Obama on Nationalizing Banks and the Stimulus

[elleng]

'Obama spoke about temporary nationalization during an interview Friday with a group of columnists he had invited to travel with him. The journalists on Air Force One were Ron Brownstein, Bob Herbert, Clarence Page, Kathleen Parker and me. . .

Tomorrow’s column has more on our interview with Obama. But the president’s comments on the banks play right into an ongoing debate -- see the excellent piece in today’s Post by Matthew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini -- so I’m posting Obama’s answers in detail because his words will influence the outcome of this debate and how the markets respond.'


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/02/obama_on_nationalizing_banks_a.html#more

Dionne

[bendogood]

1. Buyer beware…

I am sure the whole nationalization debate will have strong objection because of the state it’s left the UK in, nationalized bank still failing, staff still with HUGE bonuses and £69bn ($130bn) headache for the tax payer…with the deficit large enough to buy Africa 12 times over and still have change for the eastern block I am not sure anyone will be willing to risk the mistakes made across the pond.

I am not sure Obama will risk his reputation so willingly, the result of this crisis on brown, an approval rating that is a family of 3 in Chingford, Essex. I am not sure it will be a debate with real world outcomes, just a way to say,

“After a healthy and lengthy discussion with many members of the banking sector and senior party officials, from both side of the isle, now just isn’t the time, …blah blah”

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this a vanity exercise, it good people are talking about all aspects of fixing the economy, but Obama isn’t stupid and I am very sure there is no real intention to nationalize anything.

[elleng]

2. I think there's no 'intention' to do anything

in particular at the moment: SEARCHING.

[Demeter]

3. The Outcry: "Nationalize the Failed Banks, Already!" Is Being Heard

The question is: are American intellectuals going to have to keep shouting prompts to the Administration and building public pressure, or are the Obama team going to do the correct things because they want to?

Too much of the first sounds a lot like Rome's last days.

We voted for Obama because we believed he would do the hard jobs: prosecute, reveal, reverse BushCo. And his tentative steps in that direction are good, but are always offset by some seriously bad and scary swings to the opposite persuasion.