(email exhange)
Hopefully it’s something like 3 steps forward and only 1 or 2 steps back…
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 1:29 AM, Scott wrote:
>
> Looks like Orszag’s the man to get the long run budget “under control”
> and this is why Obama waited till Tuesday to talk about it in detail. Bad
> news–the fiscal gap and generational accounting come to the White
> House (Orszag already incorporated them into CBO reports). As I said
> before, they may never get to the “long run” with this approach.
>
Orszag expected to join Obama team Tuesday
Two sources close to the transition tell CNN that on Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama will officially unveil Peter Orszag as his nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget at a press conference in Chicago.
Obama hinted at this at an event Monday, when he suggested his Tuesday event would focus on finding cuts in the federal budget to help dig the nation out of the fiscal crisis.
“Full recovery will not happen immediately,” Obama told reporters. “And to make the investments we need, we’ll have to scour our federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well, something I will be discussing further tomorrow.”
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Yes, “hopefully,” but I doubt it. The notion of “fiscal responsibility” is too deeply ingrained in the Obama team. It will limit the size of the eventual stimulus (to a few percent of GDP, which is probably insufficient), which will be reduced by concomitant spending cuts.
By the way, it appears that the dollar’s rally is over. The Fed has effectively killed it. The good news is, they will make money on their forex position. The bad news is, decline in Americans’ standard of living vis-a-vis the rest of the world.
Hey, but at least taxpayers are getting “payback,” right?
Maybe they’ll divvy up the Fed’s trading profit and send us all a check!
Comments from Obama press conference today:
Obama said Orszag and Nabors would be charged with going through the federal budget “page by page, line by line†to develop a budget that would eliminate waste and increase government efficiency.
“If we are going to make the investments we need, we also have to be willing to shed the spending that we don’t need,†he said. “In these challenging times, when we’re facing both rising deficits and a shrinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It’s a necessity.â€ÂÂ
Obama stressed the need to set up a long-term plan to reduce what he called the nation’s structural deficit once an economic recovery was “well under way†to avoid leaving “a mountain of debt for the next generation.†Still, as was the case during the campaign, Obama offered few examples, citing the need to reduce health-care costs and end wasteful government subsidies in industries like agriculture.
Bottom line appears to be that this guy will stimulate cautiously (roll out over several years) because deficit hawks are firmly in control.
Nearly 63 million people voted for this guy thinking, change, and many from the disaffected middle class and lower classes. They won’t get it.
And your the type that would complain if they hung you with a new rope!
my advice- see the glass as half full and the gas tank as half empty.
thanksgiving riddle for the kids-
How do you keep a turkey in suspense?
Answer:
I’ll tell you tomorrow…
(fyi, only my jokes allowed on this website 😉
Okay. Are you buying stocks, then?
moot point- no investment funds!
otherwise, probably yes, scaling in slowly
How do you keep a turkey in suspense? I’ll tell you at Christmas.
I’ll tell you after Jan 20
You callin’ me a turkey?
gobble gobble