The Things People Write When They Don't Understand Economics and Don't Want to Blame Obama For Anything

God I love her. I love Arianna Huffington. Why? Because she's an idiot with a platform. How did she get her? She married rich. Then she made friends with some people in Hollywood and BANG she had a website. And from this website that is loved by people whom I hope to never meet she gives us her opinion about politics and economics! And guess what? She's a complete idiot! So when Arianna speaks, I type.

On February 10th, the New York Times reported that there had been a "spirited" battle within the Obama administration over restrictions on executive pay and bonuses, and over attaching stringent conditions to any bailout money given to banks.

The clash pitted Tim Geithner, who opposed the restrictions and conditions, against David Axelrod, who favored them. According to the Times, Geithner had "largely prevailed."

Nice use of quotations, Arianna. Sweet back handed compliment, Arianna.

In light of what has happened since then, that outcome must now be viewed as a tragic surrender to Geithner, Summers, and the political/Wall Street class -- a "victory" that could lead to the unraveling of the president's entire economic policy.

Yeah. No. But sure. In political movie thrillers, then sure something like the A.I.G. bonuses could bring down the entire country. But in this little thing I like to call reality, I don't think so. In fact, the chances that the A.I.G. bonuses bullshit brings down the Obama economic policy (more on that in a second) are zero.

And speaking of the Obama economic policy... what is it? Yeah yeah, I know, stimulus and more TARP funds and toxic assets off the book, blah blah blah... but it doesn't have a name. It isn't a New New Deal or a New Fair Deal or a Gerater Society. In other words, Obama, like everyone including the FED is flying by the seat of their pants. So to say that the Obama economic policy may fail... well... the problem is there really isn't an economic policy. But it's Arianna's reality and we're just reading it.

Maintaining the public trust is always important for a leader, but especially so during hard times.

I fucking wish I had used this to open my three page paper on FDR in 8th grade history. Fucking fuck. That is an AMAZING opening sentence to an 8th grade paper. Seriously. Read that again. It's 14 year-old gold.

There is a fascinating chapter on Nelson Mandela in Stan Greenberg's new book, Dispatches from the War Room, in which Greenberg writes about how even the revered Mandela suffered a loss of public confidence when change did not come fast enough after he took office. "Don't assume the current euphoria, even with your high approval rating will carry you through," Greenberg counsels Obama, stressing the need to try to build up enough trust so that the public will stay with the president until they can actually experience change.

What? Nelson Mandela? Stan Greenberg counseling Obama? Where is this going? What is happening?

Geithner's feigned surprise at AIG has been a body blow to public confidence in the president. According to Sunday's Rassmussen poll, just 12 percent of those Rassmussen defines as "Populists" have a favorable opinion of Geithner while those Rassmussen identifies as "America's Political Class" have a 76 percent favorable opinion of him.

What is she talking about? Who calls one's self a populist? Where are these people? And secondly, what is her point? What is she trying to say to us? So 76% of the people who follow this stuff think Geithner is doing a good job. Is that her point? Or is Arianna attempting to tell us that she too is a populist? I'm confused. But I love her.

It was painful to watch Obama, just hours after Geithner had admitted his role in the Dodd/bonus loophole affair, go on Jay Leno and say that Geithner is doing an "outstanding job." Even before Frank Rich's Sunday column was titled "Has a 'Katrina Moment' Arrived?," Obama's assessment had more than a whiff of Bush telling Brownie he was "doing a heck of a job."

Wow. Just wow. Look, let's cool it with the Katrina stuff for starters. But I love how everyone is missing the point with the A.I.G. mess. Why is it that only David Brooks understands this? What is wrong with America? Has the 24 hour news really destroyed our intellectual ability? But wait, this is only going to get better.

My dictionary defines outstanding as "excellent, exceptional, superior to others in the same category."

My dictionary defines condsending as "Arianna Huffington".

So how could Obama say that and then, not a minute later, tell Leno that his administration plans to "open up separate credit lines outside of banks for small businesses" and "set up a securitized market for student loans and auto loans outside of the banking system" in order to "get credit flowing again"?

I don't know Arianna, I don't know how he could say such things. Did she cry when she wrote this sentence? Is it fair to picture Arianna, hair messy, mascarra streaking down her cheeks, saying out loud "How could you Barack! HOW COULD YOU???"

Back in January, after the Senate voted to release the second $350 billion tranche of TARP money, Obama had told the nation that he was "gratified" he'd been given the authority to "maintain the flow of credit to families and businesses."

Now, here he was, just over two months later, basically admitting that we have to find other ways to "maintain the flow of credit to families and businesses" -- completely contradicting a central tenet of the bank bailout, expressed by Axelrod in January when he told George Stephanopoulos that the president was "going to have a strong message for the bankers. We want to see credit flowing again. We don't want them to sit on any money that they get from taxpayers... And we have to make sure that the money doesn't go to excessive CEO pay and dividends when it should be going to lending."

Then Geithner happened. According to the Times, during the internal debate the Treasury Secretary "resisted those who wanted to dictate how banks would spend their rescue money." And we see how well that turned out.

Wait, Geithner was the only guy saying that the government shouldn't tell the banks how to spend their money? Isn't this the real story here? But that aside, let me say this, and I'm only going to say it once: life is not a fairy tail. I'm sure Obama, like everyone else in this country, hoped that the banks would lend out the TARP money. But then a little thing I like to call reality set in (and yes, I know I said that already, but the ObamaHeads need to hear that word a lot). Reality said this: The Banks are Screwed and need to balance out their sheets. When banks don't have a balanced bank sheet, they can't lend money. And yeah, it sucks. It stinks. It's too bad that we can't go into a bank and say, "Hey banker, don't you think I need $50,000 bucks to buy flat screen TVs and new jackets and a vacation to Disney World?" But those days are Ovar. Because banks don't have money. And this might actually be a good thing since the United States as a whole was completely and totally out of it's collective mind from 2003-2008. Cheap money is gone. That's okay. That's good.

The AIG bonus backlash is the first serious threat to the Obama administration. It has created an opening that allows conservatives to storm the populist barricades, suddenly acting like the second coming of Huey Long or Upton Sinclair.

Don't you love it when populists, conservatives, and Huey Long are all used in the same sentence? Should we tell Arianna that Huey Long was more leftist and less conservative? Should we tell her that the conservative moment is lost in the woods? Should we tell her the last conservative populist was George W. Bush?

Shameless opportunists like Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, and Eric Cantor, who have all argued against limiting executive pay and bonuses, are now positioning themselves in front of the populist parade, railing against AIG and pointing the finger at Obama for allowing this to happen on his watch.

Notice the non-ironic tone she's using with "shameless opportunists".

But the issue isn't Geithner's delivery, it's what he's delivering: an approach to the crisis that is as toxic as the assets that have hamstrung the economy. Geithner, brilliant and hardworking though he is, is trapped within a Wall Street-centric view of the world and seems incapable of escaping.

She does know that at this point this is a banking and financial crisis and having a guy who is stuck in Wall Street mode isn't a bad thing right?

That's why every proposal he comes up with is déjà vu all over again -- a remixed variation on the same tried-and-failed let-the-bankers-work-it-out approach championed by his predecessor, Hank Paulson. For Paul Krugman, this "insistence on offering the same plan over and over again, with only cosmetic changes, is itself deeply disturbing. Does Treasury not realize that all these proposals amount to the same thing? Or does it realize that, but hope that the rest of us won't notice? That is, are they stupid, or do they think we're stupid?"

It's official, we are in Blame anyone but Obama mode! Anyone but Obama! Tim Geithner is from Wall Street! Blame him! Anyone but Obama! Chris Dodd, you're an idiot asshole! Anyone but Obama!

I don't believe Geithner thinks we're stupid (although he almost certainly doesn't think we're as smart as he is). He just can't change who he is: a creature of Wall Street, habitually sympathetic to the people at the top of the financial system, who he clearly thinks were born to run the world.

Geithner's actions throughout his career are proof that the toxic thinking that got us into this mess is part of his DNA.

Okay, seriously. What. The. Fuck. Tim Geighner was the head of the Fed of New York. He worked for a consulting firm in DC. He worked for the Treasury Department. He worked for the IMF. He did not work for a Wall Street bank or firm.

While President of the New York Fed, he eliminated two key regulatory measures -- a quarterly risk report and a ban on major acquisitions -- that may have prevented (or at least lessened the impact of) the unraveling of Citigroup, which his office was responsible for supervising. Then, together with Hank Paulson, he was instrumental in the original bailout of AIG and the creation of the TARP plan. And he was a key player in the decision to let Lehman Brothers fail.

Look, Arianna knows nothing about what's going on. I don't know all that much. But I can tell you one thing: We need banks. These guys are a lot smarter than you or me when it comes to this stuff. So to have Arianna Huffington second guess the moves by these guys is sort of like any of us second guessing the placement of the bridge in a Beatles song. It's stupid.

And maybe Arianna missed the whole "HOLY FUCKING SHIT THE SKY IS FALLING" moment back in late September and early October when the credit markets totally stopped, the commercial paper market froze and the financial world was at DEFCON 5. But do you know why that is? Because Lehman failed. People got scared and they freaked. Well guess what? A.I.G. is bigger and even more important. If they fail it's gonna be Medieval Times for everyone (hyperbole).

Arianna writes some more stupid shit, but honestly... I can't do this any more. It's over. I can't take the bashing of anyone but Obama. I can't take the Obama can do no wrong BS. I can't take blaming Tim Geithner when he's dealing with half a deck of cards. I can't take Arianna talking about economics when it's clear that she has no clue what's she is talking about. I can't do this any more.

I'm breaking up with Arianna.