Obama Won’t Speak Out about Debt, Too Concerned What “Markets” Will Think

Obama Won’t Speak Out about Debt, Too Concerned What “Markets” Will Think
By: Jon Walker
June 3, 2011

At a recent meeting with House Democrats, President Obama shot down the members’ hopes that he might step up his rhetoric against the Republicans. He’s concerned how the markets would react to his statements. From Huffington Post:

Obama also told the assembled Democrats not to count on more fiery rhetoric from the Oval Office.



While in isolation, concern about the weight the President’s words carry isn’t unusual; but looked at in the context of all the actions of the last two years, it is more evidence that a major problem with the Obama administration has been far too much emphasis on short term stock market improvements.

Read the full article at:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/06/03/obama-wont-speak-out-about-debt-hes-concerned-with-what-markets-will-think/

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And he proposes more business tax cuts to "create jobs"!!!!

he's using the ideas from past proposals. like most of the rest of us.

Government by three card monti -- gotta love it, right? :sarcasm:

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The jitters will becoming tremors in the monetary markets as Boehner plays chicken with this country's ability to finance itself.

You see this as a dig against the president, when in reality it shows he's using his brains.

Fail on this one.

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That's the truth of the matter.

on a political speech...or not. Sorry, but our system of govt is sad and beyond repair. Don't worry President Obama, we are already fucked beyond repair and no one seems to concerned about it.

Just carry on while the hole gets to big for your finger.

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If we actually had an economy instead of a ponzi scheme, speeches wouldn't matter.

If everyone keeps quiet then all the bad stuff will go away................

The markets really don't care much what you say. They care a great deal more about what Ben Bernanke might say. And, considering the abysmal job creation (Remember how unemployment was supposed to be below 8% now?) because of the Democrats' failure of nerve at the end of 2010, it might actually do some good to make some statements that challenge the way things are. Because the only slim chance the Republicans have for success in next year's elections is to keep the economy in the crapper, and hope that voters blame the Democrats. Or, more likely, voters will sit out in disgust at Republican obstructionism and Democratic impotence.

Give us a reason, Mr. President.

you talk big but don't know the facts.

Ben Bernanke's QE 1 and 2 IS what BO and the Ds were hoping to get the economy going to create JOBS.

Keep making stuff up...I'm sure you will get it right eventually.

And when the "stimulus" package was being talked down in early 2009, the Obama administration was conceding point after point, reducing the amounts and the projects as they pursued the chimera of bipartisan agreement with the Republicans. As the size of the outlays shrank, the administration tried to reassure a skeptical Democratic base that the trims were necessary to achieve comity with the Republicans, and that without this package, unemployment would only come down a point or two from 10%. If unemployment remained above 9% into 2011, it would be very, very bad for Democrats.

Well, here we are.

And despite a great deal of very good advice from the likes of Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, the Obama administration continues to seek to curry favor with the Republicans and with some bond traders somewhere (nobody can say exactly where, but we are assured they exist). By limiting the amount of public investment and failing to raise taxes on the wealthiest earners, the administration has practically guaranteed an unemployment rate north of 9% for the foreseeable future. Hopes for getting the economy moving don't quite make the economy move.

I don't dispute that the administration hoped their half-assed measures were going to create jobs; but they were being told by some very knowledgeable people that they were giving away the store with all their compromises. And considering it cost the Democrats the House in 2010, it appears that even the bad excuse they proffered about achieving a bipartisan solution didn't pan out. It seems quite evident, however, that the Republicans continue to pursue their successful strategy of monkey-wrenching any proposed fixes while watching the administration continue to dither, with the administration hoping against hope that this time around their half-measure will achieve a full result.

Dignity and Democracy
Escaping the Clutches of the Financial Markets


In today's Europe, the people are no longer in control. Instead, politicians have become slaves to financial institutions and the markets. We are partly to blame -- and changes are urgently needed to nurse European democracy back to health.


we are also citizens and participants in a democratic society. As such, we have no reason to be celebrating. Instead, we ought to be sad and outraged. Democracy, after all, is not doing splendidly, or even well. It is gradually becoming a casualty of the financial crisis.

Rage Directed at Politicians

Trouble is brewing all over Europe. Young people with little hope for the future are protesting in Spain. In France, 1.4 million copies were sold of a manifesto titled "Be Outraged." Young Frenchmen and -women are devising utopias that extend well beyond civil society because they no longer expect anything from it. A deep depression has descended upon Greece, combined with a rage directed at politicians and the rest of Europe.

In Germany, this is what politicians are hearing from their citizens today: "You spent billions to rescue the banks, and now I'm supposed to be footing the bill? Forget it!" Hardly anyone is willing to put up with their politicians any more. And German leaders have lost support -- and some of their own legitimacy.

They seem helpless, unable to come to grips with the euro crisis. They meet in Brussels, and they talk, argue and adopt resolutions, and yet nothing improves.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,766518,00.html

Its not just Obama and the US .... Europe has this sickness too.

Some Reader Responses To The Article. BBI

Pretty disheartening to hear Obama mention (twice) the prominence of market-think in his comments, if they are correct as reported. Not a huge surprise, but still, the president avoiding making hard choices and tough statements because he’s afraid of ‘market reactions’.. maybe why he was afraid to get behind single payer.

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Of course “the markets” will react badly if he lets the Bush tax cuts expire. “The markets” are always going to prefer crony-capitalist GOP policies. But in the long run market levels are not going to be based on an emotional response to what the president says or does. He needs to lead and represent the interests of those who voted for him.

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Mr. Obama is incapable of using fiery rhetoric, certainly not against Republicans, with whom he agrees more often than he agrees with what used to be his base. He won’t use it against Republicans because, unlike his base, he wants their approval.

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After 8 years of the savage lunacy of Bush and the GOP, he was HIRED to rock the corporate boat, and the fact that he’s sitting on his bi-partisan ass while allowing the same policies of his predecessor to continue, is why we’re in the fix we’re in.


http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/06/03/obama-wont-speak-out-about-debt-hes-concerned-with-what-markets-will-think/

This instance is nothing new. By the way, the reason the GOP feels empowered to act so crazy is because Obama is such as a weak, feckless, don't-offend-anyone "leader."

Democrats Emerge From White House Meeting Determined Not To Cave On Medicare, Taxes

Ah, unity!

Get a jobs programs going. NOW!