The First Economist lays out his theories about growth and income inequality in an interview:
“If the economy is growing, everybody feels invested. Everybody feels as if we’re rolling in the same direction.”
The tide is high and he's holding on...
Will this prioritization of growth over stability and low inflation terrorize Wall Street?
Addressing for the first time one of his most anticipated decisions, Mr. Obama said he had narrowed his choice to succeed Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve to “some extraordinary candidates.” With current fiscal policy measurably slowing the recovery, many in business and finance have looked to the Fed to continue its expansionary monetary policies to offset the drag.
Mr. Obama said he wanted someone who would not just work abstractly to keep inflation in check and ensure stability in the markets. “The idea is to promote those things in service of the lives of ordinary Americans getting better,” he said. “I want a Fed chairman that can step back and look at that objectively and say, Let’s make sure that we’re growing the economy.”
This does not have to be bad news for Wall Street. QE Forever may boost asset prices forever. Let's see what gold does next week now that we know that Obama is looking for a Fed chairman (or woman!) who won't be watching inflation.
WHY WOULD THEY THINK THAT? This shows a certain Obamaesque oblivion to the impact of Affirmative Action pseudo-quotas:
A few days after the acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case prompted him to speak about being a black man in America, Mr. Obama said the country’s struggle over race would not be eased until the political process in Washington began addressing the fear of many people that financial stability is unattainable.
“Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot,” Mr. Obama said.
If people think they are competing with "other groups" rather than other job applicants (most of whom are still human), it is because of the sort of race-based diversity hiring Obama enthusiastically supports.
Oh, you mean THAT picture! That isn't Mark's horse, Frau. That's my fat ugly wife. We rent her out for pony rides and for mechanical bull rides.
Posted by: Ignatz | July 28, 2013 at 04:20 PM
"Capitalism running riot with little to no oversight, is what brought us to this condition."
So many stupidities packed into that one sentence, it's almost impressive.
Government created the whole situation by preventing capitalism from operating without undue influence, incentivizing and then preventing the market correction of fraudulent lending. Government was responsible for creating the entire atmosphere of moral hazard to which the market responded, government and no other entity, and none more than Fannie and Freddie, and no persons more than Frank and Dodd.
Posted by: Tom Perkins | July 28, 2013 at 04:50 PM
"The GOP never took any opportunity to put a stop to the depredations of Fannie and Freddie, although Bush did propose to have Treasury oversight of them."
Also an impressive contradiction packaged as if it were coherent. He not merely proposed oversight, he wanted the percentage of dangerous loans they were making substantially reduced. That is the GOP attempting an opportunity to put a stop to the depredations of Fannie and Freddie.
Frank and Dodd--acting within their purview as per the rules of the Senate--stopped that effort.
Posted by: Tom Perkins | July 28, 2013 at 04:53 PM
--That's my fat ugly wife.-
Hey, we're making headway.
At least Anne now acknowledges I'm married....albeit to a horse, but still progress is progress.
Posted by: Ignatz | July 28, 2013 at 04:56 PM
The GOP never took any opportunity to put a stop to the depredations of Fannie and Freddie . . .
That seems to me somewhat analogous to blaming the police for a serial killer's murders. And broad acceptance of such moral relativism helps explain why we keep electing a man whose only real claim to fame is precisely such "community organizing" of other people's money.
If there is any distinction between the Dems and GOP, this has to be it. And if there isn't, it's long past time for the elephants to be replaced by a distinguishable group.
Posted by: Cecil Turner | July 28, 2013 at 04:56 PM
Well more illustration of the absurd here;
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/07/28/the-hassan-rouhani-fan-club-jamboree-iran-nuclear/
Posted by: narciso | July 28, 2013 at 04:57 PM
Don't forget Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Gregory Meeks--they were all shielding Fannie and Freddie from the Republican efforts to get the GSEs under control back in 2005. One of the most flagrant cases of cronyism on record.
Posted by: jimmyk | July 28, 2013 at 05:02 PM
Finally got home with a 5 hour drive from Columbia using the 80mph vacuum effect of the traffic. It was moving so fast in mass down 95 that the state trooper's were standing outside their cars waving at everyone as they went by. 360 miles in 5 hours:)
Perhaps the only freedom left in America is to put your family at risk doing 80 alongside all the other freedom loving, SUV driving, rednecks trying to get to Disney with the kids. We get to stop short but you could see the folks from Joisy and New Yawk and Bald'mur with those stickers on the back window of Pa, Ma, 3 kids, 2 dogs, a cat and on one I saw a snake.
I am still digesting Obama's comment regarding America and Europe being "developing countries" and I fear he means "developing toward a more inclusive, wealth distributive, socialist commonality" as if Europe all ready isn't there. Then he further steps in it and pulls it over is head by exclaiming Congress has no lawyers or even if they do, constitutional lawyers. I am sure Mr. Trey Gowdy and Louis Ghomert for a couple will have something to say about that but it is something the Judiciary committees of both houses should be reminded of when making decisions on his judicial nominees. Payback can be brutal especially when it comes from a lawyer:)
Posted by: JIB | July 28, 2013 at 05:07 PM
Obama, Detroit, FannyFreddie, Amnesty ... derive from a common blind spot that does not seem to have a political solution.
Clearly if it were up to a "democratic" vote GZ would be doing 20 to life.
Well that's what's happening to the country ... 20 to life.
Posted by: boris | July 28, 2013 at 05:17 PM
I am still digesting Obama's comment regarding America and Europe being "developing countries"
Right, JiB, that's standard Communist rhetoric straight from Marx. Capitalism is just a stage in the inevitable progression (!) toward the Communist utopia.
Posted by: jimmyk | July 28, 2013 at 05:29 PM
It's possible but Gardiner didn't think of it in that way;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23478947
Posted by: narciso | July 28, 2013 at 05:33 PM
That is what he meant jib. They are at the high capitalist stage with it sought technology levels that make them suitable for redistribution per karl's theory without redis spreading mass poverty.
I went back through many sources today to verify what I was seeing and comparing it to the sh** the natl academy of sciences has been pumping out under this admin. That's exactly what this admin is doing and it is hiding in the work of his fed agencies. Who are coordinating with un and oecd and others.
The economics theory is being revised by connected insiders to fit what they know ed will be doing to students using an unappreciated behavioral emphasis. Hiding as euphemism. Yesterday's best confession was the prof who explained how and why increased student performance HAD to mean behavioral change. And he was pleased at the shift.
Posted by: rse | July 28, 2013 at 06:06 PM
"That seems to me somewhat analogous to blaming the police for a serial killer's murders."
I won't quibble, because the Dems are so clearly the principal culprit. But on the broader issue of whether the government should intervene in the market so as to increase the home ownership percentage, the GOP never declared that it was unsound policy and contrary to their principles.
Posted by: Danube on iPad | July 28, 2013 at 06:27 PM
Why DOT that declaration would have been inconsistent with being a compassionate conservative.
Posted by: rse | July 28, 2013 at 06:41 PM
--But on the broader issue of whether the government should intervene in the market so as to increase the home ownership percentage, the GOP never declared that it was unsound policy and contrary to their principles.--
Exactly.
"We're for an efficient, well managed nanny state" is guaranteed never to eliminate the nanny state and since the government manages nothing well or efficiently is never even going to succeed in its limited goals.
Posted by: Ignatz | July 28, 2013 at 06:45 PM
Money in the hands of GOVERNMENT is akin to a 2 year old pouring a glass from milk from a gallon. Most of it is wasted. Government doesn't CREATE the money it spends, it confiscates it. LIBTARDS have their heads so far up their asses, that this simple concept eludes them. Jack Lew is that stupid. But he's really NICE.
Posted by: Gus | July 28, 2013 at 07:29 PM
If I understand DOT, I think he is suggesting that someone (anyone) who wants to be a leader of a successful GOP opposition must articulate meaningful and achievable alternatives to the BS coming from the White House and Congress. I fully agree with that. The last GOP leader who was able to pull that off was RR -- and he did it without turning off real working man and woman and small business people because he projected genuine identification with them.
Unfortunately, he was succeeded by GHWB who, while IMO he was a lovely and estimable human being, famously (and fatally) implied that the "vision thing" was unimportant to him. Of course it was also unimportant to Bobdole and McMyFriends as well. On the domestic front, sadly, it was also unimportant to W. All four successors to RR shared the philosophy of the professional political experts like Karl Rove to "go along to get along" that RR eschewed. Romney, who I believe had a pretty good economic vision, was unable to pull off identification with real working men and women, and alas, with many small business folks.
Here is my recipe for anyone who wants to lead the loyal opposition:
Go back to the principles of RR. Read his radio program scripts, read his diary, read his speeches, watch all of his appearances on youtube and hire only those who subscribe to his philosophy.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet | July 28, 2013 at 08:15 PM
The keep telling us the Age of Reagan is over;
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/morsy-supporters-threaten-destroy-power-plants-nationwide
Posted by: narciso | July 28, 2013 at 08:37 PM
Just like the ages of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Lincoln etc., etc., are over. Reagan is our 20th century Churchill. But I'm not saying we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Posted by: Jim Rhoads f/k/a vnjagvet | July 28, 2013 at 08:47 PM
"alternatives to the BS coming from the White House"
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/TYCOA/oH3rSwuKelE
"British papers show no mercy.
I think it also shows America is the laughing stock of the world."
Old but not out of date.
Posted by: pagar | July 28, 2013 at 09:00 PM
Closest to RR these days
Ted Cruz and Mike Lee
Like Ron Johnson and Rand Paul also...even if Rand is soft on foreign policy (he is no ways soft on the Constitution and that goes a long ways)
Posted by: Army of Davids | July 28, 2013 at 09:45 PM
More counting angels on a pin,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/world/middleeast/aid-to-egypt-can-keep-flowing-despite-overthrow-white-house-decides.html?ref=middleeast&_r=1&
Posted by: narciso | July 28, 2013 at 09:46 PM
Well that may be right, recall Reagan was not for direct military intervention, except certain location like say Grenada, he was not as skeptical as Rand about the general theme of US foreign policy.
Posted by: narciso | July 28, 2013 at 09:48 PM
Reagan = peace through strength
but the federal debt (as a % of GDP) he had to deal w/ was peanuts compared to what we are looking at
The best thing we can do to get strong again is create an economy of freedom that grows at 4%
Rand can play a big roll in that. His Libertarian side also gives him a harder target for Democrats to hit (they will of course still call him a racist...it's what they do). If he survives the 2015-16 primary I will gladly support him.
Sure prefer him to Christie Creme.
Posted by: Army of Davids | July 28, 2013 at 10:06 PM
AoD-
***Rand can play a big roll in that.***
He's as big a kook as pops. He just hides it better.
Posted by: rich@gmu | July 28, 2013 at 10:39 PM
He needs extreme monetary policy to cover up bad fiscal policy.
Posted by: jorod | July 29, 2013 at 09:24 PM