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Well it’s April, and I hope you’ve not been fooled. Perhaps the spring weather and the rhetoric coming from the media have you believing the recession is over. I think not.
Mr. Obama is heading to the G20 meeting unlikely to find a lot of support there for bailout mania. The Europeans did a lot of these things after WW I and the inflation rate got unbelievably bad. They have not forgotten. We have not experienced it because we were on the Gold Standard, where the dollar was pegged to gold at $35 per oz. Mr. Nixon was President when that was abandoned (1971) so it wasn’t all that long ago (38 years). Look at where the price of Gold is now. The difference from $35 and today’s price ($928) is called inflation. Today’s Dollar is worth less than a 1971 nickel) and that occurred in a normal course of business. Can you even begin to imagine where we are headed with all this borrowing and bailing out nonsense?
We can not borrow ourselves to greatness. We must become great, here at home by hunkering down and doing what needs to be done.
Spreading taxpayer IOU’s around to help the information technology industry while it (IBM especially) is moving thousands of jobs out of the USA as we speak is another example of the lunacy. 5,000 announced in January, effective in February. Another 5000 announced in March to be effective in April and May (based on the required notice which is driven by state law). Rumors are strong that there will be another 5,000 in June. This will be effectively 10% of IBM’s entire US work force at the beginning of 2009. Why? Because it is cheaper to use eastern European and Asian labor which is well educated but does not have the inflated expectations of the American worker. As long as we permit companies to do this it will be difficult to recover from any recession. And it will take longer to repay an ever increasing debt. Mr. Reagan basically bankrupted the old Soviet Union in an arms race that they couldn’t afford, causing their collapse. Now we are bankrupting ourselves with programs that we can’t afford.
The taxpayer in the USA needs to revolt again. Not against Mr. Obama (he hasn’t been around long enough to really blame) but the political hacks like Nancy Pelosi and Chris Dodd. We need more independent members of congress who aren’t partisan but actually want to do what is right for ALL the people. We clearly need less lawyers in congress (but why stop there) and more people able to see the larger picture. Doing what is right isn’t rocket science. It is simply a case of reviewing the problem, looking at what others around the world have done when faced with similar problems and understanding the results. There are no new problems. Collapsing financial systems have occurred across the ages. Health care issue has been addressed by countries around the globe. Which solutions work and which ones don’t? Perhaps our culture and time is in need of a slight variation on one of these themes but let us not shoot ourselves in the foot while trying to be an “AMERICAN ORIGINAL” and jockeying for credit as though the plan were an original of one party or the other.
We can not allow the mid term elections to create a filibuster proof senate. If we do, then the minority party which represents a significant number of citizens has no voice. We are effectively governed by only one party with no need to consider the wants or needs of nearly half the population. I don’t think any of the citizens truly want this. No one wants an unbridled left or right running anything. Liberals and conservatives both perform a valuable role in keeping us in the center of the roadway and out of the ditch. If we allow the senate to become filibuster proof we will be in the ditch is mere weeks.
Will Chrysler become Italian? It tried German and that didn’t work. Who will be picked to lead GM and who will pick them? Will there be senate confirmation hearings? Interesting questions when you have the executive branch of government in a position to fire a CEO of a taxpayer bailed out firm. Want to see the TARP money repaid from banks? Every CEO out there is wondering if he’s next and fearing that they will working hard to repay and get the President out of his company. Don’t misunderstand I have no sympathy for anyone making more than a million a year. But, Congress hasn’t demonstrated the ability to run anything yet, so why are we letting them tinker with the biggest and most influential of our companies?
I believe the stock market has more downside risk. I don’t believe that we will be out of this recession until 2011 or 2012. This gives us a lot of time to evaluate anyone running for election in light of the current situation. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi all need to be run out on a rail. Send your congressman and the Whitehouse a tea bag. Let them know that you’re ready to revolt.
