The continuing crash of the markets is not only due to the uncertainty created by the current administration's seeming inability to develop a coherent policy to deal with the banks — but a well justified fear that Barack Obama intends to put a stake into the meager libertarian-lite legacy of Ronald Reagan, and create his vision of a socialized and federalized America.Yes, I was a skeptic and a downer and suspicious that somehow I had missed a toke on the same good shit that had everyone else in raptures over Mr. Obama's candidacy, election, and fresh new Presidency. And, no surprise, he has done some good things, such as reverse the ban on stem cell research. But my overall doubts were founded on an impression made by the man himself, and it seems that those of us who watch now not with rancor but simply with open eyes and who increasingly find our '08 concerns coming to fruition are growing in number. Interesting times aborning, as always.
Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, sounding like one of Rand's villains, admitted as much:
"This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
Today the president himself announced that the crisis is our great opportunity to remake America.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Apropros of naught
My favorite lesbertarian sez:
6 comments:
Yah, Obama always seemed like an ordinary lying politician to me, and maybe a bit more so given he's outta Chicago, but ultimately slightly better than the alternative (I still think Hillary would have been a far better choice than either). And remember Bush started down the bailout road with McCain cheering him on, so I dunno how different things would be re the economy if Mac was in there. A year ago the anti-O's were mostly screaming that he'd sell us out to the terrists, not so much carrying on about the economy, and that doesn't seem to be the case now that our bombings and things are proceeding as usual.
I'm not sorry McCain isn't in there, he was cheerleading the same shit, only being more of a clown about it. It seems our country's will is to fuck itself up. We can't help it. I thought maybe the tides of history and her cycles would be turned aside, but no. Once we are militarily and strategically weak, and also economically weak thanks to emphasis on unproven directions, we will be ripe for a reactionary turnaround in ~2016 that will accelerate tensions with our by-then stronger global opponents, and war on a major scale will look unavoidable to most Americans come about 2020. Just like I been saying since almost the late 1990s. I hope I'm merely crazy.
No, no, people. I know it's tedious but let's do it again. The mortgaged-backed securities market collapsed along with real estate sales because the mortgage-backed securities were insured with $60 trillion worth of unregulated fake insurance policies called "credit-default swaps." Banks had invested heavily in the now-worthless paper, and so the banks stopped lending, creating a credit crunch and the present widening business failure. I quite assure you that Mr. Obama had nothing to do with it, and that George W. Bush and the permanent Republican majority did, by willfully failing, in the name of Reaganism, to regulate these criminally irresponsible practices. Put otherwise, we are looking at an economic Katrina, and you guys are standing on the levee watching the first trickles of help arrive at last and complaining about gummint.
i'm with archer on this one, don.
(no surprise)
seems to be all about the blame game.
Evidently the concern among right-wingers is not that Obama caused the market crashing but that he hasn't presented a coherent enough policy to prevent it. I say evidently because I don't listen to right-wingers, and only read the occasional WSJ column or libertarian blogger. I can however watch the reactions of global investers.
The "permanent Republican majority" was a Rovian wet dream that failed in 2006. Since then Bush called for reform of the FMs many times and was ignored by the majority party. I don't know much but I do know that sometimes your simplifications are inaccurate.
Bush kicked Reaganism in the teeth long ago. Maybe it was easy to do because Clinton had set the stage. Those "criminally irresponsible practices" were developed and implemented during Clinton's first term.
So come on: Who's REALLY been asleep at the switch? Everybody. Both parties are responsible, and Mr. Obama does not yet strike me as someone whose idea of change is an improvement. To use your analogy, we're out amongst the rising waters and can't tell if those first trickles of help aren't coming in trucks instead of boats.
All that said, I like what I read about Obama's presentation today on reforming education.
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