Presidents typically invite Americans to appear at Rose Garden press conferences to trumpet their policy successes, but yesterday we saw what may have been a first. President Obama introduced three Americans—an auto worker, a fitness center employee and a woman in real estate—who’ve been out of work so long they underscore the failure of his economic program. Where are his spinmeisters when he really needs them?

Sure, Mr. Obama’s ostensible purpose was to lobby Congress for the eighth extension of jobless benefits since the recession began, to a record 99 weeks, or nearly two years. And he whacked Senate Republicans for blocking the extension, though Republicans are merely asking that the extension be offset by cuts in other federal spending.

But Mr. Obama was nonetheless obliged to concede that, 18 months after his $862 billion stimulus, there are still five job seekers for every job opening and that 2.5 million Americans will soon run out of unemployment benefits. What happens when the 99 weeks of benefits run out? Will the President demand that they be extended to three years, or four?

Get full story here.

by Caroline Baum

June 16 (Bloomberg) — Reports of the death of capitalism may have been greatly exaggerated following the panic and crisis of 2008 and the government’s assumption of a bigger role in the economy. Now I’m not so sure.

It’s one thing when the government takes an ownership stake in a company, as it did with the banks. Then it has the authority, even a duty to taxpayers, to be involved in determining how much the company pays out in the form of dividends to shareholders and how generously it compensates its executives.

When the government has no ownership stake, it has no business interfering in the inner workings of a company, other than ensuring compliance with the regulations it has put in place.

President Barack Obama wants to change all that.

Get full story here.

President Obama is a gifted man, but until yesterday we hadn’t known that his achievements include having predicted the financial panic of 2008. It was a “failure of responsibility that I spoke about when I came to New York more than two years ago—before the worst of the crisis had unfolded,” Mr. Obama said yesterday in a speech on financial reform at Cooper Union in New York City. “I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed.”

We wish for the sake of our 401(k) we had noticed this Delphic call, not least when Senator Obama was opposing the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But let’s not fight over history. The current reality is that the President had better be very, very smart because the reform bill he is stumping for would give him and his regulators vast new sway over financial markets and risk-taking.

Get full story here.