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Senior administration officials say there is now broad consensus within the White House and the Treasury for the plan advanced by Volcker, who leads an outside economic advisory group for the president. At its heart, Volcker’s plan restricts banks from making speculative investments that do not benefit their customers. He has argued that such speculative activity played a key role in the financial crisis. [Source]
Obviously this is good news, but what I find irritating about it is that the government only starts listening to its voters once the more corrupt option turns out to be untenable. They are making these moves out of necessity now, and that’s great — but it’s too bad they had to drive us right to the edge of the cliff before they thought about backing up.
There are rumors all over the place that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is about gone, and I’ve even heard some gossip indicating that Rahm Emanuel might have to start watching his back. Hey, whatever works. Obama, as is his nature I think, tried to take the fork in the road all year, making nice to his base while actually delivering to his money people, not realizing the two were perpetually in conflict. His failure to make a clear choice, or rather to make the right choice, is what has doomed him everywhere politically.
It will be interesting to see what comes next, whether this is just for show or not.
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Really? Do you really think there is a chance Geithner is on the outs? Any chance Larry Summers will be dumped too?
I do think this is too little too late, but it is better than the alternative.
I had hoped that Volcker (despite his advancing age) would be nominated as Treasury Secretary so I am glad to see Obama finally listening to him.
Curious–does anyone know how tall Paul Volcker is? Obama is fairly tall and he looked to be quite a bit taller than him. Perhaps he can play small forward in the white house games!
Nevermind. I used the wonderful interweb to find the answer to my very important question. Good golly he’s 6′7″! Why that’s probably worth a power forward position among mortals.
It’s a good start. Let’s see if the administration gets Elizabeth Warren front and center as well.
The spending on the pseudo-stimulus last year, (1/3 tax cuts, not enough direct job creation), will restrict President Obama from spending this midterm year on ‘New Deal’ like programs. Hopefully the President displays the political courage to reincarnated FDR and make me wrong.
I meant reincarnate, (gotta love auto word spell on my phone)!
Bears Repeating (from Dec. 14)
“…My best advice for Mr. President is, “Drop the Ivy League.” It’s where he’s done himself the most harm. Especially in Treasury. Let Larry Summers go, and half of the rest of them. Listen to Volcker before old age ruins his faculties. And never forget all those Ivy Leaguers around LBJ, who so KNEW what they were talking about in Southeast Asia; or those around George ElderBush, on whose watch the Cold War ended, only they didn’t even know it was happening; or their fellow clowns in the CIA, who not only missed that India and Pakistan were developing nukes, but brazenly were going on record that these, pardon the expression, gooks, wouldn’t be able to build one for twenty years! And nowadays Gates and Scowcroft and all these other visionaries are looked upon favorably merely because their netherly visions at least weren’t as godawful as Cheney’s or Bolton’s or DuhBush!
“If Obama is taking it painfully slow, perhaps he is looking at the history of JFK’s administration, and trying to avoid a scenario with every major dangerous group extant having it in for him. Some enemies keep close, others keep a close watch on. His biggest problem? The Prez always gets credit for the economy, good or bad, and George W can’t be blamed for the last ten months. The Great Recession, which Herbert Hoover and the Erronious Mellonious had three years to fail at before an election, won’t be emerged from by making the entire country suffer to help Wall Street back into bed because of a nightmare it brought on itself. And in this big business, it’s not really what you do, but what you are perceived to be doing, that matters.
“So I ask, is it unfair to say that thus far Obama can be perceived as having allowed the Ticks to Continue to Wag the Dog? Yes, but he still has time to turn that around…”
Maybe he’s finally beginning.
So, have Timmy and Larry been officially shunted to the kids’ table?
Why couldn’t James Galbraith or Joseph Stiglitz be tapped for the Treasury spot? They’ve published brilliant work about the current situation, and have the skillz needed.
Thank you, Matt, you are our Media and please keep up your excellent work.
Thanks Matt
may not be such good news
the guys who stole the money are out, 14 trillion to wall street
Volker now comes in to put the squeeze on us to pay the bail out
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/58152
Catherine Austin Fitts guest towards end of show
Obama is still an employee of the banksters and goldman
Elisabeth Warren is not being listened to in the slightest
Why should the Federal Reserve International Group listen to Elizabeth Warren, Ron Paul or anyone else? The FED international group has been occupying the U.S. since 1913 in violation of U.S. international law, U.S. v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, Her Tackle, Apparel, and Furniture, Together with Her Cargo, and the Africans Mentioned and Described in the Several Libels and Claims, 40 U.S. 518(1841). They got rid of our currency between 1963 and 1971 after President Kennedy tried to assert his sovereign rights to take control back of our currency and lost his life. We have great transparency, yet Americans are afraid to research and ask their congressman for the executive order, federal laws, studies, hearings, supreme court reviews, which allowed them to reverse President Kennedy’s executive order 11110. Assassination of a president is not a legitimate method to nullify an executive order. We don’t have to wait to audit the Fed, we are afraid of the Fed.