Problems

Every generation has faced challenges. We are facing grave challenges that will alter human cilivization permentantly. Climate change threatens are exsistence. Conflicts that have gone on for thousands of years continue to bring unrest to the world. Resources are being stretched ever thinner. The United States military faces a formidable enemy and our economy is crashing down. The citizens of the U.S. have turned to the democratic party for answers to these problems. There was somewhat a revolution in November of 2008 when Barack Obama won the presidential race. We know that things are bad, but what are the solutions to this dire situation. Strong, wise leaders are needed. The democrats want to build a stronger government that will provide assistance to people. The problem is that for the last 30 to 40 years we have wasted vast amounts of resources within our capitlistic society. Free markets are great when resources are easy to find. This contraction has been in the making for sometime. People must get back to basic needs and forgoe frivilous spending. Banks must be reined in to more reasonable levels. They have created this cheap money that made it seem like the party could go on forever. It could have if we didn't run into the wall with resources. Energy is king.

Policy

Unemployment is on the rise. I expect January and February to be very bad on the unemplolyment front. I'm betting that many companies pushed layoffs to the new year, because they didn't want to do it during the holidays. We are in for continued difficult economic times.

Policy Shifts:

Obama has said that he does not support raising the age that people receive Social Security benefits. This is not an option. The age needs to be raised now. That would take billions off the deficit and require people to stay in the work force longer which would strengthen our economy. This relatively new notion of retiring at 65 is not realistic. I know that people have paid into a ponzi scheme with the expectation that they would get benefits later on. Well Social Security is not a vialble business model as currently set up. If you raise the age that benefits are dispersed to 75, it becomes viable again.

Competitive sports in state run schools (1st through 12th) need to be halted as part of the acedemic structure. Fitness is important, but traveling around to play other teams multiple times per week is weakening our school system. The coaches are sometimes the highest paid teachers, partly because they deserve it for spending so much time traveling around. We need to go to the club sports model that many other countries have adopted. Professional sports teams need to sponsor these teams, because they are the ones that benefit from the developement of players. We have already moved in this direction with AAU and other organizations for basketball, volleyball, and soccer.

There has to be a contraction in the system and these are two places to start.

Obama

Obama is doing a pretty good job with the transition. The sad part is that we are in one of the greatest crisis of all time and we have to wait until January 20th 2009 to get anything done. If I was Obama, I would have a very quick swearing in and would get right to work. We don't have time for ceremonies during this type of crisis. It reminds me of Bush reading books to kids as we were attacked on 9/11.

Crimes

I want to see criminal investigations into the large banks responsible for this collapse. I want to Allen Greenspan to be brought to trial for treason. He is one of the all time greatest detriments to our society. He thought that banks would regulate themselves. That is not a good enough answer to his incompetency. The Federal Reserve need to be replaced with a better system. The SEC needs to stand trial for it's part in letting these things occur. I know that these actions seem extreme, but we are experience one of the greatest collapses of all time and someone is to blame. Just because these criminals wear pin-striped suits and wing-tipped shoes that does not mean that they can bring down a country. Millions have lost their jobs because of these people. Trillions in savings have been wiped out due to these buffoons. Granted the stock market should never have been as high as it was.

Waste

We have wasted our world away and now the bill collector has come for his money. Bad news, we are broke. We decided that having a modest lifestyle was not good enough. The big corporations decided to use all of our resources to put us into a type of indentured slavery. Our debt has now reached 10.6 trillion dollars. The poor dollar does not have a very bright future. Where was government? The protector of the people. In the big corporations pockets. The sad thing is that other countries were looking at us as the model for their economies/societies. Bad move. As I have said before, great men and women must rise to the challenges facing our world. We are currently headed down a path that could lead to great social unrest. The scariest part of the equation is that I don't think that the people are willing to change. It is part of the "American Dream" to have as much as you want. This model is no longer sustainable. We have built a society with money we don't have. Our people have become complacent. There will have to be pain, before we can adjust to the old way of life. Living within your means. Work hard. Help your fellow man/woman. Greed and Sloth have brought us here. Giving and Caring will bring us out.

Hard Times

Guess what, the economy is in a ditch. It is amazing to me that people are actually surprised. A revolution is brewing. Voters are going to come out in record numbers to choose who will lead us through this mess. I hope they don't make the same mistake that was made in 2000 and 2004. Looking at the 2006 elections, it appears that we have learned a thing or two. Both parties have let us down, but it is time to let the democratic party have their shot. I do want to see investigations into the housing bubble.

Tight Race

The canidates cannot be more different. They represent two very strong segments of the United States. The old guard and generations X, Y, and millinials. The nation is divided about evenly, as it has been for the last few presidential elections. The election will be decided on Abortion. This issue has divided the nation more than any other issue in the last 20 years, with gay marriage coming in second.

Housing Crisis

People think that the housing crisis is half way done. It is just getting started. Many of the prime mortgages are going to start defaulting within the next 12 to 18 months. Why would someone keep paying on an asset that has lost 20 to 50 percent of it's value. Fannie and Freddie are going to have to become government programs.

Not only is housing in a world of hurt if energy stays high people are not going to be able to heat and cool these brick ovens. I would like to propose a massive effort to start building underground houses. They are very energy efficient and could cause builders to stay in business.

The Slowdown

The economy is really putting the breaks on. We were tapping for about a year, with the thought that the price of oil couldn't keep going up. Well it did. Now that Americans have tapped their 401ks and maxed their credit cards things are starting to slowdown. The airlines and the big 3 automakers don't have time to adjust strategy. They are laying-off thousands. There has finally been enough slowdown to cause the price of oil to subside. I would expect the economy to continue downward for at lease 24 months, possibly leveling off after that. Wide economic expansion may never come again, unless oil falls below $75 or another energy source starts to compete with oil.

The Storm

I don't like to write about negative topics, but they seems to be the only things happening these days.

We now are faced with crop damage to thousands of the nations most productive acres. Flooding along the mighty Mississippi has caused much damage. Tornadoes have swept thought our land and we are now heading into hurricane season.

High gas prices are about to bring the country to it's knees. The pain has been gradual, primarily due to credit cards and the economic stimulus package carrying the burden. Billions if not trillions of dollars turning into CO2 will cause many businesses to go out of business very soon.

To advert the Second Great Depression the US citizens need to make some drastic changes to their lifestyles. Get rid of the the gas guzzler as soon as it makes sense financially to do so. Don't eat out as much and buy groceries that will keep your family healthy. Start or keep working hard at your job to increase productivity, even if your pay is the same or lower.

The sad realty is that these things will be done by 5 maybe 10 percent of the population, but most citizens will continue down the same road. The scary part is that I think foreign investors are going to catch a fire sale pretty soon and we won't own our country anymore.

The Parties

The two party system that we have is failing us. The U.S. is faced with some of the biggest challenges of our short existence. These include - social security, healthcare, and peak oil.

The government has failed to address any of these problems. The nation faces a collapse from any one of these problems, much less all of them. These issues should be the main topics of conversation for all political figures and the nation as a whole. We are headed down a path that leads to destruction. The solutions are not easy.

Social Security - Raise the age that benefits are recieved. Don't give benefits to the rich. I realize that this is not what the people who paid into this scheme signed off on, but this is the only option.

Healthcare - Limit the care that the elderly recieve. Cut back on procedures that have a low percentage of success. Make prevention a priority.

Peak oil - Aggressively raise the miles per gallon requirments for cars in the U.S. Invest in alternative fuels. Invest in public transportation ugrades. Invest in a better railroad system.

At this point, no one would get elected if they ran on these issues. U.S. citizens don't react until things get bad. We are on the verge of things getting really bad, if action is not taken soon.

Food & Terrorists

Food prices are soaring.

The reasons:

1. Ethanol Production
2. Australian Drought - poor crops
3. Oil prices at $125 per barrel

Most of the world lives paycheck to paycheck, if they get a paycheck at all. Many of the poorest people in the world spend 50 to 75 percent of their paycheck on food.
When food prices double that means that they cannot afford to buy enough food to keep a healthy diet or it means that all their money goes to food. There have already been food riots in many countries and the World Food Bank been working overtime to try and ease some of the pain.

One of the problems associated with this crisis is the ablility of terrorists to recruit these starving people into their organizations. A person that is faced with death is easily swayed to join an organization that they feel might bring about change for their people. It is an easy sell to say "Come fight with us against the infedels that are putting your grain into their big SUVs.

Corporate Greed

I am for free markets. I am not for individuals who conduct business in an unethical manner. There are plenty of opportunities out there for many people to have success. My theory is that the charter that corporations abide by "increase shareholder's wealth" is not clear enough. In order to increase shareholder's wealth over a long period of time, a company must be prudent and conduct business in a ethical manner. If you want quick returns, which is what many corporations strive for, you will have corruption and greed. That is why you see the CEO turnover, out of control executive salaries. and the mass layoffs in many corporations.

The people and the government have the responsiblity to keep these corporations in check through purchasing power and regulations.

Economy

The world economy is in peril. The banking system got too greedy and it is going to cost everyone a great deal of hardship. It doesn't help that oil is now at $110. This is causing food prices to soar and that spells trouble for the bottom third of the US population and a great deal of trouble for many second and third world countries. The Fed has stepped in and is making large sums of money available to the banks. What it boils down to is that they made very bad investments and the banks are in trouble of going bankrupt if they don't write down their losses and find infusions of capital. Many people are trying to blame the borrowers who to on these mortgages that they couldn't afford. There was fraud on the part of some borrowers, but I place the blame more fully on the lenders. The "American Dream" of owning a house has been engrained into the public’s consciousness and the banks took advantage of low interest rates to get people into homes they couldn't afford, thinking that the price of homes would continue to rise and everyone would win. Well, as we have learned so may times before, what goes up must come down. I believe that there should be a full investigation into the lending practices and the packaging of these mortgages into funds that were incorrectly rated. There are people that knew this thing was going to blow up and continued to pump it up.

The banks are in a position where they don't know how much they could lose, which is a very bad thing for public confidence in the financial system. I have been talking to some of my banking friends on Wall Street and they say that this situation resembles the 1890s and that it could get really bad.

As I said earlier if it was just the financial sector that was in trouble, we might be able to recover in a couple of years. With oil prices soaring we are headed for a very rough ride that could result in an economic depression.

Obama, Wright, and the Black Community

Obama has taken a jab to jaw that has put a doubt into the minds of the American voters.

I personally am not that concerned with Reverend Wright's comments and not that surprised either. The black community has a long history of reverends/preachers making strong comments; see King, Jackson, and Sharpton. The black community turns to its religious leaders for spiritual and political guidance. The blacks don't have leaders in prominent political positions that they can turn to, so the religious leaders and comedians fill this void.

I feel like Obama is going to have a difficult time with his opposition now being armed with this fodder, but maybe the American voters will look more closely at the black culture and learn something.

Recession? Primaries?

It appears that the economy is in a slowdown. High oil prices and the credit meltdown have caused inflation to soar and many people of cutting spending. With the economy in the dumps, the focus from the occupation in Iraq has taken a backseat on the road to the White House.

I am not too happy with any of the candidates. Obama seems to have the momentum and we will see how dirty the Clinton machine gets in the next few weeks. The republicans have settled for McCain, or at least some of them have.

Bush vs. Hitler

It is not that big of leap to compare these two leaders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tTQ34y4Ww0

 

The Good ol US of A

Humans are extremely resilient.  You can find Humans on every continent.  Places that would seem uninhabitable, like Las Vegas for instance....Humans are there.  That would be one reason this year hasn't been a total bust.  High oil prices, falling credit markets, baseball heroes on steroids, a budget and trade deficits that would choke a dinosaur and we are still ticking.  I hope you don't think that I'm a old scrooge.  The good news is Iran is not trying to build a nuclear bomb, the Arctic ice is freezing back at a record pace (of course it did melt a record pace this summer), the Dallas Cowboys are 12 and 2, and HDTVs are finally somewhat affordable and if they
aren't we will just put it on our MasterCard.

I would like to wish the World a Happy Holiday Season or just a happy December and January if you don't partake in any rituals during this time.  

Oil, Politics, and Football

Oil eased some more today from it's near $100 mark. Maybe the speculators (boom creators) have finally realized that unlike the housing and technology industries, high oil prices will send us back to 1929.
Our old buddies the democrats and republicans are up to the same old thing, except a veto override - Bush's first. Ron Paul is making quite the push on the GOP side. He is by far the best candidate they can put forward.
The Dallas Cowboys are winning so everything is right in the world - at least in Dallas?!

2007 Coming to an End

Well, we find ourselves at the end of another year. The housing bubble is deflating, the presidential race is heating up (hasn't gotten ugly yet, but wait for it), the stock market has shown resilient to inflation and the housing bubble, we are getting closer to war with Iran, global warming debate is "heating" up, the Iraq Occupation is still an occupation, and you can now find the Wii at stores.