Who do you think is going to come out the winner in this one?
Wall Street roared back from the doldrums today with a near 500 point gain of the DOW post Timothy Geithner unveiling the latest, and greatest, banking bailout plan. Too bad businesses don't pass down gains to consumers.
I don't see consumer spending, wage growth, or job gains returning anytime soon.
Stocks probably touched their low while the market hovered around 6,500 earlier this year. Have Joe and Jane Doe touched bottom yet?
I doubt it. Everyone will have to pay for the many years of loose credit and over spending. We won't get a bailout.
That I can guarantee you.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Globalist
I had the unique experience to attend two lectures by world renknowned journalists, Thomas L. Friedman and Fareed Zakaria, yesterday in Portland.
There was a common theme to their respective perspectives.
That is that we are in a new age that is defined by globalism and that the United States of America is no longer the only game in town. Try telling that to your average American who believes in manifest destiny and "This land is your land ... from sea to shining sea."
The rules have changed. All markets are global. It is not relevant whether we want to recognize this our not, but we will fall behind as a nation if we fail to do so.
We need to recognize the challenge before this and get serious about electing politicians who will pursue progressive policy moving forward. There is no more time left to squander the future. The world is "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and we are in "The Post American World."
There was a common theme to their respective perspectives.
That is that we are in a new age that is defined by globalism and that the United States of America is no longer the only game in town. Try telling that to your average American who believes in manifest destiny and "This land is your land ... from sea to shining sea."
The rules have changed. All markets are global. It is not relevant whether we want to recognize this our not, but we will fall behind as a nation if we fail to do so.
We need to recognize the challenge before this and get serious about electing politicians who will pursue progressive policy moving forward. There is no more time left to squander the future. The world is "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and we are in "The Post American World."
Sunday, March 1, 2009
At What Cost
As President Obama seeks to bring fiscal responsibility back to the White House, one is left wondering the future our nation will have.
The pols of recent past sacraficed the future to satisfy the demands of lobbyists. They mortgaged the nation's long term security at the whim of their own present day interests. We, the people, are left holding the bill.
Everything is in question. The economy, education, geopolitics, health care, energy policy, social security, national infrastructure, and on, and on, and on.
There are many to blame.
Partisan politics has blocked most attempts to pass tangible legislation over the past three decades. The American public has been too interested in our own selfish wants and needs at the sacrafice to the common good. Real leaders, to often, have been nowhere to be found.
America was caught flat footed after the fall of communism and the Soviet empire only to lose respect among many of our global bretheren in responding to WMDs in Iraq post 9/11. The health care system is bloated beyond repair. The education of our children continues to lag behind our competitors. Bridges fall down, roads stretch to nowhere as mass transit lays idle in the 21st century and only now do we get serious about global warming and our energy future.
Enough is enough. It is time to get real.
The pols of recent past sacraficed the future to satisfy the demands of lobbyists. They mortgaged the nation's long term security at the whim of their own present day interests. We, the people, are left holding the bill.
Everything is in question. The economy, education, geopolitics, health care, energy policy, social security, national infrastructure, and on, and on, and on.
There are many to blame.
Partisan politics has blocked most attempts to pass tangible legislation over the past three decades. The American public has been too interested in our own selfish wants and needs at the sacrafice to the common good. Real leaders, to often, have been nowhere to be found.
America was caught flat footed after the fall of communism and the Soviet empire only to lose respect among many of our global bretheren in responding to WMDs in Iraq post 9/11. The health care system is bloated beyond repair. The education of our children continues to lag behind our competitors. Bridges fall down, roads stretch to nowhere as mass transit lays idle in the 21st century and only now do we get serious about global warming and our energy future.
Enough is enough. It is time to get real.
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