The Obama Speech: The Day After

The Obama speech to the Congress on Tuesday night was “well given” and, basically, “well received”. It has been criticized for, among other things, not being specific enough. But, this was not the purpose of the speech. The speech was the first effort of the new President to lay out a vision for the near term and the future.

It was about the “vision” thing. A leader is, first and foremost, supposed to give us the “big picture” and not the details. The leader is supposed to provide us with something we can hold onto because we like the worldview it represents…or, provide us with something to disagree with because it does not conform to our worldview. I think that President Obama did that.

In terms of the crises in the economy and the financial markets, the thing that does not seem to come through in the “big picture”, however, is that there are two categories of problems we face. These two sets of problems can be put into boxes that are labeled…the problems of the past…and the problems of the future.

These are different issues and must receive different attention if they are to be resolved. Too often we lump them together for a bastard “Keynesian” solution.

The first set of problems has to do with debt…too much of it…and inappropriately assumed. This is the box of problems from the past…the box labeled “Insolvency Crisis”.

Too much debt, inappropriately assumed is a burden…it can cause finance and commerce to slow down or stop…and this can lead to a cumulative result in which the burden of the debt gets heavier and heavier. This burden is exacerbated as insolvencies grow and deflation becomes the problem (not inflation).

It has been argued that the only thing government can do to counter this problem is to reflate (Irving Fisher) or inflate (Keynes). That is, the only way government can lessen the burden of this excessive load of debt is to reduce the “real” value of the debt by causing prices to rise rapidly. But, this only recreates the environment in which the excessive debt was created! And, the consequence of this is just more and more leverage…which, in the longer run only makes the situation that much worse.

The excessive debt was created within the asset bubble world of the last decade or so. This world of asset price inflation resulted in a greater assumption of riskier assets and an overly aggressive assumption of leverage.

Financial and economic positions were taken than could only be justified within the rarefied world of the bubble!

The valuations from that time cannot stand up…outside the bubble!

In the case of the “Insolvency Crisis”, I believe that the only three choices are:
1. let the economy adjust to more realistic valuations by itself and just accept that we have to bear the burden of this adjustment;
2. help to smooth out the adjustment to more realistic valuations;
3. inflate our way out of the crisis…which, of course, would mean that we were just postponing the resolution of the foundation of the crisis.

The third of these choices is often attributed to Keynes and it is, I believe, an inappropriate application of Keynesian thinking…because it does not really resolve the situation.

President Obama is opting for choice number two…a choice I think most of us agree with. He is saying that choice number one is just too painful for the country and it’s people to go through. Hence, government must play a role in helping people and institutions work through the “debt problem” and that is going to cost…how much, we just don’t know.

That is the vision…the devil is in the details. And, that, I believe, is the problem right now. Most of us can agree with the vision…we just haven’t received sufficient information on how this is going to be done and how much it might cost. And, without greater certainty…markets will drop!

The second set of problems has to do with the future…and the box containing this set of problems is labeled “What We Want To Be.” President Obama stated in his speech Tuesday evening that in his vision of the future, he sees America as energy independent…he sees Americans protected with some form of universal healthcare…he sees Americans as among the best educated in the world. President Obama sees an America that is energetic and innovative…a continuation of what America has been in the past.

This, to me, is the stimulative part of the President’s program…the part of the program that is not focused on the consolidation of past ills, as is the part of the program discussed above. This part of the program is an effort to provide incentives to create the next era and not “bailout” the old.

That is the vision…the devil is in the details. A first look at some of the specifics came in the stimulus package recently passed. More will be coming in the near future. Again, more details will help us get over the grey areas of uncertainty that constrain our willingness to commit.

We need to keep these two sets of problems separate as we go forward. The first set of problems is going to take time…and not everything that is done to resolve these issues is going to be “fair”. As I have said before, once one has created this set of problems, one finds that all the choices available for solving the problems are not happy ones. But, “inflating” our way out of these problems is not the solution…it can only, ultimately, make more pain for the future.

The second set of problems must be looked upon in terms of the opportunities that are available to us. In my view, no serious economic crisis has ever been resolved without the creation of new innovations and new technological platforms. In the Great Depression, the innovations and the new technologies did really come about until the end of the 1930s and into the 1940s and were related to war. Earlier stimulus efforts in the 1930s tended to support what existed in the past.

We don’t want government providing stimulus to the economy that will just result in the old world being “re-created”…we do not want the “old” products or the “old” managements renewed and rewarded! We must move on to the future.

By providing his “vision” of this future, President Obama has changed the field of engagement. President Obama is not just talking “stimulus”…he is talking about the world we want to live in. We may not agree with him on everything. We may not agree with him on most things. But, we must accept the challenge, and…while we are attempting to resolve the debt problems from the past…we must enter the dialogue and debate about what the shape of the future will be.

In this sense, what President Obama has put forth is a stimulus plan…but with more than just one meaning of the word stimulus.