Politicians Won't Bend, So Economy Might Break

www.statesman.com                                      

POLITICIANS WON'T BEND, SO ECONOMY MIGHT BREAK 

David Brooks,  New York Times Published 7:00 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 72, 2011        

This commentary outlines our global state of emergent condition. I would to share a few key quotes by the commentator:

“If you want a big swig of despair, listen to the people who know something about the global economy. Roger Altman, a former deputy treasury secretary, is arguing that America and Europe are on the verge of a disastrous double dip recession. Various economists say it will be at least another three years before we see serious job growth. Others say European banks are teetering if not now, then early next year. Walter Russell Mead, who teaches foreign policy at Bard College, recently laid out some worst-case scenarios on his blog: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/  “It is about whether the international financial system will survive the next six months in the form we now know it. It’s about whether the foundations of the postwar order are cracking in Europe. It is about whether a global financial crash will further destabilize the Middle East……It is about perhaps even political crisis there. It is about whether the American middle class is about to be knocked off it feet once again. The prognosis for the next few years is bad with a chance of worse. And the economic conditions are not even the scary part. The scary part is the political class inability to think about the economy in a realistic way. The source: David Brooks (born August 11, 1961)^[1] is a Canadian-born political and cultural commentator who considers himself a moderate and writes for the New York Times as a conservative.^[2] He worked as an editorial writer and film reviewer for the Washington Times ^[1]; a reporter and later op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal ^[3]; a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception; a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly; and as a commentator on National Public Radio. He is now a columnist for The New York Times and commentator on PBS News Hour.^[1]
“His argument is we need an approach that is both grander and more modest. Not band aids, not the ideologues who dominate the political conversation. Who are unable to think holistically, he points out  that they pick out the one factor that best conforms to their performed prejudices and, like blind men grabbing a piece of the elephant, they convince themselves that they understand the whole thing. Democrats are predisposed to want more government spending. They keep harping on the one thing they think will cure, more government spending: low consumer demand increase spending will pump up consumer spending. Republican are predisposed to want lower taxes and less regulation. So they continue to harp on they think can be solved with tax and regulatory cuts: low business investment, cut taxes, and reduce regulation. Both orthodoxies take a constricted, mechanistic view of the situation.”

Okay so there is a lack of consumer demand! No jobs, no money, if we have learn nothing else, I think we got it on spending money that you don’t have, it least the middle class and poor got it!
Credit crunch: Don’t know if you hear about this but the filling station are doing one better, and  make things a little more complex. When you get $10 worth of gas or $50 dollars, there is a hold being place on your bank account of $75 or more dollar until the amount of gas purchase clears. Along with the high interest rates on credit card at the beginning of the economy crisis. Does anyone still deal in credit cards it doesn't matter now they are going after you  Debt card as well?  We are budgeting and when you think you have one amount in your account and you go to buy food and it read insufficient funds, I don’t know about you but I freak out. Check your with your bank they’re not sending out notices. The holds can last 2 to 4 days at a time, $75 dollars for $10?

      The continuing slide in the housing prices, the freeze in business investment. What 401k, what job retirement? The still hefty consumer debt levels and the skill mismatch? Not to mention the regulatory burdens, the business classes utter lack of confidence in the White House, the looming explosion of entitlement costs and the public’s lack of confidence in institutions across board.
Will the failure of our country be based on party stalemate? Not what’s good or best for the country as a whole? Is this the way we go down in history?
We could harp on this everyday for the next year that not a solution, maybe small community should to brain storm possible solution. Then the question, might be would they be received on a large scale? Writing and rewriting the problem, doesn’t help. We don’t need an every other day report on where we are in the economy or why it still broken, or why it doesn’t work. Are these panic bottoms, pushed like clockwork to make sure that a big swig of despair is present and accounted for?  We can hope against hope that with time everything will fix itself! Or will we start to think outside the box, and conceive the thought of not being lead by our individual greed