The Leadership Vacuum

 
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The proposals being advanced to isolate bad assets, recapitalize the banking system and guarantee interbank lending are necessary, given the magnitude of the crisis. But the need for this dramatic action has yet to be explained in a way that makes sense to Americans on both Main Street and Wall Street. This may account, in part, for why markets haven't been buying what Washington has been pushing. Presidents and policymakers may not have control over the ups and downs of financial markets, but those markets render a verdict on the credibility of policies being put forth. So far the verdict is very negative, even if Monday morning's upturn offers hope. They haven't done nearly a good enough job explaining and justifying their actions.

The meeting of the finance ministers of the Group of Seven nations (G7) this weekend, is a test of leadership on the international stage. The G7 may have found some common purpose, but the global economic crisis will test international relations. We may not find one-size-fits-all policies, but people around the world are looking for clarity and cooperation. They want to believe that there is a rational order to things and that the people in charge know that.

And where are the great corporate leaders who might contribute to this very public discussion about an economic problem? Some of them (the Detroit folks come to mind) have been lined up with their tin cups hoping to get a piece of the bailout action. How often have you seen a top CEO take a truly bold and principled stand on a tough issue? Warren Buffett is about the closest thing we have to a J.P. Morgan, whose firm direction helped guide the nation through the financial panic of 1907.

While it is easy to lament the lack of leadership, we should not be surprised. In fact, that's why we design our political and economic institutions to function and be resilient so that they can endure rule by mediocrity. When crisis strikes, however, we do look for individuals to take decisive action—but also to explain the direction they are taking us in and why.

As the dean of a business school that seeks to train future business leaders, I think about these issues a great deal. How can an academic program impart knowledge, encourage independent thinking and foster principled, ethical behavior? Ultimately, how we and the other institutions of America do this job will determine how we navigate and emerge from this financial and economic crisis. Let's hope, in the words of Henry V, that "he that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when this day is named."

Thomas Cooley is Dean of the NYU/Stern School of Business and Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics.

© 2008

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  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/24/2008 1:17:47 AM

    Spread the wealth how.? Look at his past. Obama in this video, addressing his work with ACORN litigation against the banks and relating to the Community Reinvestment Act and the failure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, as they relate to the current real estate and financial crisis, states that, and I quote:

    "Subprime lending started out as a good idea, helping Americans buy homes who previously could not afford to. Financial institutions created new financial instruments that could securitize these loans, slice them into finer and finer risk categories, and spread them out among investors and around the country, as well as around the world. In theory, this should have allowed mortgage lending to be less risky, and more diversified."

    "The original idea was a good one, which was, lets see if we can distribute risk more broadly, and make it easier to provide loans to people who otherwise might not be able to get one."

    Listen for yourself. You cannot dispute the mans on words recorded live:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314&feature=related


    Obama in this second video is campaigning at a convention of Acorn and I believe two other ???Community Activist's organizations. Ask if he will be their ally if he becomes President, Obama says, quote:

    "Yes, but let me say that before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda."

    See and hear it for yourself. Obama promised that Acorn and other groups like it will setting his agenda if elected:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU
    Below is a link to C-SPAN video clips of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix Fannie and Freddie. See for yourself who said what.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
    See also
    http://www.newsweek.com/id/164732 from this web site. (oops!) stating that Freddie Mac was spending tax payer money to target Republicans in 2005 who were trying to regulate Fannie and Freddies fraud. Democrats were not targeted, as the were all in the tank with Fannie and Freddie to kill the regulations. Hear that, the article admits that Republicans were trying to regulate Freddie and Fannie, and Democrats were trying to stop it from happening as a means to facilitate the Community Reinvestment Act.

    See also: http://www.newsweek.com/id/164972
    Stating that Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act wasn't what caused the meltdown, and noting that "economists on both sides of the political spectrum have suggested that the act has probably made the crisis less severe than it might otherwise have been."

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/20/2008 6:29:09 PM

    Who "Joe the plumber" may be is not the issue, though it's easy to see why the Dems want it to be. That's because the real issue is what Obama's comments to him revealed about Obama. In the exchange with "Joe the plumber" we find out that Obama really is as radical as his early political acquaintances, Davis, Ayers, Wright, etc., and that he is into the failed economic policy of wealth redistribution. Obama's tax and spending plans alone would be bad enough, but add Reid and Pelosi to the mix, with the three of them controlling both houses of Congress and the executive branch without any effective restraint, and you have something that should causes concern even among moderate Democrats.
    See Wall Street Journal: A Liberal Supermajority:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420205889842989.html

    And whether McCain won or lost the third debate is also not relevant. He succeeded in the first half hour to plant the seeds of a Reagan style wipeout. Reputable historians and economists overwhelmingly agree that the taxation imposed by Hoover and FDR, and the "stimulus" spending and public works programs of FDR, actually deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. It was the production demands of WWII that got the economy going again. And when the war was over, the economy promptly went into recession.

    See e.g. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/03/opinion/main4499465.shtml
    And
    http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx

    Point is, Obama's programs are to tax, and it does not really matter who he taxes, those taxes are going to be passed through the economy. He has to tax, because it is they only way he can pay for his massive social engineering experiments. Any first year economics student knows that taxation is a tool used to contract an economy experiencing inflation, because it reduces demand by reducing the amount of money individuals and businesses have to spend. It is contractionary, which is exactly what you do not want to do when the problem is that the economy is contracting already into recession. Like Hoover and FDR, Obama's plans will only make it worse for longer.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/20/2008 6:28:58 PM



    Look and listen for yourself. Hear Obama in his own words discusses his links to both ACORN and the mortgage meltdown, and praises bundling and securitizing mortgages by banks as a means to float loans to the poor. Never mind the link commentators point of view, just listen to what Obama says in his own words. A picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe more in the case of the last half of the second link.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314&feature=related

    See also:
    http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=808692&boardsparam=Page%3d2

    This is a link to C-SPAN video clips of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix Fannie and Freddie. See for yourself who said what.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

    The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

    http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

    And the link below describes how some Democrats in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


 
 
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