Monthly Archive for July, 2009

quotes to tickle thought: We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom (Stephen Vincent Benet, Litany for Dictatorships)

National honor is national property of the highest value (James Monroe, 1817 first inaugural address)

No question is ever settled until it is settled right (Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Settle the Question)

news flashes: Former Liberian President goes on trial in The Hague, Netherlands, saying he is a peacemaker and not a cannibalistic warlord; income gaps and corruption fuel violence in China; rioting breaks out in Northern Ireland; France to retry 14 of 27 convicted in anti-semitic attack against one; CIA “kill teams” investigated in the US, where Republicans oppose a proposed consumer protection agency as well as investigations into possible illegalities of the previous administration

in perspective: The first non-white President of the western industrialized world was a liberal elected in part to handle an unprecedented global financial crisis that arose in the last year of the previous conservative administration. The new President has repeatedly said since his election in November that he wants to move the country forward rather than look back. Yet by July, despite his continued popularity, his approval rating with the American public had fallen from the upper 60 percentile to 58 percent, according to a Gallup Poll released on July 12.

That drop in the approval rating of America’s new President could be a a corrective message that the electorate is sending a media-savvy leader. They may be saying, in essence, that ideals are lofty, but there is no moving forward without squaring the past.

The new President has an ambitious agenda in areas such as job creation, stimulation of the economy and health care reform. Republicans and conservatives claim that focusing on the past would only distract from pushing through those reforms.

Yet the allegations about the previous administration include such serious charges as a possibly treasonous false leading of the country into a war and violations of Constitutional rights of citizens. Turning a blind eye to such dirty linen beneath new Sunday finery may just simply be impossible.

According to a July 13 Associated Press report, the projected deficit for the current budgetary year will hit $1.84 trillion, four times the deficit of the previous year, which at $484.8 billion was an all-time high. That deficit had accrued in part because of funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the deficit was shrinking until the last year of the previous administration, when it shot up from $161.5 billion in 2007. That jump was due to the severe recession that had begun in Decemeber 2007, compounded by the global financial crisis that struck in the fall of 2008, which led to the first $700 billion financial rescue fund around the November election.

Further adding to the deficit, according to the Associated Press report, are “automatic stabilizers” that kick in during times of economic troubles to cushion the shock of a downturn. These include food stamps and unemployment compensation to the growing millions of those unemployed. The outlays for these items are up more than 20 per cent from a year ago.

Finally, government revenues have fallen by nearly 18 percent compared to the previous year, due to the severity of the recession and the fall in payroll taxes along with corporate tax collections.

Meanwhile, after the bailout, the largest remaining investment brokerage of Morgan Stanley is looking to dole out compensation to its employees equal to that paid out in 2007, prior to the bailouts. The insurer AIG was under fire again for continued consideration of bonuses to those who had led to its downfall and contributed to the global economic crisis.

Consumer confidence was down in July, according to CNN Money, and Main Street Banks continued to fail, with 52 shuttered since the beginning of the year. Republicans, however, continued to unify against any more stimulus spending, according to the Associated Press again on July 12.

The first stimulus passed by Congress under the prior administration was aimed at shoring up America’s financial institutions. The second passed under the new administration was aimed at jump starting the economy, particularly through job creation.

The Republican opposition to another stimulus package under the new administration is consistent with its continued opposition to the reforms proposed by the duly elected Democratic leader. In that light, America’s newly elected leader has a duty to change course and to admit that his ideology needs correction.

The Obama philosophy of securing cooperation across party lines is a crossroads. With appeasement not working, he needs to get tough and let go of niceness to his forerunners, including a hard squaring of the past in order to go forward.

It seems that the bottom line with the American public is the same as in all nations. In America at the present, even beyond questions of the Constitution and a possibly treasonable rush to war, is the question of security and confidence in their country.

The American public has the right, and the need, to know. What happened to the tax money that began hemorrhaging under the previous administration’s policies of financial deregulation and making war?

quote to tickle thought: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere (Martin Luther King, letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963)

news flashes: twentieth anniversary of the 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain, the leaders of the G8 richest countries meet in Italy to agree on continuing economic insecurities, US banks to be “named and shamed” over complaints

in perspective: The rule of law is sacrosanct but the legal wheels of justice move slowly. Despite massive bailouts, the global economic crisis that erupted in late 2008 continued in the first half of 2009.

Fluctuating consumer confidence and consumer spending were cited as major causes worldwide, along with a near 10 percent unemployment rate in the United States alone, combined with other job insecurities such as cuts in benefits. In that light, a great deterrent in consumer spending to stimulate the economy would be rebellion against injustice on the part of banks being bailed out with consumer tax dollars.

New laws regulating predatory, unfair and capricious banking practices have been passed. They are to go into effect in 2010, as is the new proposal to force disclosure of complaints against banking practices. Yet in the “twitter age,” the new media-savvy Obama administration can do better than to wait.

A government-run and advertised “name and shame” web site can immediately be set up. There, consumers could vent anger for all the world to see when credit is revoked without notice for non-use of a credit card when balance was paid off to avoid a twenty-eight percent interest charge.

Consumer confidence implies trust in the reliability of the currency in the pocket. Justice, as an alternate word for fairness, is an American staple that Americans expect, demand and deserve.