Should Obama get Advice from Bill Clinton on the Economy ?

[JI7]

there are criticisms of Clintonomics but i think we can all agree that the Clinton years were mostly successful when it came to the economy.

What would Bill Clinton do if he was in office now with the same things going on ?

[depakid]

1. Clinton era deregulation set up the financial meltdown!

and at any rate it's moot.

The Clinton/Rubinites ARE the economic advisors.

[ibegurpard]

2. indeed

[JI7]

3. it was Bush who ruined the economy

[depakid]

13. err... you need to look back at the record

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm–Leach–Bliley_Act

Clinton admits as much:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/09/bill-clinton-re.html

(Note: not all of it was Clinton's doing- he had a veto overriden by Democrats on making it easier to commit securities fraud)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Securities_Litigation_Reform_Act

[Name removed]

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[MadHound]

5. Oh God no!

Geez, it was Clinton and his buddies like Summer that helped pave the way for this mess. After all, it was the Clinton administration that deregulated the financial industry, even more so than Reagan and Bush.

Clinton frankly got lucky with the economy. The tech boom took off and he was lucky enough to be the one along for the ride. When the tech sector went bust, his administration started inflating the housing and real estate bubble, which is what popped and why we're in this mess.

[jobycom]

6. He should get all the advice he can. nt

[mmonk]

7. This is Clintonomics.

The whole freaking team is there.

[RandomThoughts]

8. Without secondaries, it is irrelevant.

I often mention intent and effect. But there also has to be ripple effect or resonance wave. So even effects have to cause effects, or other intents that then cause effects.

[JI7]

11. it's not, Obama has not been as pro free trade as Clinton, Clinton was all about globalization

he still is

[John Q. Citizen]

9. I sincerely hope not. Privitization and globalization have cost us citizens dearly.

[JI7]

10. Clinton was far more free trade than Obama, yet Clinton years were great on economy

[Name removed]

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[doc03]

23. So in addition to wanting to suspend the !st Amendment

you also think sending all our jobs to China is a good thing! Come on admit it you are Dick Cheney aren't you?

[Name removed]

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[mmonk]

24. Not at all. Those countries debt is tranferred to the corporations.

That is what is meant by forgiving their debt. The structure becomes the few ruling an impoverished many. The country is then exploited but does not benefit with improved infrastructure nor a middle class.

[sandnsea]

12. Whose economic strategy do you think this is?

Almost everything going on in that White House has Clinton written all over it. Of course Obama is getting advise from the Clintons.

[JI7]

15. OBama himself doesn't seem to be on that side

he hasn't made the big mvoes like welfare reform and nafta .

so far it looks like they are trying to pull him in certain directions but Obama isn't a believer in that the way clinton was so you don't see him going all the way as clinton might have.

[sandnsea]

16. Sticking to the economy

We're still dinking around with China, still letting corporations threaten to take their marbles and go to bermuda, still letting countries get away with human rights and labor violations. I do like that Obama has finally challenged Guatemala on labor violations, but we need to be doing that with almost every country starting with Mexico.

It's also really typical of Clinton policy to miss the truly little guy and throw a bone to public opinion. Already, we've lost the COBRA subsidy, the extra $25 a week unemployment, the $8,000 homeowner down payment, I can't remember what all. Those were so much more useful than 2 years of unemployment benefits but that's waht got all the attention so nobody fought for this other help. That's what Clinton did, let the edges be nibbled away until policy wasn't as beneficial as it could have been.

And education reform will be the equivalent of welfare reform under Clinton, although welfare reform has added many benefits that weren't as prevalent before like child care. I think it was clear we had to have SCHIP too, if moms were going to be required to get off Medicaid when they went to work.

I'd rather have Clinton's policies than Bush's, but I had hoped Obama would listen to people a little further left.

[Radical Activist]

14. No, not really.

We're in a different situation. The tech bubble isn't happening. We need deficit spending to stimulate the economy right now. We don't need cuts to welfare, we can go without balanced budgets for a few more years, we don't need another NAFTA, and we definitely don't need more deregulation of the lending industry like we got from Clinton. Clinton slowed the pace of how quickly the standard of living was declining for the average American. Now we need to reverse it.

The key to the economy is job creation through building a new green energy economy. Clinton's efforts on energy were disappointing, to put it kindly. Most of the positive things Clinton did were wiped out within 6 months after he left office. I expect more than that from Obama.

[sandnsea]

20. We need a green bubble like the tech bubble

Not really a bubble, we need to end bubble economies.

But Obama is doing the exact same thing with green energy as Clinton did with the internet and computers. Clinton put tons of money into schools and cities for computers and internet, put money into colleges for job training, lots of grants to expand ISPs, etc etc. That really helped fuel the demand to create a base for tech businesses. We even got contracts to put computers in the schools. And what about the Telecommunications Act? How much did that fuel tech advances in the 90s? He also pushed more home loans for minorities, which was part of the real estate economy during Bush.

If he hadn't deregulated, maybe the stock market would have grown at a more rational pace with the growth of the internet and we wouldn't have had the pop. And if he hadn't opened banks up to investing, maybe we wouldn't have had the real estate crash either. But those seem to be separate economic issues than what he did to build an economy.

[Name removed]

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[eShirl]

19. "What would Bill Clinton do if he was in office now with the same things going on ?"

He'd be making better speeches.

[doc03]

21. That's all we need is advice from Clinton. Clinton sat back

a watched while illegal foreign imports put 40 steel companies into bankruptcy and thousands of us lost our jobs and had our pension plans dumped on the PBGC. That is one thing I will give Cheney credit for he convinced Bush to put sanctions on illegal steel imports for national security reasons.

[kentuck]

22. He shouldn't but

Bill is probably already his number one adviser?

[saorsa]

26. Who Let the Dogs Out?

Holy Freaking Frijole......if you don't know history the world is a mystery