Category Archives: Obama

Obama sends 17,000 troops to Afghanistan

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One more thing his anti war supports told me was just pre-election talk that’s actually happening.

Feels more like the Carter administration every day.

Obama Sends 17,000 Additional Soldiers to Afghanistan

by Edwin Chen and Roger Runningen

Feb 17 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama signed an order boosting U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan by 17,000 combat and support personnel.

Obama said in a statement that he approved a request for the additional soldiers and Marines made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and military commanders.

“This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,” Obama said in the statement released by the White House.

Pentagon officials were informed of the decision yesterday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in Denver, where Obama signed legislation providing $787 billion in tax cuts and spending to stimulate the economy.

The announcement marks the new president’s first significant decision on defense as he seeks to fulfill his campaign promise to shift the focus away from Iraq to Afghanistan as the central front on the battle against terrorists.


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Obama on the auto industry

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How about restoring aggregate demand and car sales with a full payroll tax holiday and $300 billion for the states on a per capita basis?

What good will financial support for the autos do if car sales keep falling due to overly tight fiscal policy???

Obama to appoint panel for auto recovery

by Ken Thomas and Tom Krisher

Feb 15 (AP) — President Barack Obama will form a government task force for restructuring the struggling U.S. auto industry instead of naming a “car czar” with sweeping powers, a senior administration official said.


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Summers says Obama to address mortgage payments

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But not a full payroll tax holiday to stop removing $230 billion a week of income.

From people and businesses struggling to meet their payments?

Summers Says Obama Mortgage Plan to Focus on Lowering Payments

by Rich Miller and Matthew Benjamin

Feb 14 (Bloomberg) — The White House is willing to spend more than the $50 billion already pledged to stem home foreclosures and intends to focus its efforts on reducing monthly mortgage payments, rather than principal, saidLawrence Summers, the president’s top economic adviser.

“We’re prepared to do what is necessary,” Summers said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” yesterday. “Going directly at the problem means addressing affordability by addressing payments.”


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Obama, the FDIC, and private capital

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The FDIC claims the banks are solvent, and valuing their portfolios as required by law, or they could close them down as they are charged to do, also by law.

If Obama believes his FDIC officers and bank examiners are liars, he should take action against them at once.

If he believes the FDIC to be capable and truthful, then what is this about:

Obama Says US Has ‘No Easy Out’ of Banking Crisis

by Edwin Chen

Feb 10 (Bloomberg) — Some banks haven’t been transparent about assets on their books, Obama said. Now they must “just be clear about some of the losses that have been made, because until we do that we’re not going to be able to attract private capital into the marketplace.”

And the emphasis now seems to be on attracting private capital, hence with this claimed reason banks aren’t raising private capital.


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Fact sheet on Geithner- Obama plan

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Thanks!

Seems much of the latest proposal is designed to attract private capital by offering investors a sufficiently high level of profit.

This directs income to those with financial capital, who now look to be the main beneficiaries of the new administration.

Hard to expect otherwise from an administration that doesn’t understand how the currency works and therefore believes itself hostage to outside financial capital.

The salary caps on business leaders is in odd contrast with increased returns on private capital.

 

Final Financial Stability Fact Sheet


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Obama plan

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A rising criticism is that the Obama proposal has no exit strategy.

The Obama proposal IS the exit strategy from falling output and rising employment.

The target is the economy.

Fiscal policy is the tool to hit the target.

The mainstream notion of an exit strategy from budget deficits demonstrates a profound misconception about fiscal policy.

The right size for the Federal budget deficit is any size that supports output and employment.

Only government deficit spending can provide the equity/savings of financial assets needed to sustain aggregate demand.

Government finance has no solvency issue, and no sustainability issue.

All government spending is nothing more than data entry on the government’s own spread sheet.

Government spending does not ‘have to come from’ somewhere-

  • Government borrowing does not take away savings.
  • Treasury securities ARE savings that are added to total savings by government deficits.

Government spending is not operationally constrained by revenues.

Government policy that restricts our available savings by keeping the deficit too small depresses output and employment.

Increasing the deficit when the output gap is too large removes the fiscal drag that is depressing output.

The Obama plan is best thought of as removing fiscal restriction, not ‘adding stimulus’.

It is a step in the right direction, but probably insufficient to restore output and employment to even moderate levels.

If the President or any of his immediate advisors understood monetary operations and reserve accounting we would have seen a very different proposal, and seen it much sooner.


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Re: Government version of a payroll tax holiday :(

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>   
>   On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Randall wrote:
>   
>   Take a look; incredible. Instead of a holiday they come up with a mess.
>   

Right, and whoever thought leaders who know nothing about how the monetary system actually works would get it so wrong:

Congress is racing to pass a giant bill to stimulate the economy. But a key piece of it may be a little slower in coming than many people expect.

The biggest single tax break in the Democrats’ proposed economic recovery package is the $145 billion ‘Make Work Pay Credit’.

The credit, which President Obama championed, would reach close to 95% of workers and be paid primarily through paychecks. It would be worth $500 per worker or $1,000 for working couples who file jointly. The full credit will be available to those making $75,000 or less, or $150,000 or less for couples. Even workers in those income groups with no tax liability would get it.

The bill is still being debated. But as things currently stand, workers may not see that money until June. And some of the lowest wage workers — those who economists say are most likely to spend the money rather than save it — may not see their credit until they file their 2009 federal tax return sometime next year. But for the credit to be paid out in workers’ paychecks, employers will need to change how much tax they withhold. And they would need new withholding tables from the Treasury Department to do that.

>   
>   On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:54 Stephanie wrote:
>   
>   See business about time necessary to prepare new tables, etc. Totally unnecessary
>   if we move to zero with payroll tax holiday.
>   
>   

Worker Tax Cut: Maybe Not so Immediate

by Jeanne Sahadi

Jan 23 (CNN Money) — Congress is racing to pass a giant bill to stimulate the economy. But a key piece of it may be a little slower in coming than many people expect.

The biggest single tax break in the Democrats’ proposed economic recovery package is the $145 billion “Make Work Pay Credit.”

The credit, which President Obama championed, would reach close to 95% of workers and be paid primarily through paychecks. It would be worth $500 per worker or $1,000 for working couples who file jointly. The full credit will be available to those making $75,000 or less, or $150,000 or less for couples. Even workers in those income groups with no tax liability would get it.


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Obama believes China is manipulating currency

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Here we go:

Think they realize exports are real costs and imports real benefits???

Obama Deems China ‘Manipulating’ Yuan, Geithner Says

by Rebecca Christie and Mark Drajem

Jan 22 (Bloomberg) — President Obama — backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists — believes that China is manipulating its currency,” Geithner said in the remarks, which were posted on the Senate Finance Committee Web site today. “The new economic team will forge an integrated strategy on how best to achieve currency realignment in the current economic environment.


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Proposal update for Obama

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  1. Full ‘payroll tax holiday’ where the Treasury makes all payments for employees and employers.
    • Restores incomes to assist those still working to make their payments, keep their homes, and end the credit crisis.
    • Reduces corporate cost structure to help contain prices as demand increases.
  2. $300 billion in revenue sharing for the States on a per capita basis with no strings attached.
    • Enables States to fund operations.
    • Enables States fund infrastructure projects.
  3. Fund an $8/hr. National Service job for anyone willing and able to work that includes full health care coverage.
    • Addresses unemployment from the ‘bottom up’ rather than the ‘top down’ the way other measures do.
    • Provides for a far superior price anchor than the current practice of using unemployment for that purpose.
  4. Eliminate the need for the Fed to demand collateral from member banks when it lends to them.
    • Demanding collateral is redundant and obstructive to lending.
    • Allows the NY Fed to hit its assigned fed funds target.
  5. Take action to immediately reduce crude oil and crude product consumption.

(Details available on request.)


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Spending stimulus skeptics

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Hopefully Obama knows better.

The Stimulus Rush

Jan 13 (Chicago Tribune) — John Cochrane, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says that among academics over the last 30 years, the idea of fiscal stimulus has been discredited and in graduate courses, it is “taught only for its fallacies.”

New York University economist Thomas Sargent agrees: “The calculations that I have seen supporting the stimulus package are back-of-the-envelope ones that ignore what we have learned in the last 60 years of macroeconomic research.”


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