Clive Crook, Financial Times Columnist, Says President Obama Wrong to Lecture Other Countries on Fiscal Policy

Clive Crook, Financial Times columnist, tells President Obama not to lecture other countries on fiscal policy when the US has largely been unsuccessful in the same.

Financial Times columnist Clive Crook delivered a major slap to the United States at the G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada. He lambasted President Barack Obama for 'lecturing' others on fiscal policy when we have a financial mess in the country that keeps manifesting itself in many ways on a daily basis. Here's an excerpt from his commentary, Fiscal Disarray is the Least of G20's Sins:

Under these circumstances one could forgive the US for lecturing others on fiscal policy, were it not for the fact that (a) poor US financial regulation and inattentive monetary policy caused the crisis in the first place, and (b) its own fiscal policy is a shambles. President Barack Obama is telling other countries to maintain fiscal stimulus even as his own fades and the US Congress is denying his modest requests for extra spending. For this, Mr Obama himself is mostly to blame.

He and his allies in Congress bungled last year’s stimulus. A big package was needed, and was duly delivered. But its design was poor: too much spending on shovel-ready projects that weren’t; too little in tax cuts. It was seriously oversold, leaving voters sceptical that more stimulus would do any good. Worst of all, with public debt through the roof, the administration has failed to give the smallest sign of its exit strategy. Last week its budget director, Peter Orszag, disclosed his own. He said he was quitting; colleagues said (though he denied) that he was frustrated by White House indecision over medium-term fiscal control.

The complaint after Toronto is that nations are concentrating on their own economies and ignoring global welfare. So far as taxes and spending go, my reaction is: if only. Attending to strictly national demands would get the world most of the way to the budget policies it needs. In other areas, however, unilateralism is less productive and co-operation not just valuable but essential. Financial regulation and trade are the most salient cases. This is where the failure to get along really counts.

To be fair, this financial quagmire didn't start with President Obama, but I can't understand why he and the Congress have been largely unsuccessful in getting anything that will help the middle class passed. Health care legislation they rammed through is still an enigma to many and let's not talk about two wars, high unemployment and foreclosure rates, plus a largely unsuccessful foreclosure recovery program, for example. Sorry Mr. President, Washington is a far more complex place to be than Chicago and the same rules don't apply.

Read more: Fiscal disarray is the least of the G20’s sins | Financial Times