I just don't see how he has or has had so many people in his administration who are of the same mindset, and not be able to see that as an affirmation of the president's point of view.

Right now, it is unbelievably cheap for the government to borrow money; it could fund large infrastructure projects, and other initiatives that would put significant numbers of people back to work and pump exponentially more money into local economies.  So, why isn't that happening?  Because the Obama administration is too busy bragging about how little money it is spending and how devoted it is to cutting more of it.  

When is the last time you heard Obama speak from the bully pulpit about the dramatic shift Nancy Pelosi and House Dems have made on changing where the Bush tax cuts should end, from people making more than $250,000 to people making over $1 million?  Am I the only person who believes that that shift is a way of preparing us for the fact that Dems will end up extending the cuts again?  And paying for it where it always seems to want to get paid from - the people who can least afford to suffer the consequences: the old, the poor and the sick.

If Geithner is a problem, then so is his boss, I think.  If Obama gets re-elected, we won't have Tim Geithner to kick around anymore, but chances are Obama won't be naming a Robert Reich/Paul Krugman-type to replace him; dollars-to-doughnuts, it'll be someone else from Wall Street or maybe someone like that smart and savvy Jamie Dimon that Obama so admires.

Nearly across the board, the report showed less positive results, with lower readings of employment, new orders, and business activity."

(Bolded is what I thought interesting)

American employers in May added the smallest number of workers in a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly increased as job-seekers re-entered the workforce, further evidence that the labor-market recovery is stalling.

Payrolls climbed by 69,000 last month, less than the most- pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, after a revised 77,000 gain in April that was smaller than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate called for a 150,000 May advance. The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, while hours worked declined.

Gasoline is as basic as food. People must have both in today's world and will purchase the two items before anything else. Gasoline's price acts as a governor on all other purchases and activities by consumers.

Scoff if you like but its low price, and the Internet bubble, drove the boom years of Clinton, finished off the economy in 2008 and has been a leading indicator of where the economy is going since then.

And while the pundits can say we came out of a recession two years ago and pontificate about a "double dip" the facts are that U3 and U6 tell a story of unemployment that is frightening.

I believe Faber to be correct -- if the Fed does not adjust inflation, and House/Senate continue to do absolutely nothing (worst legislature in history?) -- we will lapse into recession in 2013. QE3 seems to be open for discussion in the last two FOMC minutes but its efficacy was more appropriate when the banks were suffering from liquidity issues.

The reality is, the Fed will do something (most likely QE and not inflation adjustment for political reasons), House/Senate will do nothing and we will lapse into recession in the 4th qtr of this year or the first of 2013.

The "crowding out -- over regulation" argument has gone silent over the past year. Now that gov't has been contracting for 18 months or better and the market essentially recovered (the 6% correction in May is a pre-cursor to the August one I think will be 10-14%) as have corporate profits since 2010, which clearly indicates "crowding out" to be the bullsh*t most of us knew it to be. Businesses have had solid, if not enormous profits since 2010 and are not hiring, rather are forcing employees to continue to take on more work, to maximize productivity and profits.

The regulations argument died a quiet death after the right failed to provide any real time examples.

As we see in Europe there is a point when government becomes to large and we have already crossed that barrier here.

Stimulus is not the answer.  The only thing more stimulus will do is get us to the crash faster.

We need to slowly unwind the debt levels we have and get back in line at all levels of government.

This is not a short term solution.   Stimulus is a short term solution and all it's done so far is make a bad economy seem a little better but math is math and eventually the rent comes due.