Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Bush And Paulson Tell Obama To Clean Up Their Mess

It appears that Bush and Paulson are content to leave their mess for Obama to clean up. Rather than push forward with new initiatives that can help relieve pressure on the financial system, they would rather wash their hands of the situation. Considering the magnitude of our problems, though, the economy might not be able to wait for Obama to take command. Kathy Lien investigates this issue in more depth in her blog post below.

There are increasing signs that the Bush Administration wants to leave the clean up job to Barack Obama.

According to Treasury Secretary Paulson, even though the first half of the $700 billion bailout package is being used up quickly, the Bush Administration will not be asking Congress for the remaining $350 billion.

With 8 weeks to go before Bush leaves office, the current Administration is more focused on wrapping things up than starting new initiatives.

Paulson said it best:

“I’m going to do what we need to do to keep the system strong but I’m not going to be looking to start up new things unless they’re necessary, unless they make great sense” and “I want to preserve the firepower, the flexibility we have now and those that come after us will have.”

This was the same spirit that Bush took at this weekend’s emergency meeting of G20 nations that I talked about this morning. The meeting was a big disappointment as the Group failed to deliver any specific solutions. Instead, they set an action plan for March 31 and another meeting for April 30th. The G20 is clearly waiting for the new Administration to take charge before putting the pedal to the medal. The only question is, will the global economy be able to wait that long.

This article has been reposted from Kathy Lien. The full post can also be viewed on KathyLien.com.

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