truly sad (4.00 / 4)

I thought it should be titled:  "The Offshore outsourcing advisers" instead.

or maybe the Corporate and Special Internets Committee (subtitle, we gave a hell of a lot of money to various campaigns so give us our payback now committee)

Are they kidding?  

GE, UBS, Oracle, Caterpillar?

and I am oh so sure a newspaper publisher, Spanish only,  has tons of expertise on economics....uh huh.  

Laura Tyson?  Ms. "oh yeah, free trade works great"?

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:07:49 PM CST

I don't object to this post, per se.... (4.00 / 1)

But the economic stimulus package is in serious trouble.  I'm not exactly sure what this site can do to help, but lack of effort on that part is becoming defining.

Shouldn't we be organizing phone calls to senators or something?

I wouldn't mind chewing gum if I saw any evidence of walking; but I don't see any walking.

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by: Mark Matson @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:11:05 PM CST

I Think Asking People to Call Would Be Good (0.00 / 0)

I have tried to get through to Schumer and Gillibrand's office without success the last 2 days due to busy phones.  I have e-mailed though.

Obama needs to go on national TV and deliver a primetime address explaining this program and asking people to call their members of Congress.  Something tells me he could swamp the calls offices are getting from Rush Limbaugh's show.

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by: jmnyc @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:53:31 PM CST

[ Parent ]

What was Summers dragging his feet about? (4.00 / 3)

Sounds like he should be happy as a clam with this group.  Caterpillar??!!!  The original destroyer of good union wages???  Remember the war in Peoria in 1992?  The UAW got creamed and Caterpillar is close to a uniform pay scale 1/2 the hourly UAW rate.

Where or where is the Economic Policy Institute?

I live in a true blue state--I will have a choice in November

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by: LeeNYC @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:13:05 PM CST

maybe this is the Coup? (0.00 / 0)

I don't believe such a serious guy as Volcker, whether you like what he proposes or not....would choose a "major publisher of the largest Spanish newspaper" as one of his precious and insightful economic advisers upon which sage research and advise he would rely.

Come on.  

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:24:21 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Labor isn't just out numbered they are out gunned (4.00 / 6)

neither Trumka nor Burger have any real world economic experience. I love Trumka, Burger is a hack but neither have either academic or hands on economic experience.

Where is Roubini, Stiglitz, Krugman, Reich, Buffet, Soros. you know teh people that actually know something about the economy and have somewhat progressive perspectives.

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by: teral @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:16:29 PM CST

Not a single progressive economist in the bunch (4.00 / 7)

right?

I'd say that I'm disillusioned but I never had illusions when it came to his views on economic matters.

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by: david mizner @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:20:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

absolutely! (4.00 / 4)

"outside" I thought meant various economic researchers, experts who have a good detailed analysis and policy recommendations!

Where is the Horizon Project???

Now these guys are smart cookies, they include business interests but their policy recommendations are based on pure economics....very innovative, great ideas and these experts, world leading thinkers are getting locked out of policy craft and that one is truly stuck on stupid.

Talk about an under utilization of American talent...

here's one!  

(Then there are only a good 1000 experts, researchers around, working in obscurity simply because they do not get funds from corporations).

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:21:55 PM CST

[ Parent ]

France 1789 (4.00 / 1)

it reminds me of France in 1789, when Necker took over finances and just rearranged the financial furniture w/out meaningful change.

it looks like America will have to learn the hard way.

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by: AliceDem @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:32:09 PM CST

As I asked without answer at Kos (4.00 / 1)

Why is this team different than the team he rolled out after the election?

Holdovers in bold:

David Bonior (Member House of Representatives 1977-2003)

Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)-will participate via speakerphone

Roel Campos (former SEC Commissioner)

William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)

William Donaldson (Former Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)

Roger Ferguson (President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve)

Jennifer Granholm (Governor, State of Michigan)

Anne Mulcahy (Chairman and CEO, Xerox)

Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board, Time Warner)

Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)

Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)

Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)

Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)

Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)

Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)

Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor, City of Los Angeles)

Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

What happened to the rest? Are the replacements good replacements? Was the November rollout just a pretty show, and if so, why should we think the new team isn't just a pretty show, too?

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by: wanderindiana @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 14:46:03 PM CST

Because (0.00 / 0)

This is politics as theater art, which underlies all the frenetic partying and schmoozing since Obama took office.  Why not spend time crafting your own New Deal and sending it to Capitol Hill rather than planning party lists?

Performance will only get you so far.  Obama forgot to sketch out his own plan with his own details - he lost the most signature moment of his presidency.  He won't get it back.

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by: kieran @ Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 11:44:51 AM CST

[ Parent ]

We got punked! The only hope I had for Obama (0.00 / 0)

was that he could hold back the disintegration for x more years. The process (according to Toynbee) has already gone so far (so fast in the last 8 years) that there is no chance of rollback, just some peace as the Universal State enters history. This is not going to happen now as the downside will not be slowed enough with these people. It will continue to slide downhill at a good speed.

When Obama wakes up his credibility will be gone. They are a nice middle class couple of upwardly mobile intentions. Nothing special. Not the Kennedys. Not FDR.

What a shame, what a shame to waste what he's got.

It's very hard to stand alone when all these major players are telling him how it is. He has no experience in this realm and it is showing. But Hillary would have done the same. Gives thought to the governing by an aristocracy, eh? People scrambling up have different values when they get there.

The other side is that this country will have to become local, the unions will not be important anyway. There will be no global trade. It will all be local. I mean can you see China shipping plastic wastebaskets to us and Wal-Mart trucking them from the west coast to the east to sell for a few bucks? Not gonna happen.

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by: abbeysbooks @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 15:00:59 PM CST

They're all lousy, including Burger and Owens (4.00 / 1)

Burger of the SEIU does not have a union background, she was one of Andy Sterns corporate picks, because he does not believe that union management should rise up from the rank and file. She favors backdoor deals with corporate interests, and undermining wages and protections of workers. She and others have encouraged SEIU thugs to invade and violently attack a group of nurses who were considering reaffiliating under another union, because SEIU was undermining their contracts, attempting to force their locals to knuckle under to management. If you don't believe me, there are videos on youtube.com of that and other attacks.

Owens of Caterpillar has outsourced virtually all it's US jobs. It's concerns are serving the interests of the foreign governments where their new facilities are located. Owens was responsible for arm twisting to overturn and water down Buy American. Why is Obama hand picking those who seek to further outsourcing and the imposition of third world poverty on American workers?

Why do we bring more than 138 thousand foreign nationals on visas each week when we are in such dire economic trouble? If our country is truly ready to collapse, does it make sense to bring in so many people to displace citizens in the workplace?

Sen. Gregg has now been formally announced as Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce.  As I reported recently,   Gregg is a hard-core supporter of H-1B.  I also noted that McKinsey's Diana Farrell, a promoter of offshoring, has also been appointed to the Obama administration.  Enclosed below are several pieces on the details.

Opinion: The Obama administration promotes outsourcing, By Ron Hira, EeTIMES, February 4, 2009

H-1B, offshoring supporters get key Obama Administration posts Commerce nominee Judd Gregg believes H-1Bs help create jobs for U.S. workers,  By Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld,  February 3, 2009]

Commerce Nominee Favors H1-B Visa Expansion By Roy Mark,eWEEK  February 6, 2009

It is interesting to compare the Computerworld take on this situation with the Hira op-ed.  Both note that the Gregg and Farrell appointments bode serious trouble for H-1B critics hoping that the Obama administration would bring Change.  But Computerworld's Pat Thibodeau sees Gregg as the bigger threat, while Professor Hira highlights Farrell.

I must say that Farrell may well end up just as harmful as Gregg, maybe even more so.  Gregg is very open in his view that business interests must take priority.  By contrast, Farrell, though clearly of the same school of thought, cloaks her writings in terms dear to the hearts of the Democratic Party - jobs training.  Yes, offshoring of tech work produces some American victims, Farrell concedes, but that can be handled via job retraining programs. We were told this during the Clinton years, and many were retrained in the tech field, only to find that those jobs were being outsourced, and those that weren't, were being staffed by Indian nationals brought here on visas. What "retraining" is she referring to? Sorry, but this is a sham, a cruel and corrupt game played by a sorry assed bitch who isn't worried about herself being displaced, she's making money selling your jobs overseas.

This is exactly the pitch that got the first H-1B increase through in 1998.  At the time, I and others (notably IEEE_USA, whith its excellent Misfortune 500 Web site) pointed out that many older (age 35+) highly-educated programmers and engineers could not get tech work despite the Dot-Com Boom.  The industry claimed that this was due to a lack of up-to-date skills in those workers.  In response, Congress imposed a user fee on H-1B employers, with the proceeds to go to retraining programs.  I warned at the time that the skills issue was phony, just a pretext to replace the older workers by young H-1Bs, and that the retraining idea was thus a nonsolution:  Given a choice between the older/more expensive American who has just learned the Java programming language, and a younger/cheaper American with newly-acquired Java skills and an even cheaper young H-1B with Java the 35-year-old American will not be chosen.  Sadly, my analysis was later confirmed, both by a Dept. of Commerce study and a remarkably frank statement by Sun Microsystems to the press.

My point, then, is that Farrell speaks exactly the language that the Obama people want to hear, so she may actually be given more credence than Gregg, and thus present more of a problem to H-1B critics.  But Gregg will be pernicious from the viewpoint of H-1B critics too, of course, and not just in advice he gives to the president.  Under Gregg the DOC study I mentioned above may not have been undertaken in the first place.  Or it may have been suppressed by DOC, as DOC did to its offshoring study during the Bush years; see here.

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by: Mary @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 16:33:18 PM CST

H1B Visas (0.00 / 0)

Ihave become a strong critic of the H1B visa after my work with Caterpillar.
 I saw them bring in young students without any expertise, spend six months training them to ship them back to India along with jobs.
Peoria is close to some of the best Universities in Illinois and the level of worker available to Caterpillar is very high.  There was no reason to give them H1B visas to bring in trainees except to allow them to push wages down.
The economic team looks to me more like the host committee of the next presidential run and I suspect that fund raising is what more behind these selections.
Sorry but I am from Illinois and we believe in pay to play at all levels.  

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by: Gibson @ Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 08:39:36 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I think we need to start protests (4.00 / 1)

.  Seriously.

I can't believe he thinks this group represents alternative views.

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by: Dameocrat @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 20:30:26 PM CST

"Wall St Welfare Queens" (0.00 / 0)

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/b... --

Obama wasn't rousing the populist beast (God forbid), as his critics alleged, when he imposed pay limitations ... Obama was simply trying to appease public sentiment just enough so that the bailouts to come won't be politically impossible.

Nor have the opponents of limiting executive pay made a clear distinction between banks requiring public assistance to survive and those that don't. Right now, our government demands all kind of behavioral modifications from welfare recipients. What exactly is the moral and economic distinction between those recipients and those who head insolvent banks, except that the welfare recipients aren't responsible for tanking the global economy?  ...

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by: amberglow @ Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 06:30:46 AM CST