FDIC's Sheila Bair: Obama's Not Been Served Well By WH Economic Team

[rhombus]

“I think the president’s heart is in the right place, I absolutely do. But the dichotomy between who he selected to run his economic team and what he personally would like them to be doing — I think those are two very different things.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/magazine/sheila-bairs-exit-interview.html?pagewanted=all



What say you? Do you agree?

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. He's not a stupid man, and he selected that team for their beliefs.

Which leaves us where?

[vaberella]

8. Incorrect. He elected the team for their intellect and support of American values.

Not for their bloody beliefs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. The people who LOOTED the treasury are hardly ideals for

'American values' - and if they can't see that the bubble economy - the boom and bust - which somehow always enriches the top 10% while fucking the rest of us is BAD for the long term, you can't say much about their intellect, either.

Those are bullshit terms that can mean whatever you want them to mean - just like Obama, no bedrock principles.

And 'american exceptionalism' and the primacy of Wall Street ARE their beliefs.

[Hawkowl]

11. Yes!

Values of theft, fraud, corruption, and let the rich get richer! And the brilliance to cloak these values with the mythological "Free Markets" and "Free Trade" and trillion dollar bailouts! :puke:

[enough]

9. I think Obama, like many of us, had little interest in economics before he took office.

Given his mental blank slate, he went with the establishment, which is his constant tendency. He's essentially completely at sea on this stuff, and tends to identify with conventional wisdom. This is exactly what we did not and do not need at this point.

[Hawkowl]

12. That is the most generous interpretation

I think I largely agree with you. He was a "mental blank slate" to some extent. We know he taught at the University of Chicago, the holy Mecca of free market theology. I think he must of absorbed a great deal of this fatuous nonsense, to his, and our country's great detriment.

The problem is, Obama is very, very narrow minded. He has refused to even listen to economists with opposing points of view. Even though Nobel economists such as Krugman and Stiglitz have history and reams of data on their side.

Obama is the establishments bitch. And he seems to enjoy it.

[gateley]

2. Agree. At the very least he needs to get additional input from other

sources and then make his decisions.

[MouseFitzgerald]

3. Nonsense

So this really smart guy just happened to accidentally appoint people with the exact opposite view on economics as him?

Obama is a neo-lib, he loves Geithner and Summers. Stop pretending that Obama is so stupid he doesn't even know the beliefs of the people he appoints to be in his cabinet.

[alsame]

4. And he can replace them whenever he wants. Which begs the

question, why doesn't he?

[polichick]

5. Good grief - the team didn't just appear; HE chose them.

[girl gone mad]

6. Agree and have said as much from Day One.

ETA: I also agree with the comments that it is likely Obama is a neoliberal at heart.

[flpoljunkie]

7. An excellent article. Here's the rest of the paragraph you quoted and the following one.

“I think the president’s heart is in the right place, I absolutely do. But the dichotomy between who he selected to run his economic team and what he personally would like them to be doing — I think those are two very different things.” What particularly galls her is that Treasury under both Paulson and Geithner has been willing to take all sorts of criticism to help the banks. But it has been utterly unwilling to take any political heat to help homeowners.

The second key issue for Bair has been dealing with the too-big-to-fail banks. Her distaste for the idea that the systemically important banks can never be allowed to fail is visceral. “I don’t think regulators can adequately regulate these big banks,” she told me. “We need market discipline. And if we don’t have that, they’re going to get us in trouble again.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/magazine/sheila-bairs-exit-interview.html?pagewanted=8&hp

[Fearless]

13. Perhaps he was too young and impressionable to realize their impact...

You think you're in control of what you do and what you believe, but really your peers are very influential.