John Lounsbury

Obama Becomes a Conservative and 8 More Wishes for 2009

Fred - - -

Excellent article. Some comments:

1. I would hope that Obama is not defined by either "liberal" or "conservative" (or "progressive" ), but by the term "pragmatist". And then I hope that his reputed intelligence and ability to listen and synthesize the big picture are properly employed.

2. I agree with your comments on taxing gasoline. I think this is a national security imperative (in the military and economic sense). I just haven't seen a proposal that makes sense. The proposal you mention for a FICA rebate might be worthwhile.

3. I don't think that the scooter, bicycle movement will have the traction here that it would in Japan, although it might make inroads in large cities with gridlock problems. I think our personal transportation evolution will be more in the direction already started, with smaller, more fuel efficient cars, HEVs, eventually plug-in HEVs (on-board generators rather than non-electric power drive), and greater use of more efficient fuels, such as diesel, natural gas, etc.

4. Housing is the major anchor dragging from the great ship U.S.A. We will not move the economy forward until we get near the bottom in housing prices and that is not near if we are talking about months. More to say about that in an upcoming research article to be submitted to SA.

Happy New Year to you Fred, and The Hand.