Good on you

I have admired your humility in victory and your effective counter-punching. Your townhall meeting at the Republican gathering in Baltimore was the finest display of statesmanship I have seen in my life. Good on you.

I have taken my swings at you. I lookout for your counterpunch, on each swing. You haven’t deflected the force of my hits and I consider the Massachusetts’ result a knockdown.

Your townhall performance reminded me of the 2008 election battle.
This is meant as a joke. What do I call your healthcare plan? …. “Lipstick on a pig.”
Ok, in Washington speak, it’s not a joke.

I told you so.

May you live in interesting times

All things considered, you must admit that the Massachusetts’ Senate result really makes my disparaging emails look good. I TOLD YOU SO. My reasoning was that with so many public failures and no wins, you gave the independents cause to look for change.

Out right losers, Geithner, Holder, Goolsbee.
Treading water, Biden, Axelrod, Rouse.

So here are the big changes to be made.

Joint-chiefs of staff James Baker, Rahm Emnual.
It will be the good cop, bad cop tag team, Baker, all things Economic, Emnual everything else. Each, have their own faults, but as a team they can get a lot done. Emnual can learn a lot about getting things done through the side door from Baker but the ideology will be Democratic. Emnual needs family time.

It will be announced that Biden withdraws from the VP slot for 2012 and Clinton will be it. She then comes into the White House. She brings great energy and is passionate about main stream matters, the perfect counter-party to the frat-boy Obama who only works out and shoots hoops. She really knows how to fix things… all things and now she is a proven team player.

Another Republican, Patrick J. Fitzgerald will replace Holder. He is the people’s choice, at least my choice.

I think Geithner should be replaced, if you had listened to me months ago, you will be ready.

Axelrod is having too much fun with the details and lost the strategic focus, lose the moustache and he’s a new man.

Change in character

I’m surprised by you haughty posture in the face of public failures.

Let us start with the Treasury Department.
In February 2009 you said that Geithner would announce in March, your government’s solution to the banking crisis – the questionable value of securitized mortgages in the banks which had frozen credit markets. There was considerable consternation at the long delay because Geithner had been appointed in December. His March presentation was inadequate. I am on record as presenting an alternative in March. A year has passed and there has been no change in the questionable value of securitized mortgages in the banks. I would consider this a public failure.
Newpapers have reported that Geithner authorized public funds to AIG to be passed through to Goldman Sachs before the CDS were valued, for at least 2.5 billion dollars. I submit this is a public failure of fiduciary responsibility.

The government has used public money to help AIG pay banks the CDS claims by the banks on the declining values of the securitized mortgages that they, the banks own. The banks have been paid the insurance policies they placed on their mortgages yet they have not removed these mortgages from their books. Geithner has budgeted taxpayer money to pay for devalued assets to remove them from the banks’ books. Your government has paid the banks twice, once through the CDS payments from AIG and the second time when you relieve the banks of the securitized mortgages. This double payment is a public failure of fiduciary responsibility.

The Justice Department.
The prosecution failed to present a case in the Blackwater affair.
Your promise to close Guantanamo by the end of the year failed and looks like a totally false promise.
Both are embarrassing public failures from an institution meant to protect the public.

My perceived Injustices
I think that it is unjust that milk has to compete against soft drink products because the fructose in the soft drinks, is from sugar beet and corn farmers who are subsidized by the government. The short term benefits MacDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King because they buy the cows from dairy farmers who are going out of business. In the long-term, fewer dairy farmers mean the price of cheese will rise, raising the price of pizza. Some suggest milk is healthy for children and the rising cost of milk may impact the health of children. It takes years to re-establish a herd.

I perceive a failure by the Anti-trust Division of the Justice Department to prosecute banks such a Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase for anti-trust practices.

I respect Rahm Emnual’s untiring efforts in Government. For every minute of family life you enjoy he has given up an hour of family life with his family. He has been successful. I do not wish to diminish his accomplishment and sacrifice but you must acknowledge that healthcare is a limited success. You can fully celebrate the effort and historic breakthrough. You will be exasperating your haughty posture if you overplay the significance of the bill.

I thought you were a person of character who celebrates with humility and who responds to criticisms with effective counter-punches. We longer see these traits. In my frustration, I am accusing you of haughty behavior in the face of public failure. For me, a wage czar and tax on bank bailout profits are signs of thin-skinned attitudes and sticking with Geithner and Holder are signs of stubbornness. These pettinesses remind me of a G. W. Bush.

PS I keep telling you how the price of bread goes up. The price of breadcrumbs for Christmas stuffing was the price of a loaf of bread two years ago. Are you watching the standard of living index?

One Important Paragraph

The most important decision for the decade is at hand. Deciding to
withdraw government infusion from the economy or to apply more
infusion is the single most important decision you have to make. It
affects America’s destiny. Premature pull back of monetary and fiscal
infusion will return to recession and possible deflation.
Over-applying monetary and fiscal infusion leads to inflation and
possible stagflation. Recession and inflation are skids but deflation
and stagflation are when things are out of control and the government
has no remedies. Much has been made of deflation, you must get Paul
Volcker to write about how to identify the pre-conditions of
stagflation and how to avoid it. He was there. The information to
make the decision is in three parts, the economic data which is
historical, the infusion in the pike but not yet in effect and
projected economic conditions. You must spend more time making this
decision than what to do in Afghanistan.

The Federal Reserve is acutely aware of the situation. They
scrutinize the data and will be very judicious in wielding their
tools. You are in charge of the fiscal part of the economy, and must
have an infra-structure in place to vet the information and fully
control fiscal spending. There are systemic problems with the
framework of your economic team to thread the needle. You must change
the systemic problems in the structure of your economic team.

You need a Supreme Economic Council. They will scrutinize the data,
and then react to the activities of the Federal Reserve. This council
is mediated by Jim Baker and the esteemed members are Alan Greenspan
and Paul Volcker., America’s best. They will convene three days after
each Fed meeting to determine how changes in monetary policy require
changes in fiscal policy.

You need an uber-czar who controls all government spending including
Treasury. That uber-czar should be Rahm Emnual. Nobody will cross
him and cheat on their spending. He will be disciplined when it comes
to spending.

From the outside, your economic structure is worse than the
anti-terrorist security structure.
There are too many councils with too many opinions, and there is no
accountability for the actual economic policy. It looks like a no
fault economic policy where you are left holding the bag.

Let’s start with the kind of information you are getting. Clinton had
his personal set of economic indicators, so he had his own set of eye
glasses, no matter what the official numbers wanted to spin.
Greenspan mentioned that he was heartened to be able to share with
Clinton, personal financial indicators because it meant Clinton,
himself, had a sound command of economics. It is obvious you don’t
know enough to formulate your own indicators and you are too trusting
of the numbers fed to you. Someone recently clarified to me that my
concern about the rising cost of bread (tripled) and milk (doubled)
are not inflationary but have to do with the standard of living. You
need ask about indicators about main street (you are a family of
five), for example if their standard of living is dropping, it means
they are hurting. This should help give you the human and political
interpretations of economic statistics. You must resolve to sharpen
your personal grasp of economics. You are far from being credible if
you were to give a fire side chat on the economy. You must be
prepared to explain to the American public how we find ourselves in
another recession or how your government will combat inflation.

Like the anti-terrorist agency, you have so many economic voices that
important actionable events either are not handled in time or not even
identified. What have Austan Goolsbee, Cecilia Rouse done for this
country, besides tying up your agenda? What is the benefit of the
Economic Recovery Advisory Board and the Council of Economic Advisors?
How about getting actionable advice out of the National Economic
Council? You are spending more money on advice than helping the
guy/gal on the street!

Then there is the performance of your Administration. I never fail to
mention how Geithner has failed you. Geithner has pressed on the gas
pedal with a heavy foot, oblivious of the amount of gas in the tank
(the national debt). He has not fixed the engine (toxic assets in the
banks) so we use more gas than we need to and we risk to have another
break down. Geithner’s wage czar has not yet recognized that Emnual’s
salary should be quadrupled considering his import to the country.
What a stupid idea – wage czar… you can give Emnual a big bonus he
worked really hard and successfully.

It is also now clear that the Bush Administration ravaged the Justice
Department as badly as the economy. The stupidity of the prosecutors
in the Blackwater trial is a reflection of the management structure
Bush put in place. My burning issue in Justice is the sleepiness of
the Anti-trust division. I know nothing about law but do like the way
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois, works. I would like to see him head the Anti-trust division
in Justice. Is there any way you could put in a good word with Eric
Holder? If the anti-trust laws need to be sharpened up to address the
Bullies of Wall Street, I would like to see a guy like Eliot Spitzer
help draft such laws. Geithner is a wimp, but these two boys will
find justice.

Don’t take your eye off the ball this year, and hit the books on economics.

I told you so.