Obama

Sunday Morning Comics - Election Edition

Sponsored by corporate lobbyists - so many candidates, so many ways to buy them

Cup O' Joe

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!

Today's theme are the best of the election campaign videos that are brazenly sexistracistrudebiasedlieshostile
antagonisticmisogynisticusingbigtitgonadstogetsomevotesstupid
notfunnydumbbogusspinpunditryinaboxwasteofbits
funny.

Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy

Right now the entire country seems to believe that Democrats will save the day on the economy and we're looking at a super majority for Democrats to gain complete control of the United States Government in this year's election results.

But, is this really true? Between the corporate lobbyists of the left and the corporate lobbyists on the right, will either party truly represent the national interest or working America's interests?

I have a premise that the only way to get the United States moving economically is to start producing, saving, exporting and raising up the middle class. I am not alone in this conclusion:

Plan 9 From Outer Space is Plan B

plan 9 from outer space
Now that the bail out and throwing money to Wall Street for bad debt isn't doing much, today we had a coordinated rate cut from central banks across the globe.

More money is proposed so Americans can go shopping instead of producing and AIG gets another $38 Billion.

Considering the magnitude of imminent Economic Armageddon, in last night's debate what do we get?  Spend, Spin, Platitudes and our favorite distraction, tax cuts. I often think we would be better with static and noise emanating from the idiot box than this absurd, vague drivel or deflection through attack to avoid the specifics on what will they do.

The Bomb - McCain vs. Obama Plans on the Financial Implosion

madison implodeNews moves at lightening speed.    One minute the story is Lehman Brothers going bankrupt, the next is Barclays is now going to buy some of it, in the asset fire sale in the bankruptcy court.

 

AIG is like watching a building implode, in slow motion.   Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch, yet no one is questioning any of this, including their purchase of another in trouble mortgage firm, CountryWide.  

So, what specifically do these Presidential candidates plan to do about all of this? Right now, we have more finger pointing of the two campaigns with little details on actual policy plans or positions.

Goolsbee - Obama's Economic Adviser - It's All in Your Head

Guess what folks, there is a new economy!    I'll bet you didn't know that just as much as stock evaluations and profit didn't matter in the dot con era.

 

It's All in Your Head

At the helm of the Obama plan is the Chicago School of Economics, heavily promoting behavioral economics..

Aha, if we all just made the right choices, none of this bad shit would be happening right?  A new article, Obama's Geek Economist, in the MIT Technology Review, gives some foreboding hints at what we could expect in economic policy for an Obama administration.  We're being told (sold), we need a new economist for the new economy.

As I recall our economy is a very old story and it's called labor arbitrage.

Obama subscribes to a distinctive set of economic theories developed at the university [of Chicago], and to a corresponding set of policy prescription

Obama and TINA: A scandal we'll never hear about

There's a famous phrase coined by Margaret Thatcher to describe the inexorable march to a brave new world in which social democracy in Britain would be cast into the scrapheap of history.

TINA, there is no alternative:

There is no alternative (shortened as TINA) was a slogan of which Margaret Thatcher, the radical British Prime Minister was fond. In economics, politics, and political economy, it has come to mean that despite capitalism's problems, "there is no alternative" to the status quo of their economic system and neoliberalism. This is the central slogan of neoliberalism, arguing that free markets, free trade, and capitalist globalization are the only way in which modern societies can go, as any deviation from their doctrine is certain to lead to disaster.

Shipping Costs and Offshore Outsourcing

Recently an individual emailed me believing increased fuel costs would magically bring back his service job (engineering). Not so, I pointed out, for unlike manufacturing which requires raw materials, components, shipped around the globe per their ill advised and little analyzed global supply chain fuel and transportation costs, service jobs can be offshore outsourced with almost no supply chain costs whatsoever. And no, putting a toll booth on the Internet super highway is not the answer.

That said, for manufacturing there might be a silver lining to rising energy costs. According to the Wall Street Journal, High cost of shipping goods brings some jobs back to U.S., global supply chain costs are taking their toll:

Gas Prices - DO SOMETHING!

People, how hard is it? While candidates spew and describe the problem, people are going broke and the economy can potentially grind to a halt over gas prices! Here we are in an election and when almost every American knows what to do, our government cannot even get it together to pass initiatives and emergency legislation!

Here are some ideas to do something and do something right now!

  1. Telecommuting

It's the Policy Stupid

I have been watching the Democratic as well as the Republican primary and I must say at this point, the entire country seems to be stuck on stupid. From the media blackout on Clinton to the DNC rules and disproportionate distribution of pledged delegates, not counting two entire states, and then the superdelegates, well, I think it's fair to say the process is one rigged game where the actual voters don't seem to count for much.

To make matters worse, it appears policy has gone by the wayside. An intelligent, well researched and analyzed policy positions and debate on the effectiveness of those positions is long gone from the political blogs.

Pages