President Barack Obama

The Obama administration has announced that it will be conducting a White House conference on job creation in December. This  upcoming employment pow-wow apparently was sparked by the continuing rise in U.S. unemployment numbers combined with a decline in polling numbers favourable to the Democratic Party.

President Barack Obama made a critical strategic error, in my opinion, when he selected Clinton administration retreads and Bush administration continuity to frame his economic agenda during his first year in office. Larry Summers, Timothy  Geithner and Ben Bernanke are the hand maidens of Clinton and Bush administration deregulation that crippled America’s financial system. Yet, it is precisely these minions of economic disarray that Obama selected as the saviours of the U.S. economy. It is as though  the ex-CEO of Enron was pulled out of prison to head the salvation of General Motors.

The clique picked by Obama to head economic policymaking has done what would be expected of them. They have sacrificed the real economy to backstop Wall Street, socialize its losses incurred through its unique brand of casino capitalism, and inflate a new equities asset bubble. Grow the bubble big enough, they must  think, and eventually the unemployment  numbers will recede.

Economic mythology is now being confronted by political reality. The so-called jobs summit has an air of desperation about it, as the Democrats begin to contemplate the loss of Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. The next step will probably be a second Obama economic stimulus program, which may temporarily bring about a slight improvement in employment numbers, but at the cost of a further deterioration of America’s already bleak public fiscal posture. This will further weaken the dollar, which undoubtedly will bear political consequences in the 2010 mid-term elections. Obama may be in for a bitter surprise in the second half of his presidential term.

Message from Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, to his supporters, on the upcoming battle on health care:

Last year, millions of Americans came together for a great purpose.

Folks like you assembled a grassroots movement that shocked the political establishment and changed the course of our nation. When Washington insiders counted us out, we put it all on the line and changed our democracy from the bottom up. But that’s not why we did it.

The pundits told us it was impossible — that the donations working people could afford and the hours volunteers could give would never loosen the vise grip of big money and powerful special interests. We proved them wrong. But as important as that was, that’s not why we did it.

Today, spiraling health care costs are pushing our families and businesses to the brink of ruin, while millions of Americans go without the care they desperately need. Fixing this broken system will be enormously difficult. But we can succeed. The chance to make fundamental change like this in people’s daily lives — that is why we did it.

The campaign to pass real health care reform in 2009 is the biggest test of our movement since the election. Once again, victory is far from certain. Our opposition will be fierce, and they have been down this road before. To prevail, we must once more build a coast-to-coast operation ready to knock on doors, deploy volunteers, get out the facts, and show the world how real change happens in America.

And just like before, I cannot do it without your support.

So I’m asking you to remember all that you gave over the last two years to get us here — all the time, resources, and faith you invested as a down payment to earn us our place at this crossroads in history. All that you’ve done has led up to this — and whether or not our country takes the next crucial step depends on what you do right now.

Thank you, so much, for getting us this far. And thank you for standing up once again to take us the rest of the way.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

President-elect Barack Obama has announced the names of his top economic advisers at a Chicago news conference. He indicated they would manage a massive economic stimulus package designed to save the U.S. economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression since the 1930s.

The names and positions announced include:

Christina Romer, co-director, National Bureau of Economic Research

Timothy Geithner, currently the president of the New York Federal Reserve, will serve as the next U.S. treasury secretary.

Lawrence Summers, himself a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, will be appointed to become the new head of the White House’s national economic council.

Christina Romer of the National Bureau of Economic Research was selected to chair Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

During the Chicago press conference, President-elect Obama said he had selected a team that would offer new ideas for confronting the global economic crisis.

Barack Obama stated very emphatically, “We need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape. I look forward to working closely with them in the months ahead. And that work starts today, because the truth is, we don’t have a minute to waste. Our financial markets are under stress. While we can’t underestimate the challenges we face, we also can’t underestimate our capacity to overcome them.”

The announcement of Timothy Geithner to head Treasury sent the Dow Jones index up sharply. Geithner, who has also been vice chairman of the interest rate setting Federal Open Market Committee, was very involved in the bailouts of insurance giants AIG and Bear Stearns, and in the decision to allow Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt.

Obama’s top strategist, David Axelrod, said Geithner was “intimately involved with the situation now in his role as president of New York Fed. By temperament and experience, he’s the right man to lead the Treasury now.” Apparently, the stock markets and financial community agree with Axelrod.

According to several press reports, president-elect Barack Obama is considering tow of his democratic rivals in the primary campaign for the job of Secretary of State. Senator Hillary Clinton and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson have been mentioned for the job of running America’s foreign policy establishment.

Hillary Clinton is surprising as a possible head of the State Department, since she lacks convincing foreign policy credentials. Bill Richardson, however, has served as the UN ambassador during the Clinton administration, and was a negotiator with North Korea on the nuclear issue. Also, unlike Hillary Clinton, Richardson does not bring the baggage of a Bill Clinton. It is possible that there are other contenders as well.