I really wanted to write something about last night’s Obama event, but I can’t even come up with a proper title. ” News conference”? How can I seriously consider that a news conference? Isn’t it customary for the press to show up at a news conference? Another custom usually encountered at a “news conference ” is that , true to the title, “news” is being dissipated to the public.
Since both of those “customs” were absent form last night’s event, how can I, in good conscience, call it a “News Conference”?
Obama’s new Teleprompter
I suppose that I can mention Obama’s new Prompter. Instead of two screens placed to either side of the podium, Obama now makes use of a single very large screen placed straight ahead somewhere in the back of the room. ( I haven’t seen it, but so I am told). The result is that instead of Obama swiveling his head from side to side and bobbing up and down like the old doggie figurines that our parents inexplicably placed on the shelf in front of the car’s rear window, he now stares straight ahead. Oh yeah! That looks a lot more natural! LOL!
Sure Obama bumbled his way to some sort of a response to the question of why he didn’t step in earlier to do something about the AIG bonuses, but did you really think he would have an answer? Did you?
No more economic cycles
One thing that stood out, and that’s not saying much, is that Obama has set for himself no loftier a goal than to change the cyclical nature of the economy.
“Finally, the most critical part of our strategy is to ensure that we do not return to an economic cycle of bubble and bust in this country. We know that an economy built on reckless speculation, inflated home prices, and maxed-out credit cards does not create lasting wealth. It creates the illusion of prosperity, and it’s endangered us all.”
Well gee, Barry, isn’t that why we created the Federal Reserve Bank in the first place? Isn’t that why the Fed engages in the managing of the economy through monetary policy? Are you trying to tell us that it ain’t working?
Your administration, and previous ones, tried to manage the economy through fiscal policy (raising or lowering taxes to stimulate the economy) and your Fed, and previous ones as well, tried to manage the economy through monetary policy ( increasing or decreasing the money supply to adjust interest rates) and so far in fifty or so years we have had cyclical economic activity accompanied by ever higher inflation. (And we act all surprised that we are now experiencing deflation.)
I am just curious to know Barry how exactly do you think that you can annul market cycles? Actually I shouldn’t be so curious because you know what happened to the cat…
The only policy that effectively did away with market cycles was communism..
As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, be assured that this is what Obama has in mind. And you know what, it will probably be very effective at flattening out the economic cycles of four to six years of boom and one or two years of bust. As you recall the communists did away with the “boom” part.
P.S.
(If you don’t recall, ask me. I lived there).