Writer Andy Barr wraps up the reaction to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s well-written, poorly delivered rebuttal to Barack Obama’s remarks. Not a good night for the conservative “it” boy.

The unnamed MSNBC talking head whose blasphemous groan as the speech was about to begin was not the unkindest cut of all. But the quality of the words, soundness of the message and brutality of the task did get him some sympathy points.

“While Jindal may have missed a prime opportunity to establish himself as a leading Republican presidential contender in 2012, he didn’t exactly lay an egg. And it’s widely understood among political professionals that the rebuttal to the president is a difficult endeavor, one that almost never matches the speech that precedes it.”

 

Wall Street Journal — Bernanke Testimony: Fix Which First, Chicken or Egg?

Writer Phil Izzo gives us a valuable economics lesson based on Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s congressional testimony Tuesday. Bernanke broadly opposed bank nationalization but said that to prevent it, rapid relief for the banks themselves would be needed.

Izzo examines whether the banks can ever be fixed unless the underlying problem – a roiling ocean of bad debt – is quieted in.

“What needs to be stabilized first, the financial sector or the housing market? One of the key sticking points keeping banks under pressure has been the toxic assets weighing on balance sheets. The government has been trying for months to stabilize these assets, many of which are based on home loans. Action has been largely stymied by difficulties in pricing the instruments as home prices continue declining.”

 

Wall Street Journal – Big Three Meet With White House Task Force

 

The next moment of decision in the evolving taxpayer bailout of U.S. automakers has arrived as Secretary Tim Geithner and his car czar-less auto team meet with the leaders of the erstwhile Big Three. Today’s topic is a request for bailout cash and loans for auto parts suppliers who can’t get bank money because lenders don’t believe the domestic car industry is viable.

Writers Matthew Dolan, Neil King and John Stoll lay out the stakes:

“Increasingly, lenders are refusing to extend credit to parts makers that do major business with the three U.S. car makers, which in turn can’t afford to rescue even their most vital suppliers.

GM, in a viability plan it submitted last week to the Treasury, proposed the government create a credit-insurance program for the receivables that suppliers book from their business with U.S. auto makers. Receivables are expected payments for shipments.

GM estimates the insurance program would require about $4.5 billion through 2011.”

 

Bloomberg — In Geithner We Trust Eludes Treasury as Market Fails to Recover

 The president is having a White House confab today with Secretary Tim Geithner and select members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee to talk about re-regulating the financial services industry.

Writers Yalman Onaran and Michael McKee use the moment to give a long but insightful biography into Geithner and how he became the besieged architect of a new American economy. Very revealing stuff.

“With his enrollment in Dartmouth in 1979, Geithner followed the same path as his father, grandfather and uncle — all of whom graduated from the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire. He majored in government and Asian studies, his dad’s field, and was known for his sobriety, spending nights with friends dissecting the unilateral foreign policies of President Ronald Reagan rather than drinking at fraternity parties, classmates say. On campus, Geithner displayed his internationalist bent, wearing a traditional Thai sarong around the waist at freshman orientation. He studied Chinese for four years and became fluent, says his former Chinese professor, Susan Blader.”

 
New York Times — Commerce Pick Carries Lengthy China Résumé

 President Obama will announce his third choice for Commerce Secretary, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, today.

Writer William Yardley explains how the anti-tax hike, anti-protectionist Democrat who is the only Chinese-American to run a state may affect the administration on China policy.

“Several people who know Mr. Locke, 59, say his selection is a good fit for a department whose portfolio includes the complicated political and management challenges of the census (a sticking point with [Judd] Gregg) and the oversight of agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which plays an important role in environmental and fishing issues.

Yet it is Mr. Locke’s work with China that they say stands out the most, both from his time as governor, from 1997 to 2005, and now in the private sector.”