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Obamanomics

To fix the economy, the president-elect should takes his cues from history.

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  • Posted By: melbee1971 @ 11/16/2008 6:57:49 PM

    President-elect Obama,

    Congratulations, I voted for you.

    With hope I'm writing to you as a high school teacher and a parent; I pray you will receive and read this message.

    I've been reading in newspapers and viewing on CSPAN much in regard to the current financial crisis and the efforts to evaluate the results of the $700 billion bail out. As I listen to testimony before subcommittees, congress and senate leaders and government representatives, I am struck by the lack of discussion or realization that so much of our current economic ignorance is linked to our selfish lack of a collective investment in human capital: Education.

    Few people in Congress can actually read and understand the nature of the complicated loans and financial instruments that have resulted in this massive failure. We learn the hard way that ignorance is not bliss.

    In order to have informed citizens, workers, and creative inventors in this country, we need the majority of our people to be educated or enlightened. But the support for public education continues to decline. When will we realize for the sake of our children and grandchildren that economic prosperity and a healthy culture as a whole is intrinsically linked to the masses of our citizens being well educated?

    A thought: Could failing banks be encouraged to adopt a failing school in their community? Would employer bonuses be better received if they were tied to the success of a less fortunate organization, a public school, that is not considered these taxpayer bailout dollars?

    Please keep education reform at the forefront of your thinking when trying to work through these complicated economic market evaluations. These two issues go hand in hand. Please, our children and grandchildren depend on us.

    Most Sincere Regards,
    Melissa Merwin
    Elk River, Minnesota

    "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Madison Version FE 4:480

    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384

    "Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree." --Thomas Jefferson to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805.

    Imagine if the majority of people could read, write, and think at this level like Jefferson, what kind of a world would we be living in today?

  • Posted By: Bullfighter @ 11/15/2008 4:33:52 PM

    The US has always been very generous with Latin America with very little return to show for it in return. How about getting those countries to pay back the American tax payer for decades of keeping that continent afloat.

  • Posted By: Thaens @ 11/14/2008 11:32:25 PM

    Clearly free trade was too free. We need heavy government loan regulation, just as we have the FDA. With "free trade" the companies determine what is right for a largely ignorant populace.

    Chris Thaens
    Tampa Bay, Florida

  • Posted By: bighappy @ 11/13/2008 10:02:31 AM

    Obama supporters, where are you? Before the elections you were so loud in discssions, and now it seems you are scared of your success, because you finally realized that Obama and Dem. agenda definitely will not fix current situation. Be careful what you wish, learn that changing moron Republican for liberal Democrat (instead of smart Republican) is not a smart idea.

    • Posted By: RO in Reno @ 11/14/2008 5:01:29 PM

      Smart Republican? I have yet to see a single one who even understands the problem let alone has a clue as how to best fix it.
      They just have their daily mantra they keep spewing that keeps getting older and more iritating.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:44:17 AM

      "Obama supporters, where are you? "

      Right here. Have been since the election.

      Please make an effort to be honest.

    • Posted By: dor-republican @ 11/13/2008 4:59:00 PM

      well put thanks

  • Posted By: sweety piz @ 11/14/2008 2:56:13 PM

    As a entrepreneur and new small business owner, I have hope that America will remain a beacon of opportunity to all. Support local and "made in America" products, do your part to help rebuild this great country! Remember, the president elect likes pie! So, buy pie at sweetypiz.com!

  • Posted By: sweety piz @ 11/14/2008 2:50:54 PM

    As a entrpreneur and small business owner, I remain hopeful that America will remain the beacon for opportunity. Buy USA products, support local business, make a stand for the country you live in. Obama prefers pie...buy sweetypiz.com

  • Posted By: Harshina @ 11/14/2008 1:32:50 PM

    yeah, cause you know, those demos *** everything up when Bush was in power, cause the dems had so much power during Bushes presidency.............Did you know 5% of repubs have had sex with their cattle?

  • Posted By: sassyl @ 11/14/2008 11:51:07 AM

    Don't blame the demo's for a messed up system,blame Jeb Bush, unjust don't prosper!

  • Posted By: Libricrat @ 11/12/2008 11:36:34 AM

    I do like the idea of all the Social conservatives going to Alaska but, that won't do anything for the economy. As a fiscal conservative, I sincerly hope that then Senate gets it's 60 seat majority. When things get screwed up, (most of us realize that they will), the Democrats and the Socialistic Program supporting liberals will have no one else to blame but themselves...

    • Posted By: jazzmanjim @ 11/12/2008 11:56:24 AM

      The socialists will still blame Bush. It is inherent in socialism (er, democrats) that they are never responsible for their actions.

      Jim Quinn who is a radio announcer in Pittsburgh I listen on XM) has his first law of liberalism: "Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent."

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:10:50 AM

        "The socialists will still blame Bush. It is inherent in socialism (er, democrats) that they are never responsible for their actions."

        If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, nothing is.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 4:19:14 PM

      If the Dems get 60 seats and screw up, then yeah, they have nobody to blame but themselves.

      We'll see what things look like at the end of the "100 days" period following January 20th.

  • Posted By: TenClubMember @ 11/12/2008 12:09:35 PM

    I reject most of this article as presenting a false choice. These arguments--can't increase taxes on the wealthy, can't have a regulatory framework in the markets--are the same arguments we've been hearing and implementing for years, only to see the rich get richer and everyone else get squeezed. While it is true that we can't turn away from free trade and we can't have state run institutions, we can successfully support the working people of America without harming the economy. Bill Clinton did it. And it was the extreme conservatives in power now that started nationalizing our economy.

    • Posted By: marley07 @ 11/12/2008 12:26:50 PM

      Last I checked, the power in Congress has been democratic for the last 2 years.

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 4:22:22 PM

        And what of the years before that? Or are you suggesting the root cause of our economic woes is only two years old?

        • Posted By: marley07 @ 11/12/2008 4:56:08 PM

          no, i would argue it started and was born well before Bush came into office, but my point was to his comment that conservatives started nationalizing our economy, which is not factual.

          • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:09:58 AM

            Oh, okay. So the fault is everyone before and after Bush. Gotcha.

      • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 1:51:52 PM



        Ok, "marley": Let's get back to blaming the Dems. We can share some very authoritative anonymous emails that "prove" it.

        A 40 year republican

      • Posted By: Tappy McWidestance @ 11/12/2008 1:51:25 PM

        Did you miss the prior decade plus that the repugnicans have been in control? You also missed the constant repugnican fillibusters and obstruction over the past two years which prevented the Dems from passing the legislation we needed to avoid this mess. Typical repugnican nut job...

  • Posted By: Sunshine1957 @ 11/12/2008 1:34:26 PM

    My family, friends and I have all cancelled our Newsweek Magazine subscriptions . We really started noticing how bad the reporting was getting early this year, and it just got to the point where we were sick of it.
    So, as of this summer, we have all cancelled our subscriptions. Newsweek is going under, just watch and see.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:09:12 AM

      "My family, friends and I have all cancelled our Newsweek Magazine subscriptions . "

      And yet here you are.

  • Posted By: Sunshine1957 @ 11/12/2008 1:35:26 PM

    Obama = Socialist = Communist That???s all I have to say

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/12/2008 4:21:22 PM

      Did you type that all by yourself, Sunshine? LOL.

      • Posted By: Sunshine1957 @ 11/12/2008 5:07:22 PM

        Yes, I did but I forgot to funish it by indicating that after Communist is Dictator like Hitler or like Chavez is becomming..... So take that and shove it into that empty head of yours!

        • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:08:40 AM

          So, your argument is that Obama will have us all goose-stepping by next summer? LOL.

        • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 5:14:02 PM



          "Sunshine": How could we do that when we can see where it's already been?

          • Posted By: Sunshine1957 @ 11/12/2008 5:23:54 PM

            Are you a Pin Head 40 Year Virgin?

            • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 5:38:46 PM



              "Sunshine": Nah, I'm one of the long time true republican moderates who's disgusted with ignorant right wing xenophobes who infected the party with their ultra right wing fantasies and who hysterically suck up all the radical ideology and propaganda that anyone who isn't paralyzed with fear of anyone in their right wing horror chamber, must be bad.

              By the way, you meant to be ironic when you chose the name 'Sunshine', right? You must just be a joy to be around.

              A 40 year republican

    • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 1:48:02 PM



      Sunshine: Did you learn that from McCarthy? Or are you just duped by the fear propaganda that was so roundly rejected by the electorate, after 8 years of a republican administration?

      Perhaps you prefer continuation of the Bush tax cut for the rich that McC called "irresponsible" when he voted against it... Or maybe you would have preferred McC's proposal to give billions more in tax give aways to oil companies after they're reported world record profits for two consecutive quarters...

      A 40 year republican

      • Posted By: ClementW @ 11/12/2008 2:44:58 PM

        There is a difference between regulated and well regulated. Free market means that each and everyone will participate in it with each one looking out for one's own interest. When taxation enters into the picture, it is not you or I that determine where or how the money that we pay in taxes is spent. The authors of this article make several good points that you may have missed.

        1. Fannie Mae: Would the current economic crisis have happened at all if the sun had set on Fannie Mae 50-60 years ago?

        2. Farm subsidies: You and everyone of the people living in this country is paying more than $350.00 a year to subsidize the big corporate farmers that you are railing about.

        and this is what you mentioned:

        3. You are complaining about the profits of the Oil companies made when the price of oil went up. Who do you think owns the shares of these oil companies? Your retirement accounts, that is who! If these oil companies had not made so much money, I bet the value of the pension funds of almost all the States and most of the 401-K would be close to nothing by now.

        The free market, according to you is not the answer to every economic ill. I bet you are one of the millions of people whose cars I see filling the parking lots of Wal-Marts throughout the country. It is your demand that you have a high income but low cost. Which American industry had low cost? and who outsourced in the end? You and I. The union members were very happy with their union contracts and being fat and happy, did they give a s**t about what the other workers needed?

        • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 3:05:16 PM



          "ClementW":

          "You are complaining about the profits of the Oil companies made when the price of oil went up."

          I'm so crazy about the oil company profits that I think McC should have won so we could give them more billions of tax give aways. You know, things have worked so well over the last 8 years...Just think how much better things would be if we did more of the same...

          "Who do you think owns the shares of these oil companies? Your retirement accounts, that is who! If these oil companies had not made so much money, I bet the value of the pension funds of almost all the States and most of the 401-K would be close to nothing by now."

          Unfortunately, there are many whose pension funds and 401ks don't look so good. And giving more tax breaks to the oil companies aren't going to improve them.

          But, I've got to say that your proposition is one of the strangest expositions on trickle-down economics I???ve seen.

          "The free market, according to you is not the answer to every economic ill." Not the 'free market' that allowed trillions to be looted out of our economy due to the absence of effective regulation.

          A 40 year republican

      • Posted By: ClementW @ 11/12/2008 2:23:41 PM

        It would be really interesting to see what you will do when you get your taxcut. It would be evn more interesting to see what you would spend the money, if it were given directly to you, from the increased taxes that the nearest millionaire would pay.

        • Posted By: 40YearR @ 11/12/2008 2:33:00 PM



          "ClementW": I paid the highest rate under the Reagan tax structure for over a decade. Started businesses, hired employees. Never felt that it was unfair or that who made less were paying too little.

          I just don't buy into the right wing propaganda that advocated that tax cut to the rich which McC called "irresponsible" when he voted against it.

          It is so remarkable to me that so many who don't even get into that tax bracket somehow think that allowing expiration of that tax give away will somehow keep people from starting businesses, or otherwise it will hurt them somehow.

          A 40 year republican

  • Posted By: expatincebu @ 11/12/2008 5:36:47 PM

    Sunshine, Chavez has been elected by landslide several times. His latest legislation was voted down by the people and he accepted their decision (unlike bush with his signing statements). The US tried to install a dictator in Venezuela by organizing a coup attempt several years ago, it was defeated by popular uprising for Chavez.

    Anyone who says Chavez is a dictator or is becoming a dictator is ignorant, an elitist, or just a fool. Which are you?

    • Posted By: Sunshine1957 @ 11/12/2008 6:12:26 PM

      Expatincebu: Actually, before I go, I would like to tell you that a co-worker of mine who is originally from Venezuela. He still has family living there and he often talks about how the people are forced to vote for Chavez! Chavez has people working for him that will threaten people in different ways??? he even knows of some people whose lives have been threaten or the lives of a family member.
      How would you know anything, you probably have never left the US. Travel outside of the US sometime it will help open your eyes. Chavez is becoming a dictator. Venezuela fears Obama because everything about him reminds them of when Chavez was first elected.
      Chavez may have had his workers, but I see that no different from Obama???s army. They were monsters who went after innocent people. If he did that before he got elected, what do you think he is going to do now

      • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:07:47 AM

        "Expatincebu: Actually, before I go, I would like to tell you that a co-worker of mine who is originally from Venezuela."

        Anecdotes are not evidence.

  • Posted By: OnlyCure=Truth @ 11/13/2008 1:50:09 AM

    Are you tired of being lied to?

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 11:05:05 AM

      Yeah. That's why we tossed the republicans out.

  • Posted By: OnlyCure=Truth @ 11/13/2008 2:05:20 AM

    Who want's one world government the CFR and the elite behind it. What will Paulson Bush and now Obama be selling the amarican public in the next few months? A new monitary policy a world monitary policiy that will need oversight and taxes and ect ect this is all part of the plan to make people beg for a world government ruled by the elite first you create panic then you provide the remedy.

  • Posted By: bighappy @ 11/13/2008 9:30:22 AM

    Thanks to the same crisis which brought Obama in White House, he will not be able to implement his disastrous "changes", except bailing out Detroit (means Unions). The bad news - the crisis will be prolinged for his 4 years, because he will not have courage to do right things (just opposite to Dem. agenda). Good news - auto-Unions will be eradicated after great 2013 Detroit bancruptcy, and americans will not vote for liberals for next 20 years (as after Carter).

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:44:54 AM

      Keep dreaming, Sparky. LOL.

  • Posted By: LVUONG @ 11/13/2008 1:31:04 PM

    More taxes for those who work, to finance the biggest well-fare system, and bigger government spending? We have heard of "spreading the wealth" or "redistribution." Honesty and Godliness never die, in the long run. On the contrary, emotion or "good time" never lasts. History is our witness. God bless America, in the tradition of our founding-fathers such as George Washington and John Adams, He sees the whole picture while we limited and imperfect human beings see only the snapshots. It is called spiritual and moral maturity.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:43:37 AM

      Sure.

      You lost. Get over it.

  • Posted By: neocon @ 11/13/2008 3:53:04 PM

    There have been several important articles discussing the fact that the **Number One** priority for Obama and Pelosi will not be any near-term policy initiatives but changes to our democratic system to assure that their political domination is forever. Among likely steps that have been mentioned: the suppression of talk radio; a quick, easy path to citizenship to guarantee millions of new voters grateful to the Dems; changing the rules of the game by stacking the SCOTUS with political partisans; enhancing the power of unions by changing the rules for union elections; further fraud-enabling initiatives like ID-less voting; expansion of franchise to incarcerated felons, etc., etc.

    One matter that I have not heard mentioned is DC statehood. Two more guaranteed far-left senators ??? forever ??? will significantly help to make permanent the Dem grip on power. Wiki says that DC statehood probably needs only an act of congress to become a reality. It gets introduced ~every~ session, but goes nowhere. It will definitely go somewhere this year???count on it.

    Also, I expect to see a renewed assault on the electoral college system which is considered to disadvantage the liberals.

    Personally, there is a limit to how far I can be pushed before I push back.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:42:22 AM

      ": There have been several important articles discussing the fact that the **Number One** priority for Obama and Pelosi will not be any near-term policy initiatives but changes to our democratic system to assure that their political domination is forever."

      Link?

  • Posted By: SeaHabit49 @ 11/13/2008 11:57:24 PM

    Obama might do some good things for average Americans but if he does it will be because he was forced by circumstances and/or organized public pressure. This is some background on some of Obama's economic advisors:
    Paul Volker:
    Jimmy Carter selected Volker for Fed Chairman and Volker served in that position during the 1980s too. As Jimmy Carter's domestic policy advisor Stuart Eizenstat explained, "Volcker was selected because he was the candidate of Wall Street. This was their price, in effect." In 1985, Ronald Reagan offered Clausen's job to Volcker, but he decided to stay on at the Fed until 1987, when he went back to a high-paid Wall Street job. In the early 1980s Volker intentionally triggered a short but deep recession in order to break inflation. It was called the "Volker Shock" and put many people out of work. Volcker's decision to raise rates so high to rid the US economy of inflation and strengthen the fast-falling dollar had special significance in Africa, write British academics Sarah Bracking and Graham Harrison: "1979 marked a radical change in global economic policy, inaugurated with the 'Volcker Shock' (so called after Paul Volcker, then chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve) when the United States suddenly and dramatically raised interest rates, [which] increased the cost of African debt precipitously, since a majority of debt stock was held in dollars. The majority of the newly independent states had been effectively delivered into at least twenty years of indentured labor. From that point on access to finance became a key policing mechanism directed at African populations."
    Lawrence Summers is another economic advisor to Obama:
    During the 1990s Summers worked on a proposal to privatize Social Security for the Clinton Administration.
    Summers is best known for the sexism controversy which cost him the presidency of Harvard in 2006. But fifteen years earlier he gained infamy as an advocate of African genocide and environmental racism, thanks to a confidential World Bank memo he signed when he was the institution's senior vice president and chief economist: "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted, their air quality is vastly inefficiently low...". Volcker, Summers and a whole crew of similar capitalist economists are whispering in Obama's ear for a resurgent US based on brutal national self-interest.

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:41:48 AM

      "Obama might do some good things for average Americans but if he does it will be because he was forced by circumstances and/or organized public pressure."

      HAR HAR!

      Okay, first the republicans say he won't do anything.

      Then they say the things he WILL do won't be done willingly.

      Give it up. It's pathetic.

  • Posted By: slamdunkt @ 11/14/2008 10:13:38 AM

    IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!

    • Posted By: Doc Howl @ 11/14/2008 10:40:40 AM

      LOL. On what grounds? He isn't even in office yet.

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