Paul Krugman: From Here to Eternity?

drawing by marguerita
So people at the Fed are troubled by the same question I’ve been obsessing on lately:
What’s supposed to end this slump?
No doubt this, too, shall pass —
but how,
and when?
What, then, will actually
end the slump?
So will our slump go on forever?
No.
In fact, the seeds of eventual recovery are already being planted.
Who’ll stop the pain? Op-Ed Columnist - Who'll Stop the Pain? - NYTimes.com

Obama,Global Crisis and factoring in the “image”

drawing by margueritaWell, as they said at Boucheron; where the precious stone-bedecked fine jewellery collection inspired by the Folies Bergères was on display, and where a store in Azerbaijan is essentially supported by a single customer, “it only takes one”.
They were genuinely surprised – not offended or chastising about the idea of a profession where the amount of money spent on a single garment is equivalent to many people’s yearly salaries, but taken aback, as though they had simply assumed that of course, given the current state of the global economy, such extravagance would have retreated quietly from the public eye. And since the day the shows opened was a) only a few days after the famed Obama bump failed to save the president’s favourite tailor, Hart Schaffner Marx, from declaring Chapter 11, b) the same day that companies from Caterpillar to Corus announced what amounted to 76,000 job cuts and c) the rulers of the universe at Davos acknowledged that last year they had had no idea how bad things would get, you can understand why.
FT.com / Weekend / Style - Couture is spared from the crisis

Obama and The Enigma

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But it was not to be...
I ended Tuesday less confident about the direction of economic policy than I was in the morning.Like anyone who pays attention to business and financial news, I am in a state of high economic anxiety. Like everyone of good will, I hoped that President Obama’s Inaugural Address would offer some reassurance, that it would suggest that the new administration has this thing covered.
In response to an unprecedented economic crisis — or, more accurately, a crisis whose only real precedent is the Great Depression — Mr. Obama did what people in Washington do when they want to sound serious:
he spoke, more or less in the abstract, of the need to make hard choices and stand up to special interests. Op-Ed Columnist - Stuck in the Muddle - NYTimes.com

Obama Now :“Oh, wow”

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There is, as Barack Obama has reminded us again and again, just one president at a time.His advisers determined that it was time for Mr. Obama to come forward and signal that he is taking ownership of the economic crisis.“We can’t sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups,” Mr. Obama said on Tuesday.
“We simply can’t afford it.”
“His most important quality is personal confidence and calm,” he said. “He isn’t constantly second-guessing himself.”
“There is still considerable risk in transition to power”
Are new policy positions also emerging from Mr. Obama as campaign applause lines give way to the challenges of governing?On Politics - President-Elect Starts Taking On Burdens of the Job - NYTimes.com

Obama on Geometrics:''meh''or ?

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Mr. Obama did not define himself in strongly ideological terms, even if his record and program are largely left of center.
A question too complicated for campaign speeches, and which neither side even wanted to think about, now needs an answer. How can the next administration reconcile its longer-term goals for the economy with the imperatives of the economic crisis? Getting this right will not be easy, but is the key to success or failure in Mr Obama’s presidency.FT.com | Clive Crook's blog

Their Turn - Whose President Is He Anyway? - NYTimes.com

'Meh' - Apathetic Expression Enters Dictionary - NYTimes.com