Washington Post –Economic Data Clash With Obama’s Optimism
Markets were down Tuesday – especially in key sectors like finance and retail – on the day that the president gave his most recent major economic address in which Obama spoke of the encouraging signs for the nation. It was kind of like a snowstorm keeping people away from your global warming speech.
While the president was mostly focusing on “a new foundation” for the American economy that would no longer be subject to failures not immediate problems, like Lincoln calling Antietam a Union victory so as not to issue the Emancipation Proclamation after a defeat, the president was looking for good news on which to base his claims for the economy being on solid ground.
Writers Neil Irwin and Ylan Mui explain how the dop in retail sales and wholesale prices trampled the president’s green shoots. The very useful piece gives reason for optimism on the economy, just not right now.
“’People started to feel maybe we’ve turned the corner,’ said Bob Duffy, retail leader at FTI Consulting. ‘I think that people are going to look at [retail sales] and think that the recovery is a little further off.’
A new reading on inflation also contributed to that perception. Wholesale prices fell 1.2 percent in March; analysts had expected the producer price index to be unchanged. Although decreased inflation is normally good news, in the current environment it signals that the economy is so weak that product makers have little leverage to raise prices.”
New York Times — U.S. Planning to Reveal Data on Health of Top Banks
The administration’s plan on its bank stress tests was to reveal as little as possible in the report card issued this month and save larger disclosures for when new cash dumps from TARP or other sources occur. But Obama officials worry the success of Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs in making a profit and Goldman’s raising of $5 billion to pay off half of its debt to taxpayers or may be unfair to less successful banks.
In an effort to help erase the disparity between Goldman and other banks and keep investors committed to the less successful ones, the Treasury is putting together a more detailed report on the stress tests being administered to the nations 19 largest lenders. Writers David Sanger and Eric Dash show that the Treasury is also working hard to prevent banks from trying to appear better than competitors.
After Goldman’s announcement on Monday that it planned to return the TARP funds, other big banks are looking for ways to do the same. Healthier banks are desperate to get out from the government’s thumb, believing the heightened scrutiny and the restrictions on executive compensation could cripple their businesses. But senior administration officials made clear they, not the banks, would decide whether to let the institutions return the money, and that would depend on their ability to raise fresh capital in the private markets.”
Politico — DHS warns of ‘right-wing extremists’
And to think that everyone expected Eric Holder to cause all the trouble for the president when it came to libertarians. After Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano euphemized her way into conservative infamy by substituting “man-caused disaster” for terrorist attack, her agency has now issued a dossier on the growing danger of “right-wing extremists” to the nation.
The lengthy memo sent to police departments across the country reads like a satire of how the left sees the right – racist, dangerous and stupid. If the Bush administration had tried anything so ham fisted about left wingers or war protesters the outrage would have shaken the media mainstream. But this one is shaking up the right pretty well.
In Texas, the governor is backing a strong move to reestablish state sovereignty and today there will be some 700 protests around the country over taxes and spending. Napolitano’s move will only fan the flames on the libertarian right.
“The document points to both the economic downturn and election of President Barack Obama as potential recruitment tools for militant groups. “Many right-wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use,” it reads.”
Wall Street Journal — Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos
The president may have had The Dead play at the White House, but lefties are still kind of bummin’. Obama is reconsidering the idea that disclosing old CIA torture practices are a good idea since it would embarrass the agency, hurt agent morale and might hurt national security.
But that would mean opposing the ACLU who sued for the release of the five-year-old documents, many in the truth commission fan club and some in his own administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and White House Counsel Greg Craig.
The president has until Thursday to decide whether to dump the memos. The last such court showdown – over whether Harriet Miers, Karl Rove and other Bushies had to testify about firing U.S. Attorneys – was solved with an 11th-hour compromise brokered by the president. As writers Evan Perez and Siobhan Gorman show, this one may prove harder to finesse.
“It reached a climax on Mr. Obama’s trip to Europe for the G-20 summit two weeks ago. The president was given competing memos from the Justice Department and the CIA arguing for and against release of the 2005 documents, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Holder and Justice lawyers, along with Mr. Craig, have argued aggressively for releasing operational details. Justice Department lawyers argue that the agency shouldn’t be in a position of defending practices the new administration has disavowed. They say releasing the documents would help fulfill the president’s promise of greater transparency….
But top CIA officials and some in the White House argue that disclosing such secrets will undermine the agency’s credibility with foreign intelligence services. They also say revealing operational details will embroil officers in probes of activities that were cleared by Justice Department lawyers at the time…
Making those details public, one official said, would make CIA officials disinclined to take any risks in the future.”
Washington Post — At Summit of Americas, U.S. May Face World of Blame
President Obama’s charm offensive and apologia for American fiscal and foreign policies was gobbled up by the Europeans he flattered last week, but as he heads south of the border Thursday, Obama is likely to find an audience less willing to forgive the American excesses he so laments.
Hard-line socialism, anti-imperialist sentiments and the desire to see America stumble aren’t just for U.S. college professors anymore. The heads of Latin American countries are eager to see the Yanquis get their comeuppance. And as writer Scott Wilson shows, the olive branches from the Obama administration of taking a softer touch with Cuba and helping Mexico deal with the narco-terrorists beheading its citizens may not be sufficient.
“Among the leaders he will meet for the first time is Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, who used the week before the summit to visit China, Iran and Cuba, in part to celebrate what he said was the end of American financial hegemony. Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader who battled the U.S.-sponsored contra insurgency through the 1980s, will be there. So will Evo Morales of Bolivia, the only president to have expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from his country.
While the summit’s final declaration has been negotiated for nearly a year, the hemisphere’s 34 democratically elected leaders will meet in an open forum to discuss the document, some of which was drafted before the financial crash last fall. Many of the region’s economies are reliant on exports, now slumping, while some of the poorest countries have seen a sharp decline in remittances from the United States that provide their economic lifeblood.”
