FFM

After reading an article in The New York Times by Matt Bai on March 28, 2012, discussing the summer 2011 negotiations to reduce our deficit, I started thinking about the role of the President in governing our country. My conclusion is President Obama made a big mistake during the negotiations and is not perfect; however, he is better than any Republican candidate seeking that party’s nomination.

The video below is from the New York Times. Are you confused whether Romney is conservative? " Nearly four decades ago at Harvard, Mr. Romney embraced an analytical, nonideological way of thinking, say former classmates and professors, one that both matched his own instincts and helped him succeed. On a campus ripe with political and social ferment, he willfully distanced himself not only from politics, but also from larger ideological frameworks and heated debates."  At Harvard, A Master Problem Solver , Jodi Kanton, New York Times, December 24, 2011

In the late 1960’s my brother got a teaching job in the inner city of Milwaukee. The city had a policy if the student did not show up for school the police would go to his house and forcefully take him to school. They refused to learn and they were disruptive to the rest of the students. As a result, no one was learning. My brother made a deal with the gang members. If they would sit quietly in his class, he would respect them and freely hand our hall passes when requested. The result was the remainder of the class had a chance to learn.

Daron Acemoglu , a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of  Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.   The author says the primary reason for nations failing is that a minority of its citizenry controls political power. His study goes back as far as the Roman Empire. In today’s world, oligopolies and Super PACS are buying our politicians.

“Authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, proposal combines cuts to safety net programs with sharply lower tax rates in a manifesto painting clear differences with President Obama.” GOP budget plan cuts deeply into domestic programs, reshapes Medicare, Medicaid, , Washington Post, March 20, 2012 Paul Ryan is naive or he thinks the American people are naive. Either way, his proposal shows everyone how disharmonious the Republican Party is with the citizens of this country. The Republicans drank too much tea.

Daily there seems to be an increase in the clamor for government to impose price controls on gasoline. The rational is that oil based products are almost as essential as food to live. We use cars to get back and forth to work and shop for daily essentials. We also use petroleum to heat our homes and cook. Price controls did not work in the 1970’s and they will not work now. President Obama indicated the United States had 2% of the world’s oil reserves and we consume 20% of the world’s production of petroleum products. If we controlled prices, the result would be less supply of oil delivered to the United States and long lines at the gas pumps. The oil companies will be able to get better prices for their products e lsewhere. The industry is an oligopoly and I am in favor of enforcing anti-trust laws against it; however, price controls are not the way to go.

Stimulate, export, cut deficit and military and restore equality are all related.. We are in the fourth year of a Great Recession that could have been a depression. The end is still not in sight. The net worth of all Americans was affected negatively, as has their optimism and willingness to go on spending binges as they have over the last several decades. To make the recovery happen, part of the answer is to stimulate our economy by investing in our future including infrastructure, education and the internet.  Our ability to presently stimulate is somewhat limited by the debt burden our country is currently carrying as depicted by the chart below. If we cannot show how we can afford to stimulate now and implement a debt reduction plan in the near future, we could be facing the same problems as Greece, Spain and Portugal.

How did it evolve that Hillary Clinton will be the next Vice President of the United States? Simple, it is the logical thing to do. Imagine hiding in the closet in the Oval Office. listening to a discussion between President Obama and David Axelrod, a top political aide to the President. They are discussing the current campaign to be reelected. Obama starts out saying things look more positive then even three months ago. His approval ratings are rising, the unemployment picture is improving, the countries GDP is slowly climbing and the Republicans are beating themselves up in their primary campaign. Further, the Republican base cannot get excited over Romney and therefore they will not be fired up for the election. Obama says, “I could go for a good cigar right about now; however, with my luck just as I light up Michelle will walk in.”

“And I plead guilty to falling into that fallacy. I was vaguely aware of the existence of a growing sector of financial institutions that did not look like conventional banks, and were not regulated like conventional banks, but engaged in bank-like activities. Yet I gave no thought to the systemic risks.” ECONOMICS IN THE CRISIS, Paul Krugmam, Winner of Nobel Peace Prize in Economics, February 27, 2012 I am in the mortgage banking business, at present doing commercial real estate loans, with allot of experience with the residential side of the business. In 2004, a long time friend and client asked me to review his new, small residential mortgage business and give him suggestions to improve.

Per an article in the New Your Times comparing Occupy Wall Street to the Students For a Democratic Society; "Kalle Lasn was 20 in 1962. Today, he is the editor of Adbusters, whose Twitter tag #OccupyWallStreet branded the movement last summer. He does not feel the Occupy movement needs to look to the Port Huron statement for guidance. “If you ask me what is the most powerful, personal and collective feeling of people in the Occupy movement, it is a feeling of gloom and doom, that they’re looking toward a black hole future,” Mr. Lasn said. “I’m not quite sure we need a manifesto to say that.”" Sam Roberts, New Yourk Times, March 5, 2011 The difference between the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is SDS marched and took action. So far, OWS has marched, but has taken no action. Much of the action taken by SDS was violent and I did not, nor do I now, condone violent action. They also had a purpose of convincing this country to get out of

Everyone in America is dismayed by the corruption going on in the Russian Presidential campaign by Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin declared victory today while the BBC reported, “But opposition groups have reported widespread fraud, with many people said to have voted more than once. … They have called for mass protests in central Moscow on Monday.” Here in America we shake our heads in disgust over such actions. At the same time here in America we are in the middle of an election year that has also shown signs of corruption. Our corruption has been legalized by the Supreme Court when last summer they legalized unlimited contributions to political candidates by citizens and corporations, including those that are oligopolies.

On comparing this economic downturn to the one when Reagan was President, I would like to make two points. 1. The country is more sensitive to debt as a percent of GDP in this recession. There are those who will argue we just can't afford to spend this time. We are stretched to the limit. 2. We are fighting a greater lack of confidence this time. During Reagan's time. Unemployment rose and GDP fell, but on whole there was not a sudden drop of the net worth of households. Home values did not decline as much and as fast. The stock market did not decline as swiftly. There was no sense we were in or headed for a depression. As a result of this fall in confidence, it is necessary to work on a plan to address the deficit issue. The plan should not be implemented immediately; however, it should be developed for confidence sake. Confidence matters. Read More: http://goo.gl/SGn4j

In a grim assessment, entitled "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World" , comes from the National Intelligence Council, an independent government body. The report concludes that by 2025, "The U.S. will remain the single most important actor but will be less dominant." If we are going to prevent this from happening we must stand united. We cannot sit back and leave it in the hands of our government. We as a nation and as individuals must demand results.

On Tuesday Romney said " It’s very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments. We’ve seen throughout the campaign if you’re willing to say really outrageous things that are accusative, attacking of President Obama, that you’re going to jump up in the polls. I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am." Just when I was losing all faith in the Republican party.What courage. Thank you sir for giving me faith.

I live in metro Detroit. At the time GM went to Wahington I was only for the bailout if there was a reasonable success plan in place. Romney is wrong. The industry would not have survived if GM went through the normal bankruptcy process. The suppliers in the industry would have been destroyed and so would have 100's of thousands of jobs. Obama made the right decision and fortunately it had the right result. This does not always happen. My party has lost its way led by the Tea Party. Capitalism is broken and needs fixing or must be further regulated t0 protect the consumer and worker from oligopolies. This is directly related to the inequality of income in this country. If we desire to fix inequality, we must fix capitalism. The United States was founded on the principle that everyone is born with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Early on our forefathers decided the best economic model to reach these pursuits was capitalism. Free markets was chosen to