Obama

Bond Holders Rule the World

Bloomberg has an exclusive story on how bond vigilantes are using the markets as a protest trying to play a game of economic chicken with the administration to reduce the deficit.

For the first time since another Democrat occupied the White House, investors from Beijing to Zurich are challenging a president’s attempts to revive the economy with record deficit spending. Fifteen years after forcing Bill Clinton to abandon his own stimulus plans, the so-called bond vigilantes are punishing Barack Obama for quadrupling the budget shortfall to $1.85 trillion. By driving up yields on U.S. debt, they are also threatening to derail Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cut borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

Congressional Fair Traders

Fair Trade Democrats are piping up (hat tip Sirota) about the Obama administration pushing yet another labor arbitrage, badly written NAFTA style bad trade agreement:

an increasingly agitated faction of Democrats is warning party leaders of ugly economic and political consequences if they try to move the Panama agreement.

Not only will it hurt the economy, critics say, but action on a Bush-negotiated trade deal endangers freshman Democrats in 2010 since many ran on a trade reform agenda. In addition, critics say, it doesn’t bode well for Obama to anger a bloc of Democrats early on when he needs their support for his ambitious domestic agenda.

Obama Gives USINPAC Lobbyists Yet another Official - CTO "Virginia is for Outsourcing" Chopra

Just unbelievable. Obama has appointed a CTO, Aneesh Chopra

who was pushed for by USINPAC!

If one doesn't know, this group, using Indians with U.S. citizenship, lobbies heavily to offshore outsource your job and also obtain guest worker Visas to displace U.S. workers.

Governor-Elect Tim Kaine of Virginia has appointed Mr. Aneesh Chopra, a leader of the Indian American community and an active member of the USINPAC Leadership Committee, as the first Indian American Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia. USINPAC congratulates Mr. Chopra on his appointment.

Here Comes the Corporate Cheap Labor Lobbies - Obama wants "Comprehensive" immigration reform

Forget massive job losses, people losing their homes, homelessness, nope, Obama wants to pass that ultimate cheap labor and very expensive agenda, comprehensive immigration reform.

While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

Bear in mind this means massive guest worker Visa increases, billions in additional costs and the fact that U.S. citizens cannot get a job...well, anyone who points out these realities is simply a racist.

It also means massive increases in immigration levels...again when Americans cannot find a job.

No Bail Out for GM & Chrysler - Bail Out Denied - Reporting Possible Death Sentence in 60 Days

I had to do a double take when I read this, amazed considering there are about 160,000 jobs directly with GM alone in the United States, but now multiple major press sites are reporting Obama Denies Bail Out for GM & Chrysler

The White House says neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive more bailout money, setting the stage for a crisis in Detroit and putting in motion what could be the final two months of two American auto giants.

The Obama administration, however, has decided not to require the automakers to immediately repay government loan money they previously received, since that would force both companies into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Obama Asks The Same Oligarchs Who Got Us into This Mess to Get out of it

This is disturbing. Obama meets with various CEOs on how to get out of the financial mess.

Obama is seeking support for his plan to stabilize the U.S. financial system and move beyond the furor over bailouts and bonuses. He met with CEOs including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., John Mack of Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup Inc. and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The meeting began with a discussion about the need to deal with toxic assets and increase bank lending, then moved onto Obama’s plan to resolve the housing crisis, and his proposals for revamping regulations and executive compensation, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Obama Clueless on Offshore Outsourcing - Touts Corporate Talking Points

From an online townhall Obama claims:

Now, a lot of the outsourcing that was referred to in the question really has to do with the fact that our economy -- if it's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labor, it's very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a country out there that pays lower wages than the U.S. And so we've got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future. That's why it's so important to train our folks more effectively and that's why it's so important for us to find new industries -- building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel -- that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.

Is it time to fire Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke?

A lot of serious people are questioning the Obama economic team. Paul Krugman has accused the administration of dithering. Henry Blodget is not feeling like the ship of state is under control. Willem Buiter feels that the Fed is working at cross purposes to correcting the fundamental problem. And Ralph Nader, perhaps the last principled liberal left in the US, is questioning the sanity of it all.

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