Obama On AIG Rage, Recession, Challenges

Asked if he was surprised at the depth of the recession when he took office, Obama told Kroft, "I don't think that we anticipated how steep the decline would be, particularly in employment. I mean if you look at just, you know, hundreds of thousands - now millions - of jobs being shed over the course of two months or three months, that slope is a lot steeper than anything that we've said we've seen before."

"Now, there's a potential silver lining, which may be that things are so accelerated now, the modern economy is so intertwined and wired, that things happen really fast for ill, but things may recover faster than they have in the past," he added.

"Do you believe that there's still some systemic risk out there? That the financial system could still implode if you had a big failure at AIG or at Citicorp?" Kroft asked.

"Yes," Obama said.

"Citibank?" Kroft asked.

"I think that systemic risks are still out there. And if we did nothing you could still have some big problems. There are certain institutions that are so big that if they fail, they bring a lot of other financial institutions down with them. And if all those financial institutions fail all at the same time, then you could see an even more destructive recession and potentially depression," Obama said. "I'm optimistic about that not happening."

The president said there is a limit to the amount of money the government can spend and print to solve the crisis. Asked if the government is getting close to that limit, Obama said, "The limit is our ability to finance these expenditures through borrowing. And, you know, the United States is fortunate that it has the largest, most stable economic and political system around. And so the dollar is still strong because people are still buying Treasury Bills. They still think that's the safest investment out there."

"If we don't get a handle on this, and also start looking at our long-term deficit projections, at a certain point people will stop buying those Treasury Bills," Obama added.

"Do you have any idea when this might end? Or when things might start getting better?" Kroft asked.

"Well, we're already starting to see flickers of hope out there. Refinancings have significantly increased. Interest rates have never been lower. That promises the possibility at least of the housing market bottoming out and stabilizing. It's not going to happen equally in every part of the country," Obama said.

On the subject of the ailing automobile industry, the president said he is still committed to helping General Motors and Chrysler avert bankruptcy, but he says they have yet to demonstrate they can remain economically viable. And there are major political obstacles.

"I just wanna say that the only thing less popular than putting money into banks is putting money into the auto industry," Obama said.

"Eighteen percent are in favor," Kroft pointed out. "Seventy-six percent against."

"It's not a high number," Obama acknowledged, with a chuckle.

"You're sitting here. And you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people gonna look at this and say, 'I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money.' How do you deal with, I mean, explain the…mood and your laughter," Kroft asked. "Are you punch drunk?"

"No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day," Obama explained. "You know, sometimes my team talks about the fact that if you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem, I don't think anybody would have believed it. But we've got a lot on our plate. And a lot of difficult decisions that we're gonna have to make."

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[EasyTartar]

Enclosed is the kind of Right Wing mail coming out attacking anything and everything about the President and this string by "OD aka SunnyJim" ([e-mail])who is a retired senior Pentagon official who amongst other demented things has made quotes out of context and wrongly written supposedly from Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes in his Presidential interview. This is not a one of a kind thread, it is pouring out of the Republican camps and being fueled by the crazies who attack with hate and racist malice. Think about what is going down as we approach 2012 and Steve - who's watching your back?


----- Original Message -----
From: sunnyjim
To: sunnyjim
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 12:54 PM
Subject: George Soros & Baerack Obama


This item is about THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN THE WORLD, GEORGE SOROS, A HUNGARIAN [NON-PRACTICING] JEW WHOSE FATHER CHANGED THE FAMILY NAME TO SOROS IN THE 1930s SO THEY WOULDN'T GET ROUNDED UP BY THE NAZIs. SOROS HIMSELF WAS "ADOPTED" BY one`of NAZI JEW KILLER ADOLPH EICHMANN"S`operatives AND ACCOMPANIED HIM AROUND HUNGARY ROUNDING UP JEWS FOR EXTERMINATION.

SOROS LATER BECAME A RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE VIA MONEY MANIPULATION AND HAND-PICKED BARACK OBAMA TO BECOME FUTURE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. CHECK OUT WHAT THE ITEM BELOW SAYS ON GOOGLE OR VIA OTHER SOURCES, BEARING IN MIND THAT SOROS & HIS TEAM LIKELY WILL HAVE HAD "OUTSIDE" SOURCES "SANITIZED" BY NOW, INCLUDING THE "TRUTH" SITES.
O'D



From: Bud Liggenstoffer
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 9:15 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: George Soros


Glenn Beck has been developing material to show all the ties that Soros has through the nation and world along with his goals. This article is written by Steve Kroft from 60 Minutes. It begins to piece together the rise of Obama and his behavior in leading the nation along with many members of Congress (in particular the Democrats, such as the election of Pelosi recently to the minority leader position in Congress):

This is almost too scary to contemplate.

If you have wondered where Obama came from and just how he moved quickly from obscurity to President or why the media is "selective" in what we are told, here is the man who most probably put him there and is responsible. He controls President Obama's every move. Think this is absurd? Invest a few minutes and read this. You won't regret it.

Who is Obama? Obama is a puppet and here is the explanation of the man -- or demon -- who pulls his strings. It's not by chance that Obama can manipulate the world. I don't think he knows how to tie his shoe laces. After reading this and Obama's reluctance to accept help on the oil spill you wonder if the spill is part of the plan to destroy the US?
"In history, nothing happens by accident. [Whatever] happened, you can bet someone planned it." [Franklin Delano Roosevelt ]

Who Is George Soros? He brought the market down in 2 days. Here is what Steve Kroft's (CBS) research has revealed . It's a bit of a read, and it took 4 months to compile .
"The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States ." [George Soros]

George Soros is an evil man. He's anti-God, anti-family, anti-American and anti-good. He killed and robbed his own Jewish people. What we have in Soros, is a multi-billionaire atheist, with skewed moral values, and a sociopath's lack of conscience. He considers himself to be an elitist world-class philosopher, despises the American way, and loves to do social engineering and change cultures.



The words of Patrick Henry are apropos: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Some above taken from: STEVE KROFT (60 Minutes)

[JDouglasGr]

We have to stimulate lending to small business (particularly the potential high growth venture backed business that have been starving for capital) but there needs to be rational economic based decision making. The way to do this is a matching fund that will partially (say about 20%) match any venture investment. This will awake the VC's from their long slumber and get small high growth businesses hiring again and innovation growing again without the need for any government bureaucracy or overhead.

[On_Our_Honor]

First bailout should have been voted down. Second bailout should have been voted down. How dare the American government show preferential treatment to corporations and keep them afloat denying the free market and new small business the chance to come in and overtake huge corporations running with terrible business plans and bad customer service. This trillion dollars spending spree is the most wanton and ridiculous expenditure of money that I can remember seeing being passed and endorsed by a United States governmental body to spend toward completely uncoordinated, unclear and nonsensical objectives.

What was the last line of trash that Obama was selling during the presidential campaign, something like that John McCain doesn't know anything about the economy and is running around like a chicken with his head cut off because he went back to do his job as a United States senator in Washington D.C. while Obama made it very clear then he just wanted to be on tv at the presidential debate instead of doing his job as a sitting U.S. senator. So it should comes as no surprise to voters that during the continued economic crisis we now have Obama still longing to be a superstar on tv with Jay Leno, 60 minutes among other programs while the economy spirals into disarray and the white house is running around like chicken with its head cut off. Obama never seriously committed to doing his job as freshman in the senate and I expect the same from him in the white house

[wyzguy11]

At this point in Dubya's first term he was already planning his vacation to Crawford, TX while his chief terrorism head, Richard Clarke, was warning him of the Al-Queda threat. He wasn't given the time of day because he was a Clinton hold-over!

President Obama is doing a tremendous job considering what has been left on his plate!!

[c1nder]

I think that it's a shame that Kroft would ask this question of a sitting president. I used to be an avid 60 Minutes fan. After this, never again will I watch this show. You guys have given up journalistic integrity. You should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing this question to be asked of our President. He's been in office two days and two months, and you act like a bunch of rabid dogs going after him. Shame on 60 Minutes and Steve Kroft should be fired. I am contacting all of your sponsors and voicing my concerns over your shabby journalistic standards. I won't be watching your show again, or buying any of your sponsors' products unless and until they drop 60 Minutes.

[suzyku]

steve kroft was extremely disrespectful to President Obama! The high ratings that 60 minutes gets are as a direct result of his interviews with President Obama and instead of appreciating that fact as well as being grateful that our President chose him to do the interview, mr. kroft acted like a jerk! We will always be interested in and watch our President however in future it will NOT be on 60 minutes and will NOT be if kroft is doing the interview! How dare he say: "are you punch drunk" to the President of the U.S., I don't recall anyone saying things like that to mr. bush who seemed to "always" be an idiot! steve kroft needs to apologize publically to our President as well as to his viewers.

[TheDaveElder]

Regarding your interview with President Obama on "60 Minutes," you could have suggested to the President that maybe some of the disputed bonuses were deserved, or you could have asked him if he thought some of them were deserved, but you didn't do either. You stated that some of the bonuses were probably deserved. On what planet? The big boys at AIG, Citigroup and all the rest pulled off the biggest scam in the history of Western Civilization -- do you, as a journalist, not get that? Moving money around does not increase its value, whether you're doing it on Wall Street or on the Las Vegas strip. How is it possible to have credit derivatives worth 10 times more than the yearly GDP of the entire planet? The answer is... it's not possible! But apparently it is possible as a TV journalist to be clueless about the financial world. The big boys at AIG (or AIU, as it's now called) and their counterparts at the other big banks don't deserve bonuses for their financial chicanery, they deserve jail time!

[redrider5050]

Please tell me our new President did not throw out an analogy from 50 years ago - "And we don't wanna cut off our nose to spite our face." I am 54 and have never quoted that one.
This is the best leader this nation has ever seen.
Forget the metaphors and people pleasing, communicate on your level, we will catch up.
The Press Conference from last night was intelligent and to the point. Thanks for the Education.

[clancy49]

This is addressed to CBS news reporters. I am screaming here. If education is so important why oh why are you using 'wanna' consistently instead of 'want to'? Even if the President has a slang or accent of some sort, it isn't wiser to put it in proper language English? I don't recall y'all with other presidents. If you want our children to be educated properly, you should set the example. You have English majors for editors, use them! Stop using slang just because the President sets a poor example of slang use. Stop it! Stop it Now!

[ginoson]

So, this is an Odumbo press conference to the NATION??? Favorite reporters asking rehearsed questions and receiving answers from a teleprompter??? What a complete crock of ****!!! Just part of the oncoming march towards PRAVDA & TASS. And we are losers???? You idiots voted for this stump.

"SOURCE: Reporters were told in advance if president was going to call on them. Senior Administration Officials notified reporters from Stars & Stripes, Univision and other news outlets that they should have question ready. Several reporters moved up in assigned seats as result... "