Volcker Getting Snubbed by Obama
Volcker was just another political pawn in Obama’s game to get to the highest office. By name dropping during his debates or letting the press know some of his “advisers” he won over some of the more gullible voters that may have believed this old technique.
No offense, but name-dropping is an extreme turn-off to me. You most definitely should surround yourself with solid people, but the person running for office or applying for a job should be competent and experienced enough in the first place.
As an early supporter of Barack Obama, Paul Volcker gave the young presidential candidate gravitas and advice. He frequently sat by Mr. Obama’s side at key economic events, and started carrying a cellphone for the first time, just to be able to brainstorm with the candidate from the campaign trail.
In the Obama White House, the role of the 81-year-old former chairman of the Federal Reserve has been more limited.
The one-time central banker has been put in charge of a presidential advisory board that hasn’t yet had a formal meeting. It has been nearly a month since he has seen Mr. Obama. Mr. Volcker hasn’t been a main player in key decisions handling the global financial crisis.
He hasn’t even had one formal meeting!? Well, I guess his involvement in being part of an Anti-Stimulus campaign (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) for the betterment of the economy may have something to do with it – mind you it was February of 2009 (not that long ago) that he joined.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the administration’s plans for handling troubled financial institutions and the housing crisis without seeking input from Mr. Volcker, associates say. “Paul was surprised” at the failure to consult him, particularly on issues of financial rescue after his dominant role in resolving financial crises in the 1980s, says one person who has spoken to Mr. Volcker recently.
On the eve of one announcement, a Wall Street executive ran into Mr. Volcker at a cocktail party and asked what he expected from the Treasury secretary’s imminent announcement. “I have no idea what Tim’s going to say,” he responded, according to somebody there.
Seems like Paul Volcker’s fiscal restraint and tighter monetary policy was not part of the Obama agenda… So, no need to consult the man.
When Mr. Obama announced the blue-ribbon advisory group on Feb. 6, he praised Mr. Volcker as “one of the world’s foremost economic policy experts.” With big names like General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, the group, Mr. Obama said, would provide “voices to come from beyond the Washington echo chamber….” At a ceremony in the White House’s East Room, the president added that the group would “meet regularly” with him.
So far, the full group hasn’t met. “The whole organizational side of this has been a nightmare,” Mr. Volcker says. A White House spokeswoman says it will hold its first quarterly meeting in mid-May.
First of all, Immelt is an incompetent hack pretending to be a CEO. General Electric has bombed since he took over, so to expect that he would have anything of value to add is hilarious. The other bit of hilarity in this is that they did not plan to have a “meeting of the minds” until mid May with all of the economic turmoil currently going on? That’s insane and should give us insight into the poor management/governing abilities and practices of this administration.
Mr. Volcker’s advice hasn’t always been heeded. The former Fed chairman urged the administration to “slow down” its push for regulatory changes. “Paul thought it was important to take enough time to fill holes in the regulatory framework and not get caught up in the current atmosphere,” says former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson, who’s on the Volcker panel.
When a former Fed official, attorney John Walker, recently met Mr. Volcker, Mr. Walker told him the administration “isn’t getting the best use of you.” Mr. Volcker shrugged it off, saying he’s comfortable with his role. Mr. Walker says Mr. Volcker added: “I’m 81 years old.”
Paul, you are making too much sense for these guys even at the age of 81 – please stop!… Heh
What is the Treasury Doing?
The massive programs designed to rescue the nation’s financial sector are operating without adequate oversight, with vague goals and limited disclosure of their details to the taxpayers who are paying for them, government watchdogs told a Senate panel Tuesday.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was launched in the midst of last fall’s collapse of the nation’s banking system and is designed to get loans flowing to businesses and individuals.
But “without a clearer explanation” about parts of the program, “it is not possible to exercise meaningful oversight over Treasury’s actions,” said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who leads a special congressional oversight panel monitoring the TARP program. Her comments came in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the bailout program.
Noting that TARP passed Congress six months ago, Warren said that her group has repeatedly called on the Treasury Department to provide a clear strategy for the program — and that “the absence of such a vision hampers effective oversight.”
Although she has asked Treasury to explain its strategy, “Congress and the American public have no clear answer to that question.”
I have been harping on this for a long time now, and even my friends and family thought I was nuts… However, as I suspected and figured would happen upon the election of Barack Obama, we are now creeping closer and closer to having a Debt to Equity Ratio of 1 meaning that our Debt is almost equal to our GDP.
