To be a fly on the wall of this Saturday’s G20 meeting in Washington, D.C. on the global economic crisis. Germany declares an official recession. And between Thursday and Saturday morning, Hank Paulson may unveil three or four new course reversals.
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Wednesday officially abandoned the original strategy behind its $700 billion effort to rescue the financial system, as administration officials acknowledged that banks and financial institutions were as unwilling as ever to lend to consumers.
But with a little more than two months left before President Bush leaves office, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is hoping to put in place a major new lending program that would be run by the Federal Reserve and aimed at unlocking the frozen consumer credit market.
The program, still in the planning stages, would for the first time use bailout funds specifically to help consumers instead of banks, savings and loans and Wall Street firms.
Treasury officials said they hoped to invest about $50 billion from the bailout fund into the new loan facility, with the aim of helping companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases.
On display for all is the continuing collective failure of the American governing classes (political and economic). The Treasury Department’s Inspector Generals’ verdict on the fundamental infrastructure to administer *any* portion of the troubled asset relief program (TARP)? “It’s a mess.”
Alas, the rest of the world is far ahead of the American people in recognizing the obvious truth. Americans are still besotted with self-generated mythos of competent State crisis stewardship. We know the short hand labels (‘FDR’, ‘WWII’, ‘Moon Landing’). The Iraq fiasco tore the veil off the Republican partisan claim to national security competence. September 2008 clawed down past the veil into the fatty tissue of the decadent and corrupt face of the entire political class.
Much has changed since those times beyond ‘Acid, Abortion and Amnesty’, Fiddy Cent and OJ Simpson. The sheer complexity and paralytic opacity of the American political economy 2008 subverts managerial enthusiasm and accountability. We certainly believe the current generation as a whole is largely not up to the task before them particularly because they know nothing of sacrifice of the type and scale required. This is a Nation of consumers and arbitragers (lawyers, accountants, financiers, etc.). Even if they want to be like Big Russ or Brokaw’s Greatest Generation, they have no real life resources to draw upon. Instead, they must summon symbolic imagery and serialized fictions of reality from movies, tv shows and ‘historical book’ merchandizing efforts as yardsticks. And in this sense, while ‘The New Media’ surely offers unprecedented venues voices and silos to collect expertise or the like minded, the end result is more cacophony and less insight in the aggregate.
Anon says
Alex – FYI your recent post about Niger:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/31/030331fa_fact1
It’s all too strange
Hunter says
Bureaucrazy watch. It seems we might see sooner than later just what sort of skills Obambi has in this regard…
inquire says
To A Random Quote:
I know little of Ignatief ((un)fortunately), other than he is likely poised to be the next leader of the Canadian Liberal party sometime in the new year. The Liberals took a serious thrashing in the most recent election, but traditionally they have been 1/2 of the ruling duopoly of parties in canada (despite there currently being 5 parties with seats in the present parliament). Dione, the soon-to-be former leader of the Liberals, won his leadership solely on the premise that he was the only non-Ignatief candidate remaining after several rounds of voting, and all the other eliminated contenders threw their support behind Dione to form the anti-Ignatief block of the Liberal party that was narrowly able to prevent him from becoming leader. It seems unlikely that they can do this again given the implosion mentioned. What this could mean for the nature of Canadian politics and/or US/Can relations remains to be seen. But, he couldn’t be much worse (imho) than the currently two-term minority PM Harper who is quite pleased to have his party behave as the northern district branch of the Republicans (and he has the eyes of a newly-exhumed corpse).
Sorry for the digression…
A Random Quote says
“If we take stock and ask what will curb the American appetite for [foreign military] interventions, the answer is, not much. Interventions are popular, and they remain popular even if American soldiers die.”
~Michael Ignatief
NY Times Mag (9-7-03)
Comment says
The Cardinal has no real sense of himself and how odd he sounds to the random listener. He has been sheltered. He also has zero sense of how Bush brought about the dreaded Obama win. In similar vain, he looks at Spain and shakes his head in disgrace, but is unaware that Spain is reacting against Franco.
Comment says
re “Articulate” – that was a summery of what the Cardinal said about Obama – Satan, but well spoken.
Comment says
DBake re “Scrupulous Meanness” – Lately there is a trend – maybe you noticed – Of conservative Catholics and Churchman of all striped misinterpreting Joyce in public.
Last year, Richard Neuhaus and some others started this meme that has spread that “HC Earwicker” and “Here Comes Everybody” was a coded shoutout to the Holy Church in Rome.
There are other examples. It’s sort of like the neocons quoting JFK out of context so as to justify killing Arabs in nation x, y, or z.
Hunter says
Any thoughts on this? In particular:
“Rashid’s presence as an advisor in Afghanistan is not a guarantee that the next administration will pursue the “grand bargain” that Rashid advocates, but if Petraeus will be taking advice from him it is one more reason to be seriously concerned that Washington actually will blunder into the Kashmir dispute in a misguided attempt to get Islamabad to address the threat in western Pakistan.”
Hunter says
Re: the National Journal interview…
blah blah we need to keep records because of this and that and “and it’s not just because of the open government, and transparency and accountability concerns that my organization cares about. This is really important for continuity of government, and for effectiveness of the government….”
That mention of continuity of government stuck out to me. We know Cheney keeps important records in his private safe, and subscribes to a legal theory whereby they are ‘his’, not ‘the government’s’. If the neocon cancer is to be killed, allowing these records to remain in the hands of a leader of their shadow government, even as they are temporarily removed from direct power, seems like a terrible setback. But then, I’m not in DC, and so have no idea what is to be done.
DBake says
Articulate? Well, he seems well-read:
“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic.”
Weirdly, ‘scrupulous meanness’ is a phrase Joyce used to describe the style in which he wrote The Dubliners. In any case, it doesn’t mean what the good Cardinal seems to think it means, unless he thinks the great sin afflicting America is that we’re too tight about money.
Roe v. Wade and the liquidity problems– everything’s connected!
Anon says
Anais Nin and Jeffrey Hart. Natch:
http://dartreview.com/archives/2008/10/21/anais_nin_and_the_womens_revolution.php
Anon says
Uppity Satanic loudmouth, but articulate:
http://www.cuatower.com/2008/11/14/cardinal-at-cua-obama-is-%E2%80%98aggressive-disruptive-and-apocalyptic%E2%80%99/
Comment says
Inquire, sounds great We think it will hinge on Bill and his need for some sense of independence.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Dear friends, a typically wonderful thread from and for our merry band. Please pardon the minor pause here in the Bunker. We promise it’s a small temporary hiccup.
inquire says
To Comment and others, for the record, I suggested HRC for secretary of state on this forum in February. I believe this was during the time when people were mulling possible VP choices and some were clamoring for HRC to be Obama’s VP. I argued against that and suggested her best role would be as SoS.
Here’s what I wrote:
Anon says
All that Ledeen stuff being laundered was no was no different than this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZHY_enUS239US239&q=%22Joe+the+plumber%22wiig&start=10&sa=N
Comment says
IMO – a lot of this talk about Obama openness seems somewhat off. IMO he will communicate in a more modern and more effective way, but he will be less leaky than Bush. But Bush leaks were part of Bush culture of malice.
We expect Obama’s admin to maintain a better information security. But who knows.
re Bush’s emails – they are rightly afraid that some innocuous seeming email, seen in isolation, could be used by oppositionist to piece together some damaging evidence.
Recall the Ollie North email repairs and that sinking feeling the GOP got when they realized something they thought was destroyed was being resurrected.
Comment says
One small example of official GOP denial that is related in a way to their email attitude problem: their insistance in trying to create a false narrative of McCain being ahead until the 15th of Sept than a natural disaster undid him and the Dems demagogued it as if it were Katrina.
But McCain was only ahead in two GOP friendly polls up until a week before the 15th of Sept. By the time the 15th came around, McCain was solidly behind.
The polls are all very clear about this – but the GOP insists on misleading itself so as to avoid accountability and not hur their feelings. Their obession with building false naratives is somewhat ironically post modern.
Comment says
Speaking of Dole , we always likes him as a personality, but his wife was annoying and gave annoying speeches. Glad to see her campaign go down inflames in a most disgraceful way – That God ad of hers was a disgrace, but it is possible it would have worked 10 years ago.
re Frank Luntz – watching his panel on TV with Bill Bennett and Byron York – Most of them are in denial still – pretending McCain did not get credit for his life story. Reality Check – were it not for McCain’s military exp or story, he would not have gotten 20 percent. McCain mostly babbled non-sense about foreign policy and the media never called him on it because they conferred the title of “expert” on him soley because his bio.
Comment says
So far the the right, broadly speaking, has used email as a super blast fax for getting as much pooh and rumors and anger out into cyberspace about and against Dems as possible. As Ales say, dropping bombs. Silicon valley went 90 percent for Dems, in part, because they sense this.
We recall as far back as 1996 someone who working on the Dole campaign telling us that they viewed mentioning Dole’s mostly inert website as a soundbite designed primarily for misleading people into thinking Dole was a reasonably modern politician (Clinton and Gore were reminding people Dole voted against the space program), rather than using it to inform or organize.
As recently as 2000, Bush’s website featured pictures of Gee Dubs with black people under a heading called “compassion” with links to Bush talking points. They whole think was a joke.
Alex says
Hmm. Bora has some interesting thoughts regarding the e-mail.
Alex says
Yes – they don’t think of cyberspace as something you inhabit or work in or with. They have an air force view of it; you hurtle over it, dropping bombs on an unresisting terrain. It has no agency. Neither do your own actions, after the weapon detonates. Therefore the best thing to do with records is to get rid of them.
The blogosphere has something between a traditional and a 4GW view of it; you stake out territory, dig in, build light railways, but you also harass the other side as much as possible. Every knot in the web is precious.
I’d like the Stiftung’s opinion on the fact SISMI/Ledeen’s disinfo shop was explicitly turned on various bloggers, notably Rozen and Marshall but also KDrum, in the 2004 cycle, using the Freepers as a transmission belt. (See my blog for details and a sample of the material.) As I recall the story didn’t get traction, but it may be that as a result there’s more info around for post-crash analysis.
Anon says
Alex – if you read the above link, do you see a tie in btw the WH ‘tude toward email and the Frank Luntz approach you describe so perfectly on your blog?
Anon says
Leo, will the missing emails be found?
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/2008/11/bush-email-records-could-be-lo.php
Nonnie Mouse says
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right,
And which is an illusion.
-Moody Blues
Comment says
We just turn on CNN and Stephen Hayes is featured as a mainstream pundit – Mart Eisenstadt has a far strong record of accuracy than Hayes, yet poor Marty is considered a hoax. Go figure.
Then again , a few years ago when Dick Morris was letting somepeople listen in on his phone calls with Clinton, no one expected him to the honored guest on conservative vacations.
Anon says
Spitzer’s comeback greated with hosanas:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111303634_Comments.html
Dennis says
The Eisenstadt Rule: Be skeptical of anything that readily pleases one’s biases.
Either this guy is going to perform invaluable service by compelling some discipline and integrity into the “new media” environment, or he’s going to spawn a host of imitators, snag a book/series/film deal and end up hosting a show, subsumed within the CNNMSNBCFOX miasma. My cynical nature inclines me toward the latter.
You gotta love the guy’s ability to draw in rubes from across the spectrum.
Anything to simultaneously trouble whatever synapse activity exists beneath the impenetrably smug and immutable grin of Rachel Maddow and cause Michelle Malkin embarrassment (though any thoughtful hesitation induced in either is imperceptible still) is welcome, no matter how fleeting.
Anon says
We’re not sure if that link is part of ‘eisenstadt’s operation – we just assuemed it was cause the dubious name and the fact he links to the guy
Comment says
Btw- Obama picking HRC for Sec State is just brilliant politically. We can think of about 10 upsides. Few downsides.
Anon says
Dennis – you really have to appreciate that this ‘Eisenstadt’ has a multi-fold joke going – The guy “wolfrum” who supposedly busted him and is getting credit from the MSM multiple outlets is also a fake person and ‘Eisenstadt’ even set a semi-real looking charity to link back to fake people lpeople:
http://www.teenaids.org/AboutUs/BoardofDirectors/GeorgeFaux/tabid/618/Default.aspx
Anon says
Eisenstadt really got traction by being consistant with plain news updates like this:
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/05/06/eli-perle-goodbye-hello-jimmy-and-poppy/
Dennis says
Watching China respond to their subsequent crisis–by spending a lot more than we are (as a % of their economy) of money they actually have–and why not spend those dollars now, as opposed to (insert ominous ellipsis here)–and spending it on infrastructure, while our gov. is desperately doubling down with borrowed house money just trying to get people to spend, is not just scary but downright shameful.
Still, one gets the impression that our precipitous decline comes too soon for China; where is their apparatus for taking over the world economy and financial markets after all? For all their thrift, they’ve been complicit in this whole thing, and derelict in their own way.
None of which should be reassuring in the end, really, as it portends global strife that might make the West’s major conflagrations of the 20th century seem puny in comparison. I mean, what happens to those millions upon millions of momentarily upward-mobile Chinese who seem certain to be thrown out of work (how do you keep them on the farm–hell, the farm’s not even there anymore).
This Eisenstadt guy deserves some sort of hoax award. He took a bunch of people with a report of Las Vegas casino operators opening up shop in the Green Zone not long ago. He manages to make the things look so authentic that people just follow along. But people really should be more savvy these days–the casino bit was positively absurd toward the end. Then again, absurd times.
“You know what the problem is? We used to make things in this country. Build shit. Now we just put our hand in the other guy’s pocket.”
–Frank Sibotka, The Wire
Anon says
Here’s him getting a BS story in to the liberal blog transmission belt. Perfectly playing both sides against each other at a time when people like Debbi Schlusssel and Majikthis are serious commenters:
http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/03/conservative-ca.html
Anon says
LOL
http://dartlog.net/2008/03/part-iii-in-which-king-of-jordan-is.php
Hitchens has some fun with Dartmouth R crowd a while back.
Comment says
So Leo, you think our season of madness continues?
A Random Quote says
“Recently, Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs broke the story of how Rachael Ray wore a keffiyeh–the jihadist’s fave accessory–in a Dunkin’ Donuts online ad. As a result of the uproar in the blogosphere, Dunkin’ Donuts apologized, saying it was a stylist’s mistake and that the ad would no longer run. Pam should be very proud of her excellent work.”
~Debbie Schlussel
May 28, 2008
A Random Quote says
” … I’ve learned that you should never attribute to cleverness what can be easily explained by stupidity.”
~Charles Johnson
(Little Green Footballs)
NY Times, 8-11-09
(Interview w/ Errol Morris)
(Irony unintended)
Anon says
Check this – Rachel Sklar quoted “Marty Eisenstadt” at length about Joe the plumber getting an SNL cast member in bed at the after party
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/03/snls-awkward-goodbyes_n_140410.html?page=2
Anon says
This was also beautiful:
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/07/10/irans-missile-shot-photo-is-doctored-revolutionary-guards-are-dangerous-photoshoppers/
Anon says
His biggest triumph was getting quoted by Businessweek — that mainstreamed him. But this was hilarious. The Keating
thing was truly inspired:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/16/is-joe-wurzelbacher-related-to-charles-keating-and-does-it-matter/
Anon says
More funny stuff – a well designed blog:
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/11/10/eisenstadt-the-source-for-sarah-palin-africa-leak-and-proud-of-it/
Anon says
It’s hard not to laugh at this David Schuster clip:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/generalities/who_is_martin_eisenstadt_100350.asp?c=rss
Anon says
Funny stuff – shows potential of a a better joke if some of the acting and prep work was better. A couple of years ago we discussed a fake panal with some friends, but never thought it could go anywhere. Now we see potential:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40661bZxVXU
A Random Quote says
“I heard my cute black mailman talking in an excited voice outside my house Friday, so I decided I should go ask him how he was feeling about everything, the absolute amazement of the first black president. If you don’t count what Toni Morrison said about Bill Clinton, that is.”
~Maureen Dowd
Comment says
re Bob Rubin – Money Honey and Gaspo on CNBC wondering why Bob Rubin gets no blame for Citi troubles.
We discussed this a while back about Rubin before Citi really fell apart.
We doubt Rubin will ever get blamed for anything – He is too good at public presentation and his sleek persona makes Reagan’s blame deflection skills look poor by comparison.
Comment says
re Martin Eisenstadt – That guy deserves lots of credit – The irony is that his falsehoods are not much more extensive than many falsehoods circulated by so called real people. That got some choice falsehoods passed the rigorous super analytical mind of the The New Republic – lol.
But almost everything TNR said about Iraq was false – Is Eisenstadt really any different than Stephen Hayes?
Comment says
IMO – Paulson always planned to junk the original “plan.” It was a planned botch – He included the carve out in the original legislation. In his pass the buck speech yesterday (demostenes compared to Bush’s infantile prattle at the Manhatten Inst today) Paulson implied that there was some sort of changing in conditions that took place *because* Congress debated the bill for 2 weeks – If anything, Congress forced more foreign countries to show their hand earlier and put up money. Buy Paulson was trying to imply that everything may have worked out if he was giving a clean bill in one day. Paulson can’t even admit that CDCs play a big role – he is still in denial about his share of the blame.
re Harding Institute – LOL – Leo, wasn’t that
what you wanted the Stiftung to be at first?
Hunter says
As a member of the current late-20-somethings, let me just say that though Obama is older than us, we’re glad to be rid of the boomers. They utterly lack any sense of sacrifice. What we will do remains to be seen (and I’m by no means optimistic), but my parents’ generation has had its time and no rational judgement of their legacy could be kind.
That lack of a sense of sacrifice certainly is one of the contributing factors of the success of the NeoCon/chickenhawk Movement. It’s always easy to send someone else to fight and die. Anyone seen this yet?
This fine site’s mission statement is to be “A community devoted to exploring the philosophical, cultural, historical and aesthetic foundations of the current regime and its associated Movements’ determined assault on our liberal democratic republic.”
I know the feeling around here is that the Movement is abandoning its current host and that the new administration is ill equipped to resist colonization. This is of course frighteningly possible. Worse, even if they truly are in for a few years of being out in the cold, as the above linked piece makes clear, they’ll be back soon enough to renew their assault.
And now for something not entirely unrelated:
http://www.redstate.com/diaries/erick/2008/nov/05/operation-leper/
Laughable? Yes.
On the other hand, can we here at the Stiftung use some web 2.0 magic to start an org chart of the Movement? Starting with everyone who’s ever been associated with AEI or PNAC and continuing with everyone who owes anyone like Cheney a favor… I’m sure the good Doktor’s ‘real’ name will appear somewhere in this project, but no one said counerintelligence was easy or risk-free. It could be a real public resource. Certainly we could be clever enough to do something more useful than those Redstate fools, but more than that we would be doing something potentially good.
If this idea doesn’t get shot straight down, I would love to help with any technical implementation I can. One way or another, the imperium in imperio has to fall.
Hunter says
woah:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin