I spent the weekend of the Great Ice Storm of 2011 in New Haven for parents weekend. Despite the conditions, I had a great time, having the opportunity to not only spend time with my two daughters, but two of my favorite teachers of all time: the teacher (and very popular HuffPost blogger) David Bromwich, and the teacher (and fellow Greek) John Geanakoplos.
There are two things we have discussed still haunted me. One was a passage henchmen Ron Suskind, in which Paul Volcker questions whether Obama and his economic team are really serious about the financial crisis:
"They say they are for him, but their hearts are not in it. "And this gap between word and deed, between stated intentions and so little action, made a Volcker think he knew summers phrase sometimes used - a couple of people had said -" what matters is only to be caught trying. "
"Being caught trying." Is there a better description of the mentality of many of our political leaders at this time with problems in the history of our nation? The fact that there is a crisis, and that people are experiencing - or at least people are angry - has finally fallen about Washington officials. And everybody wants to be caught trying to do something about it. But what the country and especially the millions who suffer, the needs are leaders who will do more - much more - has just been caught trying.
There are, of course, dozens of ways to capture the misery to millions in our country are facing every day - the depressing statistics on unemployment, poverty, reduced educational opportunities, bankruptcies, etc, etc, but statistics Professor Geanakoplos said that, while I was in New Haven had an even greater resonance when juxtaposed with the line of Summers. A late, about four million homes that have been recovered since 2008 - a figure that could double before the end of the crisis. Considering how many people in each household housed, the numbers are devastating.
When I thought about eight million families in the street along with the belief that the important thing is to be caught trying, I thought that now can be divided not only politicians, but the whole world into two categories: those who are genuinely alarmed to hear that kind of statistics, which are overwhelmed by the feeling that we can not let pass this level of suffering, and those whose main concern is being caught trying to sound concerned.
We all know what is the difference between acting and being caught trying to think. If you saw a drowned child, your first thought would be, "probably can not do anything to save him, but the point is only to be caught trying." No, you take action and dive
Same in politics. Remember the memorable phrase of Richard Clarke about how he and others were running with her "hair of fire" about the threat of Al Qaeda in the summer of 2001? Well, there are many political leaders in danger of burns to the head and face these days. Instead, we have plenty of politicians who have accepted the failure, leaving a paper trail that can later prove that he had been trying, "Do not be angry with me. As I said on Meet the Press, which was "very concerned" about unemployment, and even submitted a draft value in that sense! "
This does not mean that changing things is easy and there are simple solutions to the mess we are in. However, if the responsible care how attention if a loved one is at risk - when that shot of adrenaline allows a parent to raise your child a car and do things that no one thought possible - we would see a spike empathy that can lead to outcomes now considered impossible.
When we moved to act, we are able to harness the amazing ingenuity and creativity. And although we are not slaves to our leaders, the tone set by the business. And instead of empathy, it is remarkable how much the tone of our political discourse has become the punishment. Instead of helping those suffering from this financial crisis, there is a large segment of the population now believes he has what was coming to them.
Last month, Herman Cain put it bluntly in an interview with the Wall Street Journal: ". If you do not have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself not to blame a person if they succeeded, it is a person guilty or not. "
Two weeks later, asked about the statement in one of the GOP debates, Cain doubled to applause from the audience. It remains to be explained is why - if it is the fault of the unemployed who are unemployed due to laziness or some form of low character - there has been a surge of laziness since 2008. Hand in hand with this attitude is the idea that those who are doing well are the ones who thank you - they are simply smarter and more work than they have failed.
Elizabeth Warren, one of his early days on the campaign trail, struck with this idea:
No one in this country who have enriched themselves. No one. They built a factory there? Good for you. But let me be clear: it moved its products to market roads in the rest of us paid, that workers hired from the rest of us pay to educate, they were safe in his factory because police forces forces fire than the rest of us pay. You do not have to worry about gangs of looters who come to take everything in his factory, and hire someone to guard against this, because the work that the rest of us.
Now look, he built a factory and turned into something terrible, or great idea? God bless you. Maintain a large piece of it. But part of the underlying social contract is to take a piece of that and return the favor to the guy next to come.
This is not just about helping the needy, which tries to help maintain our strong partnership. When I was talking with John Geanakoplos, spoke passionately about how important it is for our nation as a whole to reach a program to help millions of homeowners are underwater with their mortgages. His point was that it would benefit only those in danger of losing their homes, but the neighborhood is home and, ultimately, the whole economy. To explain, he cited that great economist William Shakespeare. As he wrote in The Merchant of Venice: "Though justice be thy petition, consider this: that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation pray for mercy, and the same sentence, Do we teach to do works. mercy. "
And mercy is good for the recipient - and granted it. This idea, of course, did not originate with Shakespeare. It goes back to book the bard often based on: The Bible. And not only in the New Testament warm and fuzzy, but in the Old Testament - people think that the punishment does not forgive.
"Every seven years," says in Nehemiah 10:31, "Let's let our fields rest, and we will cancel all debts."
Deuteronomy 15:1-2 and orders: "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release and this is the way of the release. All creditors will unveil what he has lent to his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. "
Most famously, in the New Testament, there is the Lord's Prayer, urges us to "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our debtors."
Therefore, the majority against the tone being taken by God-fearing Republican presidential candidates, the idea that our reaction to those who are suffering the effects of this crisis should be less punitive and more empathy is not an idea hippy-dippy Occupy be brought by the 1960 Wall Street.
And make no mistake, the government can do something about the crisis. In September, David Brooks wrote about the "absurd" the idea of government, many Americans, who "has the power to protect them from the consequences of their sins."
His sins? Really? Brooks' argument deftly swatted by Matt Yglesias:
That's something along these lines has become something like the conventional wisdom in Washington is, for me, trying. Here is a story about the bus drivers in Clark County, Nevada have been fired as a result of state budget problems / local. They are soon to be spaced bus drivers really suffer for their sins? Is it really true that the federal government currently able to borrow money at a negative real interest rate can not do anything to protect them? The amazing thing about this crisis is the extent to which the suffering and responsibility are completely out of proportion to others.
Having the power to protect people and the exercise of this power are, of course, two very different things. Instead of the idea of Robert F. Kennedy 's dream things that never were, and wondering why we now have a government that, at the drop of a hat, the list of reasons why not: Greece, China, the tsunami, the Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats, etc, etc
I'm not discounting the obstacles - especially not the obstacle of an opposition party which has essentially become untethered from reality. But even without a consensus in Congress, there are a lot of the White House can do to help struggling Americans - especially those at risk of foreclosure. Robert Kuttner as stated: "Under the Dodd-Frank, who have an enormous amount of executive power to press banks to provide relief for people with mortgages under water."
Although it has taken a long and costly amount of time, the White House rolled out its latest "can not wait" campaign in the swing of the President through the western states, announcing a series of unilateral steps aimed at giving around obstacles in Congress. "I'm here to tell you all," the president said, "we can not wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do their work. When not acting, I will."
He then announced a change in the Home Affordable Refinance Program to help more people to refinance their mortgages. But despite the welcome, the trick is not sufficient to cope with the magnitude of the problem we are facing. When ARPA began in 2009, the goal was to save up to 5 million people from foreclosure. To date, it has helped less than 900,000. And the bar of eligibility for use of the new rules is still set too high. "In terms of its impact on the economy or the housing market, do not think it will be very noticeable," said Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.
But as John Geanakoplos has been saying again and again over the past three years, there is no solution to the mortgage crisis unless we are willing to negotiate with the director, not only with interest. However, the regulator over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and ensure that control over 70 percent of U.S. mortgages, maintains its opposition to allowing homeowners under water to reduce the principal of your loan - even as more banks and private mortgage insurance companies are allowed a certain degree of debt forgiveness. And while taxpayers have forked at $ 141 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, the White House says it lacks the ability to force mortgage companies to do the same.
So the question remains: will the new president's initiatives make a real difference - or will simply be another marker that allows the White House trying to be captured?
Increasingly punitive tone of our national debate is not only inhumane, it undermines what should be done to turn around the economy for the good of everyone - including the 1 percent.
As we move into the thick of the race in 2012, we will take into account the gap between really trying to do things better and trying to get caught trying.