Obama’s Old Deal, Article Critique Example

The article entitled “Obama’s Old Deal”, was written by Michael Hirsch. The issue in which the article address was related to the United States was going through a financial rut under the presidency of Barak Obama. It states that banks were not lending money and the economy was still undergoing high rates of unemployment even after Obama’s first year in the Whitehouse. It compared predictions made earlier to what is actually happening in Wall Street, and it all points to Obama and his decision-making. The article claims that Obama is being perceived as the one who is in the wrong, the author does not seem to state his own opinion directly, however.

You wrote that the White House did not adapt to Paul Volker’s point of view on banking, in terms of risk taking and “proprietary” trading. Stating, that Volker points out that America’s banks are enjoying federal guarantees on their deposits; whilst American taxpayers are putting their money at risk. Obama as well as his economic team has said to have largely ignored Volker. In one of Obama’s statements, he even said that he was not convinced that Volker could be correct in his views. However, Obama did come into accepting what Volker had to say, and this one incident with the President has lead Hirsch into saying that Obama has not been acting like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (whom he has been compared with in the past, in regards to the Great-Depression). These are well presented as facts, when they are quite one-sided.

The article states as a fact that bonuses in these financial houses often run in tens of millions of dollars. Barak Obama is said to have failed in restoring confidence in the economy, in which he was yet again compared to FDR. Polls have shown that only 41% of Americans approved of his performance during his first year in presidency. However, Obama is said to not be the only one to blame in this situation of high unemployment and slow economic growth. Critics say that financial and economic reform was never really Obama’s passions. Hirsch claims that Obama did not match his passion and ambition towards fixing the economy to his actions. Obama was also criticized for not being well prepared to address the issues of the financial system and the economy.

The structure of the overall persuasive of reasoning the article presented were all in accordance to others’ opinions and statements on the issues. It revolved around what critics said, and in its way also criticized the Obama administration, siding more with what Paul Volcker believes would help the economy. The article did this by gathering information on the Obama administration’s actions, and then compiling them with negative criticisms by third parties, and then presenting information on the results of the actions in which the Obama administration turned to.

The quality evidences in which the article showed were in terms of direct statements from people of credibility when it comes to the economy and financial stability of the United States. This made it difficult to review and write against. Some criticisms were left anonymous, and the article presented them more as facts, rather than opinions by directly relating these to the economic downturns, suggesting to the readers that it was in fact the actions of the Obama administration which lead the economy in the downturn. However, evidences in which the article showed statistics in terms of unemployment rates and data regarding big financial institutions should have been presented to make the article’s case a bit more solid. The questions in which I believe were left unanswered is the extent of unemployment, as well as the extent of the risks American taxpayers are being put in. It also does not address what the Obama administration is doing about these criticisms, and how White House is responding to them. It gives little and very vague information on this. Also, it would be better if Paul Volcker’s suggestions were emphasized and broken down better so that the readers could really understand why we should side with the argument as to see why Volcker was in the right. Overall, the Hirsch’s style of writing makes the financial issues seem very personal to the reader, and it brings awareness and empathy onto whoever is reading. Straight away, you can feel the impact of his words, and you are swayed to side with him because he makes it seem like he is writing directly for you. Hirsch’s tone is very critical, and he places much opinions regarding to the Obama administration in his article.

References

Hirsch, M. (2009). Obama’s Old Deal. Newsweek. Print.