Simon Johnson: “Barack Obama, Like Louis XIV Before Him, Knows Exactly What is Going On”
Simon Johnson: “Barack Obama, Like Louis XIV Before Him, Knows Exactly What is Going On”
Many people assume that Obama doesn’t understand that his economic team – Summers, Geithner, Bernanke, Gensler and the boys – are preserving the status quo, and failing to make the fundamental reforms needed to stabilize the economy.
They assume that the economy is a mysterious subject for experts, and that Obama innocently thinks his team is doing good for the American people.
But professor of economics and former chief IMF economist Simon Johnson isn’t buying it.
As Johnson and James Kwak write today in the Washington Post:
During the reign of Louis XIV, when the common people complained of some oppressive government policy, they would say, “If only the king knew . . . .” Occasionally people will make similar statements about Barack Obama, blaming the policies they don’t like on his lieutenants.
But Barack Obama, like Louis XIV before him, knows exactly what is going on.
If Obama doesn’t institute fundamental reforms now, Simon will blame him – and not just his advisors or the the lobbyists.
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