In My Opinion

Sunday I watched the two morning news shows I have been watching for years. This Week on ABC and Meet The Press on NBC. I go back a long ways with Meet The Press as I watched it with my father in the 1950s.

In Cincinnati, This Week comes on first and it is almost the same thing every week. The conservative George Will giving his conservative take on the world while the Dems that are more liberal listen. The Rev. Sharpton was on this past Sunday and I wonder, other than he is black, why is he on. George Will serves up his brand of intellectual conservative folklore and the Rev. Sharpton should have hit it out of the park, yet he sat there and let it pass. This crap about the conservatives wanting less government is a bunch of nonsense. The Republican Party and the Democrat Party listen to the people that pay the money for access, period. The conservative talk about less government is just plain nonsense because if they really meant it, there would be more competition in health care insurance just for one example. Where are the conservatives when it comes to creating a level playing field and promoting more, not less, competition? So much for George Will and his conservative folklore.

Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary was on Meet The Press with David Gregory. Geithner needs to attend the Dick Cheney school of public speaking. I loved it when Dick Cheney appeared on the Sunday news shows. Cheney always acted like he was telling you something you didn't fully understand. I liked the way he would tilt his head and explain to the interviewer as if he was going to educate you about the finer points of his argument. Cheney was full of shit most of the time, but he had confidence that he knew more than the person asking the questions. Geithner needs to answer the questions and at least act like he knows what he is talking about even if he doesn't. It never stopped Dick Cheney.

The economy is going to take quite a while to come back. The playing field is still not level. The new regulations with regards to Wall Street are still a joke. Smart money is not going to get back in the game until there is real transparency. So, the Obama administration has a choice, a fast or a slow economic recovery. They are not going to bite the hand that gives them so much campaign money, and that is exactly what Wall Street does. So, be prepared for this economic recovery to take some time as the credit markets and the credit rating agencies are not ready to be trusted. Without effective movement in the credit markets, our domestic economy will not expand very rapidly.

Stay tuned.

Later addition.

I was asked to comment on CIT, and here is my comment.

Read the CIT story. Bottom line: confidence in the end is the currency of finance. The Federal Government is made up of people who do not understand how the credit markets work. The credit rating agencies are more important than the majority of the people understand, especially in government. Garbage in garbage out at the credit rating agencies pollutes the whole credit environment. Few people in a position to do anything, or say anything understands this. The Federal Government just lost $2.3 billion on preferred stock in CIT, and it could have been worse. Aren't we all happy to know this. President Obama does not know what he needs to know, and, his administration isn't going to tell him. At least not Summers and Geithner. Sorry, but we are in for some weak times economically, so, enjoy whatever else it is you like because, economically there is not going to be much to enjoy.