Harsh Truth: "Economic Illiterates"

Harvey Golub, former Chairman and CEO of American Express, (who, if I am not mistaken, is a Democrat) takes President Obama to the woodshed over his "jobs plan." While the jobs plan is the direct locus of criticism, Golub's critique is much broader - this plan could only have come from a leader and a team so devoid of basic sense and understanding that, well, we are truly lost. Golub's whithering conclusion:

"From green jobs to "cash for clunkers," many of us have suspected that economic illiterates were setting the economic policy of this administration. The president's jobs plan proves the point. That the president could wail about the misfortunes of municipalities and argue that the federal government urgently needs to send cash, and then simultaneously propose a change in the tax treatment of municipal bonds that takes the cash back, reveals a depth of cluelessness that boggles the mind."

Ouch. Also, let it be noted that Golub is not just any old generic former CEO; he is the man that brought American Express back from the brink of near extinction after years of neglect and mismanagement. He saved an iconic American business and created thousands of jobs and tens of billions in wealth. He know whereof he speaks. Thus he has the stature to be able to take to the pages of the WSJ and call the President of the United States "clueless" and economically illiterate; but there are hundreds of thousands of businessmen and women that can't take such a public stand who share Golub's view. This is the voice of American business telling us what our deepest, most fundamental economic problem is right now - President Obama.