The Petraeus Solution
A few weeks back, Glenn Beck suggested that we should put General David Petraeus in charge of oversight for the $700 billion TARP program:
Spencer Ackerman has some related thoughts about counterinsurgency and fiscal stimulus:
Clearly, we’re not facing an insurgent threat in the U.S. that requires COIN tools for remediation and so what I’m saying here is pretty silly and astrategic. But it’s always been weird to hear military officers moot suggestions for dealing with “root causes” of insurgencies by massive government jobs programs, increasing the capacity of the state and so forth, since if you ever suggested in the U.S. that people should deal with crime by, say, getting the goverment to give poor people jobs you’d be considered some sort of squish.
I don’t think it’s all that silly. Both a counterinsurgency and a systemic bank crisis are situation in which standard monetary policy interventions aren’t going to be sufficient to generate job growth. I’m sure Petraeus would have been happy to just have the Iraqi central bank cut interest rates and forget all about the jobs program if there were any chance of that actually working. But it wouldn’t work so we got a big jobs program. And of course there is some precedent — like with the Marshall Plan — of progressive leaders using popular military men to help build support for controversial-but-necessary emergency spending endeavors.
22 Responses to “The Petraeus Solution”
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October 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
The ultimate technocratic centrists
Hell, let’s just let the generals run the whole damn country. The civilian political system is hopelessly corrupt, with officeholders not knowing much about anything but “fund-raising”, which is what w’ve taken to calling our peculiar institution of leglaized bribery. So let’s give up on this failed experiment in a democratic republic and let th generals run everything. It worked so well for Pakistan and Chile!
October 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
We should put Joe the Plumber in charge of TARP. He would screw it up and we could laugh at him.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
“just have the Iraqi central bank cut interest rates”
Does the Iraqi central bank even charge interest? That would seem kind of un-Islamic, wouldn’t it? But I don’t know, some Muslim countries allow interest and some don’t. But one thing I have noticed is that banks that operate under Muslim rules don’t seem to be failing. In order to make money, Muslim banks need to take an equity stake, which means they avoid crappy loans because their ass is on the line too.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I like my idea for having Warren Buffet run it. The problem is, it’s too much power for one man to have without oversight, so we need to trick him into running it unaware. He’s a fairly gregarious man, so I suggest we orchestrate a series of talk show appearances, magazine interviews and a few friendly chats with people he knows. We find out what he thinks should be done – unencumbered by the temptations that the actual power of the position offers – and implement his ideas.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Ewww. You listen to Beck?
October 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Actually there’s more symmetry between our Iraq and urban policies than you might think. Namely we patrol and conduct ceaseless military/para-military operations in both zones and proactively put the surplus population in jails.
Of course in Iraq there’s a little more flexibility. So take Fallujah–we obliterate the place and drive out the refugees. Obviously we can’t do that here.
Shucks.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
This just in – Glenn Beck is a fucking moron.
I want to punch him in his fat face.
The end.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Gee, ya think Patraeus might be a bit busy?
October 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Guess who thinks Democrats are communists, but that nationalizing banks is hunky-dory capitalism?
He’s either a liar or stupid enough to require confinement for his own safety.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Of course, if the people of the United States started shooting propagandists like Glenn Beck then maybe the US Government would stop handing out hundreds of $Billions in cash in Iraq –and start handing it out here.
Not that I would ever advocate such an insurgency.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Glenn Beck should be exiled to the Himalayas.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:17 am
don’t be cruel to yetis!
October 18th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Foster T,
Muslim banks do something similar to what banks in “Christian” countries would do if more of us Christians took the articles of our faith seriously. (To some extent, loans operated that way in the medieval period).
You’re right that Muslim banking would avoid the problems that have lead to today’s crisis. It isn’t healthy for individuals, institutions or nations to make their entire living from financial legerdemain, and the current financial crisis is only the latest proof.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:58 am
1) Muslim banks effectively do charge interest, they do it in a roundabout way that allows them to claim that they aren’t because interest isn’t halal. But make no mistake, if you want to borrow $1000 from a Muslim bank, you are going to have to repay a significant amount more than $1000 before the debt is off the books. Similarly, insurance isn’t halal (because it’s basically gambling that your house is going to burn down) but there are still Islamic insurance products which are given the OK by a few well-paid shaikhs, but essentially consist of you giving the company a bit of cash every month and them paying you a huge whack of cash if your house burns down.
2) The Central Bank of Iraq is not run on Islamic lines. It charges interest. The base rate at the moment is 16%.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/22/africa/ME-FIN-Iraq-Interest-Rate.php
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