It is remarkable:
William Galston: Obama must use Summers’ exit to chart new course: With the impending departure of his chief economic policy advisor Lawrence Summers, and all-but-certain departure of his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama faces personnel choices that will reshape his administration over the next two years.... [B]oth the president’s economic and political strategy have hit a wall. His economic policies prevented a complete collapse but have not sparked vigorous growth, and there is neither the fiscal space nor the will for an additional round of stimulus.... [T]he White House is contemplating... a new economic approach focused on reducing the long-term budget deficit and getting private capital off the sidelines. If so, the president needs a senior economic advisor who can help him execute this strategy.
Such a figure would be someone with credibility as an advocate of fiscal restraint, who has better links to the business community than anyone on the current team. It wouldn’t hurt if the new advisor were seen as an honest broker open to new ideas that diverge from Keynesian orthodoxy. Armed with a new economic strategy, Mr Obama would be able to invite the Republicans into a negotiation that they might initially resist but would eventually have to enter...
Teh Stupid... it burns...
You will notice that Galston gives no specifics as to how to pursue a bipartisan strategy to reduce the deficit when the Republican Party's three core fiscally-significant demands are for (a) tax cuts, (b) repeal of the IPAB projected cuts in Medicare spending growth, and (c) repeal of the excise tax on high-cost health care plans. That is because he has no fracking idea.
You will notice that Galston gives no specifics as to how to create a recovery not by monetary expansion or by banking policy or by fiscal policy but by "getting private capital off the sidelines." That is because he has no fracking idea.
The words come out of the mouth... but was there a brain behind them?
