Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
 | 
|
|
Re: …
Edited because I could get my friend in trouble with my big mouth.
Last edited by Jeash, 7/3/2009, 0:42
|
|
7/3/2009, 0:39
|
|
smous
Cowtalk Staff
Global user
Registered: 11-2003
Location: South Africa
Posts: 1905
Karma: 40 (+40/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
US Election 2008
Received this e-mail the other day, it may be appropriate in this thread:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks
consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment
constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these
customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These
securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed.
Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager (subsequently of course fired due his negativity) of the bank decides that slowly the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by
the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
However they cannot pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better,
stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation.
Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock
consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied against
the non-drinkers.
---
WWS-SA
|
|
7/3/2009, 6:43
|
|
SanHaven
VG89
Global user
Registered: 10-2008
Posts: 143
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
i like that smous, perhaps the car, oil, rotten big shot big spendors are the alchoholics while the dairy farmers are the nondrinkers? I didnt vote for Obama. After election i was fearful yet hopeful he had some good ideas and we would maybe do well. Now i am scared like never before. Im starting to think this cat has no clue what he's doing. Furthermore it upsets me that if we come out of this he'll be a hero, and even if he makes it worse it will be because bush gave him these problems. Those who like Obama seem to do so because he's a smooth talker but thats what scares me the most. Bush was no hero i guess but Obama still seems a little slimy to me. i was also a fair bit upset when i watched his speech and amid spending more money in a week than any other president in 4-8 years he wanted to cut money from agribusiness.
|
|
10/3/2009, 3:00
|
|
ghz
EX94
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 471
Karma: 16 (+16/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
I was back in the U.S. in october for my fathers funeral and again for Christmas and new yr.,I have never seen anything like the Messianic hype Obama and the blatantly biased media created,we now no longer have a " commander in chief " but a " messiah in chief " ,I both fear his "success" and him failing.
Todays harsh words by Obama worshiper Warren Buffet towards Obama and team are troubling to me,that cant be a good sign at all, also seems the MSM are down playing the whole thing.
|
|
10/3/2009, 21:22
|
|
flyhigher
GP83
Global user
Registered: 05-2007
Posts: 34
Karma: 0 (+0/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
US Election 2008
This is a perfect example of what happens when the mainstream media elects a President rather than the people.
|
|
12/3/2009, 14:12
|
|
smous
Cowtalk Staff
Global user
Registered: 11-2003
Location: South Africa
Posts: 1905
Karma: 40 (+40/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
US Election 2008
In 1970 a young Wall Streeter named Jim Rogers hooked up with George Soros to start the legendary Quantum Fund. The ensuing decades have seen Rogers build an iconoclastic career as an author, adventurer, and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index. And throughout, Rogers-now based in Singapore-has remained an outspoken global investor. Today is no different. He has harsh words for former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, suggests President Barack Obama and his economic team are not up to the task, and thinks tough love is the answer for America.
MARIA BARTIROMO
What do you think of the government's response to the economic crisis?
JIM ROGERS
Terrible. They're making it worse. It's pretty embarrassing for President Obama, who doesn't seem to have a clue what's going on-which would make sense from his background. And he has hired people who are part of the problem. [Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner was head of the New York Fed, which was supposedly in charge of Wall Street and the banks more than anybody else. And as you remember, [Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry] Summers helped bail out Long-Term Capital Management years ago. These are people who think the only solution is to save their friends on Wall Street rather than to save 300 million Americans.
So what should they be doing?
What would I like to see happen? I'd like to see them let these people go bankrupt, let the bankrupt go bankrupt, stop bailing them out. There are plenty of banks in America that saw this coming, that kept their powder dry and have been waiting for the opportunity to go in and take over the assets of the incompetent. Likewise, many, many homeowners didn't go out and buy five homes with no income. Many homeowners have been waiting for this, and now all of a sudden the government is saying: "Well, too bad for you. We don't care if you did it right or not, we're going to bail out the 100,000 or 200,000 who did it wrong." I mean, this is outrageous economics, and it's terrible morality.
You have said Bear Stearns and Lehman (LEHMQ) would still be around if Greenspan hadn't bailed out Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. Can you explain?
Well, if Long-Term Capital Management had been allowed to fail, Lehman and the rest of them would've lost a huge amount of money, their capital would've been impaired, and it would've put a terrible crimp on Wall Street. It would've slowed them down for years. Instead of losing capital, losing assets, and losing incompetent people, they hired more incompetent people.
Should AIG (AIG) have been allowed to fail, too?
First of all, banks and investment banks and insurance companies have been failing for hundreds of years. Yes, we would've had a terrible two years. But you're dragging out the pain. We had 10 years of the worst credit excesses in world history. You don't wipe out something like that in six months or a year by saying: "Oh, now let's wake up and start over again."
What about Citigroup (C)? What about the car companies?
They should be allowed to go bankrupt. Why should American taxpayers put up billions to save a few car companies? They made the mistakes! We didn't make the mistakes! I'm sure they'll give them the money, but I'm telling you, it's a mistake. It's a horrible mistake.
I totally understand what you're saying, but the banks are under massive pressure.
They all took huge, huge profits. Who was the head of Citigroup? Chuck Prince? I mean, how many hundreds of millions of dollars did Prince take out of the company? How many hundreds of millions of dollars did other Citibank execs take out of the company? Wall Street has paid something like $40 billion or $50 billion in bonuses in the past decade. Who was that guy who was the head of Merrill Lynch (MERR)?
Stan O'Neal?
Right, Stan O'Neal. He got $150 million for leaving, even though he ruined the company. Look at the guy at Fannie Mae (FNM), Franklin Raines. He did worse accounting than Enron. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FRE) alone did nothing but pure fraudulent accounting year after year, and yet that guy's walking around with millions of dollars. What the hell kind of system is this?
Are you worried the economic crisis will lead to political turmoil in China and elsewhere?
I absolutely am. We're going to have social unrest in much of the world. America won't be immune.
What does all this mean from an investment standpoint?
Always in the past, when people have printed huge amounts of money or spent money they didn't have, it has led to higher inflation and higher prices. In my view, that's certainly going to happen again this time. Oil prices are down at the moment, but that's temporary. And you're going to see higher prices, especially of commodities, because the fundamentals of commodities are enhanced by what's happening.
Which commodities are worth buying or holding on to?
I recently bought more of all of them. But I really think agriculture is going to be the best place to be. Agriculture's been a horrible business for 30 years. For decades the money shufflers, the paper shufflers, have been the captains of the universe. That is now changing. The people who produce real things [will be on top]. You're going to see stockbrokers driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors, because they'll be working for the farmers. It's going to be the 29-year-old farmers who have the Lamborghinis. So you should find yourself a nice farmer and hook up with him or her, because that's where the money's going to be in the next couple of decades.
Maria Bartiromo is the anchor of CNBC's Closing Bell.
---
WWS-SA
|
|
19/3/2009, 11:22
|
|
Eryl Vet
EX95
Global user
Registered: 11-2006
Posts: 650
Karma: 10 (+10/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
smous wrote:
I recently bought more of all of them. But I really think agriculture is going to be the best place to be. Agriculture's been a horrible business for 30 years. For decades the money shufflers, the paper shufflers, have been the captains of the universe. That is now changing. The people who produce real things [will be on top]. You're going to see stockbrokers driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors, because they'll be working for the farmers. It's going to be the 29-year-old farmers who have the Lamborghinis. So you should find yourself a nice farmer and hook up with him or her, because that's where the money's going to be in the next couple of decades.
I don't necessarily agree with all the politics, but this last paragraph certainly made me smile. This slightly-over-29-year-old farmer hopes that Rogers is correct on this one!
... and if there are any forward looking supermodels taking heed of the advice in Rogers' last sentence and looking to replace their banker and film star partners ....!!!!!
|
|
20/3/2009, 12:59
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- Two Russian planes flew within 500 feet of U.S. Navy ships participating in military drills with South Korea, military officials said.
After trying unsuccessfully to contact the pilots, U.S. fighter jets met up with the Russian planes and flew with them until they left the area, CNN reported.
One incident occurred Monday, when Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew over the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan. The Russian aircraft flew within 500 feet of the carrier, which was lower than other Russian flyovers in the past year, military officials said.
On Tuesday, two Russian long-range bombers overflew the Stennis and the USS Blue Ridge several times at about 2,000 feet, U.S. military officials told CNN.
Military officials said U.S. aircraft tried contacting the Russian planes on international air frequency radio channels on both days but the Russian pilots didn't respond.
This is what happens when your president automatically assumes a weak position when practicing international diplomacy.
|
|
20/3/2009, 19:44
|
|
howie32
EX95
Global user
Registered: 05-2004
Location: Michigan, USA
Posts: 645
Karma: 14 (+14/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
Jeash wrote:
quote:
WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- Two Russian planes flew within 500 feet of U.S. Navy ships participating in military drills with South Korea, military officials said.
After trying unsuccessfully to contact the pilots, U.S. fighter jets met up with the Russian planes and flew with them until they left the area, CNN reported.
One incident occurred Monday, when Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew over the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan. The Russian aircraft flew within 500 feet of the carrier, which was lower than other Russian flyovers in the past year, military officials said.
On Tuesday, two Russian long-range bombers overflew the Stennis and the USS Blue Ridge several times at about 2,000 feet, U.S. military officials told CNN.
Military officials said U.S. aircraft tried contacting the Russian planes on international air frequency radio channels on both days but the Russian pilots didn't respond.
This is what happens when your president automatically assumes a weak position when practicing international diplomacy.
Yes, but at least I can watch him on Leno make cracks about the Special Olympics, and on ESPN revealing his picks for the NCAA Tournament.
|
|
20/3/2009, 20:40
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
Did they propose basing bombers in Cuba under Bush, Clinton, Bush, or Reagan?
|
|
21/3/2009, 23:52
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
Kennedy did have to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, you pointed out that they did flyovers during Bush, as to say that they are not ratcheting up their activities. I pointed out that they are escalating their efforts. The Russians haven't thrown their weight around on us like this since Kruschev was in charge. They sense weakness in Obama and are trying to take advantage of it. I say that our best hope is for oil to stay cheap bankrupting those vodka slurping knuckle draggers.
|
|
22/3/2009, 16:11
|
|
ghz
EX94
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 471
Karma: 16 (+16/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
I for the most part consider myself to be non political , but this last election and world events have gotten my attention and thoughts a lot more than usual.And I thought the following comment to be interesting.
Calvin Coolidge at the height of his popularity decided not to run for re-election in 1928, this statement of his was later taken to be part of the reason why.
" It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self - delusion . They are always surrounded by worshippers, they are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation,which sooner or later impairs their judgment.They are in grave danger of becoming careless or arrogant. "
Sadly I have had seen this happen (on a smaller scale) by someone fairly close to me, and the consequences were devastating and still not done and over.
|
|
22/3/2009, 19:18
|
|
Eryl Vet
EX95
Global user
Registered: 11-2006
Posts: 650
Karma: 10 (+10/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
ghz wrote:
" It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self - delusion . They are always surrounded by worshippers, they are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation,which sooner or later impairs their judgment.They are in grave danger of becoming careless or arrogant. "
.
A great quote, ghz. It is particularly pertinent to the current crisis, summing up not just the politicians, but the boardrooms of the banks where the 'cult of the individual' led to the unchecked rash decision making that virtually put the world's banking system out of existence.
|
|
22/3/2009, 22:46
|
|
broa
Cowtalk Staff
Global user
Registered: 12-2003
Location: Martebo
Posts: 2621
Karma: 53 (+54/-1)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
Jeash wrote:
Kennedy did have to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, you pointed out that they did flyovers during Bush, as to say that they are not ratcheting up their activities. I pointed out that they are escalating their efforts. The Russians haven't thrown their weight around on us like this since Kruschev was in charge. They sense weakness in Obama and are trying to take advantage of it. I say that our best hope is for oil to stay cheap bankrupting those vodka slurping knuckle draggers.
They started what appear to be a climb back towards their lost position of power, a few years ago. Naturally they will continue to build up their activities over several years, to let us get used to them being back. I very much doubt that it has anything to do with whomever happens to be your current president. they pretty much view the US president as beeing a puppet
anyway. the weakness they sense has probably more to do with the US financial status.
ghz, true words about a problem that is a great part of the present financial problems.
already the romans where aware of the risk and tried to counteract it but history proved their fears to be well founded.
"For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting"
---
"Dum spiro, spero"
Cicero
|
|
23/3/2009, 11:36
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
One of the key factors was the rise in oil and natural gas prices making Russia flush with cash. Hopefully, with the prices of these commodities plummeting Russia will tight on cash. The problem with Russia is that it has always looked to be an expansionist state.
|
|
23/3/2009, 16:22
|
|
howie32
EX95
Global user
Registered: 05-2004
Location: Michigan, USA
Posts: 645
Karma: 14 (+14/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
alan a wrote:
Obama hasn't had his first 10o days yet. Maybe he should be judged after a year or two.
With the way this administration has started off, I hate to think what it will be like after a year or two.
|
|
23/3/2009, 16:41
|
|
Eryl Vet
EX95
Global user
Registered: 11-2006
Posts: 650
Karma: 10 (+10/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
quote:
Call on Barack Obama to save US dairy farmers from economic disaster (20th March 2009)
The National Milk Producers Federation has written a letter to President Barack Obama at The White House pointing out US dairy farmers face economic disaster following a fall of almost 50% in ex-farm gate milk prices in the past 12 months. The letter states “The resulting losses suffered by the nations dairy farmers are historic in magnitude” and are calling for a range of measures all of which involved government intervention to help prop up prices.
Isn't it strange how people forget about their objections to stimulus packages and special interest spending when they are asking for funding for their own interests!
|
|
23/3/2009, 19:54
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
Yeah, this is stupid. We have a supply problem caused by too many cows. They only way to get prices back up is for cows to go to slaughter. Any kind of a support program just prolongs the inevitable. We need to see the least profitable producers go under and their cows go to slaughter.
|
|
23/3/2009, 20:11
|
|
triday1
EX94
Global user
Registered: 12-2003
Posts: 485
Karma: 21 (+21/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
US Election 2008
The NMPF doesn't represent farmers at all other than in their cute little name. It is processor controlled group that figured out a while back if the government pays the farmers they don't have to so their raw product is cheaper yet. Furthermore they got it squelched several years back when we wanted to lower the scc limit down to a more reasonable level and force people to do a better job and cull more scc junk. That would shorten the milk supply and we couldn't have that. Government intervention in milk is a trainwreck. We have a taxpayer funded animal improvement program lab to make farmers produce more milk through genetic improvement(and yes this is a subsidy that anyone using AI is taking worldwide) and then the USDA runs other programs to get rid of excess milk. I can think of much better uses of taxpayer dollars than bull proofs and genomics. The world milk supply is way over demand right now and nobody wants to say it but when 60,000-100000 heifers a year were getting killed in canada that are now in the US producing 25,000 lbs a piece everyone that ships milk worldwide was benefitting. If you don't think that is a mess this fall the sexed semen heifers start calving(devolped in the US(after europe) by taxpayer dollars and now a private patent.) There are 300,000 more of them then are needed to. The industry in this country is in deep crap. There are dairymen milking 6000 plus cows in California commiting suicide, I've read or heard about 5-6 now. US ag policy that people never understand has always encouraged overproduction so there was too much cheap food, remember fat fed people don't revolt. The dairy industry if left alone would not have become the grain and investment hog it became in the US, but cheap grain and propganda made it devolp the current way to soak up the extra grain. We pay lipservice in trade agreements but the policy hasn't changed in years.
As for barack you boys are being mean to him, he's still new. I mean honestly who knew that hiring the guy that supervised wall street(the media completely ignored that issue) the last 5 years or so to guard the nation's money was a bad idea and the chap was smart enought to use a $19 computer program to do taxes on a large income, that's just thrifty. Honestly boys give him a chance, with crack judgement like that he is bound to suceed. Furthermore why would he worry about taxes in the future because washington people apparently don't pay them.
---
People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people.
|
|
25/3/2009, 15:10
|
|
SanHaven
VG89
Global user
Registered: 10-2008
Posts: 143
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
Best post ive ever read Triday. I think you have several valid points. Maybe just good old fashioned cow sense and work ethic alone is all the technology we need to keep our industry afloat. While i now market some of those sexed bulls, i warned/ feared years ago what the use of sexed semen would do to the dairy economy. Now it is coming to realization but who will be the ones not to use it. Unfortunately we all like to be friends in this business but we are all competing against each other in the end. If your going to be succesful in milking cows then you have to wait on ur brethren to go down in flames so less cows will equal less milk and more money, quite a pity
|
|
25/3/2009, 22:57
|
|
foxleigh
Ex97
True blue dinky-di maverick
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Location: southern,oz
Posts: 2196
Karma: 21 (+21/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
US Election 2008
I dont have a problem with big herds but I think they are overrated.
1)if there were no cheap mexican labour in the usa I doubt they would exist because noone else would work for 3rd world wages in a first world country.I have seen herds where 1 person is expected to milk 600 cows by himself in an 8 hour shift and there are 3 shifts a day.
2) Their efficencies are overated.read in the holstein world blog about a herd in texas 20 staff for 2000 milkers not counting field staff.Thats only 100 cows per labour unit and if you were to add the field staff it would be even less.
I think it would have been much more sustainible to keep the 100 cow family farm going where the money flows thru the local town ,the kids grow up with some work ethic and responsibility and the land gets looked after.
|
|
26/3/2009, 0:18
|
|
FiringOnAllFour
Ex97
Cyborg
Global user
Registered: 01-2004
Location: Northern Ireland
Posts: 1839
Karma: 41 (+41/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
I agree with you Foxleigh.
The mexican labour in the long run hurts the american industry.
And to think that so much of the american milk is produced in an incredibly strange (and man-made) environment - central valley ca.
I have noticed myself that large units don't seem to be milking any more cows per man than many family farms.
I am a little surprised that triday thinks there are too many milk stock in the US. We are always told on this side of the atlantic that american herds can't get enough replacements because of the cull rate. I don't used sexed semen, but I think it was designed, not to flood the market with heifers, but to allow selection of best cows, and breed the remainder to Belgian Blue. We are always being told here that the suckler cow herd will not survive and that quality beef will have to come from the dairy herd again, as it did in friesian days.
NB
The last comment assumes that the dairy herd will survive. ?
Last edited by FiringOnAllFour, 27/3/2009, 11:14
|
|
27/3/2009, 11:11
|
|
Jeash
EX95
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 500
Karma: 3 (+3/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
The last three years grade springers were bringing $2500, large dairies were springing up/expanding and the extra heifers were going for replacements.
|
|
27/3/2009, 16:26
|
|
ghz
EX94
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 471
Karma: 16 (+16/-0)
|
|
|
|
|
Re: US Election 2008
Came across this article by accident this weekend and thought it would fit in here .Talking to relatives in the US both (somewhat)pro and anti Obama it seems the honeymoon is for sure over, ¿or not?
Growing Worries about Our Pied Piper
Americans are catching on to Obama’s fiscal sins and rhetorical devices.
by Victor Davis Hanson
Recent news that President Obama’s approval ratings are beginning to slip is understandable. Even popular leaders lose appeal once they have to govern, and therefore offend, rather than merely promise and please.
And so far, these fairly modest declines in popularity are not resulting in much Republican traction. Few opposition leaders have presented systematic, clear alternatives to the Obama agenda, and even fewer have been knowledgeable and charismatic in voicing them.
All that being said, I think the Obama presidency is going to encounter far more public skepticism than one would expect in the usual post-honeymoon political adjustments. Why? Because our president often acts and talks as if he were at war with what we might loosely call “human nature.”
There is a growing collective recognition that things simply do not work the way Obama thinks they do. They may in the hothouse at Harvard Law School or in the charade of Chicago politics, or among young, hip bloggers right out of Yale, but not necessarily in the larger American landscape or the real world abroad.
First, Obama’s budgetary agenda defies common sense. If it were true that the United States with impunity could borrow $2 trillion this year — and, in the aggregate, run up another $10 trillion in collective debt over the next eight years — then the rules of finance as we know them would be rendered null and void.
In truth, all that borrowed money not only will have to be paid back, but paid back with compounded interest through higher taxes and cuts to government services. And the more we borrow from ourselves and the Chinese, Japanese, and Europeans, the more likely it is that the interest rates will climb — both because we will strain capital markets and because the current deflationary downturn cannot last forever.
The American people sense this. They assume that what goes up must come down. At times they themselves have splurged on their credit cards — and enjoyed the thrill of consumption that comes with borrowed money, or even the notion of magnanimity of helping others with someone else’s cash. But they likewise remember that mounting debt at some point overwhelms the borrower, who must either default or radically curb his standard of living. When voters hear that a broke government is talking of “a second stimulus,” they conclude that there is a collective madness in Washington.
Second, there is likewise a spreading feeling of doubt about our foreign policy. All Americans like to be liked — and like to think they are confident enough to admit mistakes. But Obama is beginning to be predictable, boring even, in his once sincere, but now serial apologies about America’s past and present — to almost everyone from Latin Americans and Europeans to Turks and Muslims in general. And why are we more worried about the feelings of a hostile Ahmadinejad than of a friendly Maliki or Netanyahu?
We already have come to expect a certain boilerplate theme, in which the president seeks to placate his hosts by confessing the errors of previous Americans. But the lawyer does not regularly apologize to his rival firm over courtroom disputes; the contractor does not routinely call up his competitor to confess to his own past unfair business practices that unduly won him the disputed contract; the principal, as a matter of habit, does not call in the teacher to show regret over his own theatrical exercise of influence and power.
In the perfect world of the university lounge, perhaps such noble things transpire. But most Americans suspect that gratuitous magnanimity can earn contempt as often as appreciation. Like serial borrowing, a tab comes due. And in the case of foreign affairs, we all sense that sometime soon, a rather dangerous thug or two is going to gamble that his aggression either will not or cannot be deterred by a remorseful and unsure United States.
Also, in emphasizing America’s alleged sins, Obama shows himself to be somehow oblivious to the simple fact that he enjoys such power and prestige as a U.S. president because someone, at some time, must have done something quite extraordinary. Surely there is more to America than slavery and Hiroshima. So many Americans are vaguely beginning to sense that Obama is simply ignorant of Valley Forge, the Oregon Trail, and Iwo Jima. What happened at these places seems absent from his knowledge of the past, and so fails to inform his present narrative of and future plans for the nation.
Third, the same sense of something not quite right is beginning to characterize Obama’s obsessive evocation of George W. Bush, the prior administration, the need to hit the reset button, the “mess” we inherited, and all the other blame-gaming themes that have been daily fare the last six months.
Most of us inherit jobs from someone else. Many of us think that we do a better job than our predecessors. And some of us also like to think we are cleaning up messes that others left. But such self-serving referencing has a brief shelf life. It becomes soon monotonous, then irksome, and finally repugnant. Obama is nearing that third stage of whining, when many Americans are beginning to bristle, and think privately, “Okay already. We’ve heard enough of your ‘he did it’ routine. Now snap out of it, get a life, and take responsibility for the consequences of your own actions.”
Fourth, people often fail, not just because of the bogeymen “they” who “raised the bar,” but also due to their own actions. But too often in the world of Obama, max out on your credit card and it’s the fault of predatory banks. Default on your mortgage and you were tricked into buying more house than you needed. Choose to buy a cell phone or TV rather than make a monthly payment on a private catastrophic-health-insurance plan, and it is because you were neglected by government. Do not pay taxes, get a tax credit — but then still blame those “who do not pay their fair share.” In contrast, Americans sense that the world of debt and trust will not work without responsibility and personable culpability — and that often our problem is not just to be found in “them” — the duly chastised and arrogant Lords of the Universe on Wall Street — but sadly in “us” as well.
Fifth, novelty wears off. Bush’s tough right/wrong talk sounded welcome after the Clinton era’s indecision and moral relativism. But soon critics got bothered by the excess of “smoke ’em out,” “dead or alive,” and “bring it on” lingo, which emphasized rather than mitigated a certain unease with Texan braggadocio.
With Obama, the charm of last year is slowly wearing off. What once sounded fresh, even cool, is now suddenly predictable and sometimes trite. When we hear “Let me be perfectly clear” and “Make no mistake about it,” Americans suspect that some sort of dissimulation may follow: Obama is not going to be perfectly clear, and we will understandably make plenty of mistakes about it.
Disavowals of government intervention presage a takeover of the auto industry. Promises to be fiscally sober indicate reckless deficit spending to follow. “Not raising taxes on anyone but the very wealthy” suggests everyone will have to pay more. “The most ethical administration in history” guarantees plenty of lobbyists and tax dodgers.
We now expect to hear in these speeches that gargantuan, costly new federal programs will in fact magically save us money. We anticipate listening to a string of evil “some,” “they,” “others,” and all the other bad straw men cited to create false enemies and, in turn, fake heroes.
Presidential talks are to be peppered with a dozen first-person pronouns, as in “I have directed” or “my team is at work on.”
Obama’s personal “story” inevitably follows, as if Americans, after six months of daily reminders, did not yet know that their president is half African-American, grew up without a father, has a non-traditional background, comes from a family with Muslim connections on his father’s side, has an unusual name, possesses unusual insight into race and religion, or is himself a metaphor for a new, diverse America. In the fashion of the obligatory 19th-century log-cabin birthplace and bloody-shirt gallantry at Gettysburg, we get the message “I am not your white-male president.” Ten times I think would have been enough, and after a hundred occasions such self-referencing wears thin.
When the president’s tone, and indeed accent, almost magically change, and he abruptly goes into his southern-Baptist rhetorical cadences, we have a vague sense that his oration must end with the usual ruffles and flourishes of last summer — “hope and change” and “this is our moment” tropes, but delivered without the passion and sincerity of a year ago. The tunes of last year’s Pied Piper are no longer mesmerizing, but becoming sort of creepy and even ominous.
Finally, Obama seems to believe that the exalted ends justify the often questionable means. Having a Latina on the Supreme Court trumps Justice Sotomayor’s past racialist talk and writing. Landing a supposed genius like Timothy Geithner at Treasury excuses Geithner’s inability or unwillingness to pay his fair share of taxes. Becoming popular in the Muslim world invites fabrication about Islamic discoveries and inventions, or the conflation of Middle Eastern religious and gender felonies with American misdemeanors.
So the problem is not just that Obama, like Bill Clinton, is proving insincere, or like Richard Nixon, at times duplicitous. And the rub is not even that he, like Ronald Reagan on occasion, is showing a limited repertoire or, in the manner of the Bushes, is becoming predictable in speech and custom. Obama, like Jimmy Carter, earns the added injury that all wannabe prophets incur when they promise more than mortal purity while proving to an ordinary human in character.
Americans are waking up to the fact that their president says, promises, and does things that simply do not make sense, at odds with what they know of human physics — with the predictable nature of the way humans have conducted themselves for centuries: Borrowing is debt, not “stimulus”; serial apologies soon sound insincere or become counterproductive; blaming someone else becomes tiresome; scapegoating leads nowhere; taking responsibility for failure is as necessary as being praised for success; people can be fooled only so many times by sonorous, ego-laced rhetoric.
Because Obama is a revolutionary who seeks to overturn 50 years of doing business in America both at home and abroad, his shortcomings have the potential not only to diminish his own stature through unmet impossible expectations, but to take all those who signed on to his megalomania down with him.
|
|
13/7/2009, 8:14
|
|
click here to give a full reply or use the box below for a quick reply
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6
|
You are not logged in (login)
Board's time is: 1/12/2009, 13:08
|
|
|
