Yawn! Obama sworn in

[pywong]

US Senate confirms Geithner as treasury secretary

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner won confirmation Monday as President Barack Obama's treasury secretary despite personal tax lapses that turned more than a third of the Senate against him. Obama immediately put him to work fixing an economy in "dangerous jeopardy."

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/i...sury-secretary

During the confirmation hearings, Geithner charged China with manipulating the Yuan. Looks like he is displaying an early talent for putting his foot in his mouth.

Here is the fallout from Davos:

Geithner’s Yuan Call Rejected as ‘Horrible Advice’

By Simon Kennedy

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s call for China to loosen restrictions on its currency was criticized by economists and policy makers at the World Economic Forum.

Allowing the yuan to strengthen would be “economic suicide” amid an economic slump, Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley’s Asia Chairman, told a panel in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday. “I’ve never seen an economy in recession voluntarily raise their currency. It’s horrible advice.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...refer=currency

[pywong]

http://anilnetto.com/neo-liberal-economics/california-is-broke-the-us-is-busted/

California is broke; “The US is busted”

That’’s right, the state of California - which has one of the biggest economies in the world - has no money left to pay income tax refunds; so now it is planning to refund taxpayers with IOUs.
........

Is It Time to Bail Out of America?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

All the Obama regime sees is a “credit problem.” But the crisis goes far beyond banks’ bad investments. The United States is busted. Many of the state governments are busted. Homeowners are busted. Consumers are busted. Jobs are busted. Companies are busted.

And Obama thinks he has the money to fight wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01292009.html

[pywong]

Don't be too taken up with Obama's act. It is all for show. He is too beholden to the bankers. So far, his actions have been focused on saving them

It’s not the bonus money. It’s the principle
By Joe Nocera

JAN 31 — How else to describe what US President Obama did on Thursday, his ninth day in office? Angered by news that Wall Street was doling out US$18.4 billion (RM65 billion) in bonuses for 2008 — “the sixth-largest haul on record,” according to a front-page story in The New York Times, despite billions upon billions in losses — the president called reporters in and looked sternly into the cameras. Then he unloaded on Wall Street executives, just as President John F. Kennedy once unloaded on the country’s steel barons.

“That is the height of irresponsibility,” Obama said sharply, referring to the bonuses. “It is shameful.” Wall Street, he said, was coming to the government for badly needed help — which taxpayers were providing because otherwise “the entire system could come down on top of our heads” — and the government had a right to expect in return that Wall Street would “show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.” After going on in this vein for a while, he slapped around Citigroup for agreeing to take that new US$50 million corporate jet after agreeing to a huge bailout in November. The government’s demand that the plane be cancelled should have been unnecessary “because they should know better,” he scolded.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/i...-the-principle

[pywong]

First, it was the Treasury Secretary with a tax problem. Now the Health and Human Services Secretary also have a tax problem. Looks like a pattern here. And these people would not have been found out if they had not been nominated for such important govt positions.


Daschle Fixes Tax ‘Issues,’ Has Obama’s ‘Confidence’

By Robert Greene and Hans Nichols

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Tom Daschle paid back taxes and interest to fix “issues” identified when preparing to be President Barack Obama’s nominee as Health and Human Services Secretary, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

Obama “has confidence” that Daschle, 61, “is the right person to lead the fight for health-care reform” and will be confirmed, Burton said in a statement today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...I1E&refer=home

[pywong]

Looks like Obama is using the principle of "It takes a thief to catch a thief"

From The Times
February 4, 2009
Two Obama nominees - Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer - quit over tax problems

More…

[pywong]

Don’t expect any sweeping changes at CFTC if Gensler gets confirmed on Monday!

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt...44832020090313

WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - The Senate Agriculture Committee plans to vote on Monday on President Barack Obama's nomination of Gary Gensler for chairman of the agency that oversees U.S. futures markets, said a spokesman on Friday.

The panel was expected to approve the nomination, which would allow a Senate vote on putting Gensler in charge of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Gensler, 51, is a former Goldman Sachs executive and was a high-ranking Treasury official during the Clinton era.

During a hearing on Feb. 25, Gensler said he supported position limits on physical commodities, that clearing should be mandatory for standardized over-the-counter derivatives and that he opposed a merger of the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator of equities markets.

-END-

[pywong]

Bilderbergers excite conspiracists

[ntbn]

Is Obama actually that good?

In my opinion, there's nothing special about him. He comes to me as a NATO person (No Action Talk Only)

USA has got few hundred million people, can't they find a better person for the job?

Actually I wasn't at all excited about Obama winning the election & becomming President. Again there's no good competitors.

[pywong]

Is Obama actually that good?

In my opinion, there's nothing special about him. He comes to me as a NATO person (No Action Talk Only)

USA has got few hundred million people, can't they find a better person for the job?

Actually I wasn't at all excited about Obama winning the election & becomming President. Again there's no good competitors.

The selectors are the few bankers, not the few hundred million people. The criteria for selection is someone who listens to the bankers. So far, Obama is performing up to the expectations.....of the bankers.

[ntbn]

Obama - another flop.

I don't expect to see much from him.