On the surface it appears to be the case. The problem with Obama is he has surrounded himself with many neoliberals who hold the similar economic views to those of the previous administration.
Clue to Obama: It won't work. There needs to be a complete repeal of the policies of the past thirty years. Nothing less will do.
According to Krugman, these people are still living in denial about the banking crisis, to say nothing of all of the other economic problems:
So why has this zombie idea — it keeps being killed, but it keeps coming back — taken such a powerful grip? The answer, I fear, is that officials still aren’t willing to face the facts. They don’t want to face up to the dire state of major financial institutions because it’s very hard to rescue an essentially insolvent bank without, at least temporarily, taking it over. And temporary nationalization is still, apparently, considered unthinkable.
But this refusal to face the facts means, in practice, an absence of action. And I share the president’s fears: inaction could result in an economy that sputters along, not for months or years, but for a decade or more.
Nationalize the goddamned banks and fix the goddamned economic problems. Why is it considered "unthinkable" to repeal thirty years worth of shitassed economics based on the crackpot theories of a guy who should have been laughed out of any tenth-rate university, Milton Friedman?
Friedmanite policies don't work, period. Why is it so hard to understand?
The only thing I can think of is politicians are terrified of offending those with the money who have benefitted from a rigged tax system which steals from everybody else and benefits them. These elites aren't going to give up their privileges without a fight.
2 comments:
The problem, as I see it, is that Obama isn't listening to anyone but the neoliberals. What I fear about Obama is that he really is too young. He came of age at the ascendency of Reaganism, the rise of the mighty Wurlitzer, and the demonization of anything slightly scented "liberal." He has internalized it and has no other world view.
We are truly fucked.
This is so true, Carissa. That's why I had such a hard time supporting him this past election. He really doesn't have the understanding of why the GOP rose to power in this country, and really what they are about because of his lack of a frame of reference. I am sure he doesn't understand the real reason Bill Clinton was so demonized by the right, and it had nothing to do with Lewinsky. It had to do with the threat he and Al Gore posed to their Southern Strategy, as Gene Lyons had pointed out in his "Fools for Scandal." His "third way" politics presented a threat. Clinton had to be destroyed by any means necessary. Clinton's fault was he didn't understand what the right was about, either, until after he was impeached. He thought the system worked when in truth it was under siege. So did Al Gore, until the 2000 election theft, and his heart was broken thereafter.
I fear Obama just doesn't have what it takes to fix the problems in this country, despite all of the support he has in the country and with the Democrats in Congress. I fear he is going to blow it and then we will be so screwed with the likes of Mitt.
The "youth" thing really is a handicap. He's older than TR, JFK, and Bill Clinton when they were presidents, but I fear he just doesn't have the acumen to overcome this problem of his relative youth.
I hope to hell I am wrong and Obama is smarter than his advisers.
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