"So why exactly is the Obama administration waiting to act?"

[kentuck]

By his nature, Barack Obama is a very careful and cautious man, quite the opposite of George W Bush. But, do you think he is moving too slow? Or is he moving just about right? It is no small accomplishment that the financial and banking system did not collapse. In hindsight, I'm sure it will be seen as one of the great accomplishments of his Administration, whether we agree or not. Think about what was left on his plate as opposed to what was left on the plate of George W Bush? It's too bad that Barack Obama was not elected President in 2000. Think of what we could have accomplished as a nation.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/opinion/15wed1.html?ref=opinion

<snip>

Unemployment is rising. Foreclosures are surging. Lending is still constrained. So why exactly is the Obama administration waiting to act?

It is true that more time is needed to show results for policies that are currently in place, including stimulus spending, foreclosure relief and the bank rescue. But it is also clear that joblessness and defaults are worse now than was assumed when those policies were formed. So the need for more federal help is all but inevitable, as are political fights over renewed aid. President Obama may want to avoid those battles until health reform passes, but he still should lay the groundwork in three main areas:

<snip>
STIMULUS SPENDING One of the arguments against another round of stimulus is that more deficit spending might spook bond investors, forcing up interest rates. The solution to the deficit, however, is not to forgo temporary stimulus in a time of need but to lock in long-term fiscal discipline. The best way for the administration and its Congressional allies to do that is to credibly pay for health care reform. That, more than anything, would show that the budget is in responsible hands.

<snip>
FORECLOSURE RELIEF In a recent letter, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Shaun Donovan, the secretary of housing and urban development, summoned the top 25 mortgage servicers to Washington later this month, apparently for a dressing-down over the lack of progress on modifying bad loans. It’s still not clear, however, if Mr. Geithner and Mr. Donovan understand what’s really holding up the show.

<snip>
BANK RESCUE The Obama administration has largely shelved, for now, its plan to finance the purchase of banks’ toxic assets, ostensibly because of the banks’ recent success in raising capital. An alternative explanation is that the banks won’t sell. Recent accounting changes make it less painful for them to keep bad assets on their books. Why admit to losses if you don’t have to?

....more

[babylonsister]

1. So are you insinuating he hasn't acted yet, because

I'd say you were wrong. Can everything be done immediately and everyone will wake up happy? Seems not. That doesn't mean there's nothing going on.

[kentuck]

2. No sister...

I was commenting on the NY Times article that was asking that question. I was curious to what everyone else might think. I know it takes a long time to turn around such a big ship as the government.

[babylonsister]

4. Sorry, kentuck. My only response is

"Everyone's a critic". I suppose that's their jobs, but it sure gets tiresome.They have to fill space but I don't have to like what they fill it with.

[HamdenRice]

3. 1. Fire Geithner 2. Barnstorm the states to get the governors to speed up spending

I don't think he's gonna do another round of stimulus spending because this one isn't even out the door. It hasn't begun to be been spent. There's a risk of overshooting by passing another one when this one hasn't even started.

On edit: Fire Geithner and put in a Treasury secy who will get the 2nd half of the tarp 1 money flowing to small regional banks that actually finance local business.

[zipplewrath]

5. No

He's "acted" alot. I haven't been a big fan of many of those acts, but he has been anything but stationary. Strangely, he has been relatively "stationary" on much of the finacial system, mostly just continuing the TARP approach to things. Many of his actions panned out very small. The foreclosure relief being a prime example. He is pushing hard on health insurance reform, and pushed through the stimulus package (that was hard to call "his" as much as Pelosi's). We won't really know how things pan out on the stimulus package for at least 2 years. And even there, many people aren't talking openingly about what "success" looks like in this area.

[MarjorieG]

6. Some Obama remedy on foreclosure modification, credit card interests have been Congress saying no,

or states using the money differently.

[Romulox]

7. The banks surely got their money RAPIDLY (and more taxpayer $$$ as "bonuses" since then!)