Posts Tagged ‘Tim Geithner’
The economy: Pursued by Obamabears
From The Economist print edition
Investors fret that President Obama’s crisis response is not up to the task
The original story is linked here.
|
|
 |
|
BARACK OBAMA has modelled his early days on those of Franklin Roosevelt, the last president to take office during a serious economic crisis. But by one benchmark he is failing. At market close on March 11th, despite a rally this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 16% below its level on the Friday before Mr Obama took office. At this point in Roosevelt’s presidency, 54 days in, it was up 35%.
The “Obama bear market,” as conservative commentators have gleefully labelled it, has been blamed on two things: on the new president trying to do too much, and on his failure to do more. There is, paradoxically, truth to both assertions. Read the rest of this entry »
The IMF: More to give
From Economist.com
America proposes boosting the IMF’s ability to lend to countries in distress
The original story is linked here.
SINCE the financial crisis went truly global in the second half of 2008, the resources of the International Monetary Fund, the principal firebreak against global contagion, have looked increasingly inadequate. The fund has about $250 billion of usable capacity at its disposal to lend to countries in distress, but a lot of that has now been spoken for. The IMF has called for its ability to lend to be doubled.
The big countries that are the IMF’s main shareholders agree in principle, but there has been no consensus yet on just how to go about boosting the fund’s resources. On Wednesday March 11th Tim Geithner, America’s treasury secretary, proposed boosting the IMF’s credit line with rich countries to an impressive $500 billion from its present $50 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
Can the centrists hold?
From The Economist print edition
|
|
 |
|
As politics reverts to its usual fractious state, Barack Obama’s centrist advisers, the unions and the angry left in Congress are all competing for his ear
IT HAS been a rough few days for Barack Obama. He has lost, in Tom Daschle (see article and Lexington) a close ally on whom he depended for his health-reform plans. Mr Daschle is now the third of his planned appointees to fall by the wayside; Mr Obama’s carefully cultivated image of competence and coolness is starting to fray. Worse, as The Economist went to press the new president’s vast stimulus plan (now worth around $900 billion) faced the prospect of substantial change if it is to pass the Senate where Republicans hold a blocking minority; it was rammed through the House without attracting a single Republican vote in favour.
But the re-emergence of the usual partisan sound and fury obscures a much more interesting question. Mr Obama amassed a solidly liberal record as a senator, then moved towards the centre during the campaign and surrounded himself with centrist advisers. Is his party now dragging him back to the left? Read the rest of this entry »
