James K. Galbraith's Enormously Useful Article on the Economy

I have just started reading James K. Galbraith's article in the March/April 2009 Atlantic Monthly. Since I have not yet finished the article I will save definitive comments for later. However, this article is extremely informative and most useful in understanding what is going on with the young Obama Administration.

What is clear from the opening paragraphs are two points: First, the stimulus package was based on assumptions of the Congressional Budget Office which may be seriously out of date. And, second, the components of the stimulus package were based on consensus, a strategy which was not valid in this case.

President Obama has around him certain advisers who are acolytes of Robert Rubin, the Wall Street tycoon and purveyor of market solutions in the Clinton Administration. Their philosophy is What's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street. If there is any philosophy which has been thoroughly soiled it is this one!

If the pro-market approach of the Wall Street crowd continues to dominate White House policy our economy is doomed for the foreseeable future.

That is one reason I was on the phone with the office of Senator Dodd (Head of the Banking Committee) today opposing the latest bail-out announced on Monday by T. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury.





http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0903.galbraith.html