As a result of mushy thinking, we are now given to understand the “free market” problem that was created by too much government spending, too much government debt, too much government sponsored credit via easy monetary policy, and a market wildly distorted by government intervention to meet social goals (along with a large helping of corporate criminal fraud that slipped through the existing government regulatory framework) can only be solved by increasing government spending, increasing government debt, have an easy monetary policy and create more market distortions with more government intervention to meet similar social goals.

The next move of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve will be an attempt to boost consumer credit by pumping $25 billion to $100 billion into a new program to be announced later today. The money will come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
We’ll have to wait for the details before judging this newest program, [...]

On the whole, I like President-Elect Obama’s economic team.  I think Tim Geithner is a solid choice at Treasury, mostly because he’s been knee deep in the bailout stuff and can jump right into the scrum.  He seems to have the confidence of Wall Street and will require little on-the-job training.
And there’s no doubt that [...]

It hasn’t reached the mainstream media yet, but in the days since Hillary Clinton’s nomination to be Barack Obama’s Secretary of State became official, there’s been some discussion of a little-known provision in the Constitution that could bar Hillary Clinton from serving at Foggy Bottom:
[S]pecifically, Article One, Section Six, also known as the emoluments clause. [...]

According to current reports, this could be Barack Obama’s national security/foreign affairs team:
Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano
National Security Advisor: Gen. Jim Jones, a retired 4-star Marine Corps general who actually supported John McCain but is considered pragmatic and very well-qualified.
Director of National Intelligence: [...]

Just in case you haven’t seen it…

The pace at which Obama is moving in this transition (the earliest and quickest in history) makes me confident his team will be able to move just as swiftly when he actually has the power of the POTUS.
What’s more, it genuinely feels like he’ll fulfill the promise of his [...]

Brian Williams, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and David Faber talk about the economy, what has been done so far by the Obama team and the tough road ahead for this country.

Question: should Bush simply step aside or agree to share power for these last two months? Because I think it’s obvious that there’s a power [...]

Delaware’s Governor has appointed a long-time aide to Joe Biden to fill his Senate seat, but it looks like it’s just a temp job:
Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Joe Biden, will be appointed by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to fill the vacancy created by the vice president-elect once he resigns from the Senate.
Kaufman [...]

Mixed in with that economic announcement earlier today was news of budget cuts to make sure that the Americans’ know the government is tightening their belts first and leading by example.
From Politico:
“[T]o make the investments we need, we’ll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well – something [...]

He advocates buying gold, plus he has some extremely dire predictions for the economy over the next few years…

One thing I’m wondering after watching this clip…is Schiff actually advocating a complete collapse of our financial system so the market essentially has to reboot from scratch?
Listen, I respect the fact that the guy called the [...]

Lots to read, so here’s the whole thing…
====
Good morning.
The news this past week, including this morning’s news about Citigroup, has made it even more clear that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions. Our financial markets are under stress. New home purchases in October were the lowest in half a century. Recently, more [...]

Does this guy really want to be the sacrificial lamb in 2012? Because nobody’s going to blame Obama for this economic downturn (except hardcore Friedmanites), and if Obama creates 2.5 million jobs in the next few years, he’s got 2012 in the bag.
In any event, here’s more from CNN:
(CNN) — Bobby Jindal’s in Iowa today. [...]

Well, this certainly wasn’t expected, but what I’ve been hearing from most economists lately is that what the markets need right is reassurance that things won’t spiral out of control…and the only thing to do that is a big pot of money.
From Bloomberg:
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than [...]

Last night, officials from the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp agreed to bailout financial giant Citigroup by putting an extra $20 billion into the company and by providing up to $306 billion of government backing against large losses on risky mortgages.
These funds will come from the $700 billion in bailout [...]

I highlighted this yesterday, and today NBC takes a look at how Obama is using the internet to get his message out as the President elect.

Too bad Obama has to give up his Blackberry. He could have been the first mobile blogging President.

It looks like the Barack Obama citizenship issue will not die until he is inaugurated. It probably will not end even then.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss the matter in private because one justice decided it was worthy. Before fingering the member of our highest court, I will give a little background information on [...]

With more than 3/4ths of the precincts counted, it looks like Franken will fall short, barring some wild turn around in how these votes are shaking out.
Still, FiveThirtyEight thinks there’s a chance…
The Star Tribune now puts Coleman’s lead at 180 votes, and the Secretary of State, 167 votes. (The Star Tribune’s tally appears to [...]

If you didn’t catch it this morning, catch it now…

By the way, once Brokaw steps down…who should step in? I’d like to have Chuck Todd in that slot, but I don’t think he has the network behind him. And while Chris Matthews would be entertaining, he’s not the right personality. Too bombastic. And David Gregory [...]

Looks like that endorsement paid off, but what he’s really after is Hillary’s State position.
From CNN:
Richardson, one of the leading Hispanics in the Democratic Party, had been seeking the Secretary of State post but lost out to Sen. Hillary Clinton. Obama aides have told CNN that Obama is “on track” to nominate Clinton as his [...]

No doubt he’s thankful for Obama’s intervention so he could keep his seniority and charimanships. So now we’re seeing some penance. Certainly not necessary, but definitely appreciated.

Brokaw certainly put the screws to him, and I think it’s fair that Lieberman was taking the “Look, McCain was my friend and I supported him. What do you [...]