Must Read Blogs and Op-Ed’s — March 29, 2009

Tim Geithner, The Necromancer

This weekend I watched the movie “Practical Magic” for the first time.  The movie involves two women, Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman), who are witches.    The story revolves around both the dark and light aspects of love and relationships.  Sally marries early in the movie only to have her husband die of a family curse.   Sally, of course, implores her two older and wiser witch aunts to use their magic to bring back her husband.   The two aunts resist the pleadings of their niece, and inform her that whatever they could raise from the dead would be “dark and unnatural.”

Strangely, this “chick flick” reminded me of Tim Geithner’s plan with the economy.   According to Will Marshall, “the essence of Geithner’s plan is to reanimate the market for securitized mortgages and other loans no one wants to buy now.  Until banks can take these toxic assets off their books, they won’t b e able to resume lending.”  I began to visualize Tim Geithner as a fabled MMORP character the Necromancer, attempting to raise the struggling banking institutions from the dead.    Weaving spells and uttering incantations from tomes of economic theories, Geithner brings for troubled assets and brings them back to life.   The eerie warnings from the “witch aunts” left me sitting chill in my chair.   What type of dark force could Geithner unleash?

Marshal continues in his editorial with both the pro’s and con’s of Geithner’s plan.   On the plus side, the belief is that private money managers will know how to manage the troubled assets better than the government side.  Conversely, on the negative, everyone loses except Marshall continues, “the Geithner plan insures them against downside risk.”   Is handing “toxic assets” from “zombie banks” back to the people that got us into this situation, the best path for us to go?   Could proven plans of failure, infact be something good for the country? 

American’s are faced with several challenges, similar to the Owens’ sisters in “Practical Magic”, in order to lift a family curse; one must face the darkness that created it.  However, it appears that the government is unable to accept and face the greed of the last 30 years which has led us down this winding destructive path.   The only way to change the problems in the economy is for us to change our habits!   Is this a task the Obama Administration is willing to take, or will we see a continuation of the Bush 2 policies the administration has already put forth in its First 100 days.

With Obama at the World’s “Most Dangerous Place” — Huffington Post
What’s Behind the Geithner Debate?  – Real Clear Politics  
What Can We Learn From Bristol and Levi — Cynthia Tucker  
Has Obama-mania reached its limit?  – Yahoo Blog 
Questions for Reform — NY TIMES  
Obamanomics Isn’t About Big Government — Robert Reich 
For Obama, Three Afghanistan Tests — Jackson Diehl 

Geithner On Meet The Press:

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