Obama's trying to be Bill Clinton in an FDR world.

Thomas Palley makes the case here that Obama is trapped by economic judgments and staffing decisions he made two years ago.  His fundamental misjudgment was that the US was entering a recession much like the 1991-92 recession when in fact we were headed into a disaster more like the 1930s. Palley quotes from an FDR speech describing those problems that sound much like today's problems.

Not only is Obama understating our problems, but he overestimated the efficacy of neoliberal economics that has guided the GOP since the 1970s and both parties since 1992.  Palley points out that it wasn't Clinton Administration policy magic that ended the 1991 recession and created the prosperity of the late 1990s--it was the internet bubble.  In turn, GWB was bailed out by the housing bubble.  Other than more bubbles, neoliberal economics has no technical answers, and the political answer--solidarity with the tens of millions of victims--is coming from the Tea Party instead of the Democrat in the White House. Obama needs to connect with his inner FDR.

Comments

[Christine]

FDR did not have the weight of globalization and global warming to contend with. Obama has a more difficult problem by far.