Obama Meets with Economic Advisers, Calls for ?Swift Action? on the Economy

[admin]

Barack Obama today held his first press conference as President-Elect to call for "swift action" to fix the nation's economy.

"Immediately after I become president I will confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity," President-Elect Obama said.

The press conference followed a private meeting of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, a group of 17 leaders on economic issues that includes former U.S. Treasury Secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence E. Summers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Warren Buffett.

[redbull]

Hopefully Obama can do a better job in stabilizing the government than the previous Bush administration. I am tired of having to live under an economy where spending is suppressed and people are not investing in new potential businesses. It is hurting us all, and especially the small business owners.

[2008]

It still amazes me (in a bad way) that the Bush administration was able to take a second term although I did hear that the election was not a very clean one, however I won't get into conspiracies here.

Back on topic, I really hope he does take swift action as with all these lay offs and the rising cost of living it's tough to survive if you fall into the income level of lower middle class and below. There's also the problem of outsourcing which hurts both employees and small business owners, as often the larger businesses will outsource thus sometimes offering lower prices.

[Freeoptions]

Indeed, there is really no time to rest or to take a vacation for the newly elected president Barack Obama. With expectations so high, he got to move fast to restore the economy back to its right track. The economy is the top concern for 6 out of 10 voters, according to surveys.

As the Bush administration is now about to fade, it is leaving a nation on peril and economy on downward direction. Recession is definitely now happening. Tens of thousands of job evaporated into thin air just this year. And the worse is yet to come before it could get even better.

Obama is bringing a fresh air of hope and a great dream. Aside from breaking the racial barrier, he got to prove that the majority of American voters made the right decision on giving him the mantle of leadership.

Assembling one of the brightest economic advisers, the new administration could hopefully answer the challenge well.

[flaco]

I am not too optimistic about our nation's economy. We are beginning to fall into a recession that is going to last for at least the next few years. Hopefully Barrack Obama can at least make sure that we do not fall into a depression, which could last a decade or more. America must remain strong though, for if we falter the world may do just the same.

[Right]

The economy is really in a very bad shape and it really needs some urgent radical treatment. Economists say there is only little that anyone can do except bringing about financial discipline in each and every individual.

Let us all begin to work from the scratch and look into our own backyard to start the process.

People's confidence has been badly shattered and I think only TIME will be able to heal it.

So...lets wait and put in our best and hang in there.....

Regards,

Right

[helper]

Its feel good that Mr obama is chalking out plans to rescue the economy before he replaces Bush.obama also needs to regain the confidence of big investors and banks.He needs to raise some funds in order to stablise the falling US economy.Lets see what Mr. Obama does.

[ZackFaire]

Good thing ?stabilizing the economy? is the first thing to do on Obama's list.

If anything though, I think he needs to find a way to create more jobs.

People are getting paid less and therefore spend less. And with the unemployed, no one is putting money in their pocket for them to spend.

[Sirius]

In my opinion, Barack Obama's pre-electional promises for swift action and stabilizing the economy could hardly be managed so swiftly. I think he will be the American President to take the USA out of the crisis, but it will happen gradually. There is no such thing as stabilizing the economy and helping the poor and unemployed simultaneously. Priorities should be fixed and followed.

[slaw]

In moving with "Swift Action" on the Economy to implement bailouts and stimulus to resolve the financial and job crisis, it is my hope that regulation will be a top priorty for Pres. Elect Obama's adminstration.

[mekcle]

I believe that the new administration must move swiftly and promptly to encourage the creation of new US jobs. While passing stimulous packages that simply inject largely ineffective "quick fix" funds that do little more than move money around, specific requirements for US job creation should be placed on any company or corporation that accepts any of these public funds.

In absense of real meassures requiring or encouraging job creation, we will continue this spiral downward that will perpetuate unemployment and damage consumer confidence. Without jobs Americans cannot continue to spend as normal and thus will create more business and mortgage failures.

[msherman]

i hope president-elect moves his response to the economy as he did with his campaign,as flawlessly as possible.

[jambok]

Please list names of people

[md@teleport.com]

Extending unemployment insurance, an infrastructure package - both quick and longer term projects, and investing in solar energy (lower the costs and make it a ubiquitous source) are the most useful and immediatetargets. We need to prepare for the future as well as meet today's needs.

I am less supportive of a bailout of the auto companies since the market is more likely to find a way to resturcturing and a bailout with tax dollars will only get us a temporary fix.

[Jimmy the Greek]

It is evident that the lenders are going to use the "bailout" as a venue to recoupe losses from recalled loans. In the same interum they are NOT offering new or re-financed loans to consumers to lower payments or allow for economic downturns. With this in mind I am offering the following suggestion to reverse the mortgage trend, assist consumers, protect lenders and consumers from further damages.

The government should allocate 75% of all bailout money to be used as loan subsidies to consumers. This subsidy should be in the form of interest offsets for the consumer and payments to the lender. ie: The lender makes a loan to the consumer at 6.5% interest rate for a fixed term of 15, 20, 25, or 30 years. The consumer pays the monthly loan amount as normal along with interest. The government subsidies the loan by offsetting the interest by 4% each month. The result is a guaranteed profit for the lender and a reduced interest rate for the consumer.

On a 150K loan the consumer payment would be $355.00 dollars per month less or the equivolent of a 2% loan on their home. As in all loans the interest payment portion lowers with each payment and the actual cost of the subsidy would lower each month. At the same time the residual effect would create injection of the savings into the economy by the consumer.

With this plan the "bailout" money would turn from 850 billion to 21.25 trillion dollars of economic stimulas. Incorporating this plan into the current loans, re-finance of at risk loans, and creating new loans for America would open up new jobs across America. These jobs will create more revenue in taxes as well as stimulate new businesses.

Investing the "bailout" money in Americans and not corporations is the most finacially responsible as well as the best way to battle the economic downturn.

[mekcle]

I agree, simply giving bailout money to large corporations who continue to layoff and move jobs out of the US will not "stimulate the economy". In addition, tax cuts to Americans who are unemployed do little except add insult to injury.

The direct correlation between the economic failure and job loss cannot and must not be ignored. By requiring corporations that accept bailout money to invest in the creation of jobs will help to curb the mortgage crisis and stimulate the economy far better than simple tax cuts and stimulus checks that will only act as band-aids.

[USA1]

When we enterd WW2 the Big 3 stopped everything and went to work for our country and help build the biggest and best war machine ever seen. They produced more planes, tanks, bombs and supplies for our troops then our enimies could nock down. With that being said we could not have won that war with out the Big 3's know how and work force.

Now they need our help and we should not turn our backs on them. We need a strong manufacturing base in this country. If we should have to need there help to fight in the future and they are not there, what are we going to do? Got to China and have them make are weapons for us!

Let us not forget those who helped fight for our counrty!

Let us return the favor. We do take care of our own don't we?

[stan_herring1@hotmail.com]

Since AIG has done it again, and most banks didnt open up the credit lines as expected, The remaining money for the bailout should be distributed to each Family $1million, Each single person over 18 gets $500K, what do you think? That would definately boost the economy,House sales would go up, car sales up, retail sales up, student loans paid off, taxes paid off, banks would have savings income again, and It wouldnt cost half as much as this fiasco is costing us. Gimme some feed back \ write your congressman, get the word out. Come on america Obama cant work miracles. Do your part ASK!!!!

[stan_herring1@hotmail.com]

What the heck is this just print it already.

Originally Posted by stan_herring1@hotmail.com

Since AIG has done it again, and most banks didnt open up the credit lines as expected, The remaining money for the bailout should be distributed to each Family $1million, Each single person over 18 gets $500K, what do you think? That would definately boost the economy,House sales would go up, car sales up, retail sales up, student loans paid off, taxes paid off, banks would have savings income again, and It wouldnt cost half as much as this fiasco is costing us. Gimme some feed back \ write your congressman, get the word out. Come on america Obama cant work miracles. Do your part ASK!!!!

[UndecidedOkie]

We have worked a good solid year of pipeline inspection. We had four different jobs lined up after my hubby finishes up with this current one he is on. The day after Obama won the election all of the oil and gas companies pulled out and the company he is currently working for lost all their clients. Talk about a kick in the teeth. Obama, to my understanding, is not in favor of drilling on American soil. We will be out of work for along time or until the administration comes to their senses. We need our own resources. Drill here! Stop importing these resources from foreign countries. It will create jobs here at home and we won't have so many worries. Never thought an election could be so harsh to its people. Going to be a skimpy, crappy holiday season and new year!

[UndecidedOkie]

Drill baby drill!!!! I think someone else said that in the previous election!

[melbel]

I agree, a change really needs to be made and we can't wait for Obama to take office. This stuff has to be done now. Our country's morale is at a low. No-one has any money and we're continually being bled to death by corporations that can do whatever they want. I'm sick of being poor and spending all my money to survive. People tell me to save money. How can I save money when I don't have any to save?

[BevaLee]

I like George Sorros idea .. he suggested that the Government just give each American One million dollars. He noted that there are about 300 million people in America ... so it would cost 300 million to jump start the nation's economy.

It's creative. lol. It IS the People's money. And the people would have automatic credit.... right there. lol. The repubilicans would scream bloody socialist... but .. I don't know.... it might actually work.

Ross Perot warned us all about NAFTA. I went to the Dallas/Fort-Worth area in 1999 to visit a friend and was amazed at ALL the JOBS available. The classifieds were about 26 pages long on average. Almost all of the jobs were offering sign-on fee's. I was informed that Ross Perot had a hand in the job creation in that area because he was so worried about his grandchildrens futures.

I wonder if Obama might talk to George Sorros and Ross Perot?

[abg88]

Obama is good. The steps he take for the development of USA and focusing on to use Americans to do the work and stopping outsourcing may be good according to him. But what about the people working depending on the projects from USA. If there is a need to look for the cost cutting measures then they should come only to the developing countries like India to get man power. If he is depending on the Americans then the world economy will surely go down.

[4Grey]

Originally Posted by BevaLee

I like George Sorros idea .. he suggested that the Government just give each American One million dollars. He noted that there are about 300 million people in America ... so it would cost 300 million to jump start the nation's economy.

It's creative. lol. It IS the People's money. And the people would have automatic credit.... right there. lol. The repubilicans would scream bloody socialist... but .. I don't know.... it might actually work.

Ross Perot warned us all about NAFTA. I went to the Dallas/Fort-Worth area in 1999 to visit a friend and was amazed at ALL the JOBS available. The classifieds were about 26 pages long on average. Almost all of the jobs were offering sign-on fee's. I was informed that Ross Perot had a hand in the job creation in that area because he was so worried about his grandchildrens futures.

I wonder if Obama might talk to George Sorros and Ross Perot?

I think someone needs to check their math here. 300 x 1,000,000 = 300,000,000. 300,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 300,000,000,000,000. That's 300 Trillion for all of America.

[marvlyons]

The ex-Big Three have made it clear that they have poorly managed their responsibilities to the people and the planet.

GM has created and tested forward thinking ?green technology? and then suppressed it.
They have extracted everything they can and driven the market to the extent they are able to fill their own pockets, in opposition to environmental responsibility. Why would we think that they would be any more practical than AIG executives.

A billion dollars is chump change to these organizations.

We have been paying for their decisions with polluted air.
Now they are paying. The rational, global conclusion is for them to merge with a Japanese, Korean or German company, preferably Japanese because they have made more progress with getting practical cars to market. They are more inclined to think and plan for longer terms...500 years vs. next quarter.

The world has spoken. People of the world do not need the philosophy and practices from dinosaur Detroit automakers.

Do invest some taxpayers money into Aptera and other forward looking auto developers.

[slaw]

A bailout of individuals have better chances of bailing out America than companies. At least an individual can payoff existing mortgages, cars, c/c and shop at retail stores (who may bankrupt next). AIG has needed $152B within the last six months. What is AIG going to do for the next six months...... another $152B? Who have they lobbied so that they can have same day money request all while having conferences and soliciting new business at various hotels/resorts. Pres. Obama and his teams need to do whatever it takes for the United States of America.

[patricia boxley]

I truly believe with all and my heart and soul that Obama will make things work for all of us. What I think we all need to do is sit back and watch him work he is the big CHANGE we all needed. The old saying goes why fix something thats not broken,well something is broken. and its about to be fixed,A CHANGE is about to take place.

[Morris]

The bailout program is based on what is called supply side economics which says that when we place money in the hands of corporations, they will use it to produce wealth for the entire society. The bankers have taken money from the Treasury Department, but are not lending it to consumers and other corporations who want to finance additional economic activity. Their fear to put the money at risk is deepening the recession. This reminds me of a scene from "The Best Years of Our Lives" in which Frederick March, a veteran who returns home and resumes his career as a banker, makes a dinner speech in which he embarasses his collegues by suggestilng that they owe it to the veterans and to America to break up their loan blockages and take a chance on America. He was able to soften the bankers' hard hearts. This seems like a perfect time for Barack to speak out to today's bankers, who are doing the same thing.

[Livingfaith]

I do not support the use of U.S. Taxpayer dollars to reward the mismanagement of fundamental problems.

Rather than bailing (loan as they are calling it now) out these companies why not let the free market do it's work and reform.

I hope Obama can take swift action, to make sure these monies are going to help our economy not just being spent on retreats, and bonus for the greedy.

[jamesshepherd5]

Please forgive Kentucky's vote in the general election. We are having a difficult time of getting into the twentieth century.
We are very enthuiastic about the involvment of Paul Volcker in the economic planning. It was painful, but with high interest rates, he stopped the inflation of the eighties and prepared the stage for the Clinton peace and prosperity of the nineties. We claim him in Kentucky a little since he is a Trustee Fellow of Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY.
We think that the main treatment for the current economic crisis is the tincture of time. Federal money should be used to provide the jobs that are going to be lost in the automobile industry and elsewhere. We will probably need a WPA and a Civilian Conservation Corps.

[FLOJO]

force credit card companies to drop their interest to under 10%; if they can offer us 3% and 5% until a balance is paid off during a special offer (which is nearly every month), they should be able to survive with interest, up to 10% on other purchases. It is the 'plastic card' that has crippled the American family. High interest keeps developing and the government is showing little concern. Extending credit should be controlled by government mandates. The less interest, the more people will buy to keep the stores in business. Before the 60's, there was no interest except at the bank. Stores put your charge on the 'book' and you paid what you had, when you had it. Some of those stores are still in existance in my hometown, today, but taking advantage of high interest because it is now available. They make a profit on the product to start with and make up to 28% interest for all the years it takes to pay for it, customer after customer. This should be a priority change by Pres. Obama.

[BevaLee]

Originally Posted by 4Grey

I think someone needs to check their math here. 300 x 1,000,000 = 300,000,000. 300,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 300,000,000,000,000. That's 300 Trillion for all of America.

LOL. Your right. <blush>

[BevaLee]

Originally Posted by FLOJO

Before the 60's, there was no interest except at the bank. Stores put your charge on the 'book' and you paid what you had, when you had it. Some of those stores are still in existance in my hometown, today, but taking advantage of high interest because it is now available.

That's why I love HSN easy pay LOL

[eneida1]

Originally Posted by David

Barack Obama today held his first press conference as President-Elect to call for "swift action" to fix the nation's economy.

"Immediately after I become president I will confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity," President-Elect Obama said.

The press conference followed a private meeting of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, a group of 17 leaders on economic issues that includes former U.S. Treasury Secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence E. Summers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Warren Buffett.

I hope that the stimulus plan that president Obama hopes to pass that it will work, but I have doubts about it because this is going to take a long time and we need something "fast" to stimulate the the economy to recover. It's like throwing wood into a fire but it does not burn.