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Ear to the Ground

Orszag Sees Turbulent Times Ahead

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Posted on Jan 21, 2011
Wikimedia Commons / Office of Management and Budget

Former Obama economic aide Peter Orszag with the president in 2009.

So, the former head honcho of Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, is now sitting in a very plush position over at Citigroup, from where he gave his latest economic prognostications in Thursday’s Financial Times, declaring that “America must brace itself for turbulence.” Here are some other unsurprising remarks he made in the pink paper.  —KA

Peter Orszag in the Financial Times:

If policymakers will not act before we have a fiscal crisis at the federal level, a fiscal crisis we will ultimately have. Until then we will see a microcosm of this broader problem arise dur­ing debate about increasing the federal debt limit, later this spring. This will be contentious. We may have to experience some temporary market turbulence before it is resolved.

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By samosamo, January 23, 2011 at 11:59 am Link to this comment

****************

 

So this guy, this ‘just another bad fucking appointment’ by our
disappointment-in-chief, is chiding the american people for
what he and his ilk have done to this country, educationally,
economically, politically, militarily and the msm-ly. Taunting the
foolishness of allowing them to do and get away with their
crimes. Basically destroying or subverting all of this country’s
core structures. So yeah, he knows it will be turbulent and is
gleeful about it as he knows he won’t be effected.

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RayLan's avatar

By RayLan, January 22, 2011 at 8:36 pm Link to this comment

Corporate-babble at its best. Once again the mantra about the deficit - with no connection whatsoever about the private component of the ‘turbulent market’.
Such as bailed too-big-to-fail unethical banks like Citibank.

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prisnersdilema's avatar

By prisnersdilema, January 22, 2011 at 6:36 pm Link to this comment

No, I am not going to answer your questions because they are disingenuous. There is
no answer you will not continue to argue with, because conservatism is a deluded belief
system. Without those beliefs intact, then you would have nothing to believe.

Without your your thought coverings, your naked mind would disintegrate. So I am doing
you a favor, by not messing with your egos defense mechanisms.

Your questions, are only the standard conservative to attempt to set intellectual traps.
I know conservatism, by it’s fruit,  by it’s results, the dissembling of the American
economy. The staggering and venial wealth of corporations, the wealthy, and their
perpetration of legal slavery on the majority of Americans. It’s lies it’s larcenies, and the
absence of a conservative nirvana anywhere insight despite decades of promises of the
conservative mullahs, in their daily call to prayer on conservative talk radio.

Soon you will be joining the disenfranchised due to the price of airline fuel, and the
likelihood of AI pilots coming online in 5 years. Then you will be out of a job, and your
politics will change.

Report this
rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, January 22, 2011 at 5:43 pm Link to this comment

prisners:

Thanks so much for answering my simple questions.

You have no idea what my politics are. And judging by the effects you think conservatism has, you certainly don’t know shit about conservatism. And it’s you who believe in fairy tales- “millions in paupers’ graves”, etc.

Try again. A few quick questions. What is the richest country in the world now? How do you measure that? When were we passed? Are we even in second?

How can you call simple questions like these “traps?”

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By robertbeal, January 22, 2011 at 3:35 pm Link to this comment

This sounds like more too-big-to-fail type of blackmail.

From Peter Orszag in Financial Times
\http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/10612eec-24cc-11e0-a919-00144feab49a.html#axzz1BhveKW8q

“Most fundamentally it is difficult to see how the medium-term federal deficit can be reduced to sustainable levels without additional tax revenues from those earning less than $250,000 a year. And yet it is equally difficult to see the political system embracing that reality without being FORCED TO DO SO BY THE BOND MARKET.

“Bondholders are also privileged creditors in almost all states. It is thus difficult for states to default: they would generally have to stop paying employees before they stopped making debt payments.”

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prisnersdilema's avatar

By prisnersdilema, January 22, 2011 at 12:49 pm Link to this comment

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Take a look at America’s debt clock Rico, at the link above…

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704198004575310962247772540.html

Then there’s the above from Alan Greenspan, hardly a liberal…

It’s interesting, that you, a typical conservative, attempt, to ignore the Human suffering that has been caused by conservative thinking, and instead in typical conservative fashion, attempt to lay some traps, as a way of trying to rationalize your way out of things. It’s nice to believe in fairy tales, it doesn’t take any guts, but its going to take a tough back bone to face the truth.

The persistence of conservative politics in the face of the collapsing economy of the United States is a testament to the power of delusion over people’s minds. The ability to believe in fantasy, despite certain evidence to the contrary, is equivalent to a national mental illness. For decades, conservative radio talk show hosts have filled the air with their nonsense. 

Conservatives and the corporations they represent are directly responsible, for the economic destruction of this country. 

Still despite the horrendous toll of conservative politics and the Grotesqueries they have created, connservative politics continues to dominate the national political scene, but only because it’s self serving ideology provides a rationalization, through which the elite steal bread from the mouths of starving children, to enrich themselves.

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, January 22, 2011 at 9:45 am Link to this comment

prisners:

“...in what once was the richest country in the world.”

A few quick questions. What is the richest country in the world now? How do you measure that? When were we passed? Are we even in second?

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thebeerdoctor's avatar

By thebeerdoctor, January 22, 2011 at 12:44 am Link to this comment

I wonder what he means by “turbulent times”. Does that mean someone will have to make do with the 40 foot yacht for another season?

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prisnersdilema's avatar

By prisnersdilema, January 22, 2011 at 12:05 am Link to this comment

Who will be having turbulent times? Certainly, not this banker. Not now, not ever.

What about the millions of unemployed who are already in turbulent times. The homeowners, underwater, the millions on food stamps. The children who go to bed each night hungry, whose mothers are standing vigil wringing their hands with worry. Will their children have a future, in what once was the richest country in the world.

Those that caused their suffering continue to scheme, continue to make plans to ensure the continuation of their riches, and above all else their insulation from the suffering they have caused.

What do those bankers have in store for us now?

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Queenie's avatar

By Queenie, January 21, 2011 at 10:44 pm Link to this comment

“America must brace itself for turbulence.”

Would that be because we are rudderless and the pilot has no control (spine)?

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By berniem, January 21, 2011 at 8:07 pm Link to this comment

WTF is this guy talking about? No wonder we’re in the economic mess we’re in when Whiz-Bangs like this character are about the businees of major fiscal decisions! In the words of that great seer B. Bunny, “What a Maroon!!!!”

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