Who Was Podesta Talking To? In January 2008 He Said "Economy is Going in the Shitter"

This is super fascinating. The current chairman of the 2016 Clinton presidential campaign, John Podesta, knew the economy was headed for trouble at the start of January 2008---long before the financial crisis was in full bloom.  He made this clear in an email.This is the first indication anywhere of an individual linked closely to high levels of the United States government indicating that he was aware of serious problems so early, that were developing for the economy. How did he know it? Who was he talking to?

On January 9, 2008, Podesta sent and email to top Hillary confidant and current president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden, who was at the time the policy director for the 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign. In the email (via Wikileaks), he wrote:

Back to making the policy director relevant and not to be too wonky, but a good time to get out a substantive economy speech, ie economy is going in the shitter-here's what we need to do about it.

Got that? He is telling  Tanden she can become relevant by getting Hillary to give a major speech warning that the "economy is going in the shitter."

This was months before Bear Stearns collapsed and was bailed out by the government and sold to JP Morgan  and many more months before Lehmann Bros. filed bankruptcy.

Indeed, it was months before Fed chairman Ben Bernanke turned bearish on the economy. During a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in June 2008, 5 months after the Podesta email, Bernanke talked positively about expectations for the economy in the second half of 2008.

So who was Podesta talking to that he got his very accurate call on the economy?

 -RW