be only pure arrogance based on the pretense of having understood the nature of the crisis and on the illusion of possessing the means of controlling it. However, US growth evaporates quarter after quarter (8) and turns negative again from the end of 2010. Unemployment hasn’t stopped growing and between the stability shown in official figures and the exit, in six months, of more than two million Americans from the workplace (LEAP/E2020 believes that the real unemployment figure is now at least 20% (9)); the U.S. housing market remains depressed at historically low levels and will resume its fall from the fourth quarter 2010; last but not least, as one can easily imagine in these circumstances, the US consumer is and will be absent on a permanent basis since his insolvency continues and even gets worse (10) for the one American in five without work. Behind these statistical factors hide three realities that will radically change the US and global political, economic and social landscape in future quarters as and when they dawn on the public consciousness.
Broad-based anger will cripple Washington from November 2010
First of all, there is a very depressing widespread reality, a real trip « to the heart of darkness », which is that tens of millions of Americans (nearly sixty million now depend on food stamps) who no longer have a job, no longer have a house, no longer have any savings, are wondering how they will survive in the years to come (11). The young (12), retirees, African-Americans, workers, service employees (13),… they constitute this mass of angry citizens who will speak violently next November and plunge Washington into a tragic political impasse. Supporters of the « Tea Party (14) » and « new secessionist (15) » movements… want to « break the Washington Machine » (and by extension that of Wall Street) without having feasible proposals to solve the country’s myriad problems (16). The November 2010 elections will be the first opportunity for this « suffering America » to express itself on the crisis and its consequences. And, won back by the Republicans or even the extremists, these voters will help to further cripple the Obama administration and Congress (which will probably swing to the Republicans), only pushing the country into a tragic gridlock just when all the signals turn red again. This expression of widespread anger will in addition, from December onwards, collide with the release of the Deficit Commission report set up by President Obama, which will automatically place the issue of deficits at the heart of public debate at the beginning of 2011 (17).
For example, we are already seeing a very specific expression of this widespread anger against Wall Street in that Americans have deserted the stock market (18). Each month, an increasing number of « small investors » leave Wall Street and the financial markets (19), today leaving more than 70% of transactions in the hands of major institutions and other « high frequency traders ». If one keeps in mind the traditional image that the stock exchange is today’s temple of modern capitalism, then we are witnessing a phenomenon of loss of faith comparable to people’s disaffection with official demonstrations experienced by the communist system before its fall.
The Federal Reserve now knows that it is powerless
Finally, there is a financial and monetary effect that is particularly tragic since the players are aware of their unenviable situation: the U.S. Federal Reserve now knows that it is powerless. Despite the extraordinary efforts (zero interest rates, quantitative easing, huge support to the real estate mortgage market, massive support to banks, tripling its balance sheet, …) that it carried out from September 2008, the U.S. economy will not restart. Fed leaders are finding they are only a part in the system, even if it is a vital part and, therefore, can do nothing against a problem that affects the very nature of the system, in this case, the US financial system, designed as the solvent heart of the global financial system since 1945. But the US consumer has become insolvent (20), the consumer who, during the last thirty years, has gradually become the central economic player of this financial heart (with more than 70% of U.S. growth dependant on household spending). It is this insolvency of US households (21) that has broken the Fed’s efforts….”
It shouldn’t be held to any higher a standard than the weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hussain and the Al Quieda meme of Mssr’s Bush and Cheney.
That’s only cost a $__ trillion.
If you consider the SEC a stable agency or the monstrosity called Home Land Security an asset worth funding, you may want to review which church you’re attending?
Not that the other establishment has that much else to offer.
Given the amounts donated to the well heeled of the banking brokerage industry. I’m in favor of strict regulation of those incapable of regulating themselves.
One more reason to by pass the Congress.
SINNER! REPENT!
Dodd-Frank specifies Secretary Geithner to announce a transfer date for the CFPB to begin its work, some time between January and July of 2011, and designates Geithner essentially as acting director of the Bureau until the Senate confirms a permanent Director which can be dragged on past elections or later in 2011.
Elizabeth Warren should forget about her side bars with the President and speak directly to the people. Her popular support is her only real leverage and it will carry more weight than her special advice to the back room cronies.
Special advice to the President: FIRE Summers and Geithner. There is a crisis of confidence surrounding your office, and these two guys are at the center of that concern.
Now if we could just get say…some petition going on this matter, we would certainly be giving Elizabeth a fair start in her new position!
Said Johnson, “In my recollection,
Consumer Financial Protection
Was largely conceived,
And should run, I believe,
By Elizabeth Warren’s direction.”
True that Tyrone! The socalled conservative narrative Lady in Red is a LIE!!! The same deficit hawks who now decry stimulus measures that would benefit the people, were the same pack of hobgobblins that promoted deficits and untoward war spending, and finance bailouts under the facsists bushgov regime. Socalled conservatives, and let us really examine what that means – brute the patent lies that government is bad on one hand when it comes to promoting the peoples best interests, – and the whine like screeching harpies when any mention of made of reducing the government outlays to the huge, monstrous, imponderable taxpayer dollars funnelled into the offshore accounts of oligarchs funding untoward and illegal wars of choice in say Iraq and Afghanistan, or the absurd amount of taxpayer dollars allotted to the unchecked, unregulated, and underaccounted private military or private intelligence oligarchs largess. Your ilk questions and seeks to defund social security, medicare, and other such entitlements that benefit the less fortunate, and society at large, – but have no problem promoting bailing out the finance oligarchs and the den of vipers and thieves and Wall
Street who piloted the entire world to the brink of economic collapse. Conservatives speak with forked tongues and have no eyes, no ears, and no hearts. A pox on the house of conservatives! You people pimp the babyjesus, patriotism, and the false idea of Amerikan exceptionilism. – Have any of you pathological liars, reprobates, and pathological liars read the bible, the Constitution, or any contemporary history??? Apparently NOT!
The predatorclass, the den of vipers and thieves on Wall Street, the gop, the teaparty freaks, and all the redneck propagandist and disinformation warriors in the socalled conservative movement are pathological LIARS who constitute and dire threat to the wellbeing of the rest of America, and must be dealt with accordingly.
Buckup biiiiaaaatches!!! Many of us will not be put the flame, or sent to the slaughter peacefully!
In a world where there are no laws – there are no laws for anyone predatorclass biiiaaatches!!!!
Forgive the double post, but I meant to say: The predatorclass, the den of vipers and thieves on Wall Street, the gop, the teaparty freaks, and all the redneck propagandist and disinformation warriors in the socalled conservative movement are pathological LIARS who constitute (a dire threat) to the wellbeing of the rest of America, and must be dealt with accordingly.
Said then to Simon, James Kwak,
“She had better watch her back,
They certainly will not avow,
that they practically own the cash cow,
And the system is led by a Quack!”
“The currency expended in the global drug terrorism trade is an investment in governance. It is a tax on capitalism.”
$$$ was created to facilitate the ebb and flow of LIFE MAINTENANCE transactions – you did not have to cattle drive from Montana to D.C. – someone CONFIRMED there were 1000 cattle in Montana and that was recorded and $$$ issued to the rancher.
So the point is this – with so much PAPER issued to Global Criminal Inc to maintain their “business” of inflicting maximum damage to Human Beings and their environment because $$$ is now the math formula:
More misery for others = more money for ME ME ME
then the VALUE of that kind of Paper is – wha’?!
And the “leadership” of War Lords and Drug Lords is wha’?!
We’re INSANE to continue to ignore the seriousness of the situation – a world run by PSYCHOTICS with Majik JuJu Paper as their “god” power – and an almost endless supply of mercenaries
(pay attention to the eugenics being conducted in Africa, especially, the “strong men” kill the GOOD people en masse)
who will do anything for that Paper that the psychos issue – yes it IS a sick depraved game in the final analysis, isn’t it? A HEAD GAME of endless psychobabble…”not everyone DESERVES to own a home” – when did THAT become the American Way?
“But the US consumer has become insolvent (20), the consumer who, during the last thirty years, has gradually become the central economic player of this financial heart (with more than 70% of U.S. growth dependant on household spending). It is this insolvency of US households (21) that has broken the Fed’s efforts….”
Circular thinking DEPENDS on the “devil in the details” – taking the $$$ that was taken OUT of circulation through “taxes” and giving it to a handful of men as “bonuses” was supposed to do what for the global economy?
Get ready for a new version of massive gridlock after the November elections. The Democrats will basically be frozen out to ensure disaster and usher in a Republican president. The dems will lose the House in a few weeks, and the Senate is at risk too. What a waste of political capital. The end of the recession? And the official start of the depression? Will the economy’s ‘growth’ hold? Is it a bubble based on stimulus that is fading fast? Stay tuned for the officially declared RELAPSE, as real (officially undeclared) unemployment figures at 20% and climbing. When we want truth in stats, the rating agencies, corporate cooks specialising in earnings reports, and biased government economists are the last ones to trust.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/recessions-end-means-relapse-2010-09-21
“It’s slow and steady as opposed to the quick fix I think people want to see,” Obama said.
sounds like he’s applying “don’t do drugs” philosophy to the “economy”….the only “business’ he ever knew was street drug dealing so no wonder he thinks that “jobs” are a “quick fix”…
Imagine what this guy says privately:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/21/ben-bernanke-us-economic-recovery
Re: @ Anonymous____”Only a coward under the guise of anonymity would spew such a foul statement”!
I speak for myself.
I didn’t have the guts to post the video, thanks Herman. :-)
Larry Summers is leaving his WH economic counsel to go back to Havard; just a mere coincidence (NOT) in timing between his departure and Elizabeth Warren’s interim appointment at the Consumer agency.
Had a talk with a friend of mine who warned that the global economy was a tinderbox. Precious metal prices reflect a growing realisation that he’s right. Another massive round of QE appears in the works. Wasn’t all this being predicted months ago?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fed-homes-20100922,0,1701444.story
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/09/20/is-this-what-a-recovery-feels-like/an-economic-wake-up-call
“Greater disaster awaits — unless and until we reduce the political power of Big Finance.”
“the one thing that the Fed knows how to do and quite well: destroy the purchasing power of the dollar in the course of their financial engineering. They obviously have the tools as they have explained in detail, and from this statement and their recent actions it is clear that they stand willing and ready to use those tools again.”
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
“For NBER’s part, they cautioned that their findings bear no relation to the current state of the economy and do not represent a forecast about the future. “If another downturn occurs anytime soon,” the NBER told MarketWatch, “it would constitute a separate recession.” Such an outcome evidently would come as a big surprise to economists outside of the NBER. According to MarketWatch, “most” economists doubt the U.S. will sink into another recession. We wonder what they’ve been smoking, since nearly all of the evidence we’ve seen lately suggests that the Great Recession is about to take a turn for the (much) worse. Just yesterday, for instance, there was a story that Colorado was facing a deficit of as much as $257 million in the current fiscal year and that the shortfall is set to quadruple next year. This is scary not just because we make our home in Colorado, but because the state is probably in better economic shape than most others. Even so, paring the deficit down to a still-unmanageable $257 million required such extreme measures as co-opting registration fees for medical marijuana dispensaries and cutting the Department of Corrections’ budget sharply. Over the next few years, budget problems far more severe than Colorado’s will need to be dealt with elsewhere at the state and local levels. What this implies is not merely the double-dip recession that economists say is so unlikely, but a continuation of the U.S. economy’s slide into full-blown Depression.”
http://www.rickackerman.com/2010/09/great-recession-over-at-least-for-economists/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-21/gold-may-advance-after-gaining-to-record-on-concern-dollar-to-fall-further.html
“The main thing is just a continuing nervousness about the U.S. economy,” MineLife Pty Senior Resource Analyst Gavin Wendt said by phone from Sydney. Investors are concerned that the nation may take stimulus measures that would boost inflation and devalue the dollar, he said.”
Dream ticket for 2012 – Pickens and Warren
You can’t get to “there” from “here”.
May be Summers will go back to Harvard as a janitor; he doesn’t seem to be very good at anything else.
It’s so peculiar how certain people are claimed to be “brilliant.” An overused word if ever there was one. There are a handful of individuals in the history of humanity that I would use the word “brilliant” to describe. Summers is not, repeat, not “brilliant.” Being good at math does not make him brilliant nor does it make him a math “genius.”
A highly overrated individual tho whom I say “don’t let the door hit you in the ass when you leave.”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_police_salaries_rank_highes.html
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=167203
Mr. Johnson wrote:
“There’s no possibility she would take something like this unless she (Elizabeth Warren) was fully empowered to do the job.”
One significant step for Mrs. Warren, and one giant step for humanity.
She is a gutsy, fearless beacon of light. I only wished she was a citizen of my country, especially after I listening to the blunt and unvarnished words of U.S. economist James K. Galbraith this week, describing the evolving diaspora – I couldn’t agree more.
She is a treasure – please protect her. Otherwise, there will be blood. My 2-cents.
“I listened to”
“When they tell you people are so broke they can’t afford a package of diapers until the “magic card” with “government cheese” turns back on at 12:01, you better listen. They’re not BSing you.”
Word Mickey!!! The same goes for toothpaste, cannedfood, an an array of other staples. People are paying more for less!!! Mark those words carefully, – people are paying more for less. Now the kid in Wilton Connecticut dashing off to the wholefoods pays more as well, but that kid isn’t impacted by the increase in basic food, produce, proteins, fruit etc.. Yet for the single dad or mom in Las Vegas, Phoenix,
Albuquerque, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and many other cities across this nation working swing or grave at some casino, or factory, or bar, or fastfoodjoint, or convenience stop hoping to keep his or her job – these stealth increases are crippling, catastrophic. Add in an oil spike, or some terrible weather event, and these people – many millions of our fellow Americans, and their children – are on the street.
Is this the nation we seek to evolve? – where the predatorclass, the richest 1% own and control everything including the government, and live in opulent luxury – and the other 99% of the population is left to waste, to burden terrible losses, and years of suffering???
The pendulum must and will swing back to the people, – or there will be hell to pay!
Our current system and the dynamics of that toxic system are unsustainable!
We either right these horrible wrongs – and that righting will demand large haircuts, and clawbacks from the predator class – or we don’t. If we don’t – then our children are doomed to the certain collapse and ruin of America. If we do – the buckleup America get stocked, locked, cocked, and ready to rock!!! because the predatorclass MUST be put back in the keep!!!
Tne TARP “bailout chief” Herb Allison has now also announced that he will resign; but Suummers will be hanging on until the end of the year according to the announcements made Tuesday.
Now, if only we heard that Geithner is to be replaced in short order there might be some hope that this is actually a systemic “clean up” by Obama. Unfortunately it may well simply be that they have done all the damage they can do and do not want to be around to take responsibility for what is inevitably failing in the economy. Absence makes deniability all the more opaque.
Demand that Obama finish the “clean up” and “Get Geithner” to get off the ship with the rest of the rats!
More elaborate details on Summers (Thursday Sept 23):
http://www.prwatch.org/node/9473
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/28/barack-obama-gulf-oil-spill