How can just one man bring the economy and markets back to life? Through leading by example, cleaning up the filth in the streets, and instilling trust and confidence in the system.
It can be done, and I believe our President can do it. It’s what we need right now and I support his efforts. And that’s.. the end of the story.
RIP Paul Harvey. Thank you for a generation of insightful commentary.
Comments 5
My fear, Mike, is that our current President is changing the system during a time of such uncertainly; hence, the markets fall and Wall St. lacks confidence.
Who knows… what Obama is doing right now may be the answer (I don’t necessarily agree with it). And if it is, then I’m happy to eat my words.
I don’t believe the power the government is gaining is part of of free market capitalism is all about. Had they done their part earlier (in regulating some of the dishonest stuff that happened earlier), we may not be in this mess.
I don’t know…
I sure hope Obama’s plan works!
Posted 05 Mar 2009 at 10:07 am ¶I agree with you Trevor.
I was all for laissez faire economics from the beginning. But, once the people in power said that our economy would fail without intervention, what could I do? IMO, it was nice when I could talk about financial topics without having to involve politics, but those topics are no longer two separate subjects.
This whole mess, caused over years by many short-sighted, immoral and corrupt individuals, was dumped on Obama from the prior administration, an administration which I truly believe held average American interests in utter contempt.
The way I look at is that I’m now given three choices.
1. Continue to complain about how overtly corrupt our whole system has become, have absolutely no faith in any of our leaders, figure things will never change, quit investing, and watch our culture disintegrate into chaos.
2. Place some faith into our new President and his administration to do the right thing, believe that he sees the big picture and wants what’s best for the average American, “hope” that his plans and ideas are just what America needs, keep investing, and support his efforts.
3. Sell everything at significant loss, move to another country, learn another language, and hope their economy isn’t failing too.
Forget option 3. I’m an American and I’m not going anywhere else.
If I choose option number 1, I may as well give up and put a bullet in my head right now.
So, I’m choosing option number 2 and will support Obama’s plans for change. Like you, I hope his plan works. But, I guess only time will tell.
Posted 05 Mar 2009 at 12:05 pm ¶Great response.
Posted 06 Mar 2009 at 3:55 pm ¶I always enjoyed Paul Harvey’s commentary. He was one of the great professionals in radio broadcast.
As for the “rest of the story”…
Mike, you have to go back and take a look at history before you start lumping all of today’s shortcomings on the previous administration.
It was when government got involved in the free market that things started turning south. It was back when the Clinton administration forced Fannie and Freddie to broaden their lending criteria that the housing problem, and arguably the lending problem took root.
One could argue that you could go back further than the Clinton administration, but that policy change to the lending business really started shaping the recession we’re seeing today. It just took nearly a decade to unravel, all the while we enjoyed easy credit lifestyles.
The Bush administration doesn’t get a pass here, no doubt, but you can’t pin this all on one set of crooks in Washington, there are many more with their hand in the cookie jar.
Also, I don’t think you should discount the fact that you can support the office of the President of the United States, and even the man himself, without supporting his policy or initiatives.
It’s much akin to saying if you don’t support the war, you don’t support the troops. It’s nonsense.
I hope our country succeeds and prospers, and I think it will. I hope the policies and spending initiatives set out by the Obama administration fail miserably and do so soon so as not to be further compounded by more spending.
-Grant
Posted 08 Mar 2009 at 4:47 pm ¶Grant..
Mike, you have to go back and take a look at history before you start lumping all of today’s shortcomings on the previous administration. One could argue that you could go back further than the Clinton administration, but that policy change to the lending business really started shaping the recession we’re seeing today.
You’re making a snap assumption that I haven’t done my homework and am placing the entire blame on the Bush administration.
I don’t blame the Bush administration entirely, hence my comment: “This whole mess, caused over years by many short-sighted, immoral and corrupt individuals”. I blame “politicians” entirely.
I wrote a comment on your blog a while back attesting to that fact, but it never appeared.
However, I believe the Bush administration, after recognizing the problems early on, perpetuated them for eight years by ignoring the warnings, and didn’t address the situation until it was too late.
As such, I also don’t think it’s fair that the incoming President have this whole mess dumped in his lap, and then be criticized for the emergency measures he thinks he needs to take in order to save our economy, costly as they seem right now.
I also hope our country succeeds and prospers, and I think it will. But, it’s clear that the previous administration(s) trickle-down policies haven’t worked and another strategy needs to be employed.
You have to go back and take a look at history before you start hoping all of the policies and spending initiatives by the Obama administration fail.
You’ll see that the “fiscal conservative” Republicans are the spenders who actually contributed the most towards our Federal deficit.
BTW.. being a proud American veteran myself, I don’t even support the word “war” for what’s occurring in Iraq. That’s just a word the Bush administration concocted in order to justify a reason for the amount of American and Iraqi lives lost during an unjust invasion and occupation.
-Mike
Posted 08 Mar 2009 at 6:45 pm ¶Post a Comment