‘Mr. President, This Is Your Holy S*** Moment’
ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: In the forthcoming issue of The New Yorker magazine, Ryan Lizza looks at the inner workings of the Obama administration's economic team, starting with a meeting which took place before the president was sworn into office. "On December 16, 2008, Obama and his top advisers met in his Chicago transition headquarters to discuss a fifty-seven-page memo that Summers’s team had drafted to address nearly every economic and budgetary issue the new President would face in his first months in office." "Christina Romer, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, who gave the first presentation of the meeting, told Obama, 'David Axelrod said we have to have a ‘holy-s*** moment.’ Well, Mr. President, this is your ‘holy-s*** moment.’ It’s worse than we thought.'" The piece, which focuses on Larry Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, also looks at the behind-the-scenes battle over how large the stimulus package should be, the debate over whether some of the banks should be nationalized, and discomfort among the political advisors over the bailouts. Lizza's story, “Inside the Crisis," appears in the Oct. 12, 2009 issue of The New Yorker.

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Oh wait I just read the article: “It’s worse than we thought.”
Didn’t Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente, Marc Faber, Nouriel Roubini, etc. already tell us how bad it is going to be? It is going to be horrific because we have squandered our wealth. Summers has been part of the problem. Nice to see Obama turned to him.
Posted by: Huh | October 4, 2009, 10:45 am 10:45 am
I think I heard that Congress was finally getting around to investigating the meltdown yet they are not inviting those that knew and predicted the collapse, such as Mr. Schiff.
Do they really want to know why it happened or is this just more Congressional drama for c-span?
Posted by: david | October 4, 2009, 4:05 pm 4:05 pm
why don’t you people who voted that wimp obama in office, impeach him for being a whimp and inexperienced. no wonder the country is going into the toilet. he is not PRESIDENT MATERIAL
Posted by: charlie screwlooski | October 4, 2009, 6:51 pm 6:51 pm
OH… REMEMBER WHEN OBAMA SAID HE WAS GOING TO MAKE MORE JOBS…. YEAH RIGHT… THATS WHY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS
Posted by: charlie screwlooski | October 4, 2009, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
Obama ranges from clueless to corrupt—counting on him to save us is like counting on robber to save our house from being robbed. Not going to happen. Jail time for politicians.
Posted by: PotatoeGater22 | October 4, 2009, 7:00 pm 7:00 pm
Not to mention Afganistan. Quit being an international world jet setting rock star and LEAD! Damn it!
Posted by: LongT | October 4, 2009, 7:04 pm 7:04 pm
The only thing Holy S*** would be if the neo-whiners shut up for a minute. Blame Obama, Blame Obama, that’s all anyone hears today from the neo-cons, well how about BLAME BUSH, BLAME BUSH and the GOP, they’re the ones that put us here.
Posted by: JR | October 4, 2009, 9:12 pm 9:12 pm
charlie screwlooski, at least your name’s right, why didn’t you neo-cons jump on impeaching Bush for ANY of his transgressions against the laws of our land and Constitution? Could it be because he was a neo-con Evangelical and you fools followed every mispronounced word that stumbled from his mouth like he was the second coming? Maybe you should just shut up for a couple of years and think about your mistakes.
Posted by: JR | October 4, 2009, 9:20 pm 9:20 pm
how about BLAME BUSH, BLAME BUSH and the GOP, they’re the ones that put us here. JR >>> Democrats have used that excuse up. That dog dont hunt. Democrats got their 787BILLION on one condition that it would FIX the economy and stop unemployment from going over 8% WELL FAILURE is not tatooed ALL OVER that one isnt it. So YEAH since this is mortgaging our childrens children I DO BLAME the PEOPLE ASKING FOR SOMETHING that DID NOT WORK. Its called responsibility. Ask the people out of work or being kicked out of their house how they FEEL about it. FAILURE and HE GOES AROUND and WANTS MORE $$$ for MORE STUFF! HOW DARE HE. HIS TRACK RECORD IS LOOSER.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | October 4, 2009, 9:57 pm 9:57 pm
why didn’t you neo-cons jump on impeaching Bush for ANY of his transgressions against the laws of our land and Constitution? JR ?>>>> LETS SEE WE VOTED FOR CHANGE AND GOT WORSE! Nothing Bush did was worth impeachable but a lot of what he did was not good. SO WHAT? WHO STOPPED HIM?
WHO SPOKE UP? The RUBBER STAMP DEMOCRATIC Congress? OH I forogt that was under Democratics ARE IRRESPONSIBLE CHILDREN thats why they are never to blame.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | October 4, 2009, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
The Democratic part is nothing but a bunch of clowns.
Posted by: JV | October 4, 2009, 10:13 pm 10:13 pm
No single president can make these problems and no single president can fix them. Has anyone posting here been around long enough to see a few different presidents in a row?
Boy, you all really need to learn that this country moves a whole lot slowly than people think it can! Change takes many years – and you bought that Obama was going to do it in a few months?
Posted by: Jon F | October 4, 2009, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
Mr Obama may just have to say “sorry I erred.” This time next year unemployment will be worse, 13% and no signs of abating.
Posted by: kottaras | October 4, 2009, 11:41 pm 11:41 pm
no, it did not get worse. In Dec 2008 we had 600,000 lay offs. MORe than half a million in ONE MONTH. in Jan we had around 200,000 layoffs..in ONE MONTH. in feb we had 125,000. Fast forward to May 2009, we had 24,000 in one month, and last month, september, we had 12,000 layoffs. We cut layoffs per month from 600,000 when Bush was in office, to 12,000. If we continued on as when Bush was in office we’d have had about 60% unemployment right now. All the while Bush was in office the stock market kept crashing and layoffs were HUGE, more than half a million per month. Once Obama got in the tide slowly began to turn. We are in a MUCH MUCH better place today than before Obama. You want 600,000 layoffs a month again? vote repulican.
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 12:04 am 12:04 am
“no signs of abating”—–????????? No signs of abating???? For who? For anyone who is looking at actual data there is EVERY sign that layoffs are abating and that rehiring will begin thereafter. Plot the trend. Go to Forbes.com for the numbers.
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 12:07 am 12:07 am
“The RUBBER STAMP DEMOCRATIC Congress?”—again, because you do not look to see what is going on, does not mean nothing happened. Google “Congressional Hearings on Predatorial Lending Practices” and find out what Democrats TRIED to do , and how the massive defaults in mortages were predicted. The mortages that failed were NOT Fannie and Freddie orgin, by the way, they were private sector and the democrats DID try to stem off the coming failures and these hearings were trying to convince the president to do something but Bush said “Let the bad banks fail” “let the markets self correct” but whoops! The ‘bad banks” were ALL the banks and the market ‘self correcting’ means crashing and crashing and crashing until complete economic collapse. Republicans are VERY niave in thinking that ‘correction’ will not mean crash, burn and completely DIE – as in- thrown back in the middle ages with no banking system.
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 12:11 am 12:11 am
Obama took an economy that was in complete free fall, traveling a million miles and hour toward the middle ages where the entire banking system would be dead in 30 days and unemployment would hit 60% and the entire economic system would collapse, our dollar would be kindling and we would be thrown back into the middles ages of bartering and fending for our food, and he put on the breaks. The speed to which we were traveling toward the bottom was SO FAST, and had so much steam, to the tune of over 600,000 layoffs PER MONTH, the brakes will take a while to completely stop us (We are down to 12,00 per month) but be rest assured, the breaks ARE on, and once we have stopped, if we havne’t already, we will start to level off and then, go up. But if you’re upset wth how far we’ve falled and with such force we fell, do take note, it was 8 years of republican leadershp that drove us right over the cliff and even while we were already pushed, NOT ONE republican was aware we had gone over. NOT ONE!!!! Bush said teh fundamentals of the economy was sound, so did McCain. NOBODY understood what had even happened except Obama. fact.
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 12:15 am 12:15 am
Communism and state planned economics………….10% unemployment…..go figure. In the 2001-2002 recession losing a 100,000 jobs in a month was a catastrophe. Now when we lose 260,000 jobs in a month we hear, “it could be worse”. No nuclear power built, offshore drilling stopped, domestic oil leases pulled, coal industry under attack. All I hear is lies from most of the media, and lies from the current Presidential administration. Also, I see how the far left is trying to silence any opposition, by any means. However, over 2 million Americans did march on Washington D.C. to protest the bad policies of Obama, and the communist party of America. Lets call it what it is folks. Lets not dance around it. This administration and its’ Czars is nothing more then communist pretending to be moderate democrats. I am ashamed of what the Democrat party has become.
Posted by: jon | October 5, 2009, 12:31 am 12:31 am
jon, by all means, let’s call it what it is. When Bush was in office and the ‘fundamentals of the economy were sound” we had over 600,000 laid off PER MONTH. We now have 12,000 laid off last month. THAT’s what it is!!!!! Go to Forbes.com and get the freakn numbers yourself. Forbes, a republican, remember????? that conservative enough for you??? and EVERY president has had advisors. Only this mental midget cons calls advisors ‘czars’. NEver have we had such misinformed mental midgets who do not even LOOK AT THE NUMBERS before you complain!!!! Would you RATHER we have 600,000 laid off per month???? THen by all means, vote republican, becuase THAT is what you get with them. OBama has stopped the free fall. Obama was the ONLY ONE who even knew we went over the cliff. “THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY ARE SOUND”…. same month we had 600,000 laid off. And, let’s call it what it is, when you have 200,000 laid off and previously you had 600,000 laid off per month, that IS 2/3 LESS people getting laid off. yes, that is an improvement, but too bad you missed the fact that this past month we had 12,000 laid off, only a factor of 10 off, but hey, don’t let a few facts get in the way of your rant. Goodness knows republicans like their ‘fact-free zones” when they complain.
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 12:51 am 12:51 am
It’s really kinda funny. The Neo-Cons drank the Kool-Aid that the Bush Administration was serving up. To cover up that fact they assert that the Dem’s are drinking the Obama Administration.
Point is, Obama is at least trying to clean up the mess left by the Bush Administration and lax oversight on Wall Street. Haven’t heard any conservatives come up with any ideas. They just falsely place blame on Obama because they can’t come up with any constructive ideas of their own.
Just look at the responses to this post. Not one constructive idea.
Posted by: Topher | October 5, 2009, 12:55 am 12:55 am
I love the tea party morons. When was the last time we had 10% unemployment and a president decided the fix was to cut spending and decrease the debt????? HEBERT HOOVER!!! And what was the result????? 10% unemployment went to 25% unemployment, but hey, then republicans were kicked out of office and never returned for over 12 years. maybe that’s why cons want to cut the deficit in the middle of 10% unemployment. Let the country go to hell, who cares for them, all they care about is getting back power nad if killing our economy even more is how to get there, they dont care. My Lord, will be ever be able to trust these people again????? I never had mistrust for a political party before, but I sure have it now. I will never vote a republican in power after seeing how horrifically bad they have behaved since Obama has been in office nad how they will just eat their young to get power back. Truly despicable behavior.
Posted by: republicans are the party of hoover | October 5, 2009, 12:58 am 12:58 am
Obama is at least trying to clean up the mess —–I’m sorry, but we had over 600,000 lay offs a month when Bush was in office saying everything was hunky dory along with McCain, everything was just fine by them, and here over a half million peoople are being laid off, and now Obama has it down to 12,000 people being laid off last month, i’m sorry, that’s a HUGE Improvement. yeah, I’d love to see zero laid off, but that never happens. Of a country of 300,000,000 people, if only 12,000 got laid off last month, that’s pretty excellent. I’m sure there is some minimum that always gets laid off even in good economic times and I’m sure we’re nearing that. You can’t say Obama is ‘trying’ to fix the mess, he cuts layoffs by 580,000, hey, that means Obama IS fixing things!!!!
Posted by: how about some facts | October 5, 2009, 1:02 am 1:02 am
how about some facts: Excuse me, but we had 300,000 people laid off last month. You couldn’t possibly have gotten a number of 12,000 from Forbes.
The problem here is “Obama did this” and “Bush did this” isn’t cutting it for argument’s sake. We’ve had Presidents since 1789 – 42 of them BEFORE Obama and Bush. Has anyone been around long enough to remember any President before Clinton? If not, don’t talk about “trends” on which party does what to whom. We’ve had bad and good presidents fro both parties (mostly bad).
The last President I remember that anyone liked was John Kennedy. Most people couldn’t wait to re-elect someone new.
Posted by: Jon F | October 5, 2009, 2:22 am 2:22 am
@how about some facts
we lost over 240,000 jobs in sept
12,000 ? where did you get them numbers ?
Posted by: facts | October 5, 2009, 2:24 am 2:24 am
its not up to obama to fix anything
congress runs the country
obama is a puppet
Posted by: facts | October 5, 2009, 2:27 am 2:27 am
How’s that hope and change working for you?
Posted by: connally | October 5, 2009, 6:16 am 6:16 am
Obama’s economic advisors are idiots. With all the stimulus money that was made available to them, they could have had businesses moving the economy by now. A little creativity would be great. However, socialism doesn’t permit that. This will go down as the worst administration in terms of high unemployment….but four years into his presidency he’ll still be blaiming the Bush Administration….how convenient! Grow up and lead this country. That’s what you were elected to do.
Posted by: claimAmericaBack | October 5, 2009, 6:38 am 6:38 am
“…..Democrats got their 787BILLION on one condition that it would FIX the economy and stop unemployment from going over 8% WELL FAILURE is not tatooed ALL OVER that one isnt it. ”
————-
Really? You were given 8 years to screw up the country, and you expected it to be fixed in 9 months? Not gonna happen! People in the middle, please let this administration get the country back up before you give it to the party of moral value! Since you know they’re going to screw it up anyway, you might as well give it to them only when everything is running smooth. Please, please let the country get back on its feet before giving it again to the Republicans! At least by then we may have a surplus for them to wage wars with.
Posted by: David | October 5, 2009, 8:47 am 8:47 am
This is all a culmination of 100 Years of Progressive Policies.
If you want someone to Blame, Look in the Mirror, the American People have been asleep to the Progressive take over if this country far too long.
Bush was a Progressive, Obama is just like Bush but x10.
Stop playing the Partisan game and look at what is the Real Problem. Progressives…
Posted by: Patch W Adams | October 5, 2009, 9:10 am 9:10 am
pfft. now is a great time to figure out what you have done to our country people. you should have paid more attention BEFORE the election. now you have snaked us all. a man who has never run anything in his life and who never gave the military one thought with anything more than contempt. all obama can do is speak well enough to sound smart.
Posted by: jesse | October 5, 2009, 9:36 am 9:36 am
Didn’t you hear Obama say this would take time and be a tough road? Be patient and focus on your personal economy. All the criticism in the world won’t get you a job, or put a dollar in your pocket!
Posted by: Duality in Harmony | October 5, 2009, 10:08 am 10:08 am
Hey lay off Obama. He’s accomplished quite a bit by proving that the American people won’t allow socialism to be crammed down their throats. Oh yeah, he also threw Israel under the bus!
Posted by: country cuz | October 5, 2009, 10:15 am 10:15 am
Hmm… the memo was dated December 16, 2008. Just a reminder that Bush was in office.
Peter Schiff? Give me a break. The guy is a huge egomaniac and this meltdown was known to be coming by millions of people.
Lastly, how about that recession? It’s over… now are you going to thank Obama for that. That was unimaginable at the beginning of the year.
Posted by: tylerkad | October 5, 2009, 10:25 am 10:25 am
how about some facts — 600,000 down to 12,000 huh? That is by far the biggest lie I have heard this year. You really need to go back and check your sources. Your numbers make you look like a political fool.
Posted by: lfrichar | October 5, 2009, 10:44 am 10:44 am
At a minimum, Obama and his administration has kept this country from going over a cliff. He doesn’t have “czars”. That’s a term coined by the media a very long time ago, under other administrations (Republican to be accurate). Obama’s team put the brakes on, but it will take a while to recover the jobs lost. We Dems. know how much you Rethugs want him to fail, but don’t try too hard to make it look like he has, because he hasn’t. Things will turn around, much to your chagrin, I am sure, since you want him to fail even at the risk of our Country doing the same. Your leader Rush demands it!!! Don’t go against Rush!!! Sad bunch of haters you are. Truly sad!
Posted by: geecee | October 5, 2009, 11:18 am 11:18 am
Something’s wrong here. He was not “Mr. President” on December 16th, and Christina Romer has been around long enough to know that.
Posted by: Follitics | October 5, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
Look at conservatives complaining about Obama`s policies not working. They definitely live on a different planet.
When Obama took over, more than 700,000 jobs were being lost every month. Now its 200,000. Not good but a good improvement.
The stock market has improved and the financial system has stabilized. The stimulus has brought confidence into the economy.
Make no mistake, this recession started in the Spring of `08. Bush had about a year to fixed it but they couldn`t. Now Obama is fixing it and conservatives are complaining. They had no clue then and still have no clue now.
Posted by: Norman | October 5, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
Norman —– You people with your lies about jobs. 700,000 down to 200,000? Why don’t you fact check before you write such nonsense? Also, Obama had nothing to do with Wall Street and the Dow. Consumer confidence is no way near where we need it. Obama hasn’t helped Main Street through his spending. The only way out is for “we the people” to start spending again. Obama has done nothing to assist that.
Posted by: lfrichar | October 5, 2009, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
Normam and how about some facts : Department of Labor Release: In the week ending Sept. 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 551,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 534,000.
Posted by: lfrichar | October 5, 2009, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
How about some facts for some of you. G.W., love him or hate him, did first step into a recession that BC left to him. Once he turned the economy around from that, we were no longer in recession for the next six years until the democrats came into power in the congress. Also, it is well documented that both GW and John McCain had issued clear statements that the banks needed more regulation. Instead, Franks and Dodd stood by while the whole system blew up in their faces. Now, Obama has been making a lot of promises that just have not come true. Stopping unemployment at 8% with the passage of his stimulus money and creating new jobs, blah, blah, blah. Obviously these things did not happen according to his plan. I think the Dems have to start running from the blame and start accepting their own piece of the problem. BTW, GW is not the president anymore so the buck stops with Obama!
Posted by: mccollegemom | October 5, 2009, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
Good thing we have someone with the intellect of Obama to solve these issues – most of which were created by someone with NO intellect – G W Bush.
Posted by: ch | October 5, 2009, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
My fine extremist right wingers: It is wonderful to see that you have not lost you venom with your distaste all things Obama and also wonderful to see that your ugly screams of distortion, miss-information and lies end up being your own worst enemy. You are turning most of America away from your party in droves by making yourselves less trustworthy with every post you make here and elsewhere. Also, do understand one other major point, whatever you say or do here on these pages will have absolutely NO AFFECT on how these situations are going to be handled nor any affect on the final outcome. So, my fine extremist right-wingers, keep on screaming and alienating your fellow Americans with your messed up version of life and reality. I am actually NOT happy about the Republican parties demise and implosion due to it’s extremists that have taken over a once proud party. We need a proper balance between our two parties. There has to be proper trust and respect between liberals and conservatives. America is MUCH better when that is the case. Unfortunately, this is hardly possible with the present Republican party. And so, like your inability to have any affect on the present doings of our present elected government officials I will also have no affect on your extremist attitudes and the self-destruction and implosion of your party. I hope that your party makes a comeback some day but I do not foresee that for probably 30-40 years if ever. It will most likely come back under a different name when and if it does.
Posted by: dlboggan | October 5, 2009, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm
jon | Oct 5, 2009 12:31:08 AM: Obviously you are reading all of the wrong books when it comes to a proper understanding of what communism is. You have NO IDEA of what that is. You would fit well into the McCarthyism after WWII. Many of you anti-socialists out there fail to understand how much of your world and the United States relies on the social good to maximize the good for the majority of society. You are reaping the results of that socialism every day and many times each day. Each time you get into your socially mandated safe cars and ride on that tax-paid highway and see the fire put out by your government paid fire departments, and protected by your local police. The water you drink out of your faucets, the military that protects you at home and overseas, and the list goes on and on with the socialist policies. Capitalism helps to make that process work from the other direction to help us pay for these required and desired needs. If we share in the support and cost of anything as a society, that is known as “socialism”. Note that both capitalism or socialism can be termed as parasites of society if either grows too large or out of control. Neither of them can succeed without the help of the other. You might call it a symbiotic relationship that works best for both when proper balance is achieved. Your government, appropriately sized and with proper checks and balances is part of this whole mechanism that we the people have voted and put into place. This, as stipulated in our Constitution, as much as possible, is “For the people, by the people and of the people”. President Obama and his administration is an extension of that mandate by the people that we placed into power via our “Fair” election process to find the appropriate path to overcome the poor balance between these capitalist and socialist policies of our society.
Posted by: dlboggan | October 5, 2009, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm