Obama's economic advisers have included former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, former Clinton White House aides Jason Furman and Gene Sperling, and Clinton-era Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Speculation will now turn to the shape of Obama's Cabinet, with particularly keen attention focused on the selection of a Treasury secretary to replace Henry Paulson, economists said.
Media speculation has centered on a range of potential nominees, including New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon.
MarketWatch | World awaits Obama's response to economic woes
Ok, so The Rapture has come and gone. George W. Bush and the 200 million or so who — at some stage before changing their minds — sailed with him, have flown off to savor the fruits of their ill-gotten gains.
We're left with a world trashed by ignorance, malice, and ineptitude. As a species, we remain riddled with uncertainty, fear, and our perennial favorite, greed.
Things have never looked so grim.
Except, of course, for the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency.
Make no mistake, this is what we in the trade call a very good thing. Obama lends value to the maxim "Cometh the hour, cometh the man." He is now, as so many African American comedians bemoan, The Man. He offers hope, clarity, intelligence, insight, and stability.
So what's the first thing we ask of him? Before he takes over the presidency?
"Fix the economy. Or else."
From the global economic meltdown to war, we have to find a new way. This is a rare moment when party lines are breaking down. Yet if Obama buckles to the corporate lobbyists, how will his passionate supporters pressure him? They have built a historic campaign operation—but they don’t control it. People need strong, independent grass-roots organizations to effect genuine, long-term change. This is how movements are built. As Obama heads to the White House, his campaign organization needs to be returned to the people who built it, to continue the community organizing that made history.
Amy Goodman | Organizer in Chief
No wonder The Rapture was too good for us. Barack Obama ain't ever gonna fix an economy that has as much chance of recovery as our dear, nearly departed friend, Ariel Sharon. And we are going to burn in Hell, with Arik and the equally fast-decomposing economy, if we continue to make such demands of the American president-elect.
The U.S. president's job is to serve and uphold the Constitution. In short, and contrary to everything achieved by George W. Bush, his job is to not break anything or allow anything to be broken.
To carry out the latter duty, he appoints a Cabinet or administration.
And this is where MarketWatch's article highlights the potential for an early misstep by the incoming U.S. president. A product of the plutocracy, he is now — to use a good Anglo-Saxon phrase, deep in the mire. Check out the names punted for Treasury Secretary.
Paul Volcker. Robert Rubin. Larry Summers. Timothy Geithner. Jamie Dimon.
The surest way to destroy the economy is to hand over control of the financial system to investment banks and speculators. That's what transpired before the Great Depression and Wall Street has restaged the same coup today. By overturning critical market regulations, the investment alchemists have created a toxic stew of exotic debt-instruments, shadowy off-balance sheets operations, and opaque derivative contracts, all designed to avoid prudent capital requirements.
Mike Whitney | Obama's Little Red Book
This is what's left after Sarah Palin leaves the room? We must surely be in Hell. I'd sooner have Tim LaHaye as Treasury Secretary than any of these fools.
Face it. The euphoria following Obama's election had more to do with George W. Bush's demise than it did with the candidate's individual, undoubted brilliance. He cannot 'fix' the economy (as so many have worked for so long to do). We're in for four or five years of economic misery and grinding poverty.
Starvation and Depression-era unemployment loom.
What Obama can do, is put a few of his brighter economic prospects to work — perhaps Austan Goolsbee, Jason Furman, and Gene Sperling are equal to the task — so that, when the 81-year old Volcker turns up his corrupted toes and the 70-year old Robert Rubin starts peeing on the carpet or drooling on the balance sheet, they can step in.
As for Geithner, Summers, and Dimon... well, he can just take them outside and shoot them. Why not? Until recently, some of the U.S.'s best friends engaged in such sport.
Look at it this way. The American people are not going to precipitate or participate in any revolution, so it has to come from within the ranks of the ruling elite. With Obama's appointment of Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, an affable-but-hardcore Zioncon and deal maker (he voted for the invasion of Iraq), it's unlikely the new elite will be asking Obama to upend the system anytime soon.
Rahm's reputation is deservedly that of an 'enforcer'.
And, yeah, isn't that dear old Madelaine Albright — yet another Council on Foreign Relations graduate, ducking into that doorway over there? As for the rest? A team is taking shape and things are looking good.
So it's back to business as usual ... for now.
There is a better way to fix a broken financial system. ... The possibilities of what could be done if a chunk of the banking system were genuinely under public control — from a moratorium on home foreclosures to mandatory investment in green community redevelopment — are limitless.
Because here is what George Bush and Henry Paulson are hoping we won't figure out: When a society no longer has enough money to pay for its most pressing needs, there are worse things than discovering you own the banks.
Naomi Klein | The New Trough
