Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I did not invite the crises that I inherited.


In a wide ranging conversation with Fortune magazine the President was asked about his intervention in corporate America:
I did not invite the crises that I inherited, and I have always believed that our role as lawmakers is not to stifle the market, but to strengthen its ability to unleash creativity and innovation. But I also have a responsibility to take aggressive action to avoid an even deeper recession and to move this nation toward recovery. History has shown repeatedly that when nations do not take early and aggressive action to get credit flowing again, they have crises that last for many years instead of many months. My hope is that by taking the steps we are taking today, from stabilizing our financial system to helping our auto industry restructure to become more competitive, it will help speed the day that the government can get out of the way and let the private sector do what it does best - innovate, create jobs, and grow the economy.

The interview with Nina Easton is a great executive summary of the President's view as to how the American economy was driven to ruin, and his vision of how we will bring it back. Good Read.

The truth is that there is plenty of blame to go around. Many Americans took out loans that they could not afford. Others were enticed into loans they did not understand by lenders trying to make a quick profit. Investment banks bought and packaged these questionable mortgages into securities, arguing that by pooling the mortgages, the risks had been reduced. Credit agencies stamped these securities with their safest rating when they should have been labeled "Buyer Beware." And as the bubble grew, there was almost no accountability or oversight from anyone in Washington.

41 comments:

Bubby said...

In the same issue of Fortune, Former Republican Representative and Talking Head, Joe Scarborough is ruffling some feathers in the Republican nest.

"There is nothing conservative about defending a regulatory approach that led to Black Monday in 1987, the 1997 Asian crisis, the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management meltdown, the 2000 Internet bubble, the 2001 Enron scandal, and the current subprime crisis. Now is the time for Republicans to stand up to corporations that were once thought to be too big to fail and put them on notice that conservatives will once again be more interested in promoting free markets than big business."

Anonymous said...

Bubby during the campaign last year Obama said he would pass a stimulus package that would create jobs. Since that bill has been passed we have lost over 2 million jobs that is a fact.Joe Biden said Sunday that no one knew the economy was as bad as it is well wake up Joe, maybe before they started throwing money out the window they should have spent a little time on finding out what the real problem was.

Anonymous said...

Bubby Obama can keep playing the blame GWB game but time is running out on that game. Before long he will have to man up and take responsibility for his actions after all he did ask to inherit the problems.

Bubby said...

You wouldn't make a good fireman Anon...all this quibbling and ill informed sniping about how much water to put on the fire.

I think the Chief knows that he is the responsible incident commander. And that you are a yappy little pooch.

Anonymous said...

Bubby how did you guess you are right i am a fireman. Make a new post real quick telling everyone you got something right i know your family will be proud of you.

Anonymous said...

Bubby if he knows why does he keep saying this isn't my fault.

Anonymous said...

Obama's strongly approve index rating is down again this week to -3 thats amazing when all the Democrats say how good he is doing.

Uncle Sam said...

Oh man! According to the Gallup poll, Obama's rating dropped a whopping 1% from 59% to 58%! Yup, anon that's a huge drop! Obama's58% after seven months in office is still higher than Bush's after 7months, and Bush inherited a good economy, he hadn't destroyed it yet!!

Anonymous said...

Uncle Sam did you go to the same school that Bubby went to ? Obama hasn't been in office 7 months yet.

Wilson said...

Uncle Sam needs to recheck his figures. Bush had an approval in the high 50's, about the same as Obama, but Rasmussen has Obama's DISapproval at 47% in July of their first term.Bush was at 38% disapproval in July, 2001. Bush didn't see disapproval numbers like that until 2004. And I think we can all agree, Obama will never see the near 90% post 9/11 approval Bush got. I think it is pretty obvious that Obama is sinking fast. If he had the negative press Bush had, he would be down in the Jimmy Carter range (20's) already. The press appears to be turning.
I know you hate it when someone tosses out facts and data, bur check http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob1.htm for Bush and http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history for Obama. It really looks bad for Socialism already.

Bubby said...

Q: What is the value of Presidential poll numbers if all they show is that the Worst President in American History, George W. Bush was very popular with Republicans?

A: That Republicans don't have a clue what it takes to govern the nation. And popularity is a poor indicator of performance.

Thanks for playing there Wilson.

Anonymous said...

Bubby you are a idiot that has had way to much Kool-Aid. Just face the facts BHO is fading fast.

Anonymous said...

When Bubby is proven wrong he snaps into his own magical little world.

Wilson said...

Well, to be honest, Bubby and the rest of the Libs have a formula that I call 8 Simple Rules For Liberal Arguments. Bubby used a few of them. ALL liberal arguments fall within this guideline. If you force Bubby to use facts and stay on topic, he will elevate through all of these and then quit playing. Feel free to use and quote these in any argument with liberals. Really gets them frothing at the mouth.

Liberal Argument when they can't refute the truth:

1. Blame Bush, Limbaugh, Palin etc.
2. Change the subject.
3. Attack the poster.
4. Call the other person names.
5. Log on using different names and have a bunch of fake people say you are right.
6. Find something personal about the poster to claim he has no credibility (but ignore the point).
7. Claim the source of the data is unreliable (again, ignore the point).
8. Send you a personal email to try to intimidate you.

Anonymous said...

Wilson You are right i agree with every word. I thought Fulk was going to answer some questions but that hasn't happened.Wilson you hit the nail on the head with Bubby he is a idiot.I would like to make a little bet with this bunch of Democrats i bet atleast another 250,000 jobs will be lost in July.

Bubby said...

Let's work on the flab between your ears Wilson. What do you make of John McCain's economic adviser, Mark Zandi, saying that Obama's Stimulus is working?

Wilson said...

250,000? No way. The total will be even higher than June. The new minimum wage goes into effect and gives workers a 10% raise at a time when businesses are struggling to survive. Most will have no choice but to let people go. Many are already doing so in preparation for this massive raise, and many more will go in August. Then the Theme Parks close in September. We will likely see 11% - 12% unemployment by December, with no holiday uptick in hiring, because states that took the unemployment stimulus will not want to pay higher unemployment taxes for part timers. Virginia wisely turned down 5 weeks worth of unemployment dollars ($125 million) and will not have it quite as bad, but we will hit 9 or more by December.

I can't wait until Obama starts laying off Military. We are in for a bad 3 years.

Wilson said...

As far as Mark Zandi, did you even look at the link and the graph? It actually was a prediction used by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein in their report on President Barack Obama's proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. And we can now see it is absolutely wrong. Or more precisely, the stimulus is not working at all.

Zandi predicted that after Q2 (June) that unemployment would be about 8.75% if we did nothing (the blue bar) and and about 7.75% with the stimulus (black bar). So, actually the chart proves the stimulus made things worse. Well, it does not prove that, but it does support that statement.

Unfortunately, even though we wasted $775 Billion, it appears by that linked article that unemployment is tracking at the "if we do nothing" rate.

And it will get worse.

I am not sure what point you were trying to make, other than McCain and Obama both listened to the same wrong person. I personally find McCain to be an Arlen Specter Republican. A liberal. He planned as many bad things as Obama, but would have kept us safe and respected in the world while ruining the economy. Obama has screwed up pretty much everything he has touched.

Anonymous said...

Wilson great job! Bubby call Fulk maybe he can tell you what to say.

Wilson said...

I am really beginning to question your reading comprehension, Bubby. Exactly what do you think Joe Scarborough was saying? You may want to read that a couple more times and think about it. I believe you misunderstand what he is saying.

Anonymous said...

Bubby are you having problems reading ? We all knew you couldn't understand math. Did you even go to school ? LMAO

Bubby said...

Wilson;
Where did you come up with "we wasted $775 Billion"?

You do know that only $50 billion dollars of the Stimulus has actually been spent don't you?

We'll have to establish that you understand how the stimulus works before we can discuss how it is performing.

Bubby said...

In fact, most of the $51 billion (31 billion) was just spent in May. So the Stim just got going son. You look a tad foolish, calling something a failure that just started. Working an agenda?

Bubby said...

Well listen Wilson, while you're doing your homework I'm going to step out and reload some ammo for our event next week at the Liberal Gun Range. I'll check on you later.

Wilson said...

Actually, it's a little more than that. About 7%.

Remember the big rush? No time to read it, gotta have it NOW! Unemployment will go through the roof if we don't do this NOW. We have "shovel ready" jobs waiting to go.

Turns out, they simply didn't want people to have time to look at the wasteful spending going to pay back those that voted for Obama.

Do you know why they call it a stimulus?

Imagine you are very sleepy (like our economy is). You decide to stimulate your system with some coffee. You take a small sip every day for 6 months. Didn't work, right?

I see your point. Obama rushed it through and had no idea what he was doing. I agree with you on that.

The whole idea of a stimulus is to pump significant amounts of money into the economy. Like priming a pump. You don't use an eyedropper to prime a pump.

I think this is good, Bubby. You are starting to see that the stimulus is not working and it is Obama's fault for not doing what he was supposed to do with the money.

We may have made a breakthrough.

Wilson said...

Be careful with those guns, Bubby. The pointy end goes down range.

Lowell Fulk said...

"The pointy end goes down range."???

Not too familiar with firearms wilson?

Didn't think you would be.

Wilson said...

Which end of the round do you point down range, if not the pointy one?

But what do I know? I'm a conservative and we don't like those icky firearms.

Wilson said...

Just curious, Rockdem. Why are you using SiteStar.net? Don't they have any real internet out there?

I didn't know people still used dial-up. Well, serious internet users, anyway. That may be why you have such a sour disposition all the time.

So, when people say you are slow, we know it is just your dial-up, eh?

Lowell Fulk said...

I dunno genius. I own a pile of guns and none of 'em have a pointy end.

That there would be called a spear.

You need to catch up boy.

Wanna have a shootin' match?

And I don't use SiteStar.

Haven't had to since broadband became available, thanks to Mark Warner.

Kinda behind aren't you? Like usual?

No surprise there, huh?

Wanna have a shootin' match?

I'll provide the firesticks pilgrim, since you're obviously not up to speed...

Bubby said...

Now Wilson, there you go. Looking down on your country cousins and our internet connections. You need to stop that elitist nonsense and apologize to the Rockdem. We're all good people here.

Wilson said...

Never said you weren't good people. I actually used an out house in my youth, so I can relate to your conditions.

They raise a lot of turkey's out there, right?

So do you consider yourself Appalachians?

You do understand that the pointy end of the round goes down range, right? Some posters have a bit of trouble with that.

Kidding aside, I hope you don't really feel those of us living in larger metro areas (I live in the 'burbs) would look down on you folks. The western part of Va is one of the most beautiful places on Earth and I don't think there is a better place to raise a family. I think people living in the more populated areas should be a bit jealous. I'm not really an ocean person, nor is my wife. The mountains would be an ideal place for us to retire. Slow down. Enjoy kicking back surrounded by nature's beauty.

But I was born in Richmond, raised here, and after seeing the world with Uncle Sam, returned home. And traveled the world some more. I am qualified to say, Virginia is the only place I would want to live, and you are right smack dab in the heart of it.

Sammy Newcomb said...

Anonymous Wilson said...

Be careful with those guns, Bubby. The pointy end goes down range.

7/7/09 7:51 PM

???? What gun has a "pointy end"?

seth said...

Rockdem said...
"I dunno genius. I own a pile of guns and none of 'em have a pointy end.

That there would be called a spear."

keep up!

folks proclivity to say what has already been said aside, i thought it was pretty clear that he was talking about the ruonds and not the actual firearm.

but, because inquiring minds want to know, a spear gun would have a pointy end (which is kind of piggybacking on lowell's point) as would any weapon equipped with a bayonet.

on the note of pointy things, have you guys heard about the current administrations move to ban over eighty percent of the folding knives on the market? apparently anything that opens by gravity or inertia is being targeted, which is almost any blade that you can open with one hand. i heard about it here:
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1245107316.shtml

this kind of thing is where i start having real problems w/ the left.

Anonymous said...

good god seth, what contortions will you bend yourself to in order to cover for your buds?

Anonymous said...

Seth good point

Wilson said...

I know you guys out there are a bit slow, and I thought it was the dial-up, but I was corrected.

Bubby said that he was reloading AMMO. Now I will admit I have not reloaded ammo in 25 years, but my rounds had a flat end and a pointy end.

My biggest fear with you guys is the high accident rates when liberals use guns.

Liberal Weapons. This explains a lot : http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0608/backwardgImage1.jpg

Bubby said...

"My biggest fear with you guys is the high accident rates when liberals use guns."

Guess you forgot about Dick Cheney shooting that guy in the face?

Or Del. John Reid (R-Henrico) who "accidentally" discharged his handgun into his Capital hill office door in 2006?

You just make this too easy for a slow country boy Wilson...

Bubby said...

I'm not inclined to school you on ballistics and firepower, but when prepping my Zombie rounds I do indeed put the rounded end of the bullet out front.

There is just so much you don't know Wilson. I don't know where to start.

Anonymous said...

Ted Kennedy has killed more people with his cars than Dick Cheney has killed with his guns. Thats a fact the party hacks can not argue with.

Wilson said...

What makes you think the Cheney and Reid incidents were accidents?