...And Calls For New Economic Policies

...And Changes At The CIA

January 8. 2009

Obama

President-elect Obama has slammed George W. Bush for his negligence during the current economic crisis. I agree, as Bush could have done way more to halt the problem, before it reached the epic levels it attained.

However, more concerned with preserving his legacy, he was willfully negligent, hoping to pass the buck to the next president.

Bush

Obama is also vowing to overhaul the CIA. It would be good if they stopped breaking the law 100,000 times per year.

Illegal maneuvers in foreign countries for economic reasons needs to stop as well, as it is damaging the nation's name in the world. Their focus should be anti-terrorism and preventing nuclear exploits in the world that pose a danger to America.  

Obama slams Bush on deficit, vows changes at the CIA

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday ripped outgoing President George W. Bush for "irresponsibly" doubling the federal debt, then warned that he could preside over trillion-dollar-a-year deficits for "years to come." ...

"At the current course and speed, a trillion-dollar deficit will be here before we even start the next budget," Obama said at his Washington transition office.

"We're already looking at a trillion-dollar budget deficit or close to a trillion-dollar budget deficit, and . . . potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery that we are working on at this point."

He also defended his choice of Leon Panetta to be director of the CIA — despite having no direct experience in intelligence gathering — and said he'll have "plenty to say" about the Israel-Gaza fighting after he takes office in two weeks.

Obama stressed that Panetta's experience as a congressman and White House chief of staff will help him and others reverse Bush administration policies such as allowing torture...

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Was 2008 the beginning of another Great Depression?

WASHINGTON — It wasn't 1929, but like that infamous year, 2008 is sure to be remembered by economic historians as one unlike any other.

"We had a much simpler financial system back then. The number of wild and crazy things that happened this year is completely without precedent in world history," said Alan Blinder, a Princeton University economics professor and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve...

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Economic woes expected to worsen early this year

WASHINGTON — The economy will get worse before it gets better this year as housing prices continue to fall, unemployment rates rise and the gross domestic product contracts.

That's what economists across the political spectrum are forecasting as Americans start the new year amid the worst economic crisis in at least two decades.

The only question left is what, if anything, a stimulus package promised by President-elect Barack Obama will accomplish. He's pledged upward of $800 billion in public works projects, aid to state and local governments and middle-class tax cuts.

"The whole question is whether can we stop the bleeding in 2009," said Robert E. Scott, senior international economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research center focused on economic issues that affect low- and middle-income people.

"It'll be a down year, and the question is whether that will bleed into 2010," Scott said.

For the average U.S. household wondering how to survive the turmoil, the economic choir sang in unison: Don't take on debt, don't make risky stock investments and play it safe — at least until next year.

Many are predicting that the country's 6.7 percent unemployment rate could reach as high as 10 percent this year and that housing prices have fallen by only about 60 percent of their eventual decline...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com

Obama calls for new economic course

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to pass a huge economic stimulus package as quickly as possible, warning that inaction could bring high unemployment and a lingering recession for years.

"It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now," he said during an address on the economy at George Mason University, in a Virginia suburb of Washington.

http://www.usatoday.com