Dammit, Obama knows the truth, too. Will you listen to what he's saying?

[Pale Blue Dot]

Or will you hear what you want to hear? From his interview being broadcast tonight on Nightline:

TERRY MORAN: There are a lot of economists who look at these banks and they say all that garbage that's in them renders them essentially insolvent. Why not just nationalize the banks?

PRESIDENT OBAMA:Well, you know, it's interesting. There are two countries who have gone through some big financial crises over the last decade or two. One was Japan, which never really acknowledged the scale and magnitude of the problems in their banking system and that resulted in what's called "The Lost Decade." They kept on trying to paper over the problems. The markets sort of stayed up because the Japanese government kept on pumping money in. But, eventually, nothing happened and they didn't see any growth whatsoever.

Sweden, on the other hand, had a problem like this. They took over the banks, nationalized them, got rid of the bad assets, resold the banks and, a couple years later, they were going again. So you'd think looking at it, Sweden looks like a good model. Here's the problem; Sweden had like five banks. We've got thousands of banks. You know, the scale of the U.S. economy and the capital markets are so vast and the problems in terms of managing and overseeing anything of that scale, I think, would -- our assessment was that it wouldn't make sense. And we also have different traditions in this country.

Obviously, Sweden has a different set of cultures in terms of how the government relates to markets and America's different. And we want to retain a strong sense of that private capital fulfilling the core -- core investment needs of this country.

And so, what we've tried to do is to apply some of the tough love that's going to be necessary, but do it in a way that's also recognizing we've got big private capital markets and ultimately that's going to be the key to getting credit flowing again.

Do you see what he's saying? The Japanese model didn't work, but we're going to follow that model anyway due to "cultural" differences.

He's telling you his plan isn't going to work.

[yurbud]

1. so he's just jollying them along so they won't get violent as they die?

[Schema Thing]

2. He did not say what you characterize him as saying.

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. I'm awaiting clarification also

At this point, what I see is the classic straw man argument, which is a logical fallacy and is therefore demonstrably false.

[TahitiNut]

9. The invalidity of the logic does NOT necessarily mean the conclusion is false.

That's Logic 101. A logical fallacy speaks solely to the validity of the argument, NOT the truth or falsity of the conclusion.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Could you point out where Obama says "we're goind to follow the Japanese model"

"even although it didn't work" because I fail to see that in your quotation.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. OK.

"They kept on trying to paper over the problems. The markets sort of stayed up because the Japanese government kept on pumping money in."

This is EXACTLY what we're doing now. Nothing in his plan changes that. But again, see what you want to see.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. I see, so you admit he didn't say that

And you claim the current stimulus bill is *exactly* the same as the Japanese model, yet you show no evidence of that either. I'm done with this thread. Thanks for trying.

[Radical Activist]

6. Um. No.

At no point does he say he's adopting the Japanese model that he criticized. He said we're not going to nationalize the banks like Sweden, but we ARE going to apply regulation (tough love) that Japan didn't do. So he's pushing for something in between the two and letting us know that if we want the Swedish model it's going to take a major shift in public attitudes.

[chollybocker]

8. He's not saying at all what you claim.

He's saying, Let's look at previous models, then take a pinch of this and a soupçon of that, and come up with a uniquely American solution. He is dismissing the extremes of both the Japanese and Swedish solutions, because they are not practical for America.

[Avalux]

10. That's not what he's saying.

The Japanese model didn't work and the Swedish model wouldn't work with our thousands of banks. He is merely saying that he has to do it differently than both Japan and Sweden.

I get the feeling you want him to fail. Do you?

[deaniac21]

11. Methinks thou misunderstandth...

[MrsCorleone]

12. What Radical Activist and Avalux said. He's not going with the Japanese method. nt