This is rather strange. One would have expected things would look definitely more positive and people in a better mood on the very day of the inauguration of a new president of the US.
Sadly, that is not the exact scenario. The world stock markets dip into the negative territory, and unbelievably Dow falls more than 300 points (4%) to close below the 8k mark. This does not augur well for the global economy, reflecting badly on the dire state-of-affairs of the US economy in particular.
One explanation for the lackluster performance could be because consumers may not have that much confidence in the new administration team in bringing the bashed financial institutions back to normal that soon. If that is the case, there is no need to talk big about CHANGE and end up offering false promises.
In short, just quietly and diligently do the necessary work to bring about the correct result via right actions. Show the world Washington CAN and will.
(Tan Boon Tee, btt1943@yahoo.com)
Cabinet Makers
Advice to the incoming administration—from players past
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Democrats (and a couple of token Republicans), start your résumés. A new administration means a massive upheaval of the vast machinery of Washington, D.C. In the coming months, thousands of jobs will come open in the White House and federal agencies, and the frenzy of jockeying, networking, phone calling and recommendation seeking is already underway. At the top of the heap: coveted cabinet positions that put a lucky few at the president's elbow. And at the top of that heap, slots at the prestige cabinet agencies: Treasury, State, Defense, Justice, the National Security Council. These posts have their glam appeal (in the capital, at least), and the competition to get them is brutal. For all those trying to maneuver their way to a swivel chair at the cabinet table, take a few sobering words of advice from those who've gone before you.
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Treasury | Guard the Free Market
By James A. Baker III
Any president needs a strong Treasury secretary, but you'll need a particularly strong one in the difficult times ahead. This go-round, the Treasury secretary is going to inherit a boatload of issues and problems, to say the least. After the stock-market crash of 1987, we did two important things that the government needs to be doing today: provisioning significant liquidity into the system to cushion the shock (which we've begun to do) and coordinate our economic policies with those of other countries. Those are the two most significant things we can do.
It's going to be important that you continue those approaches. But what no one is talking about is the need to maintain our free-enterprise system. Yes, we're going to need to come forward with some more responsible regulation in certain areas, like derivatives and credit default swaps. But be very careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don't shift so far away from free-market principle that we lose the benefits of the most successful economic approach the world has ever seen, and that is free market and free enterprise.
You'll find Treasury to be a bit more protected, in the sense that not everybody is trying to get into tax policy or exchange-rate policy. Some of the things you're dealing with at Treasury are a bit more esoteric. But the president ought to make it clear that the head of the department is going to be the primary spokesperson on issues of economic policy.
There will also be challenges when you don't expect it—some humorous, some not. In 1987 I accepted an invitation to go on an elk hunt with the king of Sweden. But when I got to Stockholm and got off the plane, the Swedish finance minister was white as a sheet and said, "The market dropped five!" I said, "So what? Markets can drop five." And he said, "No! I mean 500!" So I spent all night on the phone with other finance ministers and flew back to Washington the next day. Come to think of it, I never saw the king of Sweden or an elk.
—James Baker served as Treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan
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