Obama under fire for spending taxpayers money to salvage banks
Sunday, 29 March 2009
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, March 28: The left leaning economists in America led by Nobel prize winning Paul Krugman who writes column for the New York Times (NYT) lashed out at President Obama for spending taxpayers money to salvage the collapsing banks.
Krugman described it as " cash for trash", Jeffrey Sachs calls it " a thinly veiled attempt to transfer hundreds of billions of US taxpayers funds to commercial banks' another Nobel price winning economist Joe Stiglitz said," the plan amounts to robbery of the American people" and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was called a " prisoner of Wall Street ".
These were reported by a reputed paper today. Robert Reich who was labour secretary under Clinton administration but later stepped down protesting Bill Clinton's reluctance to pursue a strong public investment agenda said the only answer to the present crisis is the nationalisation of the banks. President Obama, his Economic Adviser Lawrence Summers who helped Clinton to turn a nagging deficit to an eye-popping surplus and Treasury Secretary Geithner were accused of taking dictation from those who have brought the economy to the brink of recession.
President Obama held a meeting with the heads of 15 top banks in the US at the White House yesterday. The White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described the meeting as " productive frank conversation". President Obama underpinned the urgency of dealing with the toxic assets and getting these banks lending again.
The recession in the eurozone have deepened in the wake of the collapse in the manufacturing sector because of scarcity of order. Hit by slowdowns, industry will be looking to European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates again. German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with a reputed paper said: "we are coming together to make joint decisions , not to compete with each other". She went on to add " We all want the same thing, to put the world economy back on its feet as fast as possible and to prevent such a crisis from happening again"
The US officials are calling for more action from Europe to boost spending and demand. Europe on the other hand has been calling for tougher action on future financial regulation. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown resisted suggestions that international rifts would derail G20 summit from yielding concrete outcome. There has been an unprecedented level of coordinated action to address the financial crisis in recent months, a reputed paper quoted Brown as saying. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD ) will slash its growth rate to 4.2 per cent. The bloc is made up of 30 nation.
Meanwhile, waves of protests by radical groups are likely to happen in London and Strasbourg, France were G20 and Nato summits are billed for early next month. London is expecting to witness an anti-capitalist demonstration 'on a scale previously unseen in Britain' as anger over financial crisis fuels surrounding G20 summit. Starssbourgh where 26-member Nato summit will be held has been turned into a fotress. Up to 60,000 protesters are expected to descend upon the venue. More than 11,000 policemen will provide security. France after big gap will return into the fold of Nato.
On the political front, Saudi King Abdullah named his half-brother Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz as the new second deputy prime minister signalling that he would be in next line of succession to Saudi throne after the ailing Crown price Sultan. Prince Naif, 74, has held the office of the interior minister for more than 30 years. King is 84.
In another developments, the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) failed to name a successor to Egypt's Mohammad ElBaradei who was heading the commission Yukiya Amano, Japan's ambassador to IAEA is the leading candidate but fell a singular vote short of the two-thirds majority required to win the post.
NEW YORK, March 28: The left leaning economists in America led by Nobel prize winning Paul Krugman who writes column for the New York Times (NYT) lashed out at President Obama for spending taxpayers money to salvage the collapsing banks.
Krugman described it as " cash for trash", Jeffrey Sachs calls it " a thinly veiled attempt to transfer hundreds of billions of US taxpayers funds to commercial banks' another Nobel price winning economist Joe Stiglitz said," the plan amounts to robbery of the American people" and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was called a " prisoner of Wall Street ".
These were reported by a reputed paper today. Robert Reich who was labour secretary under Clinton administration but later stepped down protesting Bill Clinton's reluctance to pursue a strong public investment agenda said the only answer to the present crisis is the nationalisation of the banks. President Obama, his Economic Adviser Lawrence Summers who helped Clinton to turn a nagging deficit to an eye-popping surplus and Treasury Secretary Geithner were accused of taking dictation from those who have brought the economy to the brink of recession.
President Obama held a meeting with the heads of 15 top banks in the US at the White House yesterday. The White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described the meeting as " productive frank conversation". President Obama underpinned the urgency of dealing with the toxic assets and getting these banks lending again.
The recession in the eurozone have deepened in the wake of the collapse in the manufacturing sector because of scarcity of order. Hit by slowdowns, industry will be looking to European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates again. German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with a reputed paper said: "we are coming together to make joint decisions , not to compete with each other". She went on to add " We all want the same thing, to put the world economy back on its feet as fast as possible and to prevent such a crisis from happening again"
The US officials are calling for more action from Europe to boost spending and demand. Europe on the other hand has been calling for tougher action on future financial regulation. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown resisted suggestions that international rifts would derail G20 summit from yielding concrete outcome. There has been an unprecedented level of coordinated action to address the financial crisis in recent months, a reputed paper quoted Brown as saying. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD ) will slash its growth rate to 4.2 per cent. The bloc is made up of 30 nation.
Meanwhile, waves of protests by radical groups are likely to happen in London and Strasbourg, France were G20 and Nato summits are billed for early next month. London is expecting to witness an anti-capitalist demonstration 'on a scale previously unseen in Britain' as anger over financial crisis fuels surrounding G20 summit. Starssbourgh where 26-member Nato summit will be held has been turned into a fotress. Up to 60,000 protesters are expected to descend upon the venue. More than 11,000 policemen will provide security. France after big gap will return into the fold of Nato.
On the political front, Saudi King Abdullah named his half-brother Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz as the new second deputy prime minister signalling that he would be in next line of succession to Saudi throne after the ailing Crown price Sultan. Prince Naif, 74, has held the office of the interior minister for more than 30 years. King is 84.
In another developments, the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) failed to name a successor to Egypt's Mohammad ElBaradei who was heading the commission Yukiya Amano, Japan's ambassador to IAEA is the leading candidate but fell a singular vote short of the two-thirds majority required to win the post.