FFM

"When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Pakistan’s president at the NATO summit meeting in Chicago last week, the two spent most of the meeting talking politics, and Mrs. Clinton was nothing if not blunt.  ...Reflecting the Obama administration’s mounting frustration, Mrs. Clinton told him that the only way countries have defeated insurgencies like the ones threatening Pakistan and its neighbor was by forging national unity and exercising political will." Frustrations Grow As U.S. and Pakistan Fail To Mend Ties , New York Times, May 27, 2012 When you are President of the United States you have a fiduciary responsibility to always act in the best interest of the country. This includes utilizing the talents around you in the best way possible. This is why President Obama has no choice but to nominate Hillary Clinton to be his Vice President. She is a strong leader who has the experience and leadership persona.

Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras: 'It's a war between people and capitalism', The Guardian , May 19,2012 Greeks, Italians and Spaniards need a say in the plan to bring their countries back to health. In addition, the ailing countries should not be allowed to become too assimilated with the rest of Europe so as one country is not too big to fail. Gr eece is rebelling against the austerity being imposed on it by the rest of Europe. Mr. Tsipras is leader of a political party in Greece that seems to be in the best position to decide not only Greece's fate, but also that of the euro. I admire his will to fight for what is right for the Greek's; however,  it should not be a fight against capitalism.

The functions of a union in a "free market" economy is a difficult thing to rationalize. In such an economy there is suppose to be many producers serving many consumers with the result that the consumer gets the best products at the lowest prices possible. If a producer does not compete he fails. The theory is on solid footing in a free market; however, it breaks down if the market instead is controlled by an oligopoly or monopoly. In this instance, the producer no longer cares as much about the wants and needs of the consumer. He will produce the cheapest product possible and charge the highest price because the consumer has no choice. In the perfect world, labor will deliver their product, their labor, to the producer under the guidance of a free market system. The problem is we do not have a free market when it comes to labor. Usually one union represents labor at one company and often within one industry. Therefore, labor has the opportunity to "extort" wa

Free Markets, capitalism, is getting a bad name. Main stream America, not just the far right, defines "free markets" as an economy that is void of any government interference, including the task of assuring that our markets are indeed free. There is little concern that many markets controlled by private entities have the ability to set the price, quality and quantity of items produced and they have a heavy influence on what suppliers can charge, including the cost of labor. The Right has done an excellent job of equating the government playing the referee within industries versus government invoking and implementing regulations that cause an industry to be inefficient and wasteful. The left has assisted in demonizing government over-regulation by passing laws that cost more than the benefits received. The government has a legitimate role to assure free markets are free. For decades, politicians from both the right and left have abdicated this role. A current example of

The other members of the G8 demanding that Germany loosen up on its request for austerity demonstrates the structural flaws of the euro zone. Germany is alone standing up to Greece's threat to leave the seventeen nation economic gaggle. This is because Greece is not a "state" of Germany and the Germans are not in the mood to give foreign aide to Greece. The other nations of the Eurozone, the United Kingdom and the United States are for helping Greece with German money. Germany was quick to help create and administer the Eurozone because it was a means to a healthier German economy. The creation of the common currency made it easier to export to other nations and hold down the value of the Deutschmark. It also helped Germany to integrate East Germany into the countries economy.

Jamie Dimon's job is to maximize the wealth of his shareholders. If the government allows him to put the country at risk and to destroy free markets, so be it. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has the same approach. When Romney was in Detroit this year campaigning he said of the Chinese, "They are good competitors, and like all good competitors, will take every advantage they can get. As long as we allow it, they will continue doing so."

Mitt Romney has endorsed the Ryan budget in which there is no provisions for new taxes on the very wealthy. The President last summer offered cuts in entitlement programs in exchange for increases in the taxes on the most wealthy. These discussions fell apart. Now the Republicans are threatening again to not pass an increase in the debt ceiling without a dollar for dollar reduction in spending. When this happened last summer the country's debt ratings were lowered. More importantly, the citizens of this country lost faith in Washington's ability to solve our debt problem and the result was nothing got done. A reason, not the entire reason, why the economy is so slow to recover is that the American people have been inflicted with the "confidence boogeyman". They no longer believe that Washington has the competence to address our debt problem. Who can blame them?

Obama is a moderate not pretending to be anything else. Romney is a moderate who pretends to be whatever his audience is on any given day or moment. During the primary he was a right wing radical. Now he is backing away from that. Let's face it, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, which is not the harbor of right wing radicals. Obama has made mistakes due to his lack of experience in 2008. Since then, he has gained experience, has moved to the center and has a clear idea of what needs to be done. Pushing for health care reform right out of the box was a big mistake when the economy was being flushed down the toilet. How many Presidents took office when the period between the election and inauguration was in such turmoil? I believe many voters understand this history, are ready to forgive him for the mistakes made for a lack of experience and now want to benefit from the hard knocks of the past four years. Many voters also believe we need a President who does not need to think

I am for Obama; however, a recent ad about Bain is not going to do anything to get my vote. A business must make money if it is to survive. The purpose of a for profit corporation is to maximize the long-term net worth of its shareholders while abiding by all laws, rules and regulations. If that were not the objective, no one would invest in a corporation and therefore the corporation would not create jobs. Capitalism and free markets are presently broken and need fixing. This does not mean the profit motive should be trashed. It means free markets and competition is the best way to create jobs. The problem is our markets are not free and industries are controlled by oligarchs. When Romney was in Detroit this year campaigning he said of the Chinese, "They are good competitors, and like all good competitors, will take every advantage they can get. As long as we allow it, they will continue doing so." Was that his approach at Bain? Capitalism was created to serve societ

The Eurozone, created on January 1, 1999 and doomed to fail from the beginning, is comprised of seventeen independent nations. These nations have their own President or Prime Minister along with their own Congress or Parliament. The elected officials are responsible for looking out for the best interest of their nation and its citizens. This responsibility takes precedent over any agreement made with the Eurozone and its members.. Unlike the United States, each member of the Eurozone is not governed by the constitution of a "central government". The Eurozone does not have a central bank and each country does not have power to print its own money.

We need to stimulate more now; however we must do it wisely. Today is not like the Great Depression. We stimulated then because we had no choice. As war was approaching we had no choice but to prepare for it. We would have had no future if we hadn't. After the war we were the last industrialized nation standing and the result was our economy boomed with no competition as the rest of the world was rebuilding and we were doing the building. Today, the answer to the question of whether we should stimulate is less clear. Further, there is much more competition than after World War II and therefore, we cannot expect today's recovery to be as quick as the forties and fifties of the last century. This does not mean we should't try on three fronts. Implement a stimulus package that focuses on investing in things that will help us compete in the future, like transportation infrastructure and upgrading the internet. Address the debt problem. This would be a confidence bu

A form of the "confidence fairy" is needed in the United States; confidence that we have the room to do further spending without making our debt problem so huge that we will not be able to recover from it. The situation today is different from the 1930's through the end of World War II. Back then we were literally fighting for our lives and after the war we were the last country standing. Today the world is much more economically competitive and therefore we are not alone in wanting to meet the world's demand for goods and services. In 1933 the total U.S. debt, combined government, consumer and business debt, to GDP peaked at close to 300%. Today it is 360%.

" ... A year later, the lawsuit hit a brick wall. In April 2011, the  Supreme Court ruled  in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that corporations could write consumer contracts that blocked class-action lawsuits. To do so, the corporations need only draft a contract that a.) requires unhappy customers to settle disputes through arbitration, and b.) prohibits unhappy customers from arbitrating as a collective."   A Rising Tide Against Class-Action Suits,  By   DAVID SEGAL,  Published: May 5, 2012 I have been advocating the use of class action suits to demand retribution from the banking, mortgage, rating agencies, real estate and financial services industries for their contributions to the sub-prime melt down. Those that caused the problem should pay for the problem.

When the consumer is scared he hoards cash. The same is true with business. When they are not sure about the future, they do not invest in new plant and equipment. They stay liquid until they are certain that any money invested will provide a reasonable return in the future. Otherwise, they hang on to cash waiting for a brighter day. It does not matter that interest rates and prices are low; there is fear that they may fall further or worse yet, a major economic calamity may occur. Some call this a liquidity trap. Maybe this is the problem many republicans have with the government stepping up and investing in infrastructure, oil exploration, developing other sources of energy, investing in education, implementing high speed internet and other such projects that would increase our future productivity. Maybe they are not sure we have a future.