SmartRemarks

August is a strange season in politics. In the final weeks of summer last year, we had the incredible (and incredibly short-lived) public buzz surrounding Sarah Palin, before people realized she just used those glasses for looks, not reading. This year’s dog days brought us hordes of astroturf Teabagger Republicans demonstrating that they think public discourse boils down to “whoever shouts loudest wins.”

I’ve sat back and haven’t posted a great deal in recent weeks (although it’s been impossible to avoid following the theater of it all). For one thing, there are better things to do when the weather is nice (not all that common a condition in Chicago). For another, there’s been a lot of justifiable uncertainty and skepticism developing among progressives about exactly where and how Obama and the Democratic party are willing to take a stand, and I’ve been genuinely unsure of my own assessment, wavering from cynicism to optimism sometimes on a daily basis.

But Labor Day is behind us and silly season is over, and the president gave a major speech on health care tonight, and it’s time to take a serious look at where things stand.

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One could go on at literally exhaustive length about the ins and outs of the current “health care debate” in Washington, but I’ll try to avoid that. The media and the blogosphere have provided a constant play-by-play in terms of both substantive policy and, even more, political strategy. (Jonathan Chait at TNR has been particularly diligent. Meanwhile, much of the MSM seems content merely ringing premature death-knells for reform.) Me, I’ll just try to provide a few observations from a mile-high view.

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today announced a new plan that will allegedly help stabilize the financial markets, restore institutions’ balance sheets, and thus ease the credit crunch with all its attendant ripple effects. It’s an unwieldy construct with multiple parts, but ultimately a lot of it comes down to using taxpayer money to help purchase “toxic assets.” (E.g., CDOs backed by MBSs, the stuff hedged by all those CDSs. Isn’t it fun to play with the new lingo we’ve all learned these last few months?)

The stock market seems to love the plan, seeing as how it surged several hundred points today. But does that mean it’s a good thing? 

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Wall Street. A term that designates not only a physical place, but a symbol, a way of thinking. It’s the capital of investing (embodied in the stock market), the capital of high finance (embodied in the banking system), the capital of… capital. It’s the hub of the economy, domestically and internationally.

And it’s the single biggest stumbling block in the Obama administration’s attempt to get the economy back on track.

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