Austen Goolsbee is sounding way smarter than McCain's economist

[Coexist]

he even got Joe S. to shut up.

Joe tried to say Obama hasn't done anything on the economy yet. Goolsbee rattled off a list of top economists Obama had meetings with. Joe tried to say, what will Obama cut now that we have this debt, Goolsbee put him back.

I wish I could type as fast as he's speaking - I'll try to find the clip or transcript. It was confidence building. I hope Goolsbee is on a lot more shows this week. He is a stellar stand-in.

The McCain guy just sat there grinning like an idiot and sounding lame and blamey.

I hope some of y'all caught it.

Video here!

Until I can find the clip, here is one of him tearing up Pfteradacytltenhouer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqufI3r8vF8

[Whalestoe]

1. I did.

It was Goolsbee vs everyone else and he held his own. Fuck Race to the White House.

[Coexist]

2. he didn't just hold his own - he owned the conversation.

I hate this show, my tv was just tuned to MsNBC when I turned it on and saw Goolsbee.

[EV_Ares]

3. Yeah, that is the 2nd time I have seen him. Is methodical, knows what he is talking about & takes

no bs from anyone. He will clam them up & get out what he wants to say. Obama has some good people Ausint, Axelrod and the guy who is on the morning shows all the time. I like him as well.

[woolldog]

4. Goolsbee was a champion debater in high school and college

As a high school student at Milton Academy, a New England preparatory school, Goolsbee became one of the most decorated competitive speakers in the nation. In 1987, he became the first extemporaneous speaking competitor to go through an entire year of competitions placing only first. This included winning the NCFL national championship in extemporaneous speaking for the second time and winning the National Forensics League's national championship in international extemporaneous speaking as well as placing second in the nation in original oratory.

As a student at Yale he debated on the APDA circuit. In 1990 he and partner Dahlia Lithwick were runners up for National Debate Team of the Year. He and partner John Wertheim placed second at the national championship. In 1991, he and partner David Gray were the National Debate Team of the Year. Goolsbee finished as the third best speaker at the World Debate Championships in Toronto. He later served as coach to the M.I.T. debate team and the University of Chicago debate society, as well as being active in the annual Great Latke-Hamantash Debate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austan_Goolsbee

[Median Democrat]

11. Dahlia Lithwick Is Now Senior Editor For Slate

Who knew?

[woolldog]

22. Thanks for pointing that out.

Very interesting...

[alsame]

5. I've seen him on MSNBC several times - he's an excellent

spokesman for Obama. He obviously knows what he's talking about and he is able to talk about complicated economic issues in language that even I can understand.

[QC]

6. Is he still working for the DLC? n/t

[vaberella]

7. I agree. But how bloody rude was Joe S.?! He lets McCain's boy run on and on at the mouth.

Yet, when Austin comes in...he fuckin' shuts him down. Joe S. is a sleaze.

[amandabeech]

8. Goolsbee was claiming that any money lost would be made up by placing a fee on Wall Street.

The last time I read this bill, there was absolutely no hard and fast requirement that this be done!

Instead, the President was encouraged to propose legislation 5 years in the future if the Treasury had lost money on the deal.

Unless that bill was changed or Obama is proposing a change, then Goolsbee was lying about a point that he made again and again.

If someone can point to the point in the bill actually REQUIRING this be done, and I would want oversight of any calculation by Congress, then please let me know!

Otherwise, Goolsbee has gone down in my opinion, if that was possible.

P.S. Good debating skills do not equate to wisdom. This huge problem requires a lot of the latter, and if a good program can be worked out, much less of the former. A good, wise bill will sell itself.

[blondeatlast]

9. So, economic guru; where's your plan?

It's fun to coach from your desk but it's way different in the real world.

[amandabeech]

13. Okay. I'm no guru, but here are my thoughts.

I believe that what needs to be done first is to recapitalize banks small and large.

Right now, the SEC and the FASB (accounting board) are being pushed to relax the mark to market rule for banks' accounting. The current rule requires banks to list on their books the market value of investments, including MBS, as they could be sold today. That means firesale prices.

The relaxation would let banks mark securities that the bank intends to hold at the value that the securities might sell at a later date. One idea batted around is to use a modest, and I mean modest, model to come up with a value of assets to be held for, say, six months to 2 years, or thereabouts. Alternatively, the securities could be marked to a discount of the purchase or issue price, whichever is lower.

That would shore up a serious number of bank balance sheets and inject some certainty into the credit market for the time being at least, and would require no current Treasury outlays.

In addition, some small banks held as regulatory capital preferred shares of Freddie and Fannie. When the Treasury bailed out those two entities, it took a senior issue of preferred, which wiped out the value of the previously existing preferred, which was thought to have been 95% as safe as Treasury securities themselves. Bernanke knew that this would be a problem, but has admitted that he underestimated (and I think grossly underestimated) the huge hit on the ability of small banks to lend. These banks serve both individuals and many local businesses. If Treasury could exchange this preferred at a discount with Treasuries, or come up with some plan to guarantee a percentage of the original preferred, at least for a year or two, then those banks would be able to do some lending again.

These ideas are out there and espoused by reasonable people. These proposals would target banks, not hedge funds or the investment sides of Citi or BOA. It's a lot more main street and a little less Wall Street, and might be a better political sell. If it doesn't work, then it's back to the drafting session, but with much less exposure for the taxpayer.

I was formerly a corporate and securities attorney and along the way represented a number of small banks.

[Coexist]

10. here:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/obamas_remarks_on_the_economic.html

And finally, I said that if American taxpayers are financing this solution, then you should be treated like investors - you should get every penny of your tax dollars back once this economy recovers.

This last part is important, because it's been the most misunderstood and poorly communicated aspect of this entire plan. This is not a plan to just hand over $700 billion of your money to a few banks on Wall Street. If this is executed the right way, then the government will temporarily purchase the bad assets of our financial institutions so that they can start lending again, and then sell those assets once the markets settle down and the economy recovers. If this is managed correctly, we will hopefully get most or all of our money back, or possibly even turn a profit on the government's investment - every penny of which will go directly back to you, the investor. And if we do have losses, I've proposed to institute a Financial Stability Fee on the entire financial services industry so that Wall Street foots the bill - not the American taxpayer. I've also said that if I'm President, I will review the entire plan on the day I take office to make sure that it is working to save our economy and that you are getting your money back.

Even with all these taxpayer protections, I know that this plan is not perfect or fool-proof. No matter how well we manage the government's investments under this plan, we are still putting taxpayer dollars at risk. I know that there are Democrats and Republicans in Congress who have legitimate concerns about this, and I know there are many Americans who share those concerns.

[amandabeech]

12. I'm looking for mandatory language directly from the House bill.

Relying on some chief executive to do the right thing with creative accounting five years from now doesn't cut it with me even though it cuts it with Obama and you.

Statutory mandates with strong oversight and judicial enforcement talk. You know what walks.

[Coexist]

14. Section 134,

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/PDFs/ayo08c04_xml.pdf

SEC. 134. RECOUPMENT.
5 Upon the expiration of the 5-year period beginning
6 upon the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director
7 of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation
8 with the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, shall
9 submit a report to the Congress on the net amount within
10 the Troubled Asset Relief Program under this Act. In any
11 case where there is a shortfall, the President shall submit
12 a legislative proposal that recoups from the financial in13
dustry an amount equal to the shortfall in order to ensure
14 that the Troubled Asset Relief Program does not add to
15 the deficit or national debt.

and you might try civility instead of snideness if you haven't looked it up yourself.

[amandabeech]

18. Different draft, and thank you.

Civility is no longer valued on this board. Apparently, you have not noticed.

I asked for a cite, and you provided it.

If you want to be snide about it, then don't respond to my request.

And I still don't like the bill.

[Coexist]

19. you are welcome - and it is in the final version from the House website

in the same place:

http://financialservices.house.gov/essa/ayo08c04_xml.pdf

SEC. 134. RECOUPMENT.
16 Upon the expiration of the 5-year period beginning
17 upon the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director
18 of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation
19 with the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, shall
20 submit a report to the Congress on the net amount within
21 the Troubled Asset Relief Program under this Act. In any
22 case where there is a shortfall, the President shall submit
23 a legislative proposal that recoups from the financial in24
dustry an amount equal to the shortfall in order to ensure
1 that the Troubled Asset Relief Program does not add to
2 the deficit or national debt.
3 SEC. 135. PRESERVATION OF AUTHORITY.

[amandabeech]

21. I already pulled it off that website, because I wasn't sure that MSNBC

necessarily had the latest.

As I said, I still do not like this bill. I think that it gives too much authority and a far larger revolving credit facility to Paulson, who I believe has too much Wall Street on the brain and absolutely no political sense.

One of the financial guys for a former client told me that one hand washes the other on Wall Street, and that little guys need to stay out.

I have seen nothing since then to convince me otherwise, particularly from Paulson.

[Emit]

15. "lame and blamey" - I love that description for McCain's guy

didn't see it, but that's a good description. Thanks for the heads up - I'll try to catch it on line.

[Coexist]

17. I updated it with a link to the video

enjoy

[Emit]

23. Thank you!

:hi:

[Cha]

16. Rec'd! This is so good to hear and

this needs to get out there so others know that Austen Goolsbee is doing such a fantastic job for the Obama campaign on corporatemediawhore news.

Thanks for the clip, FloridaDem.

[Window]

20. K/R.

:kick: