Is President Obama Fixing the Economy?? Yes, Maybe, No - weigh in here

[Overmylimit]

To answer the title to this thread; Obama took over a mess from the Bush crew - give the man some time.

I don't really care for Obama, but you are right give him a chance just like the past President's have had, the only problem I have with that is you cant just print more $$ and spend us out of debt it just isn't going to work....and I think they will all realize it was a bad idea after the money has been spent then it will be too late for all of us.

[JRScott]

To answer the title to this thread; Obama took over a mess from the Bush crew - give the man some time.

The mess was not just Bush's and keep in mind Treasury Sec. Geithner was head of the NY Fed under Bush and the primary architect of the bail out plan. So if the Bush crew are to blame solely as you suggest, why is Geithner there?

This mess has taken them decades to make. Obama's current course cannot fix it. It's almost as if they are trying to tank the US dollar, which would be very bad for our nation. Only by tightening the belt and learning to live within its means even as all of us do can the Congress and Obama fix the nation, they must stop overspending.

[Flamingo]

To answer the title to this thread; Obama took over a mess from the Bush crew - give the man some time.

[walkthaplank]

I think everybody here can testify to the fact that you cannot borrow your way out of debt. Forcing these large companies into bankruptcy court may be very painful in the short term, but in the long term will help strengthen the system.

"TOO BIG TO FAIL" is the ultimate fail, and continuing to put money into these banks is like continuing to feed blood into a person who has had their arms ripped off and you haven't gotten around to stopping the blood loss. The money is squirting out faster than you can put it in.

[JRScott]

No he's not fixing the economy.

Before the start of these financial bailouts our nation had an unfunded liability of over 50 trillion dollars to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Much of that will begin to hit us in 10 years. The CBOs 9 trillion deficit does not include the shortfalls in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

It will be much worse.

If his budget passes things will get even worse.

The cap and trade portion of his budget is the worst part. If it passes things may well double in price the moment it becomes law. This will result from energy consumers passing on the extra cost to their consumers. Everything you buy pretty much consumes some energy. Within 5 years prices could triple. The problem is wages will not keep pace, after all they haven't for the last hundred years.

The next failure is his health care plan. Even he admits he low balled the figure and the other figures aren't correct either. To cover everyone as well as Medicare does will cost around 3 trillion a year. We can't afford it.

If he's willing to scrap these two parts of his budget, then it might be possible to see some recovery, but recovery will not be fast and easy.

This new bailout plan. Let's look at it this way.

I have a 'toxic' asset. That is an asset that is valued to be worthless by the financial sector.

Let's say I paid 1 million dollars for it and I'm gonna unload it for 100k.

We'll I talk my buddy into going halves with another friend to buy me out, they'll split whatever they make. So they are each in it for 50k.

The asset is though still worthless, and the chances they'll recover the money not good.

If you really want to fix the economy you have to accept that there has to be personal responsibility. That means companies including banks that have been run poorly have to be allowed to fail, even if that causes short term hardships because that short term hardship creates long term potential. Everyone here has had economic hardships and had to file bk and accept the penalty of that for our actions, it should be no different for businesses that make wrong choices.

That's why we have so many high school drop outs nationwide, why we have so few graduate college. Many of our social ills can be traced to the fact that the government sends the message they'll bail you out at the expense of the other citizens no matter how badly you fail. To be successful you have to accept the consequences of failure even as you reap the consequence of success.

[fltoo]

I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it is so obvious.........he is out of his league and not a leader or a businessman.

P.S. The Star Ledger used to be a good paper, but has gone the way of The NY Times. They are both rags. Editorials are severely slanted to the left only and are so transparently so, that it is laughable. They never give the other viewpoint.

[Overmylimit]

the coming hyper-inflation is what will finish off the little guys... by this summer, is will be obvious that obama cant save us and then the panic will start..

This is 100% the way it's going to go, I wish, no I pray you and I are wrong. I have never wanted to be more wrong in my life but the worst is coming.

[floridian]

the coming hyper-inflation is what will finish off the little guys... by this summer, is will be obvious that obama cant save us and then the panic will start..

[banca rotta]

I posted this last year and to answer the OP's question this sums up just how the president and the Fed are "fixing" the economy.

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=31021

[banca rotta]

I will say this as a non-partisan view. After reviewing what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)... a non-partisan agency... wrote about the deficit in 10 years... I am more concerned.

It's one thing that we have a $1.5 trillion deficit under Bush, but we will have a $9.1+ trillion deficit from these initiatives from Obama.

I wish I could run a deficit and not have to declare Bankruptcy. Boy I'd love to go into my basement and just print more cash.

Having posted that... it has been only 59 days, but the future outlook is bleak. The economy can heal itself with the stimulus, but the other initiatives may be too soon.

You just put your finger on why the stock market indexes rose so high today. The fed's printing press just ate the bad loans and the bank stock holders are very pleased with this.

The 9 plus trillion in debt you mention will be an even smaller percantage of GDP now that the system will be flooded with trillions in fresh printed cash.

That's how the govt runs up debt and avoids bk.

It's kinda like you or I running up cc debts, mortgage debt, car leases and always getting a 30% pay raise every year to maintain the interest payments. Any forum member found out the hard way that doesn't work for us. Just the govt.

Even the Chinese are worried that we are printing money and feel they either won't get paid or will get paid with money less of a value then they invested. I guess Hillary has to wine and dine them again like she did several weeks ago.

[OhioFiler]

O'bama has been working on the economy as either POTUS or President Elect (remember his official Office of the President-Elect seal?) for 116 days. Additionally, as a US Senator he had plenty of opportunity to suggest fixes. He never did. In fact he was a major player in the passage of the now obvious mistake- TARP bailout.

O'bama has zero economic experience and zero administrative experience. This was the worst time for the electorate to have elected someone for on the job training.

[justbroke]

I will say this as a non-partisan view. After reviewing what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)... a non-partisan agency... wrote about the deficit in 10 years... I am more concerned.

It's one thing that we have a $1.5 trillion deficit under Bush, but we will have a $9.1+ trillion deficit from these initiatives from Obama.

I wish I could run a deficit and not have to declare Bankruptcy. Boy I'd love to go into my basement and just print more cash.

Having posted that... it has been only 59 days, but the future outlook is bleak. The economy can heal itself with the stimulus, but the other initiatives may be too soon.

[OhioFiler]

O'bama is doing much worse than simply not fixing the economy. He is burdening future generations with debt they can never expect to pay.

The 1st couple bailouts and stimuli had no effect on the economy, in fact I argue they made it worse. O'bama's stimulus plan is anything but stimulative. It is nothing but a huge pile of democrat wish list items rolled into a bill in the dark of night.

God help this country.

[lrprn]

My opinion - give him time, for heaven's sake! The man has been president for 59 days. Let me repeat that - 59 days. How could anyone reasonably expect such severe financial problems decades in the making to be fixed so quickly?

This March 21, 2009 editorial from the NJ Star-Ledger says it better than I can:

"Patience is not an American virtue. Quite the opposite: Impatience is counted a strength, something that pushes us to demand that even the most pressing problem be solved immediately, if not sooner.

"What's taking so long?" might serve as a national mantra.

Nowhere is this demand for an answer yesterday to today's problems more starkly evident than in complaints that President Obama still hasn't cured the worst economic collapse in almost 70 years -- and him in the White House for two whole months already.

"What's taking so long?"

Much of the griping comes from Republicans, which is as understandable as it is predictable. It's their proper role as the loyal (now and then) opposition. But much also comes from elements in business, academia and the press who've spent the past 30 years demanding the federal government keep its hands off the economy.

No longer. They want action. When do they want it? Now! The free-market fundamentalists at the Wall Street Journal's editorial page even have decided that responsibility for the economic plunge lies not at all with the Bush administration but with -- you guessed it -- Obama. And he hasn't cured it yet.

"What's taking so long?"

In truth, the impatience stems as much from the changing nature of how news is reported and received as it does from any political or ideological bias. The 24/7 drumbeat of news and opinion on cable television promotes impatience about the crisis and the need for a cure, with always the same bottom line question:

"What's taking so long?"

Seems only yesterday the president's critics were hard-wired to a see a different kind of failing -- that Obama was rushing the country into a massive, no-strings-attached bank bailout. (Actually, that began on George W. Bush's watch, but who's keeping score?)

This tendency to rush to judgment is nothing new in our politics. At the end of the 1970s, the country suffered from runaway inflation and economic stagnation, Iranian revolutionaries took our embassy employees hostage and the Soviet Union was on the march in Afghanistan. National confidence was in the pits.

Actually, the stage was set for one of the great recoveries in the country's history but, in our impatience, we never noticed.

Within a few years, the economy soared and ignited a two-decade boom; the internet era was at hand; globalism was launched, the Soviet Union collapsed and capitalism came to China.

No one would sanely predict a similarly swift rebound from our current economic misery. But there are some signs of modest improvement. Banks are lending, though cautiously. Housing construction saw a bit of an uptick last month. Even the sickly stock market has stabilized, at least for the moment.

The delay in unraveling the bank mess is a special sore spot for Obama's critics. But it took years to erect the rotting edifice of securitized subprime mortgages and exotic, little-understood derivatives (e.g. credit default swaps) that brought the banks to grief. And it will take time to calculate their value -- or lack thereof -- and the degree of help the banks will finally need.

If there's no measurable improvement in the economy by, say, the fall, it will, indeed, be Obama's economy and critics then can justifiably ask, "What's taking so long?"

Until then, however, "What's the rush?" seems more appropriate."

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2009/03/president_barack_obama_deserve.html

Thoughts? Let the opinions flow!