Show may force more trouble than acknowledged Peter Walls ten Peter Gosselin Los Angeles Times He called them gathering clouds and raging storms storms- icy currents in a winter of hardship But as Barack spoke to the country for the first time as president the world beyond Washington was filling in details of the hardships that he alluded to in his inaugural address Even as he finished the oath path of office the crisis in the financial services industry sent banking stocks plummeting and the Dow Jones industrial average turned med in its worst Inauguration Day performance in its century- century plus history losing 4 percent of its value For a nation weary of war and wracked by economic anxiety it was a signal that problems could be even worse than expected The offered few details of the path to prosperity beyond calling for shared sacrifice and cautioning that finding a fix will not be easy Rather he spent a surprising amount of time drawing connections between today's problems and failed political leaders who he said had become consumed with protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions It was a rebuke of the highly partisan wars of recent decades that handicapped Washington and it was delivered even as his predecessors including Presidents George W. W Bush and Bill Clinton joined him atop the platform on the Capitol steps In the words of Scripture the time has come to set aside childish things said seeming to belittle what had come before him as frivolous He called for a new era of responsibility implying irresponsibility on the part of current political leaders We come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises the recriminations and worn- worn out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics he said a passage that seemed to summon the impeachment of Clinton the disputed 2000 election and the sharp- sharp elbowed electioneering of Karl Rove all of which helped leave Washington in gridlock for more than a decade such a In promising clean and dramatic break from the past elevated his own role in guiding the nation from its problems rather than diminishing expectations for his administration drew directly from a prior president who remained popular while navigating a severe economic crisis and e even eyen en mistakes in in his made some first term Franklin D U. Just as Roosevelt sought to buck Americans in his 1933 up inaugural address by them that plenty is is at our doorstep on Tuesday said American workers workers' are no less productive than when this crisis began and nd that our minds are no le less s inventive our goods and services no less needed Roosevelt retained public confidence as he tried and at first fai failed ed to restart the economy too is asking Americans to grant him time and room for experimentation People are willing to exercise some patience here as long as they see him taking steps to address the problem said Rep Chris Van Hollen D a member of the House leadership had hoped he could focus his early efforts at af an economic recovery on winning congressional approval for an billion economic stimulus plan that is widely seen as aimed at helping ordinary Americans But the eruption of new financial troubles Tuesday likely will force him to take steps to save the banking sector a problem that federal officials hoped had been resolved Indeed the departing Bush administrations administration's billion bailout program for the financial services industry proved so unpopular that and his top aides had to lobby lawmakers personally even before they took office to ensure that Congress did not block use of the programs program's remaining billion Now may need to take more drastic action possibly seizing troubled big banks which could avoid drawing on more taxpayer money but risk spooking investors A less-extreme less option that the new administration is thought to be considering would create a government government- financed bad bank similar to the savings- savings loan and-loan era Resolution Trust Corp It would take takeover takeover takeover over the mortgage-backed mortgage securities and other toxic assets of banks an effort to shore their finances and up L 1 of tI 1 d rekindle the me kind Kinu 01 Ul en that is needed to revive the economy The sell off in banking stocks Tuesday was also an eerie reminder of the banking crisis that greeted Roosevelt's 1933 arrival in office had no sooner reminded a throng of more than 1 million wishers well-wishers that without a watchful eye the market can spin spinout spinout spinout out of control than shares of many of the nations nation's big banks threatened to do just that amid investor fears that the institutions could be in even worse shape than previously thought it In Roosevelt's era was a run on bank deposits bank Today its it's a run on stocks But one way or orthe orthe orthe said the other its it's a run Robert Litan a former adviser to the Treasury Department L- L i t T i In 1 i t tT ti 1 f Inside the at the Jordan campus ra aBIE- aBIE Jf ct c f t t ll e Walkway on the Jordan I I. I campus r t H T- T w a Entrance to the High Tech Learning Center on the Jordan campus Photos by Preston Holman |