Posts Tagged ‘President Obama’

The State of the Union Address – A Few Comments

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I found plenty of noteworthy comments in last night’s State of the Union Address.   Here is the link to the transcript:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address

Here are a couple of my thoughts:

First, many stimulus initiatives were mentioned.  Some of these were new ideas.  That stimulus ideas are proliferating should not be a surprise, as many in our country believe they represent a sensible solution to our many economic difficulties.   I will comment on many of these initiatives when more details are available and/or they are enacted.  For now, I will say that before we, as a nation, enact more stimulus bills, we need to analyze the results of the many stimulus efforts previously and currently enacted.  Then, we need to assess the unintended consequences and risks these stimulus efforts hold, of which I have previously mentioned on this blog.

Second, the employment situation was mentioned.  This, of course, is not a surprise and is a very popular topic among all politicians – and for very good reason.

President Obama during the speech last night made the following comment:

“But the truth is, these steps won’t make up for the seven million jobs that we’ve lost over the last two years.”

I believe that our unemployment problems, both current and ongoing, encompass a population many multiples of seven million.   Our unemployment problems will most likely not be solved by any easily enacted solution, unfortunately.

For those unaware, I previously wrote a series of blog posts on unemployment, can be found here:

http://www.economicgreenfield.com/2009/07/24/why-arent-companies-hiring/

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President Obama’s Remarks on Ben Bernanke

Friday, August 28th, 2009

On Tuesday President Obama made remarks upon nominating Ben Bernanke for a second term as Fed Chairman.  The remarks can be found here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-The-President-and-Ben-Bernanke-at-the-Nomination-of-Ben-Bernanke-For-Chairman-Of-the-Federal-Reserve/

I would like to comment on some of the phrases President Obama used in these remarks.

President Obama says, “The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world has ever faced.” 

and later:

“Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and out-of-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall.”

and later:

“But taken together, this “bold, persistent experimentation” has brought our economy back from the brink.”

_____

In the second phrase, I found the use of the word “approached” to be odd. 

However, the greater significance in the above phrases is the reference to ”bold action and out-of-the-box thinking” and “‘bold, persistent experimentation.’”  I was surprised to see the word “experimentation” mentioned; one would usually not think of an economy being “experimented” upon.  However, the description is probably accurate given what has transpired.  Perhaps the bigger question is whether the “experiment” has ended? Has it been a success? 

With regard to this “out-of-the-box thinking” and “‘bold, persistent experimentation’” I would like to refer to a speech Janet Yellin (President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) gave on January 4, 2009.  In it she said that with regard to the Federal Reserve actions: ““Furthermore, many of the interventions are novel, so no straightforward methods are available to quantify their effectiveness. There are also no clear guidelines for the Fed to gauge the appropriate size of its interventions and few precedents for the Fed to use in communicating its policy stance to the public beyond announcing new programs and describing their terms in detail.”

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