Breaking down the results offers more interesting findings. Firstly, there is a significant generational split in the polling, however. For those under 30, the results are almost even: 33 percent favour socialism vs. 37 percent for capitalism. In contrast, amongst those over 40, the margin is 40 to 13 percent in favour of capitalism. Read the rest of this entry »
Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and the first lady of the United States, who’s around here somewhere.
I have come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.
I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others, and rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has: a friend, a neighbor, a member of your family.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good evening, everybody. Please be seated.
Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly about the state of our economy and why I believe we need to put this recovery plan in motion as soon as possible.
Developing Non-Story of the Day: The Global Economic Summit
Really. I was expecting major headlines on the G20 Summit this morning if not to reflect reality, to at least keep up the impression of decisive action to shore up the economies of the world.
Global accounting bodies should work toward enhancing guidance for the valuation of securities and toward the creation of a single, high-quality global standard for accounting.
Regulators should ensure strong oversight of credit rating agencies.
Supervisors and regulators should speed efforts to reduce the systemic risks of credit-default swaps
National and regional authorities should work together to enhance regulatory cooperation on a regional and international level.
Global standard for accounting? Oversight? Regulatory cooperation? All very good if you’re talking about sound day-to-day practice, i.e., practice that should have been pursued these past years of supposed global boom, but in the current situation, more like closing a very tiny door after a very large horse has bolted.
Nothing in the statement makes even a cursory approach to the issue of the already-existing toxic debt mountain and the already-emerging global recesssion that will accompany this. No recognition of the immediate crisis, and no recognition of the coordinated stimulus that some are advocating to try and off-set it.
Gordon Brown was struggling last night to prevent the G20 nations from watering down his ambitious plans for a global anti-recession package, the revival of stalled trade talks and radical reform of the international banking system.
Amid signs that several countries were not ready to sign up to his blueprint, the Prime Minister admitted that negotiations were ‘difficult’ and would go on until the very last minute in Washington.
Brown’s proposal for stimulus is far from his own. Other Europeans leaders have pressed for this, as have some American observers (if often with a narrow focus on the US). The key question becomes: who is in opposition?
The Observer is on shaky, speculative ground, pointing to Canada and Germany. The latter is especially surprising, as the German economy has just recored a second straight quarter of negative growth.
My own perhaps-shaky speculation is what goes unnoted in The Observer or any newspaper I’ve read this AM. George Bush’s free-market flutterings on the eve of the conference were in large part a signal that his Administration was not prepared to make any Government-led intervention, at least in co-ordination with other government. So it’s a friend thousands of miles from any summit who makes the shrewdest observation with her “feeling that all is awaiting Obama”.
Well, maybe. I don’t think others will find it advisable or even possible to wait for the 44nd President and they certainly won’t be hanging around until the next meeting of the G20 in April. My sense, bolstered by conversations with insiders from the City of London, is that European countries could soon make a co-ordinated move. Having taken criticism in the autumn for moving one-by-one and, conversely, having (at least in the case of Gordon Brown) received political kudos for finding a European approach to shore up the banks and financial sector, moves from the EU nations to avoid an even more serious recession seem likely.
That, of course, doesn’t mean success. A financial insider, answering my questions on Friday, noted that the US system can find a 1st tranche of money to shore up its bailout of banks and insurance companies. The 2nd tranche of money to fund a stimulus package, let’s say $650 billion? She can’t see where it’s coming from.
So, as China already takes a lead with its own stimulus package — $500+ billion — can Europe find the economic resources and the political will to make its own move? If so, it will bolster the other striking notion in the story in The Observer: this meeting is “signalling a shift away from America’s traditional global economic dominance”.
In a survey of 1000 American citizens by Rasmussen Reports last week, 53 percent of American adults expressed confidence in capitalism, 20 percent voted for socialism, and the rest remained unsure.
President Obama: Thank you very much.
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