Unusual Times

There is really a schizophrenic quality to the moment.

 

Is the country (maybe the world) really on the brink of an economic disaster? Or are we in the middle of a recession from which the country (according to some Republican members of congress) will recover on its own?

 

There being no real Edward Murrows any longer, and as many opinions as there are blogs (such as the one you are now reading), the din is cacophonous. As a citizen, as a gas station owner, as a passenger to the times we are in, who am I supposed to get my information from? Who is trustworthy?

 

How can we build a consensus, forge a direction and solve a problem when opinions are as magnified as they are by the internet and as myriad as the number of people who have access to it?

 

I think that this is part of the problem. 

 

 Norm

 

A National Spending Plan with Dignity

My objection to the stim is that it takes an enormous sum of money and...just spends it. There is no national goal attached, no priority and no cogent explanation.

What I want to know is, after spending a trillion dollars, what will we HAVE for it?

Will we develop an alternative energy economy? Or a national high speed rail system? Or Health care for everyone?

Not in this plan, not as far as I can see.

Economists will tell us that the whole idea is just to "spend" however this offends me. Spending for the sake of spending--hmmm, sounds real familiar.  Didn't we just go through a decade of doing exactly that? Spending with no purpose? I understand that we should "spend" but to spend without purpose seems like more of the same nonsense that got us into this mess.

The spending bill should, while executing its function as a stimulus, also re-affirm the core values that made America a great country.

Because it does not do this, and instead looks to most of us like a piñata--a pastiche of everyone's favorite spending plans-- it offends the very people who are expected to pay for it.

The middle class will not forget that the bankers who got us into this mess are being rescued and those who do not even pay income taxes are getting tax rebates. We know that the house flippers and home equity junkies haven't lost anything--they never had anything to begin with.

We will support this stimulus because we are convinced that America needs it to survive. But in the name of decency, could the politicians just grant us the courtesy of allowing America to just HAVE something worthwhile after going on the largest spending spree in history?

 

Norm

 

Another Rant--Not about garages or gasoline.

 

 

There is something fundamentally askew in a society which seeks to reward those who pay no income tax with tax rebates (in the name of financial stimulus), rescue mortgage holders who cynically used non-existent equity to support lifestyles they had not earned and which is now instead pouring money by the bucketful into firms which abused and gamed the system (in the name of a rescue plan) while at the same time sucking dry those who believed in the system and tried to live by the rules.

 

Our financial crisis has the potential to rend the fabric of our society entirely.  The winners in this crisis, if they can be called winners, have absolutely been those who were profligate, devious and out for the quick buck. They have lost little or nothing in the misery they have caused--they either had nothing to lose or, in the case of the investment bankers, had their mistakes paid for by you and me.

 

The losers, unfortunately, have been those who were solid citizens, invested, saved and worked and now find themselves working longer and harder toward a receding horizon while politicians scheme to tax their "wealth."

 

The lesson, if it is not corrected, will not be lost on this generation.  It is not lost on me.

 

The values we are rewarding, in the name of crisis mitigation, are not values with which we can prosper. Even under the exigency of this crisis, we must be careful that our recovery plans reflect values which we can be proud of rather than the values which brought us to this sad point.

 

Norm

A Little above my Pay grade--and not much to do with Garage Insurance

 

 

 

I am losing my enchantment with the direction of the Obama recovery plan.  I realize that some of this is above my pay grade however it seems to me that if we are going to spend a trillion dollars, we ought to have something great and meaningful at the end. And I would also say that appearances count in the way that this is to be administered.

 

To my eyes, the recovery plan seems to be a pork bill of unprecedented size and with little organizational merit except as a raid on the public treasury. There is little alignment between the supposed goals and the actual methods being used to strengthen the economy. My cynical observation here is that the economy will recover (if it is going to recover) basically of its own accord over time. It is clear to me that what Paulson did and Geithner will do are hardly meaningful in the context.  Remember back in November when the economy had "minutes to live?" IN retrospect, they did very little if anything but give/promise banks a trillion dollars with no strings attached-- what did that have to do with saving anything? And the economy, such as it is,  while struggling, is still here.

 

The opportunity (if it can be called that) presented by this crisis is to actually wind up with a) a reasonable alternative to oil for fueling cars and industry OR b) serious infrastructure improvements on a massive scale (such as a nationwide high speed transportation system) OR c) some other focused, massive and worthwhile national priority accomplished.

 

Again, it is becoming clear to me that when the fog has lifted, we will have squandered a trillion dollars, maybe much more and no one will be able to explain where it went. We will wind up with none of the things that you and I consider "worthwhile" and instead will have again lined the pockets of inept and crooked politicians and their lobbyists with our hard earned money. In return, we will receive little or nothing of lasting value except a massive bill that idiots like you and me (and our children) will be expected to pay off--as usual. This is like taking a huge Christmas bonus and basically throwing it away on a drunken bender.  Something that a kid would do if he found money in the street.

 

As to "appearances count", it seems to me that folks like me (and perhaps you) who bought into the system by working hard, paying their taxes, investing and saving and otherwise acting responsibly were the ones most hurt by this. We have had our retirement plans shattered, our savings decimated, our homes at half value and our businesses strapped by limited access to needed credit.

 

Those that were profligate, bought houses they couldn't afford, took extravagant equity loans and never saved a dime are no worse off than they would have been otherwise. In fact, I saw this morning that the plan is to rebate federal taxes to folks who never even paid federal taxes! I think that the argument is that giving money to someone who has none is basically  guaranteeing they will spend it.  Perhaps that works in some economic theory--however, in my opinion there is something fundamentally wrong with rewarding sloth and stupidity with money taken from MY pocket.  And it makes me question a system which rewards that sort of behavior under ANY circumstances--regardless of economic theory.

 

And perhaps worst of all, the assholes who got us into this mess (I would include the bankers and investment houses but you can add whoever you like--including AIG and anyone else who mismanaged their businesses and had their sorry asses bailed out) are actually the ones who are being rescued with our dollars.

 

Makes you wonder why should you pay taxes when your money and hard work is treated so lightly.

 

 By the way, how 'bout them Steelers?