PassedOut, on 2010-November-20, 10:13, said:
I think it's a plain fact that the effects of the stimulus were seriously oversold by Obama (Paul Krugman gave strong warnings about that at the time). That overselling was a bad mistake, and the vague mutterings later to the effect that, "Things were so much worse than we thought," only added to Obama's political problems.
Maybe it's my business orientation, but I would like to see the president stand up with charts (I'd prefer monthly, but quarterly would be acceptable) to explain the administration's goals, the plans to achieve those goals, and how things have tracked since the last presentation. If things go off track, explain what went wrong and what corrections are being made.
Perhaps an approach like this would be too boring for most folks to sit through, but I would watch and so would many in the dreaded "elite" class. Perhaps Obama's advisors caution him against looking "too professorial," but I've seen him do a very good job of explaining his policies when he actually gets around to it. Obama's no schmoozer like Bill Clinton, and he shouldn't try to be. But he should make good use of his ability to be professorial, rather than shrink from it.
I think that all the charts in the world are not going to do the trick unless he is prepared, and we are prepared, to face hard facts.
QE2: It's not a free trip on an ocean liner. Maybe it will "work", whatever that might mean. Maybe, when it doesn't cure everything, maybe just maybe Bernanke has another rabbit in another hat. And then maybe another. But eventually we run out of rabbits.
Tax cuts: The original argument, that they made sense because of the huge surplus, seems like we must have been on acid. Let's, perhaps, accept that with our massive unemployment problem (the figures are tricky for well-known reasons, but "massive" seems about right) this is not the time for all tax rates to revert to the level of ten years ago. Perhaps that is so. This definitely does not mean that we can all go on spending what we do not have forever. Moreover, we will all (including us with even modest resources) need to accept some responsibility here. The rich, well-connected and grabby need to be told to ante up, but the rest of us cannot expect to totally escape responsibility.
Personal debt: I think this is a huge problem. As I have noted before, credit card debt apparently has been decreasing quite a bit in the last couple of years. It's (mostly) good news/(but some) bad news. The good news is that quite a few people seem to actually have caught on to the fact that large personal debt is a serious enemy. The bad part is that this spend now pay later approach was responsible for selling a lot of stuff, and now that economic boost will decrease as personal financial sanity sets in.
Cutting government spending: Republican or Democrat, I'll believe it when I see it.