If you need a good old fashioned hit of U.S. optimism, check out this article by David Brooks in the New York Times - it made my day.
If you need a good old fashioned hit of U.S. optimism, check out this article by David Brooks in the New York Times - it made my day.
Like many of my fellow progressives, I’ve been a bit disappointed with President Obama’s accomplishments to date. Then fortunately, I received an email that illustrated all the many things our President has done so far. I wanted to share that with you as it sure brightened my day.
“Robert P. Watson, Ph.D.Coordinator of American Studies Lynn University”
David M. Walker is the former Comptroller General of the US. He is someone that truly cares about the financial wellness of our country. I saw him last night on the Ed Schultz show on MSNBC. I’m definitely going to get his new book: Come Back America-Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility. Walker writes on social security, healthcare reform, Medicaid and Medicare, tax reform, our international deficits, political reforms and more. Like it or not, we need to keep our eye on ball and this 'call to action' book gives us information and the hope we need to turn things around.
As we approach 2010, it’s amazing and scary to think how close the world came to another Great Depression. For my money, that was too close for comfort. Although the global economic recovery is still fragile, at least we’re recovering. With the New Year approaching, there are a new set of indicators to pay attention to. Top on that list is China. I’m not that concerned with China holding close to a trillion dollars in reserve, since selling dollars wholesale would certainly be mutually assured destruction for the U.S and China. What concerns me is U.S unemployment staying at high levels next year and the congress looking for scapegoats.
If we allow China to become the scapegoat, and this theme starts to catch on with members of Congress, we’re going to have problems. Next year, pay close attention to the debates being held in Congress and see if any anti-China legislation starts to gain momentum. Of course, China’s currency policy is manipulative and needs to be reformed. But telling one of your largest creditors what to do, well, that just isn’t going to work. Whether we like it or not, the Chinese finance minister is our lender in chief. How we allowed our country to get so deeply in debt and become a debtor nation instead of a creditor nation is a story that will be told for generations to come. But it is what it is, and right now, China has the upper hand.
That’s the title of the lead story on the Huffington Post website today, 9/25/09. I encourage you to watch the 5 minute interview with Inspector General of TARP-Neil Barofsky. It’s not good news, but it’s the truth. Kudo’s to the Huffington Post for their excellent investigative journalism-well done.
Click this link to watch the interview:
There is an article in the New York Times today called The Economy’s Green Shoots; Real or Imagined. Green shoots was a term Ben Bernanke used on his 60 Minutes interview when describing his perceived growth in the economy.
In the article, opinions by a few economists are given, both supporting and disagreeing with Bernanke's statement, including Charles Lewis, a former investment banker. Here’s an excerpt from the article written by Lewis:
