Recently in Economy Category

When I was young talk about millions of dollars impressed me. When I was older talk about billions of dollars dismayed me. Now, regular talk about trillions of dollars, especially government spending, nauseates me. People never seem to learn that they control the fate of the American economy.

Like a law of physics, corrupt politics, unshared national wealth and uncontrolled greed combine to produce economic inequality and delusional prosperity. Now comes a book that should have been titled Stolen Wealth. This would have been more consistent with its long subtitle: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back.

As always, elections are about variables so myriad as to make polling effective only in trend for some elections, and entirely unreliable in others. It appears to me this 2008 election however, is about a crisis in confidence toward authority, and the presidential winner will be the person having shown the most credible judgement.

Most American tax payers could not give a definition of the term "opportunity cost". Just as most Americans could not tell you what al-Queda was, prior to 9/11, 2001. Not knowing however, did not stop al-Queda from attacking America, and not knowing what opportunity cost is, will not stop those oppressive and suffocating costs from forcing future tax increases on income earners in America and pushing the nation toward bankruptcy.

America has a future. American's have a future. In many ways, it will not look like our past. What is happening right now is a revolution, a political, economic, and cultural revolution. There is no choice about it. When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, certain concepts and ideas were put to the test, and in 2007 and 2008, those concepts and ideas brought our economy crashing down, driving 10's of millions of voters to leave the two major political parties, and opening the door to dramatic cultural change going forward.

Shame on them (the politicians) and shame on us (the public). We live in the United States of Shame. Why? Because everywhere we see nothing but disgrace, dishonor and infamy, yet a complete absence of shame. In a nation where religion supposedly plays such a big role, people seem to have used it to suppress shame and avoid blame.

The title of this article (above) is the name of the Bill which passed the Senate last night. It is voluminous and the time between its issuance from the Banking Committee to its vote on the floor likely precluded most Senators from having time to read it themselves. But rest assured their staffers did. Visit and support the Sunlight Foundation for the full text of the Bill. Or, read this article, for an overview of what is happening, the rest of us can understand.

94 Democrats and 132 Republicans in the House of Representatives chose to vote for election on Nov 4, rather than prevent a financial industry heart attack, with global recessionary implications. A few moments before the vote, Rep. John Boehner (R) said America is on the brink of financial disaster, and as much as he hates the imperfections of this compromise response to an emergency, failure to act shall push us over the brink.

How would you vote on the "Work Out", "Bail Out", "Rescue Bill"? It has many names, but, its purpose is to free up money for lending so that our economy does not fail in the weeks and months to come. Below, courtesy of Politico.Com, are how some notable scholars and educated folks would vote:

There is much debate and discussion about what is at stake regarding our economy and this bailout of wealth institutions who have gorged themselves on the profits of bad loans, collateral, and absence of prudence in managing that wealth of others. But, no one is telling the truth about what is at stake, or why these politicians are working feverishly with little sleep night and day. What is at stake is what no one in Washington D.C. wants uttered in a public forum. But history is not so silent about what is keeping them all up at night.