Paul Krugman says ...

8 Words of Wisdom for Week Ending 3/27/2009 #4

At every stage, Geithner et al have made it clear that they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis — that they believe that all we have is a liquidity crisis that can be undone with a bit of financial engineering, that “governments do a bad job of running banks” (as opposed, presumably, to the wonderful job the private bankers have done), that financial bailouts and guarantees should come with no strings attached.

This was bad analysis, bad policy, and terrible politics. This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers. And that leaves it with no ability to counter crude populism.

The contradictions from the administration right now are somewhat startling. The budget submitted is, at the very least, the most progressive budget submitted to Congress since the New Deal. It may be the most progressive ever. Yet, the response to the banking crisis is, at best, stilted. The President and Geithner need to get on the right track NOW, or else the crisis will drag this administration down along with all of the progressive dreams attached to it.

Source - The Conscience of a Liberal