PBS Now: Robert Kuttner on Obama's Challenge
By Heather Sunday Nov 30, 2008 6:00am
From PBS's Now with David Brancaccio:
As President-elect Barack Obama unveils his top economic team, a leading progressive thinker challenges America's next leader with a controversial plan for economic recovery.
Robert Kuttner, author of the new book "Obama's Challenge," talks to NOW on PBS about the enormous obstacles to -- and potential solutions for -- getting America's economy back on track.
Kuttner offers his advice on how Obama should stimulate a recovery: spending $600-700 billion per year over several years to fundamentally change the economy. "We need the government big time to prevent this from becoming the Great Depression II," Kuttner tells NOW's David Brancaccio.
Will Obama usher in the most sweeping reforms since the New Deal to get the economy working again?
You can watch the rest of the segment here and Jed has more over at DailyKOS.
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Great Depression II will happen as Bush reads The Pet Goat II.
in arguing that public spending -- say, on renewable energy and infrastructure -- will turn the U.S. economy around.
I agree there should be such spending, on a massive scale.
I disagree that such spending will cure the nation's economic problems -- which include, among other things, the complete and total lack of an economic structure to replace the defunct credit-spending economy, and the fact that bank balance sheets are overloaded with garbage that aint going away.
The credit card debt bomb hasn't gone off yet. First the commercial real estate bomb will explode, then the consumer credit card debt bomb. What is the difference between the GOP and al Qaeda? Lipstick.
n/t
Exactly right. Kuttner, like all "economic theorists" likes to compare current economies with days gone by. There is no comparison. The New Deal did help, but probably not as much as the technological and manufacturing advances that can't happen now. World War 2 was the saviour of western economies more than anything else, because, well, other nations were bombed to hell and had to buy from the west. They had nothing to manufacture with left.
n/t
but manufacturing is what we can do here. the offshoring of factories was a corporate choice. this economy can be undone in the same manner it was created.
If you produce nothing the world wants or needs, then you have no one to trade with. buying on credit worsens the problem.
negative balance of trade will continue until the US actually manufactures something to sell the world. Our brainpower has no value these days.
Will Obama usher in the most sweeping reforms since the New Deal to get the economy working again?
To do so, he'd have to have UNANIMOUS support from Congressional Dims and at least a quiescent, if not a cooperative, GOPuke contingent.
Main reason: Roosevelt had the approval of close to 60% of the voters in '32. Mr. O's got just over 50%.
In addition, the people on Mr. O's economic team are NOT 'forward thinking,' or 'imaginative.' They're just more of the same old same old..
Exactly right woody. Most of Obama's choices are the same geniuses that have caused this economic catastrophe. Now the usuals can call me a brainless troll or whatever.
Now the usuals can call me a brainless troll or whatever.
no, you are doing more of "bawwww, I'm a victim because I'm so edgy because I disagree."
victimizing yourself over a rather benign disagreement is pretty funny.
Actually, I wasn't victimizing myself. I've shown great restraint in the past few days with the attacks of the cheerleading section. Like I said below, I am sick, so don't have the ambition to argue with the usually intelligent regulars. Not sure what happened, but at times this blog does look more like Redstate, or a Rep blog the way the regulars have been attacking others lately. Just my 2 cents.
Professor! Wah-wah is a sad life.
On the other hand, I do agree that I worry about who Bama is listening to but I do believe he has the capacity to engage diverse voices to recognize the inevitable. Change the system or watch it die on the vine. He is intelligent enough not to deny reality. He does not believe "the markets can do no wrong, nor can government do right."
Obama talks change, but at this point, not radically transformative change.
The real catchphrase should have been "Change Back".
ah its refreshing to see real thinkers instead of letting the zombies have the only opinions that count, that many overlook the facts that obama has voted for just about every bill that takes away the rights we owned under the constitution is unbelieveable, fisa dont phase them the patriot act ditto habius corpus and it goes on and on, that obama promisses us more war in afganistan and packistan is not questioned , irans the garden of evil, protect israel at all costs, pick the same old politicians for change , approve bushes missels in poland , keep the russians handy if all else fails to keep the war corporations in business , seems to me i heard all this before from condi rice,
We may be facing a
- Great Depression II where prices deflate and remain depressed or
- Weimar Republic II with hyper inflation or
- a bizarre cross between the two where food, fuel and other commodities go through the stratosphere while many assets (and incomes) stay depressed.
There is a looming excess of $15 Trillion of Credit Default Swap illiquidity on balance sheets, maybe even as high as $40 Trillion.
Only something like five per cent of these represent actual hedges against the underlying security, all the rest are speculators. Something that was illegal most of the twentieth century.
Yet, the Paulson/Geithner model with AIG and Citi is to fund these at face value, if they and others were to go into bankruptcy the contracts might be pennies on the dollar. Or nothing.
Sweet deals galore for the crooks who thought they would get away with something that was previously illegal. A super high roller numbers racket.
Guess what, so far they are doing it and the little guys (the taxpayers) are paying them off.
Its the BOMB. The Bush Obama McCain Bailout.
So far the Fed and the Treasury have committed to $8.5 Trillion.
If the printing presses print money for those numbers we will have Weimar II.
We have been nuked, we just don't know it yet.
Stimulus indeed.
Being currently sick, I was bedridden for most of yesterday and watched CBC Newsworld. On it, they had a lone voice of sanity on the economy. Can't remember his name though. He has written books on economics and predicts best case scenario of 10 years of 0 growth, and either hyperinflation due to spending, or literally a greater depression.
TRULY...
The "BOMB"!
Brilliant
The bail out is the problem! So few understand this, nice to see a few that do. If anyone wants to know why some of us are saying the bailout is the problem I am enclosing a number of excellent resources. It’s imperative the people understand how money works and know something of its history.
Every person’s name linked below saw the crisis coming years ago, all are against the bailout, all got laughed at and scorned for saying so, as you go through the links you will see them say basically the same thing. I can’t encourage people enough to take the time and understand what we are really facing; all of our futures depend on it.
Robert Kiyosaki Why the Rich Get Richer
Eve of Destruction: How the Financial Crisis Was Built Into the System
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/richr...
Peter Schiff tells the hard truth on economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=S...
Jim Roger’s tells the hard truth on economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=J...
[Video] Mike Schneider of Bloomberg, interview with Jim Rogers on Gold & Commodities Parts 1 - 5
Excellent Interview, Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) The U.S. dollar will be “devalued” as policy makers seek to weaken it, undermining the greenback’s role as an international reserve currency, Buys Commodities said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings in Singapore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mesJRzkUHlU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3XmsSNt8wo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KxWAfr4KWI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJ3mukRPjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnwEsa1wUEE
Marc Faber: Strong rebound in next 3 months – Parts 1 and 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDsaUD5KPdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLeHPOVJsxc&fe...
Marc Faber: We have about a year maybe two but it’s not going to get better like some think it is
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=M...
Marc Faber, tells the hard truth on economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=F...
WSJ - The Fed Is Out of Ammunition
A discredited dollar is a likely outcome of the current crisis.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1227489125335...
Market Watch - Dramatic downturn seen for economic data
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/harsh-e...
Breitbart - Worst of financial crisis yet to come: IMF chief economist
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08112...
How could they know this crash was coming 20 years ago? Why Nikolai Dmyitriyevich Kondratieff told them from the grave of course.
http://www.kwaves.com/kond_overview.htm
There are even bigger long term issues on the near horizon
Chris Martenson - Crash course on the economy
More than just a video, it's a comprehensive 3 hour presentation that will leave you spellbound covering the most important issues we face over the next 20 years all of which are going to start affecting the Obama presidency from the day he enters office. I can’t urge you strong enough to watch this in entirety.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
Reaffirmation of what Chris Martenson said in that 3 hour presentation towards the end.
The Truth Behind Low Oil Prices
http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/oil+...
60 Minutes - Head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) David Walker says that the U.S. economy is unsustainable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Q14HOBThM&fe...
I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized - The 30 Minute Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo
G. Edward Griffin on the Federal Reserve System
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWKlz2Z4Nlo
re-enact the measures enacted after the great depression. the preventative ones, you know, the ones that the repugs and corporatist democrats undid and now ignore as parts of the solution. yeah! those reforms.
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