A Day Late and a Dollar Short

It seems that from across the spectrum, economists and seasoned financial reporters have fairly quickly arrived at a consensus: the Obama administration's Tarp plan won't work because it doesn't go far enough. Perhaps the most influential column I've seen comes from Martin Wolf of the Financial Times (free registration). He argues that the Obama team is asking the wrong questions, and I'm sure that that's exactly what's happening. It's difficult, indeed, to imagine Larry Summers asking the right questions, just as it's difficult to imagine Obama political operators being willing to contemplate shutting down those very banks who've been top Obama fundraisers. The politics of hope, unfortunately, doesn't apply to banks — nor to policy-making generally. As Martin says, it's not at all ludicrous to ask whether Barack Obama's presidency has already failed.