Have You Told Obama What You Think of His Economic Team?

[NashVegas]

Throughout the primary season, I saw very many people posting along the lines of, 'no, he doesn't have much experience but that's great - he's going to take his orders from US!'

So, I must ask: how many Obama supporters & donors have written to his campaign to voice their disapproval of his economic team?

Naomi Klein, the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism writes:

And here there are more problems, because Obama--who taught law at the University of Chicago for a decade--is thoroughly embedded in the mind-set known as the Chicago School.
...
The irony is that there is absolutely no reason for this backsliding. The movement launched by Friedman, introduced by Ronald Reagan and entrenched under Clinton, faces a profound legitimacy crisis around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than at the University of Chicago itself. In mid-May, when university president Robert Zimmer announced the creation of a $200 million Milton Friedman Institute, an economic research center devoted to continuing and augmenting the Friedman legacy, a controversy erupted. More than 100 faculty members signed a letter of protest. "The effects of the neoliberal global order that has been put in place in recent decades, strongly buttressed by the Chicago School of Economics, have by no means been unequivocally positive," the letter states. "Many would argue that they have been negative for much of the world's population."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. It's only polite to do a search before starting a new thread. This is already

being discussed by one of your cohorts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3468341

[babylonsister]

2. While I respect Naomi Klein, no one knows how this

will shake out-it's a work in progress. We all might be pleasantly surprised, and for every negative article you can dig up, I bet I could dig up something positive. Here's an interview done yesterday.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121365641014879041.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Barack Obama on Economics:
'We're Going Through a Big Shift'
June 17, 2008

Fabrizio Costantini for the Wall Street Journal

Barack Obama explained why he thinks government action on the economy is needed right now: "We're going through a big shift from a national economy that was also dominant across the globe to a truly global economy in which we're seeing competition from every corner."

Excerpts from Bob Davis and Amy Chozick's interview with Barack Obama on his campaign bus in Flint, Mich. Some questions have been paraphrased.

WSJ: I wanted to talk about long-term economic growth, sort of following on your speech. I noticed that in an interesting way you use Lincoln, FDR and JFK, heroes in many ways. Maybe you can talk to me a little bit about your view of the government's role in economic growth.

Sen. Obama: This dates back even further, to Alexander Hamilton. The strength of our economy has always been the dynamism of the private sector, but at critical junctures, particularly when we're at a transformative time, say the shift from agricultural era to the industrial era, where you've got some broad-based investment that needs to be made, they're very expensive. They're difficult for any private investor to want to make on their own. …

I think Lincoln's Homestead Act or the land-grant college system was a great example of opening up the West. It's still the American people and business taking advantage of these opportunities, but you needed the government to help get them started.

Obviously, infrastructure is a classic example of these types of investments, whether it is the interstate highway system or the Internet. I think education is another example, whether it's the creation of public schools or the GI Bill after World War II. I think now we need to be thinking about similar investments in critical areas like the ones I listed today.

more...

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Thank you Sis. We can always count on you to counter the b.s.

:hi:

[4themind]

13. Thanks as well

He's always said he's willing to listen to alternate viewpoints and that can mean viewpoints that disagree even with what many of us may believe. Ultimately though his advisor's(and I would say they range across the ideological spectrum) matter only much as they shape the policy that he offers and from Sis's interview and his speech on the housing crisis I get the sense that he understands and explains the theoretical underpinnings (going back to hamilton) that underlies how the republicans have tried to define the free market and we can redefine it (even if he uses the same words, he may have a vastly different understanding of what they mean, or he's trying to change it in the american psyche). He deserves accountability and I'll be watchful and open minded as to what he will do in the future, but, given the relative alternatives, and my desperate need for an immediate change in current fiscal policy, even if it's not my ideal (the urgency of now), as of now at least I'm still willing to give him a shot, and judge him on his governance, that's what elections are all about in the end, although we all have different risks we're willing to take based upon what we see and what we value/believe.

[jonnyblitz]

12. wow, I can't believe you used the far right Wall Street Journal,

the ones that cheerleaded and championed Reagan's trickle down ,supply side economics in the 80's to refute Naomi Klein on a progressive discussion board and did it with a straight face. Now I have seen EVERYTHING. :puke:

[babylonsister]

14. Get over it; it's an interview; how they gonna skew that? You

might even attempt to read it, though probably not. He's my candidate even if he's not yours, and I'll defend him, thank you very much. :eyes:

[rodeodance]

22. it seem any jounal/site is now acceptable as long as it support

Obama and his supporters here on DU now.

[LowerManhattanite]

3. The passive-aggressive shit is kind of cute here...

...but this too, shall pass. :)

[Lerkfish]

5. yeah, a bit of "consider the source" is always a good idea.

[Marie26]

6. Article: "Obama's Chicago Boys". Source: Naomi Klein, The Nation.

Doesn't get much more progressive than that.

[Lerkfish]

10. I'm referring to the OP

not the article cited.

[Marie26]

4. Why didn't Naomi Klein write this article earlier? nt

[xchrom]

7. obama's team has been discussed her before.

but obama has won -- and now there has to be some sttempt at dissecting what it will mean.

what it won't mean is a radical departure from the past -- but what does then that leave us?

there are a lot of possibilities.

[Marie26]

9. Yeah, it has

I was yelling about this months ago & kept wondering what Naomi Klein thought about it. Now we know, but it's too late. It's done. There are a lot of possibilities, though - mostly involving pressure from the blogosphere to keep Obama from going too far right.

[NashVegas]

11. Oughtn't People Hold His Feet to the Fire?

David Sirota defines defines populist movements in his new book, "The Uprising," as issues that has broad support & agreeance among the general populace, but politicians and press give the short shrift to.

The policies associated with the Chicago school are pretty much universally loathed. There's never been a better time to break away.

[Lerkfish]

21. pure motives, eh?

:sarcasm:

your "concern" is duly noted.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. I'd like him to rehire Samantha Powers.

Other than that, I've got no problems with his economic team. You?

[gcomeau]

16. Have we told you what we think of your continued attempts to find fault with Obama?

If not, that's an oversight right there. Knock it off already, primary's over. He has advisors with lots of viewpoints, that's who he is.

We. Like. that.

[NashVegas]

18. Really? Who?

In the advisors that have been named so far offers a counter-weight?

[Lerkfish]

17. hey! have you heard the primaries are over?

go back to hillaryis44 or whatever.

[Solon]

19. While I don't like Obama that much, why don't we wait until after the election to pressure him...

to get rid of these assholes?

[Shakespeare]

20. I'm sorry you're so bitter.

Here, have a hug. :hug:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. Bless her heart.

[RichardRay]

23. I approve heartily of his economic team for its diversity

and range of opinion and stance. Especially in an area like economics it does one little good to listen to only one kind of idea.

Now, that said, was there an attack you wanted to make? Because this certainly reads like a thinly disguised effort to tar Obama with a brush that doesn't actually reach to him.

[NashVegas]

25. In What Ways Is It Diverse?

I just don't see it.