Is All Well?

Investing in ETFs to Accommodate Change

It seems to me that the US citizen needs a fresh vision leading what may be a declining empire. The currently extremely wealthy must recognize that they are indebted to the subservient cheap laborers that serve them in restaurants, collect their refuse and otherwise provide for a comfortable lifestyle...at the beckon call of the Bush's and their ilk. It is time to recognize labor for its worth and to provide all members of the USA community, who contribute to the national benefit, a truly just wage and benefits. Electing Obama is our only hope for progress toward an egalitarian society.

"Reluctant Banks" Let Defaulted Borrowers Stay in Homes

A CHALLENGE TO THE BIG GUYS!

What a great piece, Barry. The discussion is certainly interesting and engaging.

As a country, we had better reconstruct our infrastructure....or we will collapse under our own pompous rhetoric about patriotism.

Of late, patriotism du jour: despise the French, subjugate the Cubans, ignore conversation with the Iranians, alienate South and Latin America by refusing to recognize that they want a break from colonial exploitation, that they have known for centuries, by receiving a fair share of the profits from their natural resources so that they can prosper too. Are we better off because of the recent eight years of this patriotic fervor?

In 2008, let's elect someone astute enough to recognize that we need to attend to our own housecleaning before we pontificate to the other 6 billion people who inhabit this world on how to create utopia. Our own track record is not entirely impeccable.

Also I challenge all the PATRIOTS who have done very well for themselves during the prosperous times of the past two-plus decades to set up an independent not-for-profit organization(s) with their windfalls to regenerate the infrastructure of this country. Certainly such NGOs could receive some remuneration from the use of the revitalized infrastructure to create self-sustaining, well-endowed partnerships for continued redevelopment of our neglected homeland for decades to come. Of course this would require a dedicated, non greed-driven philosophy...something akin to the TIAA-CREF organization that Andrew Carnegie set up to support important components of the country's labor force who devote themselves to the benefit of society, rather than simply the creation of wealth.

How many CEOs, CFOs and other such talented executives and economically-privilege... patriots, who have recently received multi-hundred-million dollar "care packages" would now be willing to give of their expertise and some of their wealth in support of their country? If anything, these experienced leaders know well how to create a fiscally-efficient organization that will be accountable for the best interest of all in America. I dare say that they should be most capable of limiting the fraudulent misuse of their funds, much better than tax dollars sent to Washington, DC and other government bureaucracies.

I challenge the big name members of the "Golden Parachute Club" to GIVE BACK something to the society and culture that allowed them to accumulate their fortunes. Not only would this allow each of you to diminish your tax burden but also to give you the satisfaction of making a difference in the reconstruction of this country. Let's face it; you know better how to achieve corporate success better than any politician in government; so please help us redesign this country for the better....and please, soon. Would you not like to be fondly remembered like Carnegie, or Gates, for your targeted philanthropy by future generations?

A Historic Nine Days for the Federal Reserve

Let's DEMAND that every election ballot have "None of the Above" on it. If the ESTABLISHMENT candidates cannot muster enough to beat the "None of the Above" line, let the election be redone with a new slate of candidates, even including other alternative candidates....but none of the losers initially proposed by our major parties. This would be true democracy where the voter really has a choice...not the choice dictated by party machinations. I'm not holding my breath.

Media Appearance: Kudlow & Company (3/17/08): Fed Action, Market Action

Desperate times require desperate measures....so it is said.

We desperately need a new paradigm for the conduct of business in America. How many Enrons and billion dollar CEOs can we continue to produce in a patently contrived, non-transparent business-as-usual philosophy. Who is the beneficiary of this excess?

Global 'Oil Shock' Rattles World Stock Markets

If the USA is ever to have a trustworthy nuclear energy program we will have to have a paradigm shift in order for the public to have confidence in such a venture. Let’s get with it.

Purple Neon Lights (see discussion above) states that

“France generates somewhere from 70-90% of their energy from nuclear (which Germany quietly buys - quietly! - because their rank and file pooh-poohs nuclear as "not green.")”..,…“What is holding us back is ignorance.”

The operation of nuclear energy in France is indeed a remarkable testimony to France’s ingenuity and integrity to its populace. Imagine! France can have a different approach to life, one that works.

As I understand it, the design of all nuclear power plants in France is based on one design that was adopted by a team of eminent scientists as the concensus best approach to safe nuclear practice. Because a standard, agreed upon design permeates the industry, the staff at one plant, say in the Alps, can immediately fill in for someone at any other plant in the country, perhaps in Brittany, without losing a step, if need be like a flu epidemic. One nuclear plant can call another and discuss any issue knowing that the console and works are identical in design and operation. Is this conceivable in our hyper-capitalist approach to energy? How many manufacturers of nuclear power plants have we in the US had?

The US still currently has the world’s largest cadre of innovative scientific and engineering minds. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is as close to a body of principled men and women of integrity That we possess. They would be genuinely pleased to evaluate and recommend a design framework upon which we can develop a nuclear power industry that people might be willing to support. To be certain, these NAS members are only human and susceptible to human foibles, but I would dare say that they are probably more trustworthy than politicians and businesses who are servants to the profit motive.

Perhaps we could have a leader who says that reasonably-priced energy is an inalienable right that every US citizen deserves and advocatesthe use of the NAS to promote the development of a nuclear power industry for the common good. One that is not there to make money but to provide the nation’s people and businesses a resource to grow by. The power provided would not be free, and even could be a moderately profit making enterprise…the profits of which would go into social security and medical care needs that are needed to have a truly productive society. This approach certainly does not preclude using the considerable expertise available in industry’s employ. Essentially, this would be a “Manhattan Project”-like venture where every resource inside the country can be tapped for the country’s survival.

I, for one, would vote for a candidate of such broad vision. I suspect that the entrenched powers(aka parties)-that-be would go ballistic at such an idea. In my opinion, greed and incompetence will continue to undermine our nation’s economy until we take some steps to restore accountability (different than regulation) to our country. And I don’t mean the currently fashionable “I accept responsibility” statement which is uttered by every politician who finds himself/herself in an uncomfortable place. Accountability is not a media mea culpa.

Hopefully all will be well one day.

Bearish Bloggers Too Optimistic!

The firestorm here is indicative of America's need to dispense with politics as usual. One need only read the Economist to see that the rest of the world is passing us by. Anyone for a new approach to government in the USA? We need a leadership group to emerge SOON before we find ourselves underwater. Help.

Can Bush Save the Dollar's Fall?

I like Philly Jim's suggestion for the Progressive Patriots Party.

Finding capable, qualified, non self-serving candidates/leaders in the current, long-developing political morass in the USA will not be easy. A few months back former Senator David Bourne convened a meeting of relatively partisan-free national figures at the University of Oklahoma to discuss just such a possibility. Amongst other attendees was Mayor Michael Bloomberg who seems to be a most capable innovator who is willing to work tirelessly on both sides of the aisle and willing to consider novel ideas to improve society in the USA and the world; his track record in running NYC is completely at odds with the status quo approach that has dominated DC for decades. It is instructive that these savvy political leaders did not see a third party candidate being attractive to the populace at present. The public seems more content to take a chance with the hegemony of the current Bush and Clinton dynasties.

I fear that we will once again get what we deserve in the 2008 election, although I sincerely hope for something better...a new approach. We need a different definition of a patriot that has been in currency for the past eight years!

Can Bush Save the Dollar's Fall?

GWB: "And one of the things people are watching carefully is, will the United States government put policy in place to stimulate growth without affecting long-term growth? In other words, without passing laws that make it harder for investment, or harder for capital to move, or harder for markets, labor markets, to remain flexible."

Hello,

There is enough blame to go around in the US decline. Nobody is without fault in our national spectrum!

The GOP will never get it in the current leadership. Conventional Democratic idealogy will not make us any more attractive and prosperous. I believe that the WORLD would like a US that is a SAFE PLACE TO INVEST, period. Given the desire of the powers-that-be to limit regulation and enforcement, who in their right mind would want to invest their funds in a fiscal swamp that has been created to benefit a number of rascalous firms and individuals whose devotion is to live the high life, the rest of the country, and world, be damned.

Can this policy be changed? Can the clever economic strategists create a more circumspect system that anticipates, or at least reacts to, outrageous financial manipulation before the populace is ravaged? I think that they can, and should. When is the question? How many elderly will fall to the unscrupulous reverse-mortgage perpetrators, in the name of free enterprise, before our government recognizes the injustice?

There are those that complain that such discussion is not dealing with the economic/business that this site is devoted to. I say that politics is nothing more than economics/business in wolf's clothing as it is now being allowed to play out.

In my opinion, no conventional thinker is going to get elected to our highest office and make a dent in our economic malaise that the rest of the world recognizes and has, for so many years, been forced to play along with. No longer do they need to be dictated to by the almighty dollar. Like it or not, resources (material and human) are no longer the sole province of the US. We need a radical restructuring of our thinking...not simply electing an idealogical pedant as POTUS. If we don't make have the opportunity to make some good choices soon, the USA will have surrendered the greatest asset that has made this country into what a powerhouse we have been for the past forty years...HIGHER EDUCATION.

Commoditizing the 'Decoupling Theory'

Will our leaders be up to the challenges? Military might may not remain exclusively in the USA's province. India and China educate far more scientists than the US. China is smartly pouring in a huge amount of its $$$ surplus into building up its educational infrastructure. We need to wake up...Wall Street, White House, Congress.

Fantasy-Based Economics

Given the comments here, it seems time for a change. The person elected president needs to be a leader. Without that I'm afraid we will continue the same old same old. I'd like to see us elect:

(1) Someone who can look idealogically at both sides of a question and make a judgment that will benefit the country. Bury ideology rather than the country's economy and future. Someone who is analytical, as well as political.

(2) Someone who can have an open mind on any issue and consult with a wide variety of expert resources and make a judgment based on the overall input that he/she values. Not simply listen to the advice (bias) of "trusted" friends.

(3) Be able to have a vision and to be audacious to STUDY the possibilities and EVALUATE, with idealogical bias, the benefits/risks of a given action.

I could enumerate other qualities that I would like...but the question is which major candidate will come closest to meeting the crisis that our latest "fearless" leader has landed us in. Michael Bloomberg would be my choice; perhaps he could be persuaded to bring his wisdom, compassion, innovative ideas and quest for inclusiveness to the next administration.

Unfortunately, politics is closely linked to economic survival. Let's hope that the country can elect a candidate who we deserve....rather than one imposed on us by vested interests who are only interested in their own hyper-prosperity. Let's get with it...the time for a change in thinking/action is now.

Lost Decade for Stocks?

sammyg123,

I enjoyed your thoughtful presentation. For your arguments to work we need competent leaders: Republican, Democrat or other. Given their idiotic subservience to ideology uber alles, is there any hope in either of our political parties? This will be the undoing of this country unless we elect someone who has the audacity to search for a different path. Can anyone be as wretchedly wrong-headed and close-minded as our current "fearless" leader???? Maybe.

GW had our adversary bin Laden pinned down in Afghanistan after we took on the Taleban after 9/11. If we had kept him and his pals pinned down in that region, they might still be there in their mountain tunnels paid for by our previous "smart" leaders who were paying him to slay the Russians. Given the terrific hideouts that the CIA financed for him in the mountains of Afghanistan, we might still be looking for him and his henchmen there...BUT not across the entire globe and with the even larger bands of extremists that they have spawned since GW, RC and DR et al. got distracted by some other agenda.

You may be right about the need to fight a war at times, especially when attacked...but let's finish one war before we start another. Too bad Mr. McCain, a proven war hero, allowed a vagabond military-evader like GW, out-maneuver him in 2000? Is this the character we want in our next leader? Courage in the face of a challenge to the homeland? I dare say that Mr. McCain might have been able to make a difference in our military response to 9/11 had he been a real patriot and stood up to the Rovian Bush machine WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE. He might have prosecuted the search for bin Laden that the military leaders favored. Too late for that now, Senator!

Hilary Clinton is more of the same old same old. This is her last shot, given her age, to go down in history with her husband as being the only couple to swap positions in the White House. I wonder what she can achieve in the Oval Office, or the corridors nearby. Ego uber alles.

What is America's choice? No doubt we will get what we deserve, hasn't it happened like that most recently? How does the American voter take back some control in electing a leader in whom it has confidence? Perhaps every ballot with a choice of "None of the Above" will be a start to getting some accountability. Can it be possible that “None of the Above” might come out a winner in some election choices we are given. Best of luck to us, since our ensconced solons are loathe to dethrone themselves.

I agree that money is irrelevant in the face of crisis. We have a major crisis in leadership that has been unfolding for some time now...not just the financial mess that greedy players have been allowed to contrive.

My ideal ticket...Michael Bloomberg/Barack Obama or vici versa. It is time for some fresh ideas. Is America ready?

The John McCain Market Selloff

Politics as usual will continue the decline of a deteriorating empire!

Hilary or McCain are shoe-ins to keep politics as usual.....given their idiotic subservience to ideology uber alles. To me, Obama is a breath of fresh air but can the establishment afford not to destroy his chances...and survive to practice policy as usual. McCain does not need to destroy Obama, the egotistical Clintons' machine will do the job for him.

As I see it, America will get what it deserves in this election, just like it did in the past two cycles. Why did Mr. McCain, a proven war hero, allow a vagabond military-evader like GW, out maneuver him in 2000? Is this the character we want in our next leader? Courage in the face of a challenge to the homeland? I dare say that Mr. McCain might have been able to make a difference in our military response to 9/11 had he been a real patriot and stood up to the Rovian Bush machine WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE. Too late for that now , Senator!

Too bad Michael Bloomberg has chosen not to get into the fray? A Bloomberg-Obama ticket would be a terrific opportunity to reform the USA in my opinion.