United Socialist States of America? Not Quite 25 comments
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I spent some time on the phone with a journalist discussing my thoughts on Russia and a story of my family coming to the US from Russia in 1991. Playing a devil’s advocate he would say – “Yes, things are bad in Russia but look at the U.S.?” He’d repeat that question time after time.
This made me realize how important it is to have an appropriate frame of reference when we evaluate things. Yes, things in the U.S. will get worse in the near future, especially if your frame of reference is the recent past, late 90's and 2000s (especially 2000s). I cannot argue with that. We spent money we did not have and now it is payback time. A number of companies were socialized by our government. So how are we different from Russia then?
The difference is night and day. The US did not do it for Robin Hood(ian) reasons. It is simply playing the role of lender of last resort. Only time will tell if this was a right or a wrong move. But the US government is reluctant to socialize its private sector, and will de-socialize its stakes in private enterprises as soon as it can. In fact, it has embedded incentives for financial companies that issued preferred stock to the U.S. government to buy it back or at least refinance it within five years, as the preferred dividend rate jumps from 5% to 9%. We are not Russia where permanent socialization is taking place.
We may have to drive the same cars for a longer time, watch TV on a 42 inch TV set instead of 64 inch or, God forbid, eat out less. Most of us don’t have to worry about being able to put food on the table. My kids (my son is 7 and my daughter turned 3 a couple of days ago) were both born in this country and will not have my frame of reference from growing up in Russia – I am thankful for that. But at the same time it is my responsibility as a parent to instill a proper frame of reference in them. They don’t know how lucky they are to be growing up here. I am planning to watch Pursuit of Happyness with my son (my daughter is too young) a terrific movie starring Will Smith that will hopefully make him appreciate what he has a bit more.
Even at our worst we don’t have to fear repercussions of being critical of our government or president. We cannot be told by our government what we can or cannot write. In August I wrote a fairly critical article of Russia and war in Georgia. I never submitted the article to be published. I was going to visit Russia in September and simply did not want to take the risk. I know I am a very small fish and read by only 20 people (on a good day). Call me a coward, but even a very remote risk of being persecuted for my thoughts while I was visiting Russia did not appeal to me. We have many freedoms that we simply don’t appreciate, because fortunately (and I mean fortunately) we have a different frame of reference. We’ve had freedom of speech in this country for a long time and unlike Russia we are not looking at nationwide unrest, dictatorship and loss of personal freedom.
My conversation with the journalist brought up another sad memory of growing up in Russia. I was eight, my mother took me to sign up for chorus. The teacher was filling out an application/questionnaire. One of the questions was “What is your nationality?”. I said I was Jewish. But I vividly remember guilt and shame when I said it. I did not know why, but I knew something was wrong with me being Jewish. That was anti-Semitism in Russia for you. The freedom to be who you are is another freedom that we take for granted.
Despite this being quite a very difficult year, there are many things we should be thankful for; we just need a different frame of reference.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
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This article has 25 comments:
How about this - last year, around October, i became certain that people all around me in China and Russia would lose 70-80% of their money in the stock market - and i turned out to be right. But US markets lost 40%, and with a bit of bad luck i myself lost 60%. So how am i smarter than them, or how is the US a better place to invest? At least, in a good year you can expect the chinese or russian market to double, something you are not gonna get in the US.
And so i am really wondering. And besides the best place to live (US?) may not be the best place to invest (BRIC?).
Oh BTW, I lost more investing in Foreign investments than US funds.
We've got it SOO good here! And 98% of the population is too ignorant to realize our worst problems are miniscule compared to 75% of the world's population where they worry about eating not what to wear each day or what new car to buy.
On Jan 01 08:49 AM kotika98 wrote:
> hmm.... all true, but what is the relevance to current events?<br/>
>
> How about this - last year, around October, i became certain that
> people all around me in China and Russia would lose 70-80% of their
> money in the stock market - and i turned out to be right. But US
> markets lost 40%, and with a bit of bad luck i myself lost 60%. So
> how am i smarter than them, or how is the US a better place to invest?
> At least, in a good year you can expect the chinese or russian market
> to double, something you are not gonna get in the US.
>
> And so i am really wondering. And besides the best place to live
> (US?) may not be the best place to invest (BRIC?).
*which people have abused beyond all reason*
The article explains the reasons why the GOP
has probably destroyed the addition of Ronnie
Reagan dems to the party, forever. "Patriot Act"
If ever there was a law that has it backwards.
For 7 years now I've asked every legislator,
WHY we couldn't just modify current "FISA" to
fit modern communications. I've NEVER gotten
an answer, not even a bad attempt! At 3000+ pages
it's not about simplicity, time or laziness. 3000+ pages
in 19 days after 9-11, if ever the conspiracy
theorists had solid evidence, unless a UFO goes
on display. Let us pray the left-wing eco-communists
& the right-wing neo-evangelicals ever join forces,
the rest of us in the middle will have to leave the country.
From my perspective, America is falling down the government trap. We are increasingly delegating life functions to bureaucrats, and adopting a mentality that scorns criticism.
In order to remain free we must be perpetually skeptical of those who wish to gain power over our lives-irrespective of their stated intentions-and remain ever vigilant in how they use these powers.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...) - "everything is known by comparison". He said this when asked by the Canadian reporters in the late 1960's, how good his hockey team was. He was making the point that he will know more when his team finally gets to play a Canadian team.
I think that's what you are saying here. But you know, things can always be better, and that's the beauty of the open diaglogue that we have here in the West. And on this blog.
IF you want to find the root causes of our current financial problems, you need only look at the U.S. Politicians who have engineered a Coup de Tat of the capitalist free market system and have effectively taken over control of more and more of the means of production thru Fannie Mae and Freddie MAc, combined with Sarbanes Oaxley and socalled Fair market accounting coupled with elimination of the short selling rules by the SEC.
The net result is that corporate balance sheets became unstable making corporate enterprixes unable to borrow necessary capital, while driving the lenders (financial companies) into apparent accounting insolvency as perfectly good performing assets had to be marked down - by edict of the regulators.
The net result is that the Federal government offers to print green paper (money) to lend to the apparently bankrupt enterprises, in return for an equity stake, dilution of current shareholders, and effective operational control of the functional enterprise. All these so called Tsars, (politcal Apparachiks) the Russians needed only one Tsar to drive them into Communism. The U.S. is apparently not as productive and needs many many Tsars to accomplish the same thing.
All of this accomplished thru a ridiculous change in the accounting rules, Sarbanes Oaxley (Mark to MArket) coupled with over regulation (2004 legislation), and elimination of short sale rules (raids on corporate enterprises) and culminating with the election of a Socialist President.
Thanks to the Patriot Act, the government can now spy upon any and all Americans. Thanks to a dumbed down education system (NEA) Americans are so ignorant that they elect an inexperienced Socialist as their "redeemer". ROFLMAO buy gold, guns and bullets, When the U.S. govt introduces the "New American Dollar" 100 Old Dollars = 1 NEW DOLLAR - immediately after the coming round of hyper inflation, you may find a need for them to protect yourself..
And with all due respect Guero (which means none) - you don't know your A from a hole in the ground. - judging from your sophomoric socialist drivel. There has been NO DEBATE about nationalizing the means of production and capital in this country, it has laready been accomplished by legislative fiat and the printing of green paper. You are merely not capable of recognizing it for what it is. Socialism/Facism does not have to arrive "ALL AT ONCE" it is more likely to arrive as a long train , one car at a time.
Welcome to America Vitaly, I arrived here from the "Peoples Paradise"
in 1953. What a wonderful place it has been. A fascinating world, The Americans conquer the Soviets and Chinese because of their inferior nonproductive economic and cultural systems. The Americans emerge as the solitary Global superpower. So what happens? the crafty Russians and Chinese decide to become capitlist free enterprise systems while the U.S. decides to become Socialist.
Lets see how the next round of competition ends up.
Meantime have no fear, take solace from the words of Martha and the Vandelas 60's classic song "There's no where to run to baby, no where to hide"
c Novim Godom, C Novim schastvim
P
Just wait and see what kind of corruption his stimulus (bailout, pork,lifeline) has
Hmmm, Obama isn't even the preznit yet, so how can he continue hs ways.
All you Obama haters, you're hating him for the wrong reasons but you are too ignorant or bigotted to know. He's going to be one of the most decisive, toughest presidents ever (he's not a leftist at all except on social issues like abortion) and will make many mistakes based on his ignorant views on such matters as Afghanistan. He will do no harm on the economic front, that harm has already been done by the current administration.
Regulation will increase because the populace is demanding it, and it will be a good thing. The Financial Wild West is over folks, get used to it.
Instituting a decent health care plan is probably the most important thing that Obama will do for America. Corporate America will then be able to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the civilized world.
1. Here you can do what you want------as long as you do what they say.
2. Here it's every man for himself when you're making it but YOUR FAIR SHARE when they are spending it.
I agree. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor.
I voted for Obama, but he may prove ultimately to be more conservative than I would like on some issues and quite liberal on others. The point is that we have the opportunity to at least have a more open, debate-filled era than we had for the past 30 maybe even 40 years. Everyone of us has to 1) educate ourselves on the facts and issues 2) make ourselves heard through blogs like this every day for the next 4 years. It is not a one-time deal. JFK said it best: "vigilance is the eternal price of liberty."
..and he just wasn't refering to external threats.
>paper (money) to lend to the apparently bankrupt enterprises, in return >for an equity stake, dilution of current shareholders, and effective >operational >control of the functional enterprise.
petyaczar,
In an ideal world, the gov. would not need to intervene. In the real world, bad mistakes were made and these institutions, FNM + FRE, are not isolated from the rest of the economy. These institutions also become worthless after the realestate bubble burst.
May be it was done properly and perhaps not, however something needed to be done. The cost of doing nothing is far greater than the 700B.
Obama realizes this problem, no creation of his own. I hope whatever is done, it will be something that pays a divident for generations to come... not handing out free lunches to wallstreet.
Fixing the healthcare system would be good for all, corporations and the labor force.
> What George W. Bush did in his two terms was to punish the people
> who crafted the American Airlines attack on Trade Towers and the
> Pentegon. A move that was just as important was the rescue of American
> Banks and Industry.
You mean he punished the Saudis? I must have missed that while they were raking in $$ the past 7 years. Maybe you mean Al Queada, which has grown exponentially in size? Or the Taliban, who still control large swaths of Afghanistan and have gained ground the past 3 years?
Bush showed no interest in domestic policy for 8 years. Let's hope Obama is a little more focused on America.
The constitution is a living, breathing entity with the heart of this nation and the breath of its people. May justice be swift to those who violate its body.
James E Gambrell
I agree that there needs to be some regulations and oversight - it's often a fine line in terms of too much. The pedulum usually over-corrects. I do think we need to be careful around the "diseases of responsibility." We are all responsible (ability to respond) animals that have free-will and volition. Most of what we do is not under duress. We need to ensure that some people taste the sting of failure and poor choices. When we consistently have a public "net" underneath, we pervert the whole feedback mechanism, which is the basis for learning and self-regulation.