We Ask: When Will the Pain Go Away?
That's why we're such forceful advocates of cellulosic, non-food- based ethanol, which, with greater government and industry support, could substantially reduce the world's dependence on petroleum, and relatively quickly.
Could the Internet help us out of this mess?
Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google
Hundreds of millions of users, billions of searches, tens of billions of Web pages—numbers so large and intangible make it hard to appreciate the scale of the Web and its viral hyper- connectedness. Visiting a cybercafé in Switzerland in 1999, I glimpsed something on another customer's screen—a little Web site my friends and I were building, Google. We had never marketed Google, yet it was already spanning the globe. Now more than half of Google's searches and revenue come from outside the United States. If one country has several quarters of weak economic performance, our business remains resilient—buoyed by the economic strength and search activity elsewhere. Internet technology means more customers from more places, which allows us to benefit from the expanding and diverse economies of the world. We see search queries from everywhere—Antarctica included.
The reach and growth of the Internet magnify the notion that the world's economies are increasingly decoupling from any one nation's fortune. But that doesn't mean the world is becoming more disconnected. On the contrary—the Internet brings a new connection through access to information, better communication tools and shared intellectual understanding.
Today
'
s pain may change behavior for the good
Steve Case, cofounder of AOL and chairman of Revolution LLC
There's good news and there's bad news. I'll start with the bad and the most obvious. Rising oil prices are having a significant impact on our economy. Not only are consumers feeling pain at the pump, but we have hit the tipping point where that pain spreads well beyond, hitting consumers hard at virtually every turn. From the basics like food and clothing, to air travel and family vacations, it is clear that oil prices are going to continue to take their toll for the foreseeable future.
But the good news is, with that pain, I believe we will ultimately experience long-term gain. We see it in the news almost every day: high oil prices are forcing consumer behavioral changes. With tighter family budgets, consumers are wasting less. Also, people are conserving energy through alternative transportation—cycling, carpooling, car-sharing—and in their homes, for example, by turning off unneeded lights. Instead of buying food in our grocery stores that's been shipped for thousands of miles, people are shopping at their farmers markets to buy locally grown food.
Also, there is a push by the public and private sectors to accelerate investments in alternative energies. With many claiming we have reached our peak oil production and some oil geologists believing that 90 percent of the world's oilfields have been tapped, it's clear that alternative energy is no longer a fringe concept. It is part of our future.
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Member Comments
Posted By: melpol @ 10/12/2008 4:04:52 PM
Comment: No finagling at the top alone will restore the American economy. 75 percent of the economy is driven by the spending of ordinary consumers and they are frightened. Call it PTS and it will not be cured easily. The distribution of free booze and Prozac will jerk start spending again. That is the only quick fix that is possible.
Posted By: melpol @ 10/10/2008 12:59:40 PM
Comment: There is no doubt that if there is a deep and long recession homes will have to be shared. No humane government would allow a large segment of the unemployed to go homeless while others have empty rooms. Those that refused to share their space would be seen as criminals and punished by eviction. Our lives would be difficult but eventually the economy would return to normal and we all would get back our privacy.
There would be no time to choose a compatible roommate in times of an emergency.The problems of sharing a home with a stranger can be severe. The distribution of food and sex would have to be negotiated fairly. Fortunately the arrangement will be temporary. But in some cases strangers will become compatible and will be strangers no more. Faith,Hope and Charity can open all doors.
Posted By: cani77 @ 09/27/2008 12:28:46 AM
Comment: In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide the largest morgage bank in the world,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. Also, Fanny and Freddy Mae which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States.
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt.If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash and we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He either didn't care or didn't realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?
The chairman of McCains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues they vote on a personality composite. Which means he is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
He believes people will vote against their own interests.
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Hold them accountable NOW! while it will still help.
Elect Obama Biden 2008