Obama’s Two-Year Economic Report Card

[Better Believe It]

Obama’s Two-Year Economic Report Card
By Nomi Prins
December 31, 2010

There are two potential ways to measure the economic performance of a political leader. One is by the profitability, stock prices and executive bonuses of a nation’s corporations. The other is by the financial condition of the majority of its population. Since he came to power, President Obama and his economic team have propped up the former and failed miserably to aid the latter. (For the record, ever since the first paragraph of Obama’s pre-primary website economics plan put free markets before people, this is where we were going, but it still hurts to get there.)

The S&P 500 index is up 50% since Obama took office. But unemployment remains higher than it was when he entered the White House, home foreclosures continue to mount to the detriment of borrowers and entire neighborhoods, health insurance companies responded to his health care “reform” bill by raising premiums, and the financial system’s largest banks continue to prosper in the wake of a multi-trillion dollar bailout with no strings attached to share their subsidizations with the rest of American citizens. To top it all off, as he approaches the midpoint of his first, and likely last, term, Obama bowed to the pressure of the Republican Party and extended tax cuts for the richest Americans in order to be able to also extend them for everyone else more sorely in need. There’s only so long you can blame another administration for your actions.

Obama’s economic policies have either been continuations of his predecessor’s, as in the case of taxes and bank bailouts, or bills so watered down to appease corporations, notably banks and insurance companies, that they are ineffective. In the process, he continues to alienate his supporters—individual voters, not the companies that funded his candidacy—leaving their economy in shambles.

Obama’s economic priorities are primarily benefitting a small and influential part of the population, but they have not provided the rest of the country with anything to be optimistic about this holiday season. In that regard, he’s more Scrooge than George Bailey.

Read the full article and recap of President Obama's economic performance at:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_two-year_economic_report_card_20101231/?ln

[truedelphi]

1. And what is especially upsetting about this report is that it is not

Obama's own money or the stock brokers' own money that has propped up Wall Street - it is Main Street's money. For which Main Street is getting exactly NADA.

And the eleven to thirty trillion bucks leaked out the Back Door of the Federal reserve through the Partnership of Bernanke and Geithner has helped companies like Goldman Sachs buy an entire nature preserve in Patagonia. How does that help our economy?

[midnight]

2. It makes you wonder why Elizabeth Warren's office will not

be open for business until July 2011?

[truedelphi]

6. Midnight, i watched a wonderful French film on the indie channel

Cannot remember the name. But the film followed a fictional French version of E. Warren. She made her ascendancy to the top spot in financial oversight inside the French government, with more than a few worries about her safety.

But then the Powers that be (Parisian-style) realized that if they were to create a special agency for her to oversee that she would be spending so much time on moving into new quarters and then dealing with new staffing and other matters, that they would yet more time to start sweeping things under the rug. And by the time she was able to get back to work, the government had eliminated any powers this new agency held.

Doesn't sound to different from what we have here, does it?

[ProSense]

3. Summary: President Obama hasn't done shit and don't expect him to

Idiotic piece

What Obama effectively did was adopt George W. Bush’s tax policy in total rather than come up with a better deal...

Complete bullshit.

The payroll tax cuts and other stimulus provisions have nothing to do with Bush.

To fix this problem, Obama has just created a $14 billion principal reduction program – something that should have been done on a far grander scale about two years ago. It remains to be seen whether this will be any more effective than the larger initial program, since participation is equally voluntary on the part of lenders, notably the biggest five banks that control two-thirds of the nation’s mortgages. I’m not holding my breath.

Should have been done, but don't expect it to work? Go right ahead, hold your breath.

[bvar22]

4. Sums it up well.

K&R for wider exposure.

---bvar22,
a Working Class American

[girl gone mad]

5. Prins is very smart.

I hope she is right that there will not be a 4th Bush term.