Obama Steps Up to the Plate on the Economy

[babylonsister]

Obama Steps Up to the Plate on the Economy
By Michael Duffy / Washington Monday, Nov. 24, 2008


President-elect Barack Obama with Timothy Geithner (L), Christina Romer (2nd L), and Lawrence Summers (R), during a press conference in Chicago on November 24, 2008.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty



Taking effective control of American economic policy two months before he is actually sworn in, President-elect Barack Obama promised an "aggressive" economic recovery plan in the first month of 2009 that will include tax cuts and new spending on jobs, energy infrastructure, health care and education.

Obama's vow to move "swiftly and boldly" is a sign that the incoming Administration is not waiting until the inauguration to plot a new economic course. Nor, from the sound of it, did Obama feel he has the luxury of waiting. "We are facing," he said, "an economic crisis of historic proportion. While we cannot underestimate the challenges we face, we cannot underestimate our capacity to overcome them. We cannot hesitate and we cannot delay." (Read "Black Friday Is Looking Blue)

Obama's comments were yet another indication that Washington will move in the first weeks of 2009 to approve an economic stimulus package worth $500 billion or more. Obama declined to specify the size and said he would ask his new economic advisers to make a recommendation in the coming weeks. But he noted what he called a "pretty rare" consensus between conservative and liberal economists that a massive fiscal stimulus was now needed.

As expected, Obama announced that he would tap a well-known duo of economic advisers: Timothy Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, to be his Treasury Secretary, and Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary, to lead his national Economic Council at the White House. He also named Melody Barnes, a longtime aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, to lead his Domestic Policy Council, and Christine Romer, a Berkeley economist, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, two other White House policy shops. Obama said that this group would put some flesh on the bones of an economic stimulus plan and that he would, in "coming weeks," share their outline with the American people.

Exactly how large that package might turn out to be is anyone's guess. Only a few weeks ago, proponents spoke of a package worth $150 billion. Now, with banks continuing not to lend and the economy shrinking, stimulus package estimates have crossed $500 billion and are heading toward $700 billion.

If the consensus for such a massive infusion holds — and with large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, there is little reason to think otherwise — Obama would be able to include in the measure a number of other programs he has advocated: tax cuts, jobs and spending programs, health care reform, aid to beleaguered industries and energy efficient investments and infrastructure.

more...

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1861625,00.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. 3 Pointer from 35 feet...he bombs the basket ....stock market jumps 400 points

He is doing something right

[Puzzler]

2. And we had a similar jump on Friday after the sec of Treasury leak.

.

[opihimoimoi]

7. The Best 2 day advance in the DOWs Fucking History....Bush gatta resign or do something ...like

get the fuck OUTTA THE WAY...

Here come Da MAN...Obama....he got Mana...

Bush looks old and stupid...which he is...

[Starry Messenger]

3. k & r n/t

[Max_powers94]

4. Bush needs to let him take over ASAP!!!!

[babylonsister]

5. And the chances of that happening are zilch. nt

[JimWis]

6. Yup, won't happen, but I wish it would. They are calling this period

until Jan 20th a vacuum. Good term for it. Bush is a vacuum alright.