President Obama's re-election economic policy

[CHIMO]

A front page story in Sunday's New York Times gave the country the bad news. President Obama is no longer paying attention to economists and economics in designing economic policy. Instead, he will do what his campaign people tell him will get him re-elected, presumably by getting lots of money from Wall Street.

The article said that President Obama intends to focus on reducing government spending and cutting programmes like social security and Medicare. This is in spite of the fact that: "A wide range of economists say the administration should call for a new round of stimulus spending, as prescribed by mainstream economic theory, to create jobs and promote growth."

In other words, President Obama intends to ignore the path for getting the economy back to full employment that most economists advocate. Instead, he is going to cut government spending – because his chief of staff and former JP Morgan vice president Bill Daley and his top campaign adviser David Plouffe both say this is a good idea.

While people are justified in having little respect for economists – almost the entire profession missed the $8tn housing bubble that crashed the US economy – it is still scary to see that policy will be determined by people with no knowledge of economics whatsoever. After all, do Daley and Plouffe even have a theory as to how cutting government spending could help the economy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/15/president-obama-reelection-economic-policy

[colbertforpresident]

1. He's a sellout

Our country needs drastic changes and the two party system is not working. Our government is corrupt. It's owned by the banking industry and the multinational corporations. Our politicians need to be regulated. Corporate money needs to be removed from politics. It's nothing less than bribery. Obama kept the people in charge that looted our treasury. The republican candidates all suck and are just as bad if not worse. We need big changes America!

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. The American Crash has begun

It will only last about ten more years. That's when we will see a majority of Americans homeless.

During the Great Depression, there were about 125 Million people in America.
In 2011, we have over 300 million.

Real unemployment RIGHT NOW is really about 20%... that is 60 million people.

Sorry to sound pessimistic, I am trying to be a realist. The polar caps are melting... and we are going to have 150 million American unemployed by 2020.

[bhikkhu]

7. Moody's predicts 3% growth next year

on top of the nearly two years of steady (though slow) growth we have had from Obama's policies.

Perhaps it hasn't been fast enough for many, but slow and steady still wins the game over nay repug economic policy.

[DontTreadOnMe]

8. and you BELIEVE Moody's...

the insiders at Moody's are designing the plans to grab the last piece of cake as we speak...

When you finally realize that the entire financial system only WORKS for the insiders... it's too late. It means you were on the outside.

[bhikkhu]

9. I think they are generally reliable on predictions like that

...though, if anything they probably err on the optimistic side, and economists still use 3% as a more or less baseline of what's normal, though it hasn't held true for over a decade.

If they are wrong, and economic growth is 2% or so, that's still very good, still good news, and still better than anything the repugs would be likely to deliver.

[William769]

3. K&R.

[Demeter]

4. And this differs from the past 3 years how?

Obama ne'er met a real economist he couldn't ignore and insult simultaneously. And he sure doesn't ask them for advice.

[polichick]

5. Those damn economists just get in the way!

:sarcasm:

[Demeter]

6. I would hope so!

An advisor that doesn't get in the way of stupid, illegal plans is only a Yes Man, the kind W was famous for.

[Zadoc]

10. His policy is to grab his ankles for the GOP