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US President Barack Obama is doing what no other Democrat president has ever done before; crashing and burning his own political party in only his first year in office!

The president's initial year in office has also set another record; out-spending any other first-year president in American history! Like an Energizer Bunny that won't quit, David Axlerod has this president wound up so tight that he eschews governing and leadership altogether, while he remains fixed on raising campaign monies and spouting an even longer list of further promises to be broken. Having quickly glossed over any opportunities to investigate and prosecute (when warranted) "financial meltdown culprits", he has instead rewarded them by granting a silent immunity, and even appointing some!

Having ignored my warnings that America was in the grips of an economic situation that will still require another eleven years of repairs (http://seekingalpha.com/article/171051-u-s-in-worse-shape-than-japan-was), the president has assisted his adversaries even more than his own party. Hence the surge in recent popularity of such personalities as Lou Dobbs, Monica Crowley, Pat Buchanan, George Will, John McLaughlin, Rush Limbaugh, Larry Kudlow, Sarah Palin and others, is due 40% to their own natural allure and 60% due to former Obama supporters already in search of alternatives! The title for "Worst President Ever" may still prove to be a tie, while America's economic clout in the global economy ebbs to a lesser and lesser sense of relevancy!

by Jean-Paul Cassone'

Martin Sieff of UPI.com, when discussing the economic and financial crisis the United States now faces is not remotely comparable to the one Japan faced nearly 20 years ago. It is potentially far worse, and the kind of decade long stagnation that Japan then suffered would be mild compared with other all too possible outcomes.

By contrast, the United States faces the current crisis after decades of remorselessly building up the worst negative trade balance of any nation in recorded history. Most of all, the Japanese government never risked destroying its financial stability or running the dangers of hyperinflation by wild spending. Bush's $700 billion bank bailout, coming after eight years of reckless spending on so much else, followed by the $800 billion Democratic wish list labeled a "stimulus package" have weaked the dollar and the international credit assessments of the US government to a degree never before experienced.

According to Benjamin Powell of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute in Austria, between 1992 and 1995, Japan tried spending programs totaling Y65.5 trillion and cut income tax rates during 1994. In January 1998 it temporarily cut taxes again by Y2 trillion. Then in April of that year the government unvieled a fiscal stimulus package worth more than Y16.7 trillion, almost half of which was for public works. Again, in November 1998 another fiscal stimulus package worth Y23.9 trillion was announced. A year later in November of 1999, yet another fiscal stimulus package of Y18 trillion was tried. Finally, in October 2000 Japan announced another stimulus package of Y11 trillion. Overall during the 1990s Japan tried 10 fiscal stimulus packages totaling more than Y100 trillion and each failed to cure the recession. What the spending programs have done however, is put Japan's government in poor fiscal shape. The "on-budget" government spending has caused public debt to exceed 100 percent of GDP (highest in the G7) and even more debt is apparent when the "off-budget" sector is included.

(SPECIAL NOTE: A noteworthy aspect of the Japanese people during this era, was that they had one of the highest savings rates globally, when the turmoil of this decade first started! This enabled Japan to keep consumer spending at a sustainable rate throughout this trying decade! The United States on the otherhand, is already in the midst of their turmoil and has no savings stockpile to fall back on, that would be earmarked for spending!)

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Pecora

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TTOJEO-71c

The New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2009/10/iran-nuclear-pilger-obama