ROBERT Reich is spot on in this piece. mitt romney isn't offering anything but criticism but Pres Obama must do more to show the American electorate he, and a Democratic Congress can lead us out of the recession. I hope someone at the WH and the campaign HQ in Chicago is paying attention....
President Obama's electoral strategy can best be summed up as: "We're
on the right track, my economic policies are working, we still have a
long way to go but stick with me and you'll be fine."
That's not good enough. This recovery is too anemic, and the chance
of an economic stall between now and Election Day far too high.
Even now, Mitt Romney's empty "I'll do it better" refrain is
attracting as many voters as Obama's "we're on the right track." Each
man is gathering 46 percent of voter support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll.
Only 33 percent of the public thinks the economy is improving while 40
percent say they're still falling behind financially -- an 11 point
increase from 2008. Nearly two-thirds are concerned about paying for
housing, and one in five with mortgages say they're underwater.
If the economy stalls, Romney's empty promise will look even better.
And I'd put the odds of a stall at 50-50. That puts the odds of a Romney
presidency far too high for comfort. Need I remind you that Romney
enthusiastically supports Paul Ryan's wildly regressive budget, and as
president would be able to make at least one or possibly two Supreme
Court appointments, and control the EPA and every other federal agency
and department?
The Obama White House should face it: "We're on the right track"
isn't sufficient. The president has to offer the nation a clear, bold
strategy for boosting the economy. It should be the economic mandate for
his second term.
It should consist of four points:
First, Obama should demand that the nation's banks
modify mortgages of homeowners still struggling in the wake of Wall
Street's housing bubble -- threatening that if the banks fail to do so
he'll fight to resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act and break up Wall
Street's biggest banks (as the Dallas Fed recently recommended).
Second, he should condemn oil speculators for
keeping gas prices high -- demanding that the oil companies allow the
Commodity Futures Trading Corporation to set limits on such speculation
and instructing the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute oil
price manipulation.
Third, he should stand ready to make further
job-creating investments in the nation's crumbling infrastructure, and
renew his call for an infrastructure bank. And while he understands the
need to reduce the nation's long-term budget deficit, he won't allow
austerity economics to take precedence over job creation. He'll veto
budget cuts until unemployment is down to 5 percent.
Finally, he should make clear the underlying problem
is widening inequality. With so much of the nation's disposable income
and wealth going to the top, the vast middle class doesn't have the
purchasing power it needs to fire up the economy. That's why the Buffett
rule, setting a minimum tax rate for millionaires, is just a first step
for ensuring that the gains from growth are widely shared.
The president can still say we're on the right track. But he should
also say he's not content with the pace of the recovery and will do
everything in his power to quicken it. And he should ask the American
people for a mandate in his second term to make the economy work for
everyone, not just those at the top.
Such a mandate can be put into effect only with a Congress that's
committed to better jobs and wages for all Americans. He should remind
voters that Congressional Republicans prevented him from doing all that
was needed in the first term, and they must not be allowed to do so
again.
Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley and former
Secretary of Labor, is the author of "Beyond Outrage." His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/obama-romney-economy_b_1438652.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
NORTON META TAG
20 April 2012
Why "We're on the Right Track" Isn't Enough, and What Obama's Plan Should Be for Boosting the Economy 19APR12
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Instead of a waivable binary Volcker Rule, they should use a Taylor-like Rule that changes with leverage squared, volatility and inversely GNP (the SDE is (L-1) dr + L d var). A numerical rule is harder to waive, and can fit into Basel regulations for risk capital.
ReplyDeleteOK, if that is all to make me look stupid you win because I don't understand what you posted. If that is all nonsense to get me into an argument with you about it to make me look stupid you loose because I am not going to discuss something I do not understand. Care to post in plain English?
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