Noam Scheiber

I did try to read the Geithner book. I did. I took it out of the library. But I could not get beyond the first 15 pages. The book was too big and the author, I feel, is personally responsible, along with other from Obama on down, for letting bankers stay out of jail. Instead, I turned to this book, which starts at the financial crisis and ends before Obama's reelection.

It's a fine in depth study of how the president, Summers, Geithner, et al just blew the stimulus by not making it large enough. Analysis of Obama's attempts to compromise with the Repugs really validates everything I thought - YOU'RE THE PPESIDENT, DO SOMETHING! - that he searched for reasonableness and compromise for way, way too long. I am sorry to say that he underestimated the blatant racism and veniality of his opponents and it cost us.

The people who were thrown from their homes, by cheating banks, lying rating agencies, and greedy CEOs and hedge funders, can never be repaid. And Geithner, who did not come from a banking background, but was a regulator - was incapable of recognizing the human costs of his decisions, and how the exploding housing bubble and lack of jobs, persisting to this day, were far more important crises than the deficit. They let the deficit baboons drive the bus.… (más)