John Harwood of The New York Times and CNBC sits down with President-elect Barack Obama,
January 08, 2009.
Running time: 28:32
"My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil." —John Paul Getty
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
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January 10th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Well guys, I am becoming umimpressed with this fellow, and he still isn’t in office. I very much hope I am very wrong…I am beginning to feel the Big Hat, No Cattle syndrome coming on….
January 11th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
He says many good things, especially about “listening”. Early on, he mentions it twice. Later on, he talks about listening to bad press more than good press. Reminds me of what I read in “Good to Great” about leaders who helped build/maintain enduring, successful companies.
Doesn’t mean I’m going to become a leveraged long for 2009. But, I’m happy to see/hear (a) how much he’s learned so far about our problems and (b) some of what he plans to do to help.