According to Business Week, Tim Geithner on short list for Treasury Secretary.

I've read elsewhere that he is the most likely choice.

When I heard Obama's response to reporters question during his first post election news conference, I knew instantly what he was saying between the official line.

He appears to know full well this thing is rapidly deteriorating and stands a good chance of crashing down BEFORE he takes oath of office. The official line is 'there is only one president at a time'

Between the lines the implicit message was clear:

'This thing is going down and it's gonna happen on YOUR watch motherf*cker. I'm not touching it and YOU are going to be the one to eat it raw.'

With that, I became increasingly convinced of a shorter time-line in the offing for a seminal event.

Video: Yep

Setting aside the fact that I believe this hydra is becoming too much for any
one person/group to control. It is simply put:

The best thing that can happen for Obama is a crash pre 1/20 so he can read from the FDR script and have nothing but upside.

The best thing for the repubs is to keep it together till shortly into the new administration where Obama and the dems will, as KD put it, OWN IT.

We've got 75+ days left, which force prevails? with the caveat, of course,
that there's any 'controlling' left to them.

I think it depends on what their end-game is.

Up until Novemeber 5th, the game was to keep the plates spinning until the election.

After November 5th, it seems like the Congressional Dem's game is to get Bush to do more bailouts (GM) to make their deficits look smaller post-January.

I'm a little afraid the Paulson/Bernanke express has a global currency end game - for which they would tolerate a crash and some mad max before presenting a 'solution' to 'save' us. I don't think Obama and the Dems would mind that either, as long as it happened before Jan 20th.

Panic always makes things worse. When hitting the telephone pole became inevitable, Hank and Ben yanked the wheel and took us off a cliff. Now Obama and his crew hope that continued yanking, in midair, will somehow cushion the crunch at the end.

The problem here for Obama is that the current administration & fed are already following the democratic playbook, i.e., handing out money. When FDR took over the country he had a wallet full of unused credit cards, cheap & plentiful energy, no foreign dependencies, and a lot of necessary infrastructure work to explore.

If ever a "new democrat" was needed it's now.

Synchronicity,

How much is the mortgage on that home you're advertising? You should knock it down a few bucks since there is no digital conversion box on the rabbit ears... Tinfoil inside?

Are these the homes the secured the mortgages that P & B planned on buying? Sure explains why they encouraged us to recycle all our cardboard... easy bail-out... giving it away.

Varg,

That is some bad history - we don't respect the tax collectors and leaders as much as the Chinese do so that we would starve and cannibalize each other knowingly ... most people would just eat what they grew and dig a hole to hide for themselves before the collectors arrived... if someone directly took all an American's means to be able to chow down at McDonalds or their ability to eat at all, they would not stand for it.

J6P does not give a shjt if you give him a TV and a good meal... when the credit market locks up, and no more TV and food, then a revolution comes until someone else fills his stomach with food and head with TV.... Unfortunately, TV is where "new leadership" will come from..

He can't make too many threats about prosecutions before he's actually president. There's enough power left in Washington still to make him disappear.

People

If the leadership does not call congress is not called back into session in order to "save" autoworker's jobs. But instead they just jaw bone, i think you should read that as bull ****. They don't want to lead, they don't want responsibility. They just want to sit there.

[edit]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12264342....

It will probably stupid and wrongheaded, but at least they are growing a pair instead of sitting in their district jaw boning. Hmmm maybe they should have just sat in their district :)

Has anybody seen anything that they would attribute to PPT action in the markets since election day? I have not.

Nope. Nothing. Strange 'aint it!

Quote:

The best thing that can happen for Obama is a crash pre 1/20 so he can read from the FDR script and have nothing but upside.

FDR took office three years, three months after the '29 crash, Obama takes office three months after this one. Most of the carnage will happen on his watch, and the worst blow-up will probably happen after Congress, with his approval, does something over and beyond incredibly stupid in about half a year.

How about Barack tells em to **** off - this isn't what he bargained for.

Quote:

Thankfully they have quotas on kids.

are you serious