How would you rate his performance up to now?
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Even though it has been a year it is still kinda hard to say. It is not like he was voted in on a fresh country with no war and no economy problems...But on another level he loves to talk and gets awards that are questionable.GrandJuryI wonder how much longer he can keep blaming Bush for his failures.
I give him a 2. His domestic policies have been a disaster so far, a trillion dollar "stimulus" bill which has done nothing to stimulate the economy (unemployment just keeps going up), the highly inefficient cash-for-clunkers (which has ended up costing over 20,000 dollars per clunker), repealing partial birth abortion laws, etc. The only thing he's done right so far is stay the course to finish the job in Iraq in Afghanistan.UT_WrestlerPretty much my sentiments exactly as well
[QUOTE="GrandJury"]Even though it has been a year it is still kinda hard to say. It is not like he was voted in on a fresh country with no war and no economy problems...But on another level he loves to talk and gets awards that are questionable.UT_WrestlerI wonder how much longer he can keep blaming Bush for his failures.Like I said. It is his first year. If he goes into his second and third year with the same thing saying the same crap then someone needs to step in and make ACTUAL change.
[QUOTE="UT_Wrestler"][QUOTE="GrandJury"]Even though it has been a year it is still kinda hard to say. It is not like he was voted in on a fresh country with no war and no economy problems...But on another level he loves to talk and gets awards that are questionable.GrandJuryI wonder how much longer he can keep blaming Bush for his failures.Like I said. It is his first year. If he goes into his second and third year with the same thing saying the same crap then someone needs to step in and make ACTUAL change. Definitely. All the charm, charisma, and likeability in the world won't save his re-election chances if he doesn't get the economy turned around.
[QUOTE="GrandJury"]Even though it has been a year it is still kinda hard to say. It is not like he was voted in on a fresh country with no war and no economy problems...But on another level he loves to talk and gets awards that are questionable.UT_WrestlerI wonder how much longer he can keep blaming Bush for his failures.He shouldn't have been blaming Bush in the first place. You don't blame other presidents and you sure as hell don't keep crying that it's the other guys fault because you discovered you (Obama) have no clue what you're doing or how to fix anything.
I'll just leave this here...
I didn't expect anything different. Just more big government spending
Oh look there's our first stimulus signing with Republican Bush and Democrat Pelosi! With Rangel and Rahm in there too!
Those pathetic pieces of garbage, all smiling while robbing us blind.
3
Decent year, a lot of spending, but looking at actual "statistics" instead just pulling stuff out of nowhere, things are looking up for the nation. Retail sales are starting to recovery, so are home sales, and our GDP has increased by more than 3% this year(In January some economist estimated it would drop by 5%).
Troop withdrawal has begun in Iraq, and Healthcare reform is looking like it will pass(biggest achievement of the democratic party in decades).
It seems like some people here like to complain about things getting worst when things have actually gotten a lot better.
I really dont think he deserves less than two start, but whatever, I voted 4.
Edit: Reason I say "but whatever" is that I dont want to get into it because for those of you disappointed in him because "He hasnt done ****" even if those of use who see the progress show you all the things he HAS done, you still dont see it as progress or its not goo enough =P So its not in the least worth arguing over.
Oh look there's our first stimulus signing with Republican Bush and Democrat Pelosi! With Rangel and Rahm in there too!
Those pathetic pieces of garbage, all smiling while robbing us blind.
JustusCF
That's why so many from the outside think the Us is ripe for a revolution. Didnt you guys revolt against the British for less? the upcoming second depression will be viewed by the populace as being caused by the powerful companies and the federal government, perfect targets for populace rage and rebellion
Obama's 'predictably irrational' economic policies
14 reasons Obama's love of Wall Street will trigger the Great Depression 2
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. **** -- First: Kiss the rally good-bye, says Jeremy Grantham, legendary CEO of the $101 billion GMO money-management firm.
Why? The market is overvalued 25%. A minimum 15% correction is coming in 2010, putting the Dow in the 8,000-9,000 range. The S&P 500? Not at 666 like last spring; maybe 800. Why a top? Black Friday? Dubai? Tiger Woods? All the dark films? The "2012" end of civilization? The post-apocalyptic "The Road?" Stop guessing, timing market turns is irrational.
Grantham's shift from bull to bear appears rational. Remember, earlier this year the Dow was near 6,000, banks near bankrupt, and we were praying for the new untested president to change America. In his latest editorial Grantham reminds us why his prediction made sense in the spring: "Regardless of the fundamentals, there would be a sharp rally. After a very large decline and a period of somewhat blind panic, it is simply the nature of the beast." Get it? A rally was predictable, based on the history of cycles.
Trust Grantham? 100%. Back in early 2007, he warned: "The First Truly Global Bubble: From Indian antiquities to modern Chinese art; from land in Panama to Mayfair; from forestry, infrastructure, and the junkiest bonds to mundane blue chips; it's bubble time. ... Everyone, everywhere is reinforcing one another. ... The bursting of the bubble will be across all countries and all assets ... no similar global event has occurred before."
Grantham was one of a small group of industry leaders who saw a crash coming as early as 2000. But political leaders were ideologically blind: Fed Czar Ben Bernanke said the collapsing markets were "contained." Our devious Treasury Czar Henry Paulson was misleading Fortune and all America: "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime." Worse, former Fed Czar Alan Greenspan was busy writing his memoirs bragging about how he invented a "New World" out of Reaganomics, Ayn Rand's New Age wishful-thinking and an unregulated $670 trillion derivatives market.
Three clueless leaders.
Grantham bearish, short-term correction, long-term disaster
Now Grantham's warning us again: America's irrational nightmare will repeat. First, the short-term correction, 15% to 25%. But then long-term, a deadly warning: Disaster ahead. Why? Because America has "learned nothing," we are "condemning ourselves to another serious financial crisis in the not too-distant future."
Yes, Americans are predictably irrational, doomed to repeat history: Grantham points us to a key chart, his "favorite example of a last hurrah after the first leg of the 1929 crash." The similarity between 1929-30 and today are obvious: "After the sharp decline in the fall of 1929, the S&P 500 rallied 46% from its low in November to the rally high of April 12, 1930, then, of course, fell by over 80%."
Familiar? You bet. We've had our rally. Next, the plunge. Our irrationality plus history guarantees another ... only bigger.
A year ago America came dangerously close to the Great Depression 2. We "learned nothing." When psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his work on irrationality in 2002, the sense was that behavioral economics would help Main Street become "less irrational," that behavioral sciences would make us all better investors, better consumers, better citizens.
Obama even made a big issue of working with behavioral scientists to minimize irrational behavior in America.
Obama gets failing grade in behavioral economics
But they turned against us. Behavioral scientists, behavioral economists and behavioral-finance experts have become the mortal enemies of Main Street America. Two ways: First, behaviorists consistently put us down by reminding us how irrational (stupid) we are. Second: They're using their minds, tools and technologies against us, helping Wall Street profile us as targets for investing products, bank customer fees, tax propaganda, etc.
They are paid mercenaries helping Wall Street scam Americans out of billions. They cannot be trusted, they have lost their independence and professional integrity. They are failing to expose the most toxic sources of irrationality: Wall Street, Congress, the White House.
And that's why when a guy like Jeremy Grantham comes along focusing us on the toxic irrationality at the top of America's leadership he deserves to be seen as one of America's best behavioral economists. He's one of the few honest behaviorists, exposing the irrationality of America's leaders.
So please listen closely to his 14-point analysis of the rampant irrationality at the highest level of American government today, because what he is also predicting is another catastrophic meltdown dead ahead.
1. Obama's shift into 'predictably irrational' economics
If Grantham ever was a fan, he's clearly disillusioned with the president. His 14 points expose the extremely irrational behavior of Obama breaking promises by turning Washington over to Wall Street, a blunder that will trigger the Great Depression 2. Grantham is cynical but subtle. If you want a more brutal attack, read Matt Taibbi's latest Rolling Stone feature: "Obama's Big Sellout," detailing how Obama, same as Bush, turned government over to Wall Street, to the same crooks who created the mess.
2. Bernanke's reappointment, a totally irrational blunder
"The most passionate cheerleader of Greenspan's follies ... completely clueless." A blunder "like reappointing the Titanic's captain" and "a wasted opportunity."
3. Summers, Geithner: Wall Street's newest Trojan Horses
Larry Summers blew "no warning whistles of impending doom back in 2006 and 2007." Earlier as Treasury Secretary he "beat back attempts to regulate" derivatives. Tim Geithner "sat in the very engine room of the USS Disaster and helped steer her onto the rocks" as New York Fed Czar. Still an irrational Obama appointed him, as Wall Street cheered.
4. Idiotic, irrational, greedy mortgage borrowers
"The more misguided or reckless the borrowers, the more determined the efforts to help them out," although "these efforts had limited effect." Short-term politics, bad economics.
5. Reckless, irrational and stupid home builders
They "magnificently overbuilt" for years." Still our irrational president stimulated "even more home building by giving new house buyers $8,000 each."
6. Nation of irrational overspenders and undersavers
Americans have been "dangerously overconsuming for the last 15 years." Still, our irrational politicians "encourage consumption and penalize savers by maintaining artificially low rates" fueling the same irrational speculation that created the meltdown.
7. America's too-Irrational-to-fail' banking system
Our banking "system shows every sign of being out of control." Make it simpler, smaller, "so they can be allowed to fail." Separate the "dangerously risk-seeking hedge fund heart from the banking system." Instead Obama set up a bizarre, irrational policy ... force them to be bigger." Now they're "at extreme tilt to risk-taking: it's practically a cliff!"
8. Wall Street's unconscionable crooked mega-bonuses
"Two-thirds of Goldman's huge profits went for bonuses ... largest ever." Last year the "same guys were on the edge of a run on the bank ... saved only by government." Our irrational president upset "the formerly infallible workings of capitalism."
9. Corporate America's grossly overpaid CEOs
"Galling," says Grantham: When he came to America in 1964 "the ratio of CEO pay to the average worker was ... between 20/1 and 40/1." That had "held for the previous 30 years. By 2006, this ratio had exploded to between 400/1 and 600/1 ... obscene."
10. Our irrationally over leveraged, zombie companies
Wall Street has "so overstimulated the risk-taking environment that junky, weak, marginal companies and zombie banks" outperform, with "junk over the great blue chips." We let losers "live to compete against the companies that actually deserve to be survivors." That's "not healthy for the long-term well-being of the economy."
11. Our irrationally managed U.S. auto industry
"Most short-sighted industry of the last 20 (40?) years, and one of the worst managed."
12. A nation addicted to automobiles, dying for more oil
"We chew up a dangerously large amount of Middle Eastern oil ... ruinous for our global political well-being (and ability to avoid war)" and bad for "an overheating world." Still, our irrational politicians are subsidizing more car purchases.
13. Stock options give CEOs a legal right to steal from shareholders
They're robbing us: Corporate CEOs have a "legalized way to abscond with the stockholders' equity." If management messes up and the stock crashes, they just "rewrite the options at new low prices ... no serious attempt to match stock option ... to the building of long-term franchise value. Instead, the motto is: grab it now and run!"
14. Finally, Grantham's irrational 'old nemesis, Greenspan'
He gets "the title of Maestro in the U.S. and is knighted by the Queen ... for thoroughly demolishing the integrity of the U.S. financial system. He overtly ignored the great threat of bubbles in asset ****s and, in fact, encouraged them. He Ayn Rand-ishly facilitated the progressive dismantling of governmental restrictions on financial behavior, he deliberately kept real interest rates at zero for years, etc., etc., etc. You have heard it before. ... In the good old days, he would have been set in the village stocks, and not the kind you buy and sell. And I would have been right there, Alan, with very ripe tomatoes."
In the end Grantham encourages everyone to read a John Kay article in the Financial Times. Kay's title says it all: "Our banks are beyond the control of mere mortals." He advises investors to "follow an aphorism of Warren Buffett's: 'Invest only in businesses that an idiot can run, because sooner or later an idiot will.'"
Rereading Buffett's wisdom I wonder: Perhaps America really is a "business" that nobody can run? Not the best and brightest. Nor an idiot. And certainly not our too-clever behavioral scientists.
Moreover, "people" are not the problem. The 1982 ****c "In Search of Excellence" tells us that 85% of organizational failures were systemic, not people caused. "It's the system stupid." That means America, our economy, our markets, our capitalist system have become too big, too complex, too out-of-control, too unmanageable.
Our wealthy elite already know that and are grabbing what's left. The "idiot" masses could regain control, but only in a 1776-****revolution, except they're too docile, too irrational to revolt.
I'm guessing it's people that chose to express their opinions. Just a hunch.:lol: Who are the 5 people who said he's been amazing?
Pirate700
It's only been a year. I didn't vote for him, but he has done well as he has inherited the US in the worst economic crisis in 70 years, 2 "wars," and a lot of other crap.
People are way to harsh, maybe because of their ignorance of politics and policies. In the whole scheme of things, many of you people don't know how well he has handled this.
Example:
He's done absolutely nothing except for allowing the national debt to continue it's upward rise. Where are the tax breaks for companies who hire new employees? Where are the tax penalties for employers who lay off even though they are financially strong? Where is the help for those that have had their credit ratings killed due to unemplyment, and now find it impossible to get a job because employers don't want to hire people with a poor credit rating? Instead of comming up with creative ideas to help the economy, he's increasing the deficit by blindly throwing money at it so the government can consentrate on health care, which leads me to another question. Why are we debating health care when people can't even keep a roof over their family's heads? Not only should health care be taking a back seat to the economy, we shouldn't even be thinking about it until the unemployment levels are down. Passing the health care plan now could send us in to another recession.psychobrew
I'm guessing it's people that chose to express their opinions. Just a hunch.That didn't answer my question but thanks. Actually, it did. You asked who are the people that said he was amazing. I said it was people that wanted to express their opinions - I just didn't say who those people were.[QUOTE="sammyjenkis898"][QUOTE="Pirate700"]
:lol: Who are the 5 people who said he's been amazing?
Pirate700
6. Nation of irrational overspenders and undersaversI didnt read your whole post, but I thought the reason the government didnt want us to save all our money was because if we dont horde money and instead reintroduce it in to the economy, the more likely people are to keep the jobs they have because the businesses are actually still making money instead of none at all because people are saving?Americans have been "dangerously overconsuming for the last 15 years." Still, our irrational politicians "encourage consumption and penalize savers by maintaining artificially low rates" fueling the same irrational speculation that created the meltdown.
majwill24
Try reading my question again. :P
Pirate700
Again, I told you who they are - I just didn't tell you their names.
;)
[spoiler] It wasn't me [/spoiler]
I didnt read your whole post, but I thought the reason the government didnt want us to save all our money was because if we dont horde money and instead reintroduce it in to the economy, the more likely people are to keep the jobs they have because the businesses are actually still making money instead of none at all because people are saving?[QUOTE="majwill24"]6. Nation of irrational overspenders and undersavers
Americans have been "dangerously overconsuming for the last 15 years." Still, our irrational politicians "encourage consumption and penalize savers by maintaining artificially low rates" fueling the same irrational speculation that created the meltdown.
MuddVader
spending money is fine as long as its responsible. Many americans are in debt and further spending will only make the situation worse. also, savings increase capital for banks to invest.
However Obama did say something unprecedented for a US president in recent memory. He actually told Americans not to shop and buy too much, but rather save their money. IT could be lip service or a realization that the status quo is no longer sustainable. He made these remarks after the Asia tour he recently went on.
Referring to the summit in his weekly address, Obama said: "It is important that we do not make any ill-considered decisions – even with the best of intentions – particularly at a time when our resources are so limited. But it is just as important that we are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we've already taken to put America back to work. That's what I hope to achieve in this forum."
Less than a week from the biggest shopping day of the year, the president also delivered a familiar message to Americans, discouraging them from taking on "more and more debt" and saying the nation needs to "spend less, save more."
He urged for more emphasis on exports, saying they "can help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world."
"Increasing our exports is one way to create new jobs and new prosperity," Obama said. "But as we emerge from a recession that has left millions without work, we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step we can take to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country."
Well he has made the best of the disaster that he inherited from the republicans. Still he is falling short on quite a few fronts.
I gave him 3 stars.
He's honestly trying very hard to get stuff done and things are set in motion to get moving. He's smart, he knows what he's talking about and he understands what needs to be done.
Once the Healthcare Plan and Afganistan Strategies are put in place, we'll be able to start measuring his Presidency better. Right now, Obama is still trying to fix everything that Bush and the Republicans destroyed over the past 8 years.
Honestly.. I don't think many people even really listened to his acceptance speech.. majority of people expect too much right away, and aren't willing to do what it takes to get there.. they just want everything handed to them on a silverplatter. It's pretty sad, really.. but it is the state of American culture.
Anyways, to answer your question more directly.. Obama has done as good as job as any other president in US history.. giving their limited ability to do anything by a faulty legislation branch.
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