I suspected this would happen. Obama has been sounding a heck of a lot like George Bush. In today’s headlines, he is quoted as urging “quick” passage of the stimulus package to avoid the current “dire” situation.
Remember Hank Paulson on TV last fall? According to him, if at that time, we didn’t urgently pass the “TARP,” then we would face financial meltdown. What did we get? We got handouts to GM, AIG and other loser companies. And now, I feel this current “need” for “urgency” will result in more of the same BS waste.
And to embellish my point further, have you noticed that Just as liberals despised Bush’s decision to bring back the fossils of the Republican party (such as Dick Cheney) to take important posts, we now have Obama who is appointing a few ancient artifacts of the democratic party to important posts, just like Bush! First off, we have Larry “velociraptor” Summers, who among his many accomplishments said that women’s brains can’t handle learning science the same as men’s brains and who also fired Harvard’s highly successful endowment manager because he earned too much(I guess earning HIGH POSITIVE returns when the market is down is undesirable).
We also got Tom”T Rex” Daschle, who wrote a book about health care 100 years ago (an obvious exaggeration on my part, it was in the 1990’s) and because of that (hey anyone who writes must be an authority!) he was chosen to lead the Department of Health & Human Services. Unfortunately those perks he received from that private equity firm were surprisingly (to him) taxable – something that you would think Daschle would know all about since I’m sure he voted on a few tax laws in his career. And he gracefully bowed out (as did another appointment, but not our new Secretary of the Treasury – aka boss of the IRS – apparently it’s ok to be a tax cheat in that job). And finally, not to be outdone by the Cheney appointment, we have Joe ‘Stegosaurus” Biden for VP.
Folks, we’re heading into a big recession which is simply a reversal of all of our excesses for the past 25-30 years. Either we cleanse now or “try” to reinflate the former artificial economy (the government’s preferred vote-winning choice). The AP article I read this morning quoted a laid-off RV company laborer who wanted the stimulus package passed in hopes it would make people buy big RV’s again and in turn, give him a job again. Folks, there is NO WAY we can get back to THAT level of consumption any time soon. We would have to re inflate house prices back to their former fantasy levels, and then hope banks would again lend with little care for lending standards so that irresponsible people could again borrow too much to buy things that they shouldn’t buy such as RV’s and hence, give us our old artificial economy back – NOT GONNA HAPPEN. This stimulus bill is going to disappoint that man (along with anyone else banking on this save a few dumba** bankers whose jobs will be saved), and I simply feel sorry that politicians would blow smoke up his you-know-what to gain a vote.
All of these efforts to resurrect these fossils (and resurrect poor economic policy) makes me think of the famous Who Song where Roger Daltry sings “Meet the New Boss – Same as the Old Boss“; but I wish I were hearing one of their other famous verses in my mind: “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Unfortunately, I find myself, along with that RV laborer, in the land of wishful thinking.
For a great take on what is REALLY happening, read this article with Ray Dalio.
Chris Grande
