That great corporate driven lobbyist think tank, the Democratic Leadership Council or DLC, is disbanding. Yes, that lovely organization which brought you financial deregulation, NAFTA, the China PNTR, more income inequality, and Democrats jumping into bed with multinational corporate agendas is officially D.O.A.
The DLC also had two severe deficiencies. The first was its relationship to the business community, which was driven--in large part--by the organization's corporate sponsors. Wall Street had too much sway in the DLC; the Wall Street Democrats--people like Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Steve Rattner, Roger Altman--tilted the policy focus away from productive corporate investment and toward financial speculation fueled by deregulation. This was not merely a policy mistake, it was a moral failure. The DLC's support for free trade--at the expense of fair trade (demanding equal access for our products from our trading partners)--seems downright foolish in retrospect.
And then there was the war in Iraq, which the DLC supported reflexively, as a way of seeming "strong", without ever really analyzing the intellectual weaknesses of the casus belli--which, combined with the exposure of the financial community's depredations in 2008, provided a final crushing coda for the DLC . In a way, the difference between the DLC in the 1990s and the 2000s was the difference between Bill Clinton and Joe Lieberman
Lawrence Summers plans to leave his job as director of the president’s National Economic Council and return to Harvard University at the end of the year, the administration announced.
Seriously. Here is a Google trends report on unemployment statistics.
Google trends is the frequency and amounts of particular search terms in Google. Aha, so what people search for now is.
Anybody else see an issue here, namely search terms do not necessarily mean the truth of someone looking for a job or how to file for unemployment?
It's too "what people believe" vs. what is really happening on the ground and most importantly, search words put into Google are assuredly not established as an economic indicator.
Yet, Larry Summers literally quoted Google Trends, claiming the economy is no longer in free fall simply because people stopped searching on economic depression.
It's pretty rare for me to pay much attention to Mr. Corporatist Larry Summers. But in a Financial Times interview, at least one hears some realistic acknowledgment on what is going on with the economy:
“I don’t think the worst is over ... It’s very likely that more jobs will be lost. It would not be surprising if GDP has not yet reached its low. What does appear to be true is that the sense of panic in the markets and freefall in the economy has subsided and one does not have the sense of a situation as out of control as a few months ago.
Last month, a little-known company where Summers served on the board of directors received a $42 million investment from a group of investors, including three banks that Summers, Obama’s effective “economy czar,” has been doling out billions in bailout money to: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. The banks invested into the small start-up company, Revolution Money, right at the time when Summers was administering the “stress test” to these same banks.
It appears notorious bad trade deals, deregulation Larry Summers is staging a coup on who can influence overall economic policy and one of the toes he is stepping on is past Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker>
Paul Volcker has grown increasingly frustrated over delays in setting up the economic advisory group President Barack Obama picked the former Federal Reserve chairman to lead, people familiar with the matter said.
Ouch!TPMcafe has a little piece on some Democrats, including one of my personal favs, Peter DeFazio, discussing Obama's economic policy advisers, especially chief economist Larry Summers.
DeFazio deemed it "very unfortunate" that former Clinton economic adviser Larry Summers has claimed a similar hold on Obama's ear. "Harvard had it right," the progressive Democrat quipped -- referring to the Ivy League university's jettisoning of Summers from its presidency in the wake of a scandal over his remarks on women's intellectual abilities.
Per Ezra Klein, we learn that Larry Summers has said this:
As for [Milton] Friedman -- I'm not so sure he looks bad. What is most screwed up today? GSEs, Citibank, regional banks. What is most regulated? Same list. What is least screwed up? Hedge funds and the like. What is least regulated? If regulation means the jihad against short selling that the Securities and Exchange Commission is engaged in, then god help us all.
The only reason "regulated" banks are the "most screwed up" now is because the "unregulated" investment banks are "gone." And as for hedge funds:
The hedge fund industry has been hit hard by the worst global financial and economic crisis in decades.
It is becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama is going to pursue the same centrist pro-Wall Street policies as did Bill Clinton, and Clinton's big money contributors.
Dylan Ratigan, the host of "Fast Money," is one of the few voices of taxpayer outrage on CNBC. Today he interviewed Obama economic advisor Laura Tyson. Keep yourself away from objects that you might be able to hurl at your computer screen, because it will be hard to restrain yourself.
Here's the link
[If someone knows how to embed the video, feel free to do so or let me know how]
A few "highlights":
- It's not appropriate to think of this as coming out of the taxpayer's hide.
- The interests of Wall Street and Main Street are one (Main Street should be glad we are bailing out Wall Street)
- This isn't a bailout, it's an effort to "restore normalcy"
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