Age of Obama:
Status Quo 2, Change 0
Well the votes this past week came in.
Geithner’s patchwork Smart-Money-to-the-Rescue approach to fixing the banking system — Paulson II — has received the presidential imprimatur. The question now is how long the US will limp along as Japan did thru the 90s. Obama has eschewed the bold moves the world was hoping for last November.
As if in reaction: the Chinese officially called this past week for the a new international currency to replace the dollar as the world’s “reserve currency.” The notion makes no sense, in a way (arbitrageurs would simply constantly trade thru the shell currency to whatever sovereign currency they sought, and in that way designate one of the latter as the de facto “reserve currency”). But it expresses a point of view that bodes ill for Washington’s ability to fund itself going forward.
The prez gave a big speech. No surprises. Putting his stamp on the policy Gates-Mullen began to implement under Bush-Cheney after the banishment of the Likud Lobbyists post 2006 elections.
Obama has consented to the escalation the Pentagon wants. Has consented to the the Apparat’s plan to downgrade the Kabul government of elected President Karzai in favor (again) of Men We Can Work With selected from the quasi-existent rogue Northern Alliance — foreigners (non Afghan, non Pashtun) from the north. Has put Gates-Mullen-Petraeus in charge of policy. Can now go to the beach.
ed says:
Even the NY Times notes that the words have changed under Obama but few of the central Bush-Cheney policies.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:57 am