President Barack's news conference 2/9/2009

[John]

I'm watching President Obama's press conference live. It's now 8:11 pm ET.

He's babbling. He has no idea what he's talking about, and he knows it. He's
thinking, "God, do I look like an idiot. I wish this were over."

The "common wisdom" today is that the financial crisis is caused by a "lack
of confidence," and that all he has to do is restore confidence and the
crisis will end. In his heart, even Obama knows that's bullshit, but he's
gotta do what he's gotta do.

Sincerely,

John

[John]

He says that the $800 billion was pulled out of thin air.

That's an inside Washington joke.

The $800 billion figure was chosen because it's the most
they could get away with -- and they don't want to frighten
the hell out of people by going to $1 trillion.

Sincerely,

John

[John]

Maybe I'm just being a judgmental Boomer, but the more he talks,
the more desperate he sounds to me.

John

[JimZ]

My God! Obama sounds like a second rate high school debater who forgot his note cards.

[John]

Did I hear him correctly? Did he really just say that Fatah is operating in the
tribal areas of Pakistan? That would be a pretty good trick.

John


Correction: Sorry, my bad. He was referring to the FATA regions of Pakistan
(Federally Administered Tribal Areas).

John

[John]

I actually feel bad for him. It looked to me like a disaster, but we'll have to wait
to see what the young folks think about it.

Sincerely,

John

[Matt1989]

I actually feel bad for him. It looked to me like a disaster, but we'll have to wait
to see what the young folks think about it.

Sincerely,

John

I didn't see it, but David Kaiser did on the T4T forums and had the complete opposite reaction.

As for Millies, there's very little chance that this will have much of an effect. Obama's got at least 8-9 months (though I'd double it) worth of cushioning where he can do very little wrong in my generation's eyes. We'll see what direction the financial crisis takes us. Right now, the world's people are slowly trending libertarian (that is, anti-government and anti-corporate) with Iceland and Greece leading the way and it being slightly more muted in the U.S.A. (On my campus, I do hear the rhetoric, but no action since we're still in the post-inaugural bliss.) As has been noted elsewhere, black swan events tend to accompany financial crises. I fully expect a nationalistic/fascist resurgence to occur around the world, probably simultaneously with the libertarian one. This will be a major source of conflict.

[MisterB]

I love your site! I’ve even given some printouts to my wife and to a co-worker.

I happened to be in my car and I heard the president’s answer to this question and the answer to the Iran question. On the radio, I was particularly aware of all the stammering. I agree that the impression that I got was that he didn’t know what he is doing or even what he is trying to do. I was struck by his characterization of the Iranians’ actions as being “unhelpful”.

A general comment that I have is that he seems to validate your observation about the GenX distain for what the Boomers have done. Obama rejects EVERYTHING that Bush et al did and has a sense of arrogance that he can do everything better! This attitude comes out in both the economic and foreign policy areas.

[StilesBC]

Wow. You thought Obama was bad.

Have a listen to Geithner today. Sounds like a high-schooler chosen to give a speech in front of the whole school.

sta...sta...stabilize. sss...sss...support.

Market doesn't like it but "the first move is usually the false move."

[John]

Geithner's speech was slightly different in tone than Obama's. Both
of them started from the assumption that everything that the Bush
administration did was wrong. Obama's speech was used to warn of
disaster.

Geithner's speech was used to say what we'll do to avoid disaster.
He said "We WILL do this, we WILL do that." (I'm tempted to write,
"Ve VILL do this, ve VILL do that," but that wouldn't be nice.)

The question that was left unanswered by both speeches was this: If
everything that the Bush administration failed, how can you possibly
be certain that what you're doing won't fail?

They only gave reasons why past attempts failed. Hoover didn't act
in time. The Japanese in the 1990s didn't act in time. We're going
to act in time, so this time it will work. Well, why? You're doing
fundamentally the same things they did. What makes you think that
doing the same things they did, only faster, is really going to work?

That question was not answered.

The markets were flat before Geithner's speech, and down over 3.5%
afterwards.

Sincerely,

John