Wednesday, August 25, 2010
With reports of new jobless claims unexpectedly soaring to 500,000, UCubed, a group representing unemployed and underemployed American workers, criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for his lackluster handling of the economy.
Rick Sloan, the group’s acting executive director said:
“The pace of job losses is increasing, and Secretary Geithner doesn’t have a clue on how to end this grave recession. Geithner was delusional then and he’s even worse now.”
Sloan joined a growing chorus of bipartisan critics calling for Geithner to resign his post as the economy appears to be backtracking from previous gains, especially on the job front.
It is becoming increasingly clear that President Obama’s economic team led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Director of the White House National Economic Council Larry Summers are clueless about the worsening U.S. economic picture.
Economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday the current U.S. economy is in a 1930s-style Depression:
“A depression, and not just some garden-variety recession. Such euphoria is human nature and nobody can be blamed for trying to be optimistic; however, in the money management business, we have a fiduciary responsibility to be as realistic as possible about the outlook for the economy and the market at all times.”
The 1929-33 recession saw six quarterly bounces in GDP with an average gain of 8 percent, sending the stock market to a 50 percent rally in early 1930 as investors thought the worst had passed.
From the Left 
I never thought Geithner was the right person for the job. If only they’d listen to Paul Krugman, one of the few people in America who knows what’s going on and how to fix it.
Geithner’s ties to the New York federal reserve and Goldman Sachs just reinforces the impression that President Obama has surrounded himself with money boys more interested in Wall Street than Main Street. But at the end of the day, the Democrats confirmed him as Treasury Secretary. It’s a bad judgment call in my opinion. We can do better.
Whether Rosenberg is correct or not (I’m inclined to think he’s onto something), the fact is, Obama’s been in office 20 months and unemployment isn’t getting any better. Real unemployment is 30 million because the Dept. of Labor no longer includes you if you’ve exhausted UE benefits or given up looking for a job.
Vice President Joe Biden admitted yesterday that the economic recovery was moving as fast as the Obama administration had hoped.
Then, Biden followed up with this bon mot.
“No doubt we’re moving in the right direction.”
Really Joe? This meets the Obama administration’s definition of the right direction? I didn’t understand at the time why the president spent his entire first year in office on healthcare and not jobs. This was a year wasted in my opinion and it looks like I was right.
Geithner and Bernanke both needed to go. And the bank bailout should have had a breakup of the bailed-out banks attached to it.
Conglomerates ARE NOT good for the economy. Never have been, never will be.
President Obama’s problem is, he is surrounded by the very people who helped get us into this mess in the first place.
The book still says George W. Bush but the dust jacket says Barack Obama. Nothing has really changed.
Geithner and Summers have no understanding of what it means to be poor and to struggle. For that matter, neither does Obama.
What the president needs to do is bring in a few men and women who possess a read of history. Where is the Civilian Conservation Corps of 2010? The WPA of 2010?
I agree, Tom 339.
A Civilian Conservation Corps-style program could help address many of the civilian projects neglected by cities and states. Men and women could work, receive a paycheck and even acquire some new skills in the process.
But if Obama launched such a program, Fox News, Beck and Limbaugh would attack him for creating a government program to manage unemployment and Obama can’t stand to be attacked by the GOP. The president needs to be loved.
What happened to the newly forged relationship the president had with Bill Clinton? It was reported here and on other blogs that Obama and Clinton had buried the hatchet and decided to come together to work on jobs creation?
The housing report was terrifying. The lowest number of sales in 15 years. If sales return to normal, it will take 18 years to deplete the inventory of unsold homes.
Tim Geithner was busted for not paying his income taxes but this didn’t cause President Obama to even briefly reconsider nominating him to head up the Fed.
In fact, this stunning disclosure didn’t cause the Congress to think twice about confirming him.
I was concerned about Geithner then and I remain uncomfortable with him in such a powerful position.
Tom339 is suggesting we need a new Civilian Conservation Corps and WPA, but unfortunately the type of jobs from those programs are not going to be useful for most of the unemployed. We don’t need jobs for idle unskilled laborers. We need service and high-tech jobs. Need to invent a different model from those two relics of the depression.
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