stock_creeper's  Instablog

Pop quiz:

Question 1 Which individuals deserve credit for the three years (and counting) bull market and economic boom?

Question 2: Which administration deserves credit for killing Bin Laden?

If you read this blog you would know the answers- question 1: Bush, Paulson, and Bernanke; question 2: George W. Bush administration.

Obama is trying to take credit for the work done my his more competent predecessors, or his smarter colleagues like Larry Summers or Tim Geithner. Obama didn't contribute in any meaningful way to the 2009-present economic and stock market boom, and is unjustly stealing credit from Bush and Paulson, like he did over the Bin Laden death. The Obama stimulus failed, Solyndra was a huge embarrassment, the auto bailouts will only appeal to a narrow demographic, obamacare is hanging by a thread, and the gay marriage endorsement didn't sway independents,

I will reach across the aisle and emphatically endorse a Tim Geithner or Larry Summers presidency. Summers is right about women being deficient in aptitude in the high-end and the necessity of increased government spending to fund pro-growth programs like tax cuts, defense, and bank recapitalization. Geithner did pay his taxes, but that didn't stop the radical left from slandering him over a minor oversight. Everyone makes mistakes, but at least these people are competent decision makers, which can't be said for our current president.

Larry Summers is brilliant; Obama is dull. As treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, Larry Summers orchestrated the successful bailout of LTCM; Obama was busy community organizing. Hillary Clinton was dodging sniper fire in Bosnia; Obama was in the aloof Harvard Law review. Now there's growing speculation that Obama was a bad student and got into Harvard not though his merit, but affirmative action.

Like Romney, a vote for Larry Summers would be a vote for modernization, productivity, and free market capitalism. A vote for Obama is vote for regression and attacking the rich.

In late 1999, at a time when President Bill Clinton was politically weakened and distracted by the impeachment attempt, then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers "led efforts to modernize the financial system ... and insure the viability of the over-the-counter derivatives market," as his official Treasury biographical sketch puts it. "Modernization" refers to Summers' killing of the Glass-Steagall Act (Section 12 U.S. Code, "National Banking"), which had kept commercial banks regulated and "out of the casino" for 65 years. "Insuring the viability of the over-the-counter derivatives market" refers to Summers' blocking any regulation of the destructive speculative riot we now identify by the deadly name of "AIG."

I agree financial instruments play an important role in the economy even if they aren't well understood, or occasionally fail. Let's stop the regulation and instead promote growth.

Obama's polls keep falling. There is a major credibility gap between the public and the administration, mainly because Obama is inept.