This Morning, The Economy

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for January 13th, 2010


Observations:


1) It’s with great relief that I witnessed the discussion that should have been happening for 16 months. We talked finance today and really got a lot of points of view to the fore. Chris Hayes really got beat up by the three conservatives in Washington and one capitalist in New York trying to get a Keynesian point across when everyone wants to paint a precipice of disaster picture. Christi Hefner also tried to keep an eye towards the balance of necessary evil deficit spending during a recession versus the loud and growing clamor for common ground fiscal discipline before the entire country is in a default situation. But the lack of consensus was everywhere except to note a large difficulty exists for the United States economic stability.


Andrew Ross Sorkin has been on the show forever. Today he launched the greatest transfer of wealth in our history charge. This is forensic. How on earth can you say pitchforks now and roll tape of yourself over the last 6 months and only see book promos? That’s called letting it happen.


But the story continued with determination over the course of 3 hours and despite fluffiness of Palin and Conan on TV and soberness of Haiti. It finished with Elijah Cummins admitting the Senate is broken and corrupt, powerless to fend of the financial lobby, and that is the chief reason Dodd saw no future for himself running as an exposed fraud.


So now the whole story is out there. You have done an effective forensic accounting of how bad it is. What is your path forward? Can you regenerate the energy on the issue similar to what you had on Dean day or election day or inauguration day? Can you convey the story in the appropriate scope: that it is more important than anything else you've ever talked about?


2) The political cycle has moved from a useful balance to maddening. Today the country is polling that it wants to throw the bums out again, but this time it’s the Democrats. The country has “voter remorse” over their vote for Barack Obama. I have voter remorse for Barack Obama. I freely admit he has gotten in office and seemingly immediately lost complete control of the country to unseen interests with apparently greater power to direct our government.


But the notion that we will allow a sea swing back to a Republican for no other reason than the Democrat made us unhappy is us being broken. The Republicans have telegraphed that they will be running as “not Democrats” and will “repeal any health care”. So let me get this straight, two guys who accomplish nothing and breach trust at every turn keep getting alternating turns based on a calendar only. That the country will bounce like a rubber ball between two sides equally beholden to the seduction of power and the will of special interest?


What do you think this schizophrenic temperament does to our credit rating?


3) President Obama is America getting George Bush a second time in a different suit. It was a open secret that the election of George Bush was the goal of the Washington power elite. A guy who would play ball and allow the insiders to openly govern. The chamber of congress had more power then the EPA, the Department of the Interior was again a real estate agent. When the effect of this caught up with the mainstream and the voter sentiment had gone completely against this regime, it was clear they were going to vote the other way with such magnitude that no Florida coup could keep power. It was evident a long way off, and with resignation the power structure took a cycle off and let McCain be the lame duck candidate, and used the down cycle to try and make some new stars.


Barack Obama said all the things that a poll would dictate would resonate on the way to office. Populism, change, hope, freedom from lobbyists. But he had no intention of risking his political capital in confronting the Senate. Health care is costing Barack Obama support from the population not from its existence but from it’s lack of a spine. It’s this backbone issue that is rampant through the Goldman stewards running his finance, to the last administration running his wars. Austan Goolsbee is the progressive economist from Chicago pointed towards as the sign of things to come in the campaign. In the White House, Goolsbee's desk is microscopic compared to the Goldman boys.


Barack Obama is playing ball with everyone but the voter. The only hope we have is that these guys actually get their sea legs in the 6th year. Bush, when it all had already gone wrong, made some small, gentile, steps on behalf of the American people in his last two years and stopped letting Cheney run the country for a second. Maybe Obama will find his second opportunity to govern and fix some of this awful cascading mess his lack of promised leadership is progressing. The other outcome here is President Romney, and I know we have to not use the “evil” moniker, but I just don’t feel the love in his heart for the middle class, do you?


That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.