On Economic Shorts

On the Budget Debt
Basic economics teaches that an important role of government is to stimulate the economy during down times through investment. Although this ideal supports the current approach by the Democratic Congress and President Obama, the fact that the previous administration and a Congress (controlled by both parties during that time) miserably failed to control spending; thus creating our current quagmire. Thank you Washington! As all of you point fingers to each other, don’t forget about the three fingers pointing to yourself.

On the Global Financial Crises
David Brooks has an interesting perspective on the current economic/financial situation.

On the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Both parties cite CBO statistics to make their point. Since they cite the same source and even the same report, isn’t the misleading nature of selective use of numbers obvious? Nonetheless, I’ve added a CBO link to the sidebar Resources so you can check for yourself.

On Congress & AIG
In reaction to the public outrage against recent AIG bonuses, the House of Representatives grandstands by passing a retroactive bill aimed at reclaiming much of the money. Regardless of its constitutionality, how would the public respond to retroactive tax increases? Nonetheless, the reactionary nature of the House continues as a demonstration of their ineptness. Columnist Thomas Friedman provides a good read.

On “I Quit”
For anyone who hasn’t seen this, here’s the resignation letter from an AIG executive.

On Linking Bailouts and Education
This is a brilliant letter to the editor from the 3/21/09 Cincinnati Enquirer.

I saw this bailout mania germinating years ago when schools became academies of collectivism and reward our little darlings regardless of how they actually performed. Effort was equated to excellence, and self-esteem was deemed a more important educational end point than achievement.
After a few decades of crowding the workplace with this faulty ethos, it should no one that bailouts are the best solution. They tried their best, just as we taught them; so let’s grade them an “A” for effort and “B” for bailout. Paul B

On a Final Thought
Economic turnarounds are naturally slow, thus not as easy as using a light switch. In the shadow of continued economic struggles, Congress will begin budget debates very soon. Odds are the following will happen:

• Democrats and Republicans won’t agree
• Moderates will be dodging bullets from the left, the right, the progressives, the pragmatics, and whatever the labels
• Partisan posturing gets the priority over searching for meaningful solutions 

The most toxic assests in Washington remains to be the members of Congress and the special-interest conglomerates known as the Democratic and Republican Parties. By seeking and practicing party-first solutions, Congress continues to emulate Nero playing the fiddle while the fire rages across our country instead of Rome.