Obama and the Economy

As I watched Barack Obama's stunning speech to the joint session last night, I couldn't help but feel a little distrought. This President has been the foremost symbol of the American Left and his spectacular campaign finally brought the overdue end of Reaganism and Neo-Conservatism to a spectacular implosion. Social-Democrats and Progressives (like myself) had given in to the platitudes and theatre of electoral-politics, and had hope for a new birth of Progressivism within the United States. That hope climbed to great heights throughout the campaign and into the Inaugural. I must confess, President Obama's masterful oratory and skillful wordcraft has given me chills more than a few times. But since his taking of Office, the President has backed away from the Left and has filled his administration with Clintonian deregulator's and centrists of the highest order. Cringe-worthy names like Larry Summers and Paul Volcker were given powerful advisory positions; the embrace of half-hearted and poorly screened nominations and the further pounding of war drums for an unwinable escalation in Afghanistan proved rather dissalusioning.

That's not to say all has been disheartening. The President has closed Guantanamo, he has openly condemned torcher, he has expanded women's rights within the workplace, and has increased child healthcare coverage. But on the issue of our day (the failing of the Free Market) Mr. Obama has shown very little command or certainty of action. His woefully inadequate choice of Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury, being the first among many stumbles during his term's early days. Followed by a botched attempt at bi-partisanship (courtesy of the Republican Congressional Cretins) and a non-plan for starting up the Banks, has left the nation in malaise.
All of this aside, this Presidency's success and our economic recovery are still not out of reach. I still have great faith in President Obama and his potential to reach historic heights. I believe that he is a man of incredible intellect and a profound leader. The type of figure destined perhaps for Presidential grandeur. It should also be noted that he is uncannily practical and fantastically open minded. So it is with great faith that I offer these suggestions for kickstarting our economy:

First off, bite the bullet and fire Tim Geithner. This man's nearly scandalous record with the New York Reserve's should have been a warning from the start, not to mention his extraordinary lack of charisma and gravitas. He was/is a poor choice, and should be replaced. There are many incredible economists that our preferable, perhaps FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair or Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman (my personal preferance). We need a salesperson, as well as an intellectual in this position and I think that the current Secretary is neither.

Secondly, Obama's stimulus package was good...but nearly half the size it should have been. Not to mention the fact that it was nearly 40% unnecesary tax cuts. Bipartisanship is a pipe dream, with the mental dwarves running the GOP merely playing the role of obstructionists. The President should pass the proper stimulus, Republicans be damned. If they fillibuster, the minority party would drive themselves into electoral oblivion by preventing recovery. The current stimulus package, although too small, is very effective in many regards. But HE MUST return for a second stimulus. Leave out tax breaks and increase infastructure money by about ten times. This would effectively create an effective stimulus, reaching somewhere around the 2 trillion dollar zone, creating the correct amount of government spending percentage in the GDP, and provide the necessary boost.

Thirdly, the mortgage plan the administration has outlined is very good. But once again, not good enough. The government payoff of mortgages and the oversight of the housing industry is a good start for future crisis prevention, but does not allow for a kickstart of the housing industry. Instead of simply allowing the group in the mortgage hole to refinance, the Government should allow for refinancing for everyone. Thus preventing accusations of class warfare AND boosting the housing industry.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the administration has utterly failed to outline a major reform of the banks. We have simply continued to pour more and more money in the Banking system without a clear guarentee of loaning or credit flow, as well as an outrageous lack of oversight with a bunch of hollow tough talk. The government continues to hand out money without seperating the bad assets and we continue to stagnate. In order to allow for true banking reform the Fed has to be able to temperarily take ownership of failing banks. This way we are guarenteed credit flow as well as accountabillity within the bank itself. The government can then seperate good assets from bad assets. The bad assets would then be placed in a "Bad Bank" and auctioned off to investors. This would then create money that could then be payed back to the taxpayers. This plan worked for the Swedes and it can work for us.

But thus far President Obama has merely offered us half-baked "Centrist" solutions for the economic meltdown. These were the sort of ineffective reforms that gave Japan their "Lost Decade." We can only hope that this President will offer us the dramatic reform we need, and the reform that will match his awe inspiring rhetoric.

Building A Coalition

Over the last several weeks, Israel's true face has been exposed to the world.The ghetto that the Israelis(ironically enough)have created for the Palestinians in Gaza has been succesfully transformed into a bloodbath. The rising number of civilian deaths and the disproportionate response of Israel to the threat posed by Hamas has shown, that Israel is no beacon of freedom and equality as the Western "intellegentsia" would have us believe.

It's hard to remove oneself enough to defend the actions taken against the Palestinians.The barrage of images fed into our homes of dead children,and destroyed schools are not the images of a respected nation fighting to defend itself,but that of an imperialist proxy state,seeking to impose the will of a superpower to which they owe their allegiance.How can we allow these actions to continue?Embarrasingly enough the President has remained silent. George W. Bush has turned a blind eye to this issue,at best. At the very worst the president has been complicit in this inhumane violence. He has decided to"Let Obama,handle it." and expressed his "support of Israel's defense".The blood of these civilians, now...also rests on his hands. This all seem like a strange case of deja vu. Not to mention, the virtual absence of a ceasefire agreement.Afterall we had seen a foreshadowing of these atrocities;with the Israeli action in 2007 in Lebanon. And as Naomi Klein outlines in her recent article of The Nation, Israel has not been condemned by the West;but rewarded: "Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against Lebanon and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive measures--quite the opposite. The weapons and $3 billion in annual aid that the US sends to Israel is only the beginning. Throughout this key period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies. For instance, in 2007 Israel became the first non-Latin American country to sign a free-trade deal with Mercosur. In the first nine months of 2008, Israeli exports to Canada went up 45 percent. A new trade deal with the European Union is set to double Israel's exports of processed food. And on December 8, European ministers "upgraded" the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a reward long sought by Jerusalem. " We have a humanitarian crisis at our hands and it's time that we do,what should have been done years ago. We must hold Israel accountable for it's treatment and abuse of the Palestinian people.

We have the tools at our hands to bring justice to this region.The two state solution is possible if only there is a global outcry.The pressure must be put upon European and U.S. governments to force sanctions upon Israel,and condemn their use of violence and millitarism. This can be accomplished only by the formation of a widespread movement commited to seeking social justice and solidarity with the Palestinians ,similar to the movement forged in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Once public sentiment is swayed, we may be able to produce real change in the Middle East. Sanctions MUST be the method of choice. Only with the economic lifeblood of Israel on the line, will an honest dialogue be able to emerge.A dialogue that will offer the two state solution, we have so long hoped for.

I would like to further conclude that my criticism of Israel's government is not a criticism of Israel's right to exist. I strongly support the existence of Israel itself. My criticism,rather, is upon the use of Israel to further a neo-colonial agenda,in the name of the U.S.' millitary industrial complex ,and it's desire to dominate the Middle East. In fact a growing number of Israeli Jews, share my sentiments. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ,the violence must end.