swamppolitics: Hillary Clinton: Changing of the guard

Clinton also made clear on Day One that she plans to take an expansive view of her new job. She won’t be talking to the wide world solely about diplomatic minutiae, but about all that she’s experienced as a celebrity senator, presidential candidate and first lady. [....]

She showed a wide spectrum of interests, including many with a distinctly Democratic flavor: climate change, clean energy, families, world poverty, the disabled, the advancement of women. In a 45-minute “town hall” meeting at the university, she ranged across such topics as the tough choices facing women, the need for healthy habits among the elderly, and of course, baseball.

swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/02/hillary_clinton_changing_of_th.html

NYT - Bailout Robbing Banks?

[This is an op-ed piece but contains useful info]

The Bailout Is Robbing the Banks

By JOHN C. COATES and DAVID S. SCHARFSTEIN
Published: February 17, 2009

MANY Americans are angry at banks for taking bailout money while still cutting back on lending. But the government is also to blame. For reasons that remain unclear, the Troubled Asset Relief Program has channeled aid to bank holding companies rather than banks. The Obama administration’s new Financial Stability Plan will have more influence on bank lending if it actually directs its support to banks.

Full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/opinion/18scharfstein.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Bloomberg - Stock Market Woes

U.S. Stocks Slide to 3-Month Low on Recession Concern; GM Sinks
By Elizabeth Stanton

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks tumbled to a three-month low, extending a global slump, as a record contraction in New York manufacturing spurred concern the government’s stimulus package won’t be enough to curb the deepening recession.

Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each lost 12 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. was the biggest drag on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index as oil slid almost 7 percent. General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. carmaker, sank 13 percent as it took its case for more government support to the Treasury Department. Banks led declines in Europe and Asia on concern they may face ratings downgrades and more losses.

Full Article at: http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3VqcI4keryE&refer=home

CNN: Founder of Islamic TV station [confesses?] beheading wife

Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, said Andrew Benz, Orchard Park's police chief.

[....]

On Monday, [Police Chief] Benz told CNN that Hassan went directly to the police station after his wife's death Thursday and confessed to killing her. However, Benz on Tuesday denied that he'd said Hassan confessed.
[....]
He had two children, 4 and 6, with his wife. He had two other children, 17 and 18, from his previous marriage.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/16/buffalo.beheading/

Wash Times: Obama to ease curbs on CEO pay

Wants late fix to stimulus plan

the caps inserted into the $787 billion Democrat-crafted stimulus Congress passed Friday are too restrictive and could be counterproductive, administration officials said on Sunday's political talk shows.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/16/obama-seeking-to-ease-limits-on-executive-salaries/?page=2

Login link for commenting is in the middle of this page, above the comments (6 so far). 

IBD: Why a Commerce job goes unfilled

The decision to remove the 2010 Census from the Commerce Department and give it to White House political operatives was a strong vote of no confidence in Gregg. 

It wasn't the only signal. On the day Gregg quit, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declared the Colombia free-trade agreement was dead, too. "I think the concerns that (President Obama) and others have are still valid around that trade agreement," Semana, a Colombian publication, quoted Gibbs as saying.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?secid=1501&status=article&id=319420337739273&secure=1&show=1&rss=1

WSJ -Obama's Overheated Rhetoric is the Catastrophe

Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'
In 1932, automobile production shriveled by 90%.


By BRADLEY R. SCHILLER

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

Full article at:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457303244386495.html

NWI: Senate Democrats pass stimulus bill

The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more. Tens of billions are ticketed for the states to offset cuts they might otherwise have to make in aid to schools and local governments, and there is more than $48 billion for transportation projects such as road and bridge construction, mass transit and high-speed rail. [....]

In a bow to political reality, lawmakers included $70 billion to shelter upper middle-class and wealthier taxpayers from an income tax increase that would otherwise hit them, a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would do relatively little to create jobs.

Also included were funds for two of Obama's initiatives, the expansion of computerized information technology in the health care industry and billions to create so-called green jobs the administration says will begin reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil.

[ This is a little puffy toward Obama, but overall it gives a pretty good overview of the whole process of the bill's passage. ]

More at http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/02/13/updates/breaking_news/doc49959f8a52db3857998754.txt#blogcomments

Why This Recession Seems Worse Than ’70s and ’80s

If you think this recession is the worst since World War II, chances are you weren’t born or working during the downturns of the 1970s and ’80s, you’re listening to President Obama too much or you’re a white-collar worker in financial services.

If all three are true, you may even think we’re on the verge of another Great Depression.

At this point, the only thing that may be true is your age and employment status.

FT: China to stick with US bonds

Mr Luo, speaking at the Global Association of Risk Management’s 10th Annual Risk Management Convention, said: “Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”

Mr Luo, whose English tends toward the colloquial, added: “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion [$1,000bn-$2,000bn] . . .we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

From an informative article at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba857be6-f88f-11dd-aae8-000077b07658.html

CSM: Hillary Clinton’s climate-saving voyage

 While the most urgent issue is Beijing’s help to end a global recession, Mrs. Clinton’s more planet-saving goal is to enlist China to set curbs on its carbon emissions. Without that, President Obama may not be able to win enough Senate votes for a cap on US greenhouse gases. 

By the Monitor’s Editorial Board

from the February 13, 2009 edition

csmonitor.com/2009/0213/p08s01-comv.html

Pesek: Clinton will pull Rubin stunt on visit to China

[ An odd headline for what is actually a good article. ]

Clinton wants to pull a Robert Rubin on his old department. When Rubin was Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary, he co-opted many of the state department’s traditional functions. With Asia, Mexico and Russia in crisis during his tenure, Rubin fused economic policy with diplomacy in unprecedented ways. [....]

The last thing the US needs is a trade war with its main creditor. That doesn’t mean Clinton’s visit to China will avoid hard feelings. Not with US diplomacy and economics becoming one.

From a long excellent article by William Pesek at businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6046:clinton-will-pull-rubin-stunt-on-visit-to-china&catid=28:opinion&Itemid=64

Reuters: [ Obama press conference ratings ]

More than 49 million Americans watched President Barack Obama’s first White House news conference [....]

That figure was much lower than the 64.3 million Americans who watched President Bill Clinton’s 1993 post-inauguration news conference on the economy, Nielsen said.

The audience size also was lower than some of the election debates, including the record 70 million viewers who tuned their TV sets to the vice-presidential contest between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5196IX20090210

UK Telegraph: Barack Obama fights to maintain a grip on the US political agenda

He has admitted “screwing up” key White House appointments and now faces possible defeat in the Senate over his economic stimulus bill. 

He was also condemned by High Court judges in Britain after it emerged his administration was standing by a threat to halt intelligence co-operation in a row over the alleged torture of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. [....]

After failing to secure a single Republican vote for the stimulus bill that passed in the House of Representatives, Mr Obama is now struggling to persuade Republicans over the Senate version. 

Democratic leaders, who enjoy a 58 to 41 majority in the Senate, have warned him that the $900 billion bill might not pass if it is not stripped of projects that would be unlikely to give a swift boost to the economy.

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4515462/Barack-Obama-fights-to-maintain-a-grip-on-the-US-political-agenda.html

Financial Times -- Davos Appeals for Help

Why Davos Man is waiting for Obama to save him

By Martin Wolf
A hyperpower’s place is in the wrong. This is particularly true when, as last week at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the hyperpower in question is barely represented, at least at the official level. But, truth to tell, the critics of the US – led by prime ministers Wen Jiabao of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia – had an easy story of incompetence and malfeasance to tell.

Yet, however easy it may be to blame the US for the current global economic woes, it is also to the US that the world looks for a solution...

Full Article at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a44f222-f221-11dd-9678-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Washington Post - Entitlement Stumbles

Stumbling on Their Sense of Entitlement

John Thain spent $1.2 million to redecorate his office.
By Steven Pearlstein
Wednesday, February 4, 2009; Page D01

Tom Daschle still doesn't get it. John Thain never did. Barack Obama gets it sometimes, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner not so much. Corporate executives think they get it but aren't even close. College presidents, governors and union leaders, for the most part, don't have a clue.
"It" is an understanding of how fundamentally the political and economic environment has been transformed with the bursting of the bubble economy and how that has jeopardized basic assumptions and expectations and the way we do what we do.

Tom Daschle's problem wasn't that he didn't pay his taxes...

Full Article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020303634.html

Indian site Indopia: Despite challenges, Clinton pokes fun at herself and Bill

Washington , Feb 3 (AFP) Despite the daunting challenges she faces as the new US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton poked fun at herself and at her husband Bill Clinton during her swearing-in. "I&aposm so grateful to him for a lifetime of all kinds of experiences,"said Clinton, pausing in the middle of her phrase before finishing it on a harder tone at an elite ceremony in the State Department. Her joke drew hearty laughter from a group of diplomats, politicians and a leading comedian as well as her mother, daughterChelsea and the ex-president, his ruddy cheeks and white hair a match with his red-and-white-striped tie.

LAT: TARP probe delayed over paperwork rule

By Ralph Vartabedian January 31, 2009 -

The Obama administration has told special investigators in the Treasury Department to delay a comprehensive examination of how banks and other corporations are using $350 billion in federal bailout money because of possible 

conflicts with federal paperwork statutes. [....]

The OMB could have issued a rare emergency waiver of the law. [....]

Barofsky "should not have to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to gather basic information that the government could have and should have required as a condition of the receipt of TARP funds in the first place," Grassley told OMB director Peter Orszag in a letter. Grassley also disputed whether the paperwork law applied to the investigation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tarp31-2009jan31,0,679610.story