PBS Newshour, Ifill declares Obama offered a spirited "defense" of his economic policies - still

grovelling to the Corporate Lobbyist Party, Ifill needs some knee pads to preclude bruising.

Ms. Ifill ever ready to insinuate a presumption into what should be a statement of fact - to plant a suggestion in the minds of the cognizance compromised.


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec09/economy_09-15.html

IFILL: "President Obama offered a spirited defense of his economic policies today. He said the initiatives have stopped our economic freefall."

Nice try IFill. The president was merely stating what others (viz. economists, business analysts) have already been saying. He doesn't have to "defend his economic policies", Ms. Awful, virtually every economist in the known world (of all political persuasions or predelictions) credits the President's policies: a stimulus package and the Treasury's and the FED's credit infusion actions with keeping this REPUBLICAN DYSTOPIA we are now in from becoming a GREAT DEPRESSION II. Only those of the Corporate Lobbyist party and their Fascist Fellatiators in M$M have been trying to convince people that Obama's policies haven't been working.

Only a couple months ago the M$M kept chanting - daily - about Obama's stimulus that "it doesn't SEEM to be working." or, "it's not working", or "WHY isn't it working?" even when EVERY economist you all interviewed said, at the time, his stimulus package hadn't really started to "hit" the economy yet as it takes time for money to be appropriated, approved, sent to the states, programs to get started, contracts to be awarded, and THEN paychecks to be handed out - after work has begun. You in the M$M have been trying to create the false expectation that Obama should turn this Republican Dystopia, an economic disaster of a scope not seen since the Great Depression, around in a few months! No doubt to your (and your Corporate Lobbyist Party Uber-Lord's) dismay, most of the people you hoped to seduce weren't persuaded. Most people understood the magnitude of the damage done to the economy and knew it would take some time (more than 3 or 4 months anyway) to repair it.

Now, over the last couple of months the positive signs have starteed to appear. EVERYONE recognizes that the indicators are looking better. Unemployment growth has slowed from the precipitous declines of earlier in the year, Economic indicators are improving ("The Conference Board LEI for the U.S. rose again in July, its fourth consecutive increase"), the banks are paying back their loans under the TARP - (with interest!), http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090916/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_housing_nahb">U.S. Homebuilder Sentiment is the highest since May 2008, http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/26/news/economy/durable_goods.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009082608">durable goods orders surged 4.9% in July (analyst polled by Bloomberg had forecast a rise of 3% - so actual orders exceeded the estimate by almost 66%). Actually, Ms. Ifill all this improved economic news comes a hell of a lot sooner than ANYONE expected it. This doesn't mean we can dance around the Maypole just yet. This Republican Dystopia will take many months (probably 4 years or more) to fully recover from.

But your suggestion that Obama's economic policies require defense is as absurd as it is inappropriate in an ostensible statement of fact (you could have said he "touted the success of his policies", or "asserted" for example). Every knowledgeable and unbiased person is speaking positively of his policies and of their results. (and keep in mind, the results would have been better had he not had to 'buy' Republican cooperation for his stimulus bill by putting in non-stimulative tax cuts which are now being used to pay down debt, which all observers have commented on (lately) as not contributing to a rebound in the economy.) Only you M$M Corporate Lobbyist Party golems and CLP ("the party of 'NO' ..John Boehner) demagogues are trying to sell the Lie that his policies aren't working,... are not stimulative enough, .... are too stimulative (inflationary), ... will take effect too late (into 2010), .... will be too transitory, argumentum ad contradictium - ad infinitum - hoping to convince the half awake to believe the "Party-of-No"'s story line. Hoping to foment some dissatisfaction out there.

Oh, I know you'll keep trying. So don't be glum. Look how effective disinformation has been at confusing people about the REAL need for Health Care Reform? And I'm sure the demagogues in the Corporate Lobbyist party do appreciate your efforts on their behalf. Go ahead now. You better put your knee pads on. I think I hear a Republican schmuck whistling for your attentions.

... and a good example of the subtle media framing of the issue right from the git-go.

is that how you are charactarising the bailout efforts?

the understandable anger over the Credit Collapse of 2008, to get people to forget that the Republicans caused it with their animus toward regulation of the markets ("the markets will police themselves"_Greenspan) and their decades long efforts which reduced the real wealth of most AMericans and made the wealthier even more wealthy (this does not build a healthy growing economy but weakens it) - and to channel it into anger at the Obama administration and it's efforts to try to keep the Credit Collapse from taking us into the Great Depression II.


As was said in OP while the media keeps making implied comparisons of the Obama administration efforts to perfection (with the implied open ended question: "Could they have done a better job?".... well of course, in a perfect world, any of us could have done better, whatever the task.) - among the knowledgeable (basically the economists - as this subject is very complex and the difficulty of saving the banking system is not really appreciated in the general public), almost all give the Obama administration good marks for their actions. http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/09/debate-on-troubled-asset-relief-program-our-view-a-year-later-plan-to-rescue-big-banks-pays-dividend.html">Plan to Rescue Big Banks Pays Dividends - Meltdown averted, TARP recipients begin to return taxpayers’ money. Everybody is angry over having to bail-out banks who took on risks they didn't understand.


The GOP's goal (and M$M's job) is to get people to forget that the GOP caused this disaster and to channel this anger at the Obama administration which was saddled with the herculean task of fixing this disaster of Deregulation. Corporate M$M, of which IFill is a part, has been doing it's part in this effort, by disinforming the public as to how we got into this Republican Dystopia (there are exceptions such as the 60 Minutes report on "The Bet that Blew up Wallstreet" see below and of course the Bill Moyers Journal).

Perhaps the best (or most practical) measure of how good the Obama administration has done in this task, is expressed as a question: "Are we in the midst of the Great Depression II?" or: "Could we have been talking about 25% unemployment instead of worrying about 10% unemployment?" I think the answers to these questions are obvious.



What M$M hasn't told you about what caused this REPUBLICAN DYSTOPIA:

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime -HOw the Bush administration fought 50 States Attorneys General who were trying to reign in predatory lenders.

"In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules. "

Deregulation and legalization of trade in Credit Default Swaps - THe Commodities Futures Modernization Act..

WHat enabled the banks to go crazy and think they had no risk to worry about was the belief that holding Credit Default Swaps (CDS)insulated them from risk. What made trading in CDSs possible was the Commodities Futures Modernization act which made trading in CDSs legal AND UNREGULATED. THis bill was slipped in as rider to the Omnibus Spending bill in the last days of the Clinton administration by PHil Gramm, champion of deregulation. (see The Bet That Blew up Wall Street . Clinton could not possibly have vetoed a spending bill and left office leaving the Government without money to operate with (even if he knew the CFMA was in there).

The Omnibus Spending bill was an 11,000 page document, so virtually nobody in Congress even knew the CFMA (Commodities Futures Modernization Act) was in there, as a rider. See: WHo Wrecked the Economy?..Foreclosure Phil. It was a very clever move by the old fox Phil Gramm as this legislation could not even get out of committee.

CDSs enabled banks to sell risky Collaterized Debt Obligations (mortgage backed securities) to institutional investors because they would sell them CDSs along with the CDO which was supposed to provide insurance to the investor against loss. Thus the institutional investors thought they could invest in risky securitized mortgages without worry of taking a loss. OH Boy! Big rewards without risk!! (That's how it was supposed to work!)