Seeking Advice

Preview from Europe: Inactive Obama Leads Indices Lower

I enjoy reading how some people say they expected the Obama administration to correct everything in the first few weeks (or even months). And why would the above poster or anybody else be looking for a "change of control" of the House and Senate? You mean you want the Republicans back in control? Isn't that most of the reason we're in the predicament we're in ?

The bottom line is, we have huge structual problems. Individuals who had planned on high home values and ever increasing stock prices to fund their retirements are seeing a new lower trajectory for their nest egg and the only responsible course of action for them is to save more to try to close the gap. Unfortunately, the only way the government can try to stage a recovery is to entice people to spend... or in other words, be more irresponsible -- just what got us into this mess.

Regardless of who is in power, there are no real good solutions. And the pain we're all going to feel is going to make us want to lash out at somebody, somewhere for causing it. To some extent both political parties are to blame and the whole system is to blame. But who has the poltical will or capital to be honest with the American people and say that there's a good likelihood that most people will have to tolerate a lower standard of living for some time to come to make up for the excesses of debt and credit of the last 15+ years? Everyone seems to want some type of "magical' painless solution.