...a large passel of very frustrated economic elites who think that Obama's stimulus package and spending priorities are not going to either restore confidence and economic growth or reinvest in the backbone of the US economy in a way that can help generate recurring returns for future generations of citizens.I was less than thrilled at the scope of the stimulus bill (where the money was going, as opposed to its overall size). There were a number of line items in the bill that should have been left to the normal budgeting process, while keeping the actual stimulus focused on job creation in industries that will strengthen our global advantage and keep Americans employed in the long term.
...the frustration I'm hearing from a great number of these types...is that they are not getting through where it counts. The policy options they are proposing aren't getting into the basket of proposals that Obama is considering. In other words, some feel that Obama is not getting a full range of choices on the economy and is being provided a narrow band of views that fit the preconceived biases of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner.
One of the fatal mistakes of the Bush administration in the build up to the Iraq War was the tight constriction of choices and views that Bush's advisers allowed him to see.
Let's hope that the Obama team isn't making the same mistake on the economy.
As Tom Friedman put it last week:
[The new] jobs will be in engineering, constructing and operating huge solar systems and wind farms and manufacturing new photovoltaics. Together they will drive innovation in all these areas — and move wind and solar technology down the cost-volume learning curve so they can compete against fossil fuels and become export industries at the “ChinIndia price,” that is the price at which they can scale in China and India.Friedman also suggests that the government should let G.M. (the "giant wealth destruction machine") and Chrysler fall into bankruptcy. I agree. To continually throw money at those two huge black holes - and not get anything back in return - is not going to help anyone in the long run. Friedman's right. Let them file for bankruptcy. Such a move would rid the two companies of incompetent management teams and save the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars.
That is how taxpayer money should be used to stimulate: limited financing, for a limited time, targeted on an industry bristling with new technology start-ups that, with a little push from Uncle Sam, won’t just survive this crisis but help us thrive when it is over. We need, and the world needs, an America that is thriving not just surviving.
