How's my driving

Dear President Obama

On the anniversary of the Lehnman Brother bankruptcy, a wealth manager
of 2 billion dollars was asked what the government should have done.
He gave a version of my suggestion, to calculate the fair market value
of the securitized mortgages which I had sent you in March.

For me the sense of justice is missing in your administration. I
believed the change your campaign advocated was for a just society.
The rich bankers on Wall Street gambled and lost but Geithner lined
their pockets. My proposal of calculating the fair market value of
securitized mortgages and booking the loss to the banks is justice.
There was no justice, the tax payers paid for the banker’s losses.

I told you the sugar beet and corn (for fructose) farmers control the
market of sweeteners in the US economy and get subsidies. Dairy
farmers don’t have the same benefits. Milk is outpriced to the
fructose laced drinks and dairy families are forced out of business.
This is unjust, yet your administration has done nothing. Your
economic team reports no inflation because they exclude food and gas.
For me the cost of bread and milk has doubled, what’s the point of
saying there is no inflation? I feel it unjust that you don’t know
anyone who can tell you the price of a loaf of bread and a gallon of
milk.

Some companies paint on their trucks a sign that says “How’s my
driving? Call ….”
Every driver, you included, thinks he drives just fine. As an outside
observer, I’d like to suggest that you have blind spots in your
command of economics. You are deferring to your advisors. You lack
the background to know a good idea when handed to you. My suggestion
is that you privately seek out Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan. It is
clear to me, Clinton has a better command of economics than you.
Greenspan says he and Bill are an odd couple, a live wire and dry
economist but they both like books and music. You could invite them
to dinner and face the music. Such a dinner may be difficult to keep
secret so maybe a confidential telephone call would do. Sound out
what these outsiders see and sense how Geithner is doing. There were
news reports that Volcker criticized the slow staffing of Treasury
positions and that Summers has disagreed with Geithner.

By the way your Secretary of Agriculture has seriously failed the hog
and dairy farmers.

It would take time to vet out replacements,start vetting now so you
could do it in the new year. Please learn the lessons of history ie
G.W Bush. He was blindly loyal to his staff ie Rumsfeld. Your praise
of Geithner of doing a great job has a familiar ring ie “Great job,
Brownie”. You know what happened.

The “too big to fail problem” is common to the banking system, Freddy
and Fannie Mae and the single payer health care discussion. I think
those who wrote the anti-trust laws tried to address this issue. The
Federal Reserve has regional banks. Canada has six major banks.
Breaking up Alcoa and the railways was successful. I think breaking
up ATT was less successful but don’t know why. Maybe some wisdom can
be gleaned from the principles of anti-trust so their wouldn’t be a
single payer but a group of regional not for profit health care
payers. The whole world knows Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and AIG
are too big. Doesn’t anti-trust apply?

Peanut butter and jam sandwiches

To: Christina Romer

I have chosen to write to you because my emails to the President, have
been ineffective.

In your public appearances, you say that inflation requires increases
in wages and you see no sign of wages increasing. I am no match to you
in competency on this issue.

My concern is that your denial of the existence of inflation is
failing to address the high cost of living. Here is an example that
means a lot to me.

One of the President's daughters eats peanut butter and jam sandwiches
with a glass of milk.

The price of bread has doubled in the past two years. The worldwide
shortage of sugar affects the price of peanut butter and jam. Grain
and sugar beat farmers are making a fortune. The taxpayers are
providing huge amounts of subsidy money to them as well as the farmers
of corn for fructose. Throughout the whole chain of sowing, harvest,
processing, packaging and selling, high energy costs affect the price
of bread, milk, peanut butter and jam.

Where I live, the price of milk has doubled in the past three years,
though news reports say prices have dropped in California. Dairy
farmers don't have a collective to absorb the shocks of free market
pricing of milk. The price of feed and energy hurts them.
Capitalists believe the market sets the best price. Forcing dairy
farmers out of business is not good for President Obama's daughter's
glass of milk, nor milk for Americans.

Your data doesn't see inflation. I hope you see the cost of living. I
guess technically it is not inflation.

Health care is the hot topic. I don't see fiscal reform as a priority
because the recent SEC report stated that the SEC had failed. Energy
policy does need to be thought through.

Here are things that are important to me, that I think you should
advise the President.

-Reforming the farm subsidies would reduce the government deficit.
-Competency in the Treasury Department, still hasn't addressed the
banking problems of a year ago. Their reckless attempts to save the
banks has resulted in rich bankers and wasted taxpayer spending (AIG
payment to Goldman Sachs using taxpayer money, bonuses to Goldman
Sachs using taxpayer money and this fall to AIG executives). A
government job (Wage czar) to tell private companies how much to pay
their employees is a waste of taxpayer money. There is no fiscal
policy going forward.
The government is noticeably absent in dealing with economic issues
(only recycling tired cliches, "meltdown wasn't of our doing" and "our
stimulus package"). Politically this is unwise; the Republican
campaign will be the winning line "The economy, stupid!"

I hope you can advise the President to direct fiscal policy to address
the peanut butter and jam sandwich issues.