There is nobody there...

A lower British cabinet official succinctly summed up the actions of this Administration on the economy:

"There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is." (Or, as Camille Paglia puts it: the "dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship.")

This quote was made in response to a meeting that is being planned for next month for countries to get together and figure out a way to fight the current economic situation. The British official quoted above expressed his frustration at being unable to find anyone at the U.S. Treasury to talk to about attending. This meeting is also important because this Administration is adamant that running up huge deficits and allowing government to run rampant over state governments and individuals is the only way to successfully combat this situation. In typical European technocrat speak, this suggestion was rejected: “The 16 euro-area ministers agreed that recent American appeals insisting that the Europeans make an additional budgetary effort to combat the effects of the crisis was not to our liking.” In other words, we don't need you to tell us how to spend our money. Mind you, there would be nothing more to my liking than having the Euro fail; but the gall of this administration to declare itself sole arbiter of all knowledge on how to respond is beyond belief.

In echoing a statement made in Obama's message to Congress, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said: "We want to bring together a new consensus globally on how to strengthen this financial system, so that a crisis like this never happens again."

Two things- 1) Is this Administration saying that it can stop recessions from happening ever again? 2) I thought this Administration was also supposed to have a better and friendlier foreign policy. When 50 days into your Administration, you're already telling other countries how to handle their economy, I don't think you're likely to get a very positive response. Furthermore, when one of the balancing partners in moving a worldwide economy is the EU, running up deficits on purpose is not necessarily in their best interests. According to the Financial Times, "France, Germany and Italy, the eurozone’s three biggest countries, are anxious that the 16 countries sharing the euro should not run up ever-bigger budget deficits and public debt, potentially threatening the stability of the single currency area." I suppose it goes without saying that those countries also have center-right parties in power right now.

Additionally, these countries are increasingly concerned about this Administration's commitment to free trade and open markets. I don't know about them, but when the President wants to make sure that "this never happens again," that for sure means an increase in regulation. What is clear is that this Administration clearly believes that it is right in its response to this situation and is willing to openly criticize other countries for failing to respond to his directive. While Obama rightly observes that globalization has tied worldwide economies together, he fails to reckon that other countries might not want to (or are simply unable to) cobble together as large a "stimulus" package as passed by Congress to address the current economic situation. Certainly it's possible that other countries may not want to cripple future productivity and earnings with disastrous large-scale government run programs, or burden future budgets with large amounts of debt. That wasn't a leading statement at all.

My question is: why do we think we're doing it right? The stimulus package that was passed had very little to do with stimulating the economy, and was more about directing new money towards more government programs that won't encourage the economic response that's needed. If a county decides, hey, you know what- let's just see how our own response works, that is entirely within their rights as a sovereign country. I'm pretty sure this "you're with us or against us" mantra was ridiculed when George W. Bush was saying it in regards to fighting terrorism. Why shouldn't we ridicule it now when talking about a U.S. directive to other countries on economics?