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IT'S BAD TO NOT BE THE KING.
I've been thinking a lot about James Surowiecki's argument that the administration's critics have developed "a fetishization of boldness."
I'd put this a little differently: I think the administration's critics assume timidity. Government is a constrained institution. Geithner has to deal with pressure from critics, yes, but also a bitterly divided Congress, a filibuster-prone Senate, pressure from Wall Street, and resistance from captured regulators. The objective facts of his situation suggest that boldness won't necessarily be rewarded. And so when observers see informed critics like Krugman and Johnson arguing for a bolder strategy and charging that Geithner's approach deviates from the economic ideal, there's an assumption of credibility there: They, after all, don't have incentives colored by interest group pressure or congressional intransigence.
That said, they also don't have perspectives colored by, well, the intransigence of Congress and the limits of the federal agencies and the downside risks of large initiatives. So there's a sense in which both sides might be right: Geithner may be correct to be more cautious than the Treasury Secretary who serves at the pleasure of the Czar, but it might be that the Czar's Treasury Secretary would be able to fashion a better response.
COMMENTS (26)
Wrong question. "Boldness" or "timidity" is really not the issue with Geithner, it's good policy, or... bad policy. Almost everything's Geithner's done has been criticized, most effectively, by people who aren't so much interested in bold or not... but in the things that might, actually change some of the ways are banking culture operates. Almost all the criticisms, in turn, have forced Geithner to revamp (and generally toughen) his responses. Surowiecki, it strikes me, is playing he same game many pro-Obama pundits do, of complaining that we who find the Obama team wanting are unrealistic, unfair, not aware of the "big picture"... and on and on. That Ezra's right there to join in... well, didn't we know that all along?
And just as a PS, isn't the subtext here the eternal defensiveness of lefty men when tagged with suggestions of weakness being equaled to effeminacy? Surowiecki's complaints about "Timmy" it seems to me, are neither here nor there... but I think there's a strong undercurrent these days, of angry lefty boys who've had just about enough of not being seen as manly or tough. Which really only leads to bad things.
Posted by: weboy | May 11, 2009 11:48 AM
What is "cautious" about shoveling trillions of dollars into the pockets of known incompetents and probable criminals?
Posted by: Bloix | May 11, 2009 12:17 PM
Given that the same people leading this admitted they screwed up the politics of the stimulus while its critics were correct not sure why they get the benefit of the doubt
Posted by: Rob | May 11, 2009 12:49 PM
Reagan and W. fundamentally changed the country even though they faced the same divisions in Congress and a divided public. The Obama administration does not want fundamental change so it does not seek it.
Posted by: lame | May 11, 2009 4:51 PM
> That said, they also don't
> have perspectives colored by,
> well, the intransigence of
> Congress and the limits of
> the federal agencies and the
> downside risks of large
> initiatives.
OTOH, their perspective is _also_ not colored by 15 years of being invited to Wall Street dinner parties, the desire to be on those invitation lists again after a term of service in DC is complete, and a desire to place one's children, nieces, and nephews into fat Wall Street internships.
Cranky
Not to mention taking a really fat revolving door position - ala Summers - after leaving DC.
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