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Geither-Summers duo a bit neo-Hooverite?
Which raises the question, can the Bobbsey twins, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Team Obama economic czar Larry Summers, save the economy?
Paul Krugman might have more reason to say No.
The WaPost has a semi-puff job piece on the two
Among the most interesting tidbits?
Despite the GOP, on the one hand, saying that FDR made the Depression worse, and Paul Krugman on the other hand saying the Obama stimulus is too small, Summers-Geithner have led the "budget hawk" fight inside Team Obama.
But, due to the two-party duopoly, it's going to be hard to clear the two corpses out of the way.
Paul Krugman might have more reason to say No.
The WaPost has a semi-puff job piece on the two
Among the most interesting tidbits?
Despite the GOP, on the one hand, saying that FDR made the Depression worse, and Paul Krugman on the other hand saying the Obama stimulus is too small, Summers-Geithner have led the "budget hawk" fight inside Team Obama.
Meeting in January on the eighth floor of the transition team's office in downtown Washington, Geithner pressed the incoming president to commit to cutting the deficit to 3 percent of the economy over the next five years, which would keep the nation's debt roughly in line with normal economic growth. Summers quickly backed him.Well, just as the current economic clusterfuck is putting paid to traditional conservativism, even thought the GOP doesn't see itself as a fish just shot in a barrel, if the two-headed Summers-Geithner monster is wrong, neoliberalism might be on life support itself.
But, due to the two-party duopoly, it's going to be hard to clear the two corpses out of the way.
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Certainly the deficit can not grow faster than the economy indefintely even if that is the result of doing good things.
Every other member of the cabinet will and should propose good things he or she wants done.There has to be someone who's assigned the responsibility for saying "this is all the good things we can afford this year". Currently that's Geithner. Obama's job is to decide when to take Geithner's advice-but he can't do that unless Geithner gives him the advice in the first place.
Krugman probably has a better idea than Geithner of the point where the growth of the deficit must stop.He's the Noble Prize winner. But even Krugman would draw the line somewhere
March 4, 2009 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink