Given what [Obama] and his advisers know and believe, what should we be told and when should we be told it?
Let's suppose, for example, that the following is "the truth" about the US economy. What follows is pretty gloomy, but it's a simple extrapolation of the results of a compelling new study of the aftermath of major financial crises presented by respected economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff at a recent annual meeting of the American Economic Association. They made an equally bold and correct prediction at the same meeting last January that we were on the verge of a financial crisis. (The Economist is currently running an active discussion on the topic).
Unless Obama plans to budget for nothing but medicaid, unemployment, welfare, food stamps and free abortions, he can't tell a goddamn soul that he knows more than anyone else. That's why he needs Geithner, who knows how the game is played.
