OT: Top White House economist Goolsbee to step down

[Kaylore]

Now the heads roll as a scape goat is sought...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...75603120110607

(Reuters)(What?!!? NOT FOX NEWS!?!?! ZOMG!!!!) - Top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on Monday he was stepping down, marking the exit of one of President Barack Obama's top aides at a time when new signs of weakness have emerged in the economy.

Less than a year after he was named chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Goolsbee plans to return to his teaching job at the University of Chicago, the Obama administration said in a statement. He will be back in Chicago in time for the start of the next school year.

Goolsbee's departure leaves Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the sole remaining senior member of Obama's original economic team, as the president is under pressure to persuade Americans that he has a plan to boost growth.


Rest here
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...75603120110607

[Chris]

What happened to Larry "No Regulation" Sommers?

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Now the heads roll as a scape goat is sought...

If he was being "scapegoated" he would have been "fired", right? Appears he chose to leave on his own.

People keep pushing these anti-Obama stories related to the economy and yet I'm seeing few, if any, suggestions on what should be done help the economy. Except maybe cutting taxes which doesn't appear to make a lot of sense at a time when they're historically low. And we don't really need to be reducing revenues right now.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Now the heads roll as a scape goat is sought...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...75603120110607

(Reuters)(What?!!? NOT FOX NEWS!?!?! ZOMG!!!!) - Top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on Monday he was stepping down, marking the exit of one of President Barack Obama's top aides at a time when new signs of weakness have emerged in the economy.

Less than a year after he was named chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Goolsbee plans to return to his teaching job at the University of Chicago, the Obama administration said in a statement. He will be back in Chicago in time for the start of the next school year.

Goolsbee's departure leaves Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the sole remaining senior member of Obama's original economic team, as the president is under pressure to persuade Americans that he has a plan to boost growth.


Rest here
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...75603120110607

That's strike 2 for Obama. He appointed Romer--an academic from Berkeley--to fix the economy and she gave us the stimulus bill that didn't stimulate. She promised unemployment less than 8% and got closer to 10%. Then she ran back to Berkeley when her idea fell flat and failed. Now he hired Goolsbee--another academic from Chicago--who did nothing more than pee on us while telling us it's just raining. Nicknaming this guy 'Baghdad Bob' wouldn't be out of the question. He says he wants to preserve his tenure at Univ. of Chicago, well when Obama appointed him, he must've known his acceptance would not change the fact his tenure would be in jeopardy, right? I think he's just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and realizes it's a train.

Obama's either too obstinate or too dumb to appoint someone with actual experience at making businesses thrive but that is what it's gonna take, along with obama's willingness to let the cook buy the groceries.

This will not look good on a resume, dude.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

That's strike 2 for Obama.

Unfortunately these people didn't plan for the disaster in Japan, the huge increase in gas prices, and the double dip in home prices. Lots of variables working against them. But I'm sure you have a foolproof plan that would have worked...

[Rohirrim]

The sheepdog when out on the pasture and saw it was covered with bloody sheep carcasses. He walked back to the farmhouse, looked up at the farmer, and said, "I quit."

[Smiling Assassin27]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Unfortunately these people didn't plan for the disaster in Japan, the huge increase in gas prices, and the double dip in home prices. Lots of variables working against them. But I'm sure you have a foolproof plan that would have worked...

dude, are you really gonna toss out more excuses?

First of all, the high gas prices are a direct result of this president's moratorium on drilling, castigation of oil companies, and utterly senseless domestic energy policy. He created this himself.

Second, he has botched his attempt at fostering stability in the middle east, which has sent gas prices even higher.

Third, the double dip in home prices are a result of his attempt at social engineering with the HAMP and HARP Programs and for signing a financial reform bill that was a joke. If he had the sense to let the market sort out the housing issues, he'd have a better economic setting to work from. Housing prices are irrelevant if people don't have jobs to enable them to purchase a cheap or expensive home. this guy's policies have resulted in HIGHER unemployment, which has made the credit markets crumble, the homebuilding industry go dormant, and oh yeah, people across the country default on their mortgages.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Unfortunately these people didn't plan for the disaster in Japan, the huge increase in gas prices, and the double dip in home prices. Lots of variables working against them. But I'm sure you have a foolproof plan that would have worked...

To be fair though, there were plenty of people questioning the hollow recovery anyways. The market was at 12.5k+ and there wasn't enough substance behind the recovery.

And who DIDN'T expect the housing issue to keep going? Everyone knew all those houses were still sitting in foreclosure and market prices had slowed but never really stopped falling. Figure in those who would be scared to jump into another house after what happened the last few years and you can't have expected the housing market to come out while retaining some of the gains of the bubble.

Not all predictable but not all unexpected either.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Not all predictable but not all unexpected either.

Except to the obama-pandering mainstream media. every bad economic report is nothing if not 'unexpected' to these tools.

[mkporter]

I don't know why you'd want to be an economic adviser to the president. There's pretty much no way that anything you suggest will be enacted by congress, and your job performance is graded on the current performance of the economy even though the most brilliant economic plan would take years to bear serious fruit.

Politicians today are more concerned with winning the next election than improving the country. If you got congress to tell the truth, 90% of the right would say they hope the economy stays in the crapper until 2012 so they can win, and 90% of the left would say they want the economy to improve, so they can win.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Originally Posted by mkporter

I don't know why you'd want to be an economic adviser to the president. There's pretty much no way that anything you suggest will be enacted by congress, and your job performance is graded on the current performance of the economy even though the most brilliant economic plan would take years to bear serious fruit.

Politicians today are more concerned with winning the next election than improving the country. If you got congress to tell the truth, 90% of the right would say they hope the economy stays in the crapper until 2012 so they can win, and 90% of the left would say they want the economy to improve, so they can win.

Romer suggested Porkulus and lo and behold, Pelosi and Reid swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. There are plenty of things that would pay immediate dividends towards a true economic stimulus. The problem is that this administration is all academia and no practicalia. Who in that administration has had to take a struggling business and make it profitable? All these meatheads govern as though our economy is just one big case study.

[SonOfLe-loLang]

I dunno why Goolsbee stepping down is really that much of an issue. This kind of **** seems to happen all the time. It's been said on the forum, the media, wherever, many many times...the government miscalculated (BOTHSIDES) the crisis (even though many economists seemed to be able to predict how their measures would work). Stimulus was too small (though probably staved off a greater unemployment problem) and tax cuts dont create jobs.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

Romer suggested Porkulus and lo and behold, Pelosi and Reid swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. There are plenty of things that would pay immediate dividends towards a true economic stimulus. The problem is that this administration is all academia and no practicalia. Who in that administration has had to take a struggling business and make it profitable? All these meatheads govern as though our economy is just one big case study.

I don't want to revert to the pre-election discussions but that's a very interesting point. When one gets overly-consumed with idealistic principles, it's sometimes because they don't have realistic experience to fall back on. Interesting.

[SonOfLe-loLang]

This is all completely ignoring political capital. if Obama and the democratic congress had carte blanche (or the republicans for that matter), the economic situation would probably look pretty different. You can argue which direction, but political capital cannot be ignored. Obama's problem is that his first offer is always a centrist one, like with healthcare...then it gets bargained down to something that will be less effective.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by SonOfLe-loLang

This is all completely ignoring political capital. if Obama and the democratic congress had carte blanche (or the republicans for that matter), the economic situation would probably look pretty different. You can argue which direction, but political capital cannot be ignored. Obama's problem is that his first offer is always a centrist one, like with healthcare...then it gets bargained down to something that will be less effective.

The problem with anything is those in government personally benefit most with short term solutions. They can keep drilling this debt hole deeper and deeper and not really care where the hole ends because it'll be after their watch.

Because the debt is raised with absolutely no discipline, I generally oppose just about everything the federal gov't does these days. If he could work on that problem, I think a lot of people would be more open to things. As is though, the solution is to fix it now and pay for it somehow - something which comes to mean pay for it under someone else's watch and with someone else's money.

[SonOfLe-loLang]

Originally Posted by That One Guy

The problem with anything is those in government personally benefit most with short term solutions. They can keep drilling this debt hole deeper and deeper and not really care where the hole ends because it'll be after their watch.

Because the debt is raised with absolutely no discipline, I generally oppose just about everything the federal gov't does these days. If he could work on that problem, I think a lot of people would be more open to things. As is though, the solution is to fix it now and pay for it somehow - something which comes to mean pay for it under someone else's watch and with someone else's money.

I honestly think people dont care so much about thedeficit/debt because it doesnt effect them on a daily basis (or at all really). Now, not having a job DOES effect them (or stagnant wages), so short term stimulus couple with long term deficit reduction really makes the most economic sense. Unfortunately, theres zero political chance of that

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by SonOfLe-loLang

I honestly think people dont care so much about thedeficit/debt because it doesnt effect them on a daily basis (or at all really). Now, not having a job DOES effect them (or stagnant wages), so short term stimulus couple with long term deficit reduction really makes the most economic sense. Unfortunately, theres zero political chance of that

I absolutely agree.

A few quotes I saw on a page. I think all are coming closer and closer to define the problems facing us. We're all thinking short term benefit at the expense of long term stability.

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." - Ben Franklin

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been about 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." - Alexander Fraser Tytler

"Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation." - Karl Marx

EDIT: And with all quotes found on the internet, they're just as likely Ben Franklin as Bugs Bunny.

[Kaylore]

I find it funny that a President with both houses and a super majority in the Senate didn't have "enough" to get what he wanted. I don't know how you guys can even begin to argue that.

[barryr]

The democrats got in the way of each other of not getting things done. They had the full majority of the WH, Senate, and the House and never even could pass a budget. But this WH is no different than most: hire people in positions and they have no clue what they are doing. Geihtner is still around and he is a tax cheat or a great example of why we need a flat tax or consumption tax of some kind and rid of the IRS if people appointed to the Treasury of the U.S. can not figure how to do his taxes either.

[rugbythug]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Unfortunately these people didn't plan for the disaster in Japan, the huge increase in gas prices, and the double dip in home prices. Lots of variables working against them. But I'm sure you have a foolproof plan that would have worked...

Really? Every president or policy maker in history can point to similar if not worse variables. **** Happens.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

dude, are you really gonna toss out more excuses?

First of all, the high gas prices are a direct result of this president's moratorium on drilling, castigation of oil companies, and utterly senseless domestic energy policy. He created this himself.

Second, he has botched his attempt at fostering stability in the middle east, which has sent gas prices even higher.

Third, the double dip in home prices are a result of his attempt at social engineering with the HAMP and HARP Programs and for signing a financial reform bill that was a joke. If he had the sense to let the market sort out the housing issues, he'd have a better economic setting to work from. Housing prices are irrelevant if people don't have jobs to enable them to purchase a cheap or expensive home. this guy's policies have resulted in HIGHER unemployment, which has made the credit markets crumble, the homebuilding industry go dormant, and oh yeah, people across the country default on their mortgages.

You're oversimplifying the reasons for these things. Sorry, but you can't pin gas prices and home values on Obama. The problems are much more profound than that and started well before Obama was president. Stop being such a simpleton and buying into all the Fox News/right wing radio spin.

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by rugbythug

Really? Every president or policy maker in history can point to similar if not worse variables. **** Happens.

Oh? So a lot of presidents have taken over a tanking economy on the brink of another great depression, mounting deficits, wars in two countries, a huge oil spill, massive natural disasters in foreign countries, etc? It's certainly fair to question how the Obama administration has responded to some of these issues but to say he didn't inherit a huge and growing mess is dishonest to say the least.

[UltimateHoboW/Shotgun]

Originally Posted by TonyR

You're oversimplifying the reasons for these things. Sorry, but you can't pin gas prices and home values on Obama. The problems are much more profound than that and started well before Obama was president. Stop being such a simpleton and buying into all the Fox News/right wing radio spin.

Thats your excuse for everything, isn't it. Everything was Bush's fault, right.

[Requiem]

Goolsbee. What kind of name is that? FREAK.

[UltimateHoboW/Shotgun]

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/obamas-ra...051019478.html