TPMDC Sunday Roundup
Obama Open To Outreach To Some Taliban Elements
In an interview with the New York Times, President Obama said that the United States is not winning the Afghanistan War, and that one option would be to negotiate with some elements of the Taliban. Though he acknowledged that the complexities of Afghanistan, he also said: "If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq."
Karzai Approves Of Obama's Stance On Taliban Negotiation
At a public appearance yesterday in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: "Yesterday, Mr. Obama accepted and approved the path of peace and talks with those Afghan Taliban who he called moderates." He added: "This is a good news ... this is approval of our previous stance and we accept and praise it."
Obama Arriving Back At White House From Camp David
The First Family is scheduled to return to the White House at 2:50 p.m. ET, after spending the night at Camp David.
Ted Kennedy To Receive Award Tonight, Biden Attending
Ted Kennedy will be honored tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where he will be presented the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Vice President Biden and Jill Biden will be in attendance.
Shelby: Improve Market By Letting Big Banks Fail
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) laid out his opposition to bank nationalization, and his support of letting big banks fail. "Close them down, get them out of business. If they're dead, they ought to be buried," Shelby said. "We bury the small banks; we've got to bury some big ones and send a strong message to the market. And I believe that people will start investing in banks."
McCain: GM Should Go Into Bankruptcy, Reorganize
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, John McCain said: "I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11, they reorganize, they renegotiate ... the union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner, more competitive automotive industry." Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican, strongly disagreed, saying that if GM and Chrysler go into bankruptcy they would likely not come out of it.
Orszag: Spending Bill Will Be Different Next Year
Appearing on CNN, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said the Obama Administration doesn't like aspects of the omnibus bill, but has to handle it as a matter left over from last year. "Is it uglier than we'd like? Yes. But again, this was negotiated last year," said Orszag. "We think we should just move on. When we are engaged in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations process, it's going to look a lot different."
Cantor: White House Has No Credibility On Spending
Also appearing on CNN, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) fired back at Orszag. "There is no way anyone could take what Mr. Orszag has said with any credibility," said Cantor. "Of course they're negotiating on this bill in the Senate right now. To say that we would have drawn it differently, but leave $430 billion plus on the table like this? No way." A note about credibility: Cantor voted for all of the Bush White House's deficit-spending programs.
Josh
Matt
Eric
It's bad enough repugs, like Shelby, have no clue how to govern, but there should be a law restricting them from dictating steps to take in a economic disaster of their own making. They should let the Democrats, the experts with an 80 year proven track record, administer the medicine.
March 8, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shelby is comic relief at this point, thank the fates. What a buffoon.
March 8, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a couple of funny segments on SNL last night - one with Barack Obama hulking up when getting angry to become "The Rock" Obama (Dwayne Johnson was the guest host), and the other on Weekend Update where (an actor playing) Michael Steele was implanted with a shock device by Limbaugh and was shocked everytime he would say something Rush didn't like.
(I'd provide youtube links, but they get taken down too quickly)
March 8, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the link to "The Rock Obama" on Hulu. Good stuff...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/61239/saturday-night-live-the-rock-obama
March 8, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain therefore urgently suspended his presidential campaign at the beginning of the economic crisis in order to end up proposing doing nothing and letting everything fail.
March 8, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least he had a plan and so far it's been quite successful.
March 8, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't disagree completely with Shelby, as appalled with myself for it as I am.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little
But, do we really want Citigroup and BoA to endure? These mega-banks have caused this disaster, and such top-heavy organizations will cause them again after this crisis finally goes away. I don't want them to be allowed to collapse necessary, largely because I don't want to see what happens to the economy when that happens, but they need to be broken up. I suggest Nationalization, a renewal of Glass-Steagal, and anti-trust style breakup of every bank or company that is 'to big to fail'. Then, perhaps the insolvent sectors be allowed to dissolve altogther, and with the new Glass-Steagal, the reunion of the solvent pieces would be impossible.
March 8, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shelby is full of shit. Letting Citibank go down would be like letting Lehmanbrothers go down. It would be too detrimental to the market.
Instead I like what Senators Graham & Schumer said on Meet the Press today which is what we all have been saying which is it is time to nationalize the zombie banks (Citibank, BofA, etc).
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8vtyVq3V5WY&refer=home
"Schumer, Shelby and Graham said it may be time for the government to nationalize or close some banks.
“We’ve got to look at these banks,” Graham said. “The question becomes, when are you throwing good money after bad. When would it be better to take the bank over, break it up, sell it off and better manage the bad assets versus just infusing it with capital?”
Replace Management
Schumer said “good nationalization” would involve having the government take over a failing bank, replace management, wipe out current shareholders and recapitalize it before selling it back into private hands."
March 8, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, heres my basic point.
The megabanks have to go. No debate there I think.
Shelby thinks we should let them self-immolate. He's wrong, because the rest of the economy would burn with them.
We need to treat them like a forest fire- to stop fires from spreading, they sometimes used a controlled burn/targeted culling to eliminate potential fuel. If we split up the megabanks, they can't burn everything, because there won't be enough fuel to start a wildfire.
I misrepresented myself at the beginning of my original post. I apologize.
March 8, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you ever ridden a horse and let him have is head? You're in for a wild ride if you do and it takes a whole lot of control to get him settled down and back in line. Same with the banks. The repugs gave'em their heads and they went hogwild. Now the Democrats have to rein them back in can get them back to the barn. They're not bad horses. They were just feeling their oats. Of course, no more oats!
March 8, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a singularly astute and pragmatic analogy.
March 8, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's hoping the banking disaster is as relatively straightforward.
The comment was the most reassuring thing I've read in awhile.
March 8, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Strap on your spurs and get out the crop; you can slow that pony down!
March 8, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I take it you were infantry?
March 8, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, dressage.
March 8, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain is commenting on anything economical? Have we all gotten lost in a house of mirrors?
As for Shelby, what large banking industry is housed in Alabama? He doesn't advocate something unless it benefits his constituents. So what financial industry has roots in Alabama?
March 8, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the treasury for the South during the Civil War was in Montgomery.
March 8, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cantor keeping it real, real hypocritical
March 8, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed. How in the world does he look at his own family everyday and not feel deep shame for his actions?
March 8, 2009 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seems to me most of the horrible things they said would happen if we let the banks fail are already happening. No one seems to have much confidence in Treasury. I don't know what they ought to do but maybe they need to be bolder doing something or get someone tougher in there to knock some heads. Send some CEO's to Guantanomo for a little interrogation and waterboarding? I could go for that.
March 8, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Treasury is Stress Testing banks right now. The problem may be that they don't want to say their plan right now and instead will just take over the zombie banks on a Friday night and temporarily nationalize them. Telling the markets that right now Treasury thinks will just freak out the entire banking system.
When they do something they better do it swiftly or else the market will tank.
March 8, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stress Testing Banks - it's a financial pop quiz. Basically its' a pass/fail grade - the Treasury wouldn't want to financially embarrass a bank that marginally passes. However, those that can't pass muster will be quarantined for severe financial inoculations to rid them of their infestations so as not to further taint the pool of those having already passed the purity test.
March 8, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stress test failure as a nationalization criterion also sends the message to the markets that only the banks holding on to excessive portions of big shitpile run the risk of being gobbled and that shareholders need not stampede from those which do pass stress testing.
March 8, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is Rush Limbaugh Really 'Benjamin Glutton?'
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=6491
March 8, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
On Shelby. I don't think he's oblivious to the process of a bank failure. He's just using politically correct language to define it. Saying we're going to nationalize them just won't work. Trying to explain the difference between good nationalization and bad nationalization like Schumer tried to do is also a political looser. Framing it as a bank closure, which is what it is, works politically. People are smart enough to realize you don't just lock the doors on a Citibank. Instead you're expressing the end game intention. That the government would move in and the failed bank would after a period of time be no more.
I worry that if banks are taken over using a nationalization policy that the government might not feel the pressure to return the failed bank back to the private sector in a timely fashion. If the banks are "Allowed to fail" like the bank in Georgia that became the 17th bank this year then the government would be forced to remove itself from the daily operations as soon as possible.
Obama should take a cue from Shelby on this and start allowing the banks that don't pass the stress test, whatever that really is, to fail.
March 8, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I totally disagree. Shelby wants Citibank to be SHUT DOWN the way that Lehman Brothers was. Citibank is so much bigger than Lehman Brothers and it has effects internationally.
Letting Citibank fail would trigger another Great Depression.
Just stupid. That's something that Hoover would say. Shelby is a Hoover Republican after all.
Instead it needs to be put into temporary nationalization in which it can be restructured and made smaller similar to controlled bankruptcy.
There is a HUGE difference to letting a bank fail the way that Lehman Brothers was allowed to be failed which is what Shelby is talking about vs being taken over by FDIC and restructured and sold off to private investors down the road the way that Senator Graham wants to do.
March 8, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
GM and Chrysler should best file for bankruptcy? Maybe!
But no one on the planet, no street person, no ignoramus, no anti-intellectual, no nitwit of any stripe has a less informed opinion about this than John McCain.
Should they, shouldn't they? You'd do as well with a random-number generator giving heads or tails as let McCain fatuously spread the idea that he doesn't know even what it's about, as he himself said....
March 8, 2009 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink