The President's Weekly Address: The New Year

From the White House blog:

The President resolves to do all he can to get the economy growing and create jobs, and encourages Republicans to embrace their new responsibility to govern.

Happy New Year to you all. May this year be even better than last, and not as good as next.

Right Wing Claims Stock Market Declined Because Obama Was Elected

This ties into what I posted below and is from Think Progress... Here is how the right is portraying the economy:

Right Wing Claims Stock Market Declined Because Obama Was Nominated For President
Since the presidential election last November, the right wing has seized nearly every opportunity to link any sharp decline in the stock market (without any basis in fact) to Barack Obama. Yesterday, losses on Wall Street forced the Dow Jones industrial average to close “below 7,000 for the first time since 1997” and like clockwork, the right (and some on Wall Street) jumped to blame Obama. The Wall Street Journal claimed today that “Obama’s policies have become part of the economy’s problem.”

Laura Ingraham said today that Obama’s policies “are not giving us the confidence we need to get back into the market.” Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity touted the line as well, but added that the market’s problems started when Obama was nominated to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for president in the middle of last year:

LIMBAUGH: To say that Obama has been in office only one month is not accurate from an effect on the world and an effect on the country standpoint. Barack Obama has been the controlling political authority on the economy for six months.

HANNITY: Now if we go back to May 6th when it was apparent that he was going to probably be the Democratic nominee the stock market was over 13000, and if we go to October just before the election…the stock market was, what,around 11000 plus mark.

Of course, the Limbaugh-Hannity theory carries little weight as the market decline started well before Obama’s nomination. The market peaked in October 2007 and “came tumbling down last spring, when the bursting of the housing bubble started to add up to massive losses for Wall Street banks and other financial services firms tied to bad mortgages.”

In fact, yesterday’s decline came as “investors reacted to reports that construction and industrial activity had continued to decline and to a $61.7 billion loss posted by the insurance giant, the American International Group.” Moreover, the main issue surrounding the market’s fall is decreased company profits as a result of a weak economy, not Obama’s policies. As USA Today noted this morning, “[p]rofits are down sharply” which is “driving stock prices down sharply.”

President Obama noted earlier today that “the banking system has been dealt a heavy blow” to the market. “We dug deep hole for ourselves, he said. “There was a lot of bad decisions that were made. We’re cleaning up that mess. … But its going to get cleaned up.”

There is more and a video at the web site I posted above. As I said this ties into the what I posted below about Sec. Geithner. I really believe this just shows how they are trying to manipulate the markets and the economy to suit their agenda and to keep the numbers low and make it look like his policies are failing. This way they can keep everyone depressed and discouraged and stirred up.

We have to stay positive. We have to stay focused on the small gains we see here and there. Stick together and post about the jobs we see being created.

Remember we have each other and we can and will make it through this time. It may not always be easy, but we are tough people who have made it through tough times before. We will do it again.

House of Cards, CNBC Looks at the Housing Crisis....UPDATE

Last week, CNBC had a special on by David Faber, when I watched it, I did so with a jaded eye. Knowing how they feel about policing themselves usually, and how they are so tied into Wall Street and the bankers who are part of this mess that we are in.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found it was actually pretty good, and pointed fingers basically where they needed to be. From the web site of CNBC there is this review of the program:

THE HOUSE OF CARDS
CNBC presents the definitive report on the defining story of our time. CNBC correspondent David Faber investigates the origins of the global economic crisis, with first person accounts from home buyers, mortgage brokers, investment bankers and investors – most of whom let greed blind them, leading to the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression.

Here is a quote from an internal email that was leaked out from one of the bankers that shows they knew exactly what they were doing and that there was no shame involved in it.

Let's hope we are all wealthy by the time this house of cards falters. 12/15/06

The above link will take you to the web site for CNBC and you can read more about this show which tells about this. It was a great watch. It tells about Bush's role in this, it talks about the role of many of the players in it, Chris Cox, SEC chairman, several other people who you wouldn't think about.

Another key player in this House of Cards, was former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. He is also featured in a story on Huffington Post. It also talks about his role in the banking mess and the housing crisis.

He had such a key role in this entire decade of deregulation and financial ruin of most of the middle class. He was along with most of the republican party pushing for the upper class and putting down the little guy.

Greenspan's tenure coincided with a period during which total wealth increased dramatically, although much of the growth was concentrated among the richest of the rich, not just the top one percent of the income distribution, but the top 0.1 percent.

As I said he was all for the wealthy, with nothing for the little guy...but that is typical of all republicans. My dad used to always tell me that the republicans were for the wealthy and big business and the democratic party was for the rest. Well I think we have seen that for sure.

When he was interviewed for the program House of Cards, Greenspan admitted his role in the housing crisis and said he was amazed when they told him how bad it was. This is what he had to say.

"I remember my initial response when [in 2005] a staff member came up to me and he says, 'I don't know if you have seen something like this'," while showing the then-Fed chairman data that subprime mortgages represented 20 percent of all new mortgages. "I said, 'I don't believe that number,'"

He then said if they had acted this is what would have happened:

if the Fed had taken action, the results would have been disastrous: "We could have basically clamped down on the American economy, generated a 10 percent unemployment rate. And I will guarantee we would not have had a housing boom, stock market boom, or indeed a particularly good economy either."

Most recently, Greenspan's ideological journey has taken an abrupt left turn. On February 18, the Financial Times reported that the one-time libertarian devotee of Ayn Rand now thinks the government might be best advised to take over 'lemon' banks. "It may be necessary to temporarily nationalize some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring," he said in an interview.

Now, there is no way to predict what the former Chairman will say in his next commencement address.

That is my emphasis... but look at what he is saying... so would it have been better to have had that 4 years ago.. 3 years ago.. or now. Because that is what we have now basically. I guess he doesn't read the news...if you look at the real unemployment numbers, taking into account the ones who are working part time, who are now unable to draw and who fall through the cracks, our unemployment numbers are at about 13.5%, the stock market is lower than it has been in 20 years, the housing market has crashed, and our economy is in the toilet. So thank you Mr. Greenspan.

By the way...if you would like to watch House of Cards, it will be back on CNBC again Wednesday, February 25th, 8p ET; Sunday, March 1st, Midnight ET; Sunday, March 15 9p ET

************UPDATE**************

Just to add a note here.. Time had an article about the 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis, I didn't read it, I did look at the picture, but I was not interested in the article because I thought it was a little misleading just from some of the people I saw in the picture.

David Fiderer at Huffington Post has an article that exposes it as a rewriting of history. D.K.Raed pointed it out in her post over at Redheaded Wisdom. She has a neat article up about the story on Time and about the Frontline Program from PBS called Inside the Meltdown. It is still available online. You can go to her site and check it out and see the program there.

I haven't watched it yet. But am planning on it later today. Thanks D.K. for reminding me.

Economy shrinks at 3.8: It'll be interesting to see the Press Corps get laid off

From Crooks & Liars

Watching the White House Press Corps use right-wing talking points to attack President Obama's stimulus package over and over again got me thinking. I wonder how they would feel if most of them get laid off (except for Helen Thomas) and Gibbs takes questions from one source?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy shrank at a 3.8 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as the deepening recession forced consumers and businesses to throttle back spending.

Since Americans voted overwhelmingly for Obama and not to trust Conservative ideology to try and repair the damage caused by conservative ideology, it's very frustrating when the media simply ignore the damage they have done as Obama is trying to get his package off the ground.
A new poll in support of the stimulus plan:

A new poll by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

A survey of 1,200 voters in 40 traditionally Republican congressional districts now held by Democrats Greenberg's firm conducted between Jan. 14 to 19 shows Obama's post-election honeymoon reaching a rapturous stage, with 44 percent of voters strongly supporting his policies.

A full 64 percent favor his economic plan, compared to 27 percent against. And precisely that same proportion favors the stimulus in 13 states that are expected to have competitive Senate races in 2010: Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio, Kansas, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Greenberg says an incumbent's support for the economic plan appears to make voters more likely to reelect the lawmaker -- particularly good news for the 20 or so Democrats who in November captured districts that former President Bush carried in 2004. He said one-third of Republicans and two-thirds of independents are leaning with Obama's general goals on the recovery.

"If the Republican Party's goal is to cheer Rush Limbaugh, they're welcome to," Greenberg told a group of reporters, alluding to the radio talk-show host who's referred to the economic package as a "porkulus" bill.

So many people are hurting right now in this country and our media stacked the TV deck with Republicans last week so they could make up a phony argument that blames Nancy Pelosi for their no votes instead of their ideological/obstructionist play that the media knows is the root cause of their no vote. Let's see what happens next week. Will the media give equal opportunity to the Democratic Party to explain their positions? The country is still very much behind President Obama.