My mother is still in the hospital following a respiratory arrest back in early December. So I haven’t had much time to write. However, I have kept up with world events in dribs and drabs. It seems that the Israelis and Palestinians are going at it again. I can’t help but wonder if Hamas was put up to their rocket attacks by Iran. There was lots of speculation that Israel was going to bomb Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities sometime after the November US Presidential election and before the inauguration, when the Bush Administration would have nothing to lose by letting it happen or even helping out (e.g., by allowing Israeli war planes to use Iraqi airspace). So the increased rocket harassment by Hamas came at a suspicious time; were the Iranians trying to distract the Israelis? If so, they sure did a good job!
As to the economic picture here in the US, perhaps it has been a blessing that I haven’t had much time to dwell on it. It will hit home for me; my office is going to furlough me and my fellow workers for a handful of days in 2009. I.e., I’m taking a salary cut, maybe around 3 to 5%. That’s gonna hurt. But it’s better than being laid off. I’ve heard Obama making a lot of doomsday speeches about the economy, in conjunction with his plans for a quick and massive federal spending (and borrowing) program (including infrastructure projects and tax cuts). Well, I can’t help but wonder if all that gloom and doom by the guy in charge is a good thing. The “economy” is a strange phenomenon, something like walking on air. Things go OK when there’s confidence, and fall apart when there’s not. If we could get some confidence going amidst investors and lenders, things might get better faster; sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Gloom and doom might have just the opposite effect. I can’t help but wonder if Obama is going for a political home-run here, setting himself up to look like an economic savior. His stimulus plan will help the economy by year’s end, and if things start looking brighter at that point, Obama’s popularity will certainly be quite high. But all the borrowing that it will require will, in the long run, be an economic drag. Hopefully, his plan will invest in projects that have a countervailing efficiency effect on the macroeconomy, e.g. better highways and other transport facilities, or more scientific research and engineering development (say on fuel efficiency and green energy projects). But he seems to be giving in to the temptation to give out “political candy”, e.g. middle-class tax cuts. As with the Bush tax rebate program last year, it probably won’t do much, given that most people use the money to pay off debt. Even if they did spend it on something, it would only serve to give the consumer sector of the economy one last hurrah; America has got to bite the bullet sooner or later that we were spending (and borrowing) too much on goodies and need to get used to “living plain” again.
I’d like to think that Barack Obama is making a good start to his Presidency, but from what I’ve seen so far on the economic side, I don’t see too much farsightedness and political courage. But I’m staying tuned.
NEXT TIME ON THIS BLOG: All about “Do Not Resuscitate” orders and how my brother and I were almost “sleepwalked” by the doctor and hospital staff into approving something in writing that we did not want (so as to cover the hospital’s butt, financially). Yeah, welcome to modern healthcare; let’s hope that President Obama can fix it!
Jim,
I find that Hamas and Israel both make me wish that the women of their respective nations would “get after” their men. These two nations seem to me like children fighting–except that when nations fight, infants, young children, women, defenseless people, and military men and women die.
I cannot help but think of Ireland some years back when it was in the throes of all the bombings that recklessly killed so many people. The women of that nation got together, said we will tolerate no more of this from either side–no matter how legitimate your “gripes” may be. The women said they wanted peace–and they ended up getting it.
I’d like to see the Middle Eastern women take some initiative in getting their men to stop all the fighting–no matter how legitimate the “gripes” of either side. My attitude is that the women of the nations involved need to tell the men, if you want to fight, yell at each other–no more guns, no more rockets, no more tanks, no more anything military. Talk to each other, yell at each other if you must; but that must be the extent of the fighting. The women of the nations could do it.
I’m sorry to hear that you will have involuntary, unpaid days off in the coming year. Yet, I do applaud the fact that people are willing to take the resulting cut in pay to allow others to continue working. That is noble.
If one goes back to the 1929 depression, one might note that 1929 was just the beginning of a very sad decline that reached its nadir around 1933/1934. So it was 4 or 5 years before the depth of the depression was reached. If that is the case and this depression will be anything like the 1929 one, we have yet to see the worst.
I too wonder about Obama and just how much he will be able to do, for all his good intentions. I’ve been reading a book by James Douglass on JFK. Douglass calls attention to something I never tho’t about before. He notes that JFK would stipulate something be done, and those who should have implemented it simply did NOT do it. They either ignored his instructions and/or blatantly did the opposite of what JFK would order.
I no sooner read about that than I heard Barney Frank on TV being asked by a reporter how it was that the “bail out” law, which had stipulations on how money given to businesses should be used, seemed to have no accountability for how the money was being used. The reporter asked Frank how it was that nobody seems to know where the money Congress granted big business has gone, how it has been spent–even tho there are provisions in the law for accountability. Frank answered: What can you do when people do not do what they should be doing? What can you do when people do not follow the law? True, one could take them to court, etc. However, then the issue becomes flouting the law and the issue of using the “bail out” money correctly is lost.
I find myself thinking: Will Obama be in the same kind of position where he tells his advisors what he has decided and they go off and do what it is THEY want to do rather than what Obama wants? And then what does a president do? The records shows that JFK was helpless in the face of such intransigence on the part of his advisors.
I do however think there is one good thing coming from this depression we are in: People have started to realize just how much they can do without. People have begun to realize that every little new electronic “toy” that comes out is not a “must have” on the credit card.
Perhaps what will really get us out of this mess is a real change of thinking and change of attitude on the part of the regular guy/gal. Now that would be a good thing.
MCS
Comment by MCS — January 11, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Jim,
I find that Hamas and Israel both make me wish that the women of their respective nations would “get after” their men. These two nations seem to me like children fighting–except that when nations fight, infants, young children, women, defenseless people, and military men and women die.
I cannot help but think of Ireland some years back when it was in the throes of all the bombings that recklessly killed so many people. The women of that nation got together, said we will tolerate no more of this from either side–no matter how legitimate your “gripes” may be. The women said they wanted peace–and they ended up getting it.
I’d like to see the Middle Eastern women take some initiative in getting their men to stop all the fighting–no matter how legitimate the “gripes” of either side. My attitude is that the women of the nations involved need to tell the men, if you want to fight, yell at each other–no more guns, no more rockets, no more tanks, no more anything military. Talk to each other, yell at each other if you must; but that must be the extent of the fighting. The women of the nations could do it.
I’m sorry to hear that you will have involuntary, unpaid days off in the coming year. Yet, I do applaud the fact that people are willing to take the resulting cut in pay to allow others to continue working. That is noble.
If one goes back to the 1929 depression, one might note that 1929 was just the beginning of a very sad decline that reached its nadir around 1933/1934. So it was 4 or 5 years before the depth of the depression was reached. If that is the case and this depression will be anything like the 1929 one, we have yet to see the worst.
I too wonder about Obama and just how much he will be able to do, for all his good intentions. I’ve been reading a book by James Douglass on JFK. Douglass calls attention to something I never tho’t about before. He notes that JFK would stipulate something be done, and those who should have implemented it simply did NOT do it. They either ignored his instructions and/or blatantly did the opposite of what JFK would order.
I no sooner read about that than I heard Barney Frank on TV being asked by a reporter how it was that the “bail out” law, which had stipulations on how money given to businesses should be used, seemed to have no accountability for how the money was being used. The reporter asked Frank how it was that nobody seems to know where the money Congress granted big business has gone, how it has been spent–even tho there are provisions in the law for accountability. Frank answered: What can you do when people do not do what they should be doing? What can you do when people do not follow the law? True, one could take them to court, etc. However, then the issue becomes flouting the law and the issue of using the “bail out” money correctly is lost.
I find myself thinking: Will Obama be in the same kind of position where he tells his advisors what he has decided and they go off and do what it is THEY want to do rather than what Obama wants? And then what does a president do? The records shows that JFK was helpless in the face of such intransigence on the part of his advisors.
I do however think there is one good thing coming from this depression we are in: People have started to realize just how much they can do without. People have begun to realize that every little new electronic “toy” that comes out is not a “must have” on the credit card.
Perhaps what will really get us out of this mess is a real change of thinking and change of attitude on the part of the regular guy/gal. Now that would be a good thing.
MCS
Comment by MCS — January 11, 2009 @ 3:07 pm