Christina Romer: Too Little Too Late

Here is a bit from a NY Times article by Christina Romer, Obama's former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. She clearly knew and knows what needed and needs to be done to fix the Great Recession. But Obama didn't listen. So millions of Americans will see their lives as a great travail for years and decades and for some, to the end of their days, because Obama didn't have the guts, the leadership, to tell the Republicans that the country was in a deep recession and everybody need to put their shoulder to the wheel and help get the economy moving. Instead, Obama surrounded himself with the architects of the disaster and pretended that the little bit he did was "enough"...

In a paper I wrote many years ago, I found that such macroeconomic uncertainty helped start the Great Depression. The stock market crash in October 1929 didn’t destroy a particularly large amount of wealth or make people highly pessimistic. Rather, it made companies and consumers very unsure about future income, and so led them to stop spending as they waited for more information.

How do we resolve uncertainty about future growth? The Federal Reserve, Congress and the president need to reaffirm that they will do whatever it takes to restore the economy to full health. They could take a lesson from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who declared in his 1933 inaugural address that he would treat the task of putting people back to work “as we would treat the emergency of a war.”

They should follow up with powerful fiscal and monetary actions to create jobs — coupled with a concrete plan for tackling our long-run budget problems. We are at a critical moment. With many in Congress opposed to further jobs measures and tax increases of any kind, the chances of prolonged gridlock are high.

BUT such policy paralysis would be a disaster. It would make uncertainty more acute by leaving us to the unpredictable forces of natural recovery and with no prospect of resolving our unsustainable deficits. Aggressive action to restore growth and face up to our long-run challenges is the only true and lasting solution.

Go read the whole article to get the links and get the whole story.

To me it is an unimaginable disaster that a smart guy like Obama would condemn millions to misery because of failed policies. In the past Obama showed himself a "quick learner" and he should have been able to see that his policies were sadly inadequate. But he hasn't. He has willfully ignored the pain and suffering he has imposed on the American people.

A person like Bush I can hate because he was an idiot and a fanatic who did bad things because of his own internal demons somewhat beyond his control.

A person like Obama I despise because he is smart enough to know the harm and damage he has done and he hasn't been man enough to admit the mistakes or to undertake the hard work of correcting the mistake and saving the lives that have been ground into the dust by this Great Recession. I've said Obama is like Jimmy Carter in that he failed at leadership. I add to that now that Obama is like Herbert Hoover in that he has condemned a generation to poverty and shortened opportunities because of his willful refusal to correct his mistakes. (Funny, Hoover was a smart guy known for his "good works". Obama was a smart guy who got a reputation as a "community organizer". But both of these guys are right at the top of American presidents who ruined peoples lives by doing too little to help.)

Here's a bit of moral support from economist Mark Thoma:

The administration just cannot admit that it made a mistake in proposing a stimulus package that was too small. This is from a Q&A with Austan Goolsbee:

Q. Would our economy be in better shape right now if the initial stimulus when the administration took office had been bigger?
A. I don’t know the answer to that for sure. There’s a bit of a crystal ball in that. It obviously depends on what the things were.

The right answer here is "of course if would have been better," and to then talk about how Republicans blocked any hope of additional stimulus once it was clear the economy was doing much worse than anticipated. But because the administration refuses to admit its mistake and concede that the stimulus was too small, it cannot bring itself to argue that the economy needs more help from fiscal authorities.

So... not only was Obama a bad leader who made a mistake and didn't fix it. He continues to surround himself with people who support the idiocy of his inadequate economic policies. Austan Goolsbee was selected by Obama this year to replace Christina Romer. Goolsbee is toeing "party line" as set down by Obama. In short, Obama refuses to admit to his mistake or correct course. This is a tragedy.

And here is more evidence of Obama's incredible lack of leadership. This is from a NY Times op-ed by Maureen Dowd:

As the troops waited for President Obama to come into the hangar at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, an Army band serenaded the crowd.

Not with Sousa or the theme from “Patton.” The band — drawn from the 101st Airborne Division and called Nuts after General McAuliffe’s rebuttal to a German surrender ultimatum — jammed to a more resonant tune.

The young female soldier who is the lead singer belted out “I Kissed A Girl” — Katy Perry’s ode to Sapphic smooching.

The lyrics about “the taste of her cherry Chapstick” and “just human nature” offered a cheeky counterpoint to the weighty debate going on half-a-world away as the Senate Armed Services Committee hashed over questions of human nature and sexual tension.

In two days of “don’t ask, don’t tell” hearings, senators discussed the knotty issue of whether gays and straights in the military could shower together without losing battles. Once again, the Democrats waited too long to close the deal, the president showed no leadership, and a campaign promise that was seen as a fait accompli now seems a casualty.

The inability of Obama to reach out an pick low hanging fruit that is practically knocking him on the nose drives me crazy. During his campaign he told the electorate that once elected he would need their help because he couldn't do it alone. Well, here's an issue where the soldiers in the field are practically screaming to high heaven that DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell) isn't needed in today's world, and Obama stumbles around not seeing what is in front of his face, and fails to deliver on a campaign promise.

Are you starting to get the picture? Obama is hopeless, helpless, hapless as a "leader". He makes Jimmy Carter look decisive and clear-eyed. He makes Herbert Hoover look like a president with a heart of gold who couldn't stop himself from doing everything to help the unemployed.

Obama is driving me crazy. Somebody grab the big hook and yank him off history's stage. He has failed. Failed miserably.