Obama to push bankers to resume lending

[Auburn85 438]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090118/ts_nm/...KH3kJHqjmvv5rEF

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama will push bankers to resume lending to businesses and consumers to help put the ailing economy back on track, but things will get worse before they get better, his top aides said Sunday.

"I think he is going to have a strong message for the bankers," said David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser. "We want to see credit flowing again. We don't want them to sit on any money that they get from taxpayers."

Obama, a Democrat who is to be sworn in at noon Tuesday as the 44th U.S. president, inherits a $1 trillion-plus deficit and the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Axelrod, on the ABC Television program "This Week," said it was clear that a $700 billion U.S. financial rescue fund approved by Congress in October "has to be administered in a much different way" than it was under outgoing President George W. Bush.

"We have to make sure the money doesn't go to excessive CEO pay and dividends when it should be going to lending," he said. Congress last week released the second $350 billion slice of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Obama has put forward an $825 billion stimulus package that could define his first few months in office; highlight contrasts with Bush, a Republican; and go far toward determining perceptions of his presidency. The plan is designed to create more than 3.5 million jobs in the next few years.

Larry Summers, incoming head of the Obama's National Economic Council, predicted Obama's stimulus plan would be approved by Congress within a month, with an almost immediate impact on curbing job loss.

"There are a ton of shovel-ready projects that are out there that are out there that are being canceled right now that aren't going to have to be canceled when this program passes," he said on CBS television's "Face the Nation."

JOBS, EDUCATION

But Summers, a treasury secretary under former president Bill Clinton, said: "There's no question, almost no question, that the economy is going to decline for some time to come."

"These problems weren't made in a week or a month or a year, and they're not going to be fixed in a week or a month or a year," he said.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate for December surged to 7.2 percent, its highest level in nearly 16 years and a jump from 6.8 percent in November. However, Summers said he did not think unemployment would hit double digits.

Republicans have criticized aspects of Obama's package as a throwback to what they call traditional Democratic borrow and spend policies.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, said the overall goal was to emerge from the recession "a stronger economy to lead the world" thanks to investments that would make it easier, for instance, to attend college.

"For too long, critical investments in this country, both physical and human, have been denied," he said on NBC television's "Meet the Press."

"In an era where you're competing against people in China and India, (investing in education) is money well spent," Emanuel added.

Axelrod rejected complaints from the top House Republican, John Boehner of Ohio, that Obama had failed to consult adequately with Republicans and would not be able to generate enough jobs through the proposed stimulus plan.

"Let's remember why we're in the mess we're in," Axelrod said in a critique of the Bush administration. "Part of it is that when the Clinton administration left office, we were running record surpluses, and the policies that were put in place doubled our debt in a matter of a few years."

(Additional reporting by Nancy Waitz and Eric Beech; Editing by Jackie Frank)

[Tigermike 4,309]

"President-elect Barack Obama will push bankers to resume lending "

So if their projections tell them that discretion should be used in all lending at the present, they should because Obama pushes them to make loans? I suppose he will be obligating the U.S. government to back up these loans.

The new motto of the U.S. government should be "Don't worry be happy. We can print all the money you need." Or "Don't worry be happy, the taxpayers are on the hook for this!"

[OldNewby 27]

Maybe while he's at it, he can get Citi to account for the 45 billion they've received since last fall.

"Sorry chief, we can't loan it 'cause we don't know where it is or what happened to it."

[TigerHeat 9]

"President-elect Barack Obama will push bankers to resume lending "

So if their projections tell them that discretion should be used in all lending at the present, they should because Obama pushes them to make loans? I suppose he will be obligating the U.S. government to back up these loans.

The new motto of the U.S. government should be "Don't worry be happy. We can print all the money you need." Or "Don't worry be happy, the taxpayers are on the hook for this!"

The gubmint telling private financial institutions who to lend how much at what time is what got all this mess started to begin with. But THIS time we'll get it right because THIS time we have the smartest man EVAH in charge of things. It's gonna be different THIS time.

[Auburn85 438]

we don't need anymore lending. we need to cut back on spending.

there are plenty of cars and homes on the market now.

why do you think the banks are hesitant to lend out money? ding fries are done, because the banks lost alot of money during the last round.

government has lowered interest rates cross the board. lowering savings rates because they don't want you to save, they want you to spend til you can't spend anymore so we can do this all over again. it's what got us here in the first place! yet, they want to take all of the debt we've mounted up and print, borrow more on top of that.

the dollar is going to suck even more than it is now. people don't get it at all. they think now because gas has dropped so low so fast that groceries should fall in accordance to it. things don't work that way.

[autigeremt 7,551]

Folks.....this country is in trouble. There's a reason why this kind of policy has NEVER worked in the history of American government.

Sad, sad days ahead.