Premature attrition of confidence

Even before Pres. Elect Barack Obama gets inaugurated on January 20, 2009, there are troubling signs in the horizon. The “Yes we can,” slogan of his campaign during the election seems dampened by the herculean task ahead. His mesmerizing words which don’t synch well with truth have started to show their cracks. From his camp, liberal supporters have started to show impatience.

“Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices. Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left. Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.”—YahooNews (12/08/08, Lee,C; Henderson, NM)

President George Bush must be smiling with relief. Obama’s new administration promises a 2.5 million job generation program which may cost taxpayers 500 billion to finance. To raise optimism, the upcoming president dangles Harvard technocrats to keep his magic in place. But many believe experts can only be as good as the results they can produce.

What the Obama team plans to accomplish is something that the public can’t take bait, hook and sinker. Americans have seen enough of the promises, ineptness, greed, corruption, and extravagance of their leaders. And they know intelligence and smartness aren’t guarantees for success.

This early, liberals from Obama’s party have raised concerns. The messianic black president who has been heavily supported by the partisan media is telling his people that economic hardship is on the way. The financial mess will get worse, he said—a let down on the expectation of the people. It makes his supporters start thinking whether their man is up for the job.

The $700 billion bailout package earlier forged by the government isn’t enough. The beleaguered American auto industry is asking for a rescue package of $36 billion dollars in the wake of more than half a million unemployed have been reported this month. More workers fear that they’ll be laid off from their jobs or they’ll lose their homes from forfeitures. Saddled by about $10.7 trillion debts, USA’s economic picture isn’t pretty. Americans face the worst economic uncertainty since 1974.

Economists Ben Shalom Bernanke and Henry Paulson aren’t sure if what they are doing will work. They are just as confused as the senators and congressmen in Capitol Hill regarding the economy. Their expertise hardly guarantees that things will get better. The heroics they display are dubiously too little too late, after private finances have been ruined.

Americans are nervously watching their investments wear away and go down the drain. The burnished promises they heard during the presidential election frustrate them. They realize consumer confidence isn’t easy to keep when things don’t do well. Stretching more patience, they need to wait and see what will happen. Uncertainty has started chipping on their trust. Many feel the economy is far from being fixed. (Photo credits: Cody Kiffen; M Dumlao98) =0=.

RELATED BLOGS: “Longer recession blues as more jobs are lost in USA” Posted by mesiamd at 12/05/2008; “Mr. Fix & the tall challenge to keep USA & the world to believe that we can quickly come out of the financial mess” Posted by mesiamd at 11/22/2008; “Like Filipinos, Americans Have Money Troubles Too!” Posted by mesiamd at 7/16/2008.

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Mr. Fix & the tall challenge to keep USA & the world to believe that we can quickly come out of the financial mess

It is said that when a new president gets elected in the United States, Wall Street gets exuberant and the market becomes cocky. Renewed confidence and optimism bring an upward trend in stocks trading in America and the rest of the world. The upward trend hasn’t happened in President-elect Barack Obama, the Mr. Fix expected by many to deliver the world from this troubling economic mess.

Since the Great Depression (1930’s to the 1940’s,) America suffers from the worst financial downturn. On Friday, November 21, 2008, on midday trading, the Dow Jones Industrials (DJI) tumbled 67.47 points further, or 0.89 percent, to 7,484.82. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) lost 8.85 points, or 1.18 percent, to 743.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 17.82 points, or 1.35 percent, at 1,298.30.

In spite of the $700 billion bailout, the market continues to slide. With the public confused of what is going on, economic planners need more money for bailouts to keep the economy on track and stable.

There are those who seriously doubt whether this will work as instability and business losses continue. Financial leaders like Ben Shalom Bernanke of the Federal Reserve and Henry Paulson of the Treasury have a short window period to work on before the full blown effects of the crisis appear early next year.

Joblessness at 6.5%, the highest since 1994, is expected to top 8.5% in 2009. It feeds the fire of uncertainty, raising doubts on the usefulness of helping the floundering US auto and banking industry.

More business close-downs are feared. The housing market has almost screeched into a halt leaving many homes in foreclosures. American auto manufacturers brace for bankrupcies. The public is spooked by advisories of store closings. Americans are angered and worried.

The usual honeymoon period given to an incoming administration may not last long as the impatient public can’t wait for the magical fruition of Obama’s promise during the campaign. A scramble to form a government cabinet to help the new president shows signs of old hands from the Clinton administration which make people to ask if it’s the same traditional politics that will be at play. Without guarantee of success, there is palpable anxiety over leaders with checkered past trying to reprogram the nation’s socio-economic direction.

Obama is in a bind. There is a growing belief that the recession will last longer than what has been experienced in recent history. Some are thinking that it can grow worse to precipitate the hapless conditions of the Great Depression. Though not much can be done by individual US citizens to prevent the worse, sensible measures like focusing on one’s job, belt-tightening in personal finance, and deciding wisely on investment strategies are recommended.

Global economies are suffering. The American sniffle has worsened and spread into a global pneumonia whose end result is basically unknown. A protracted economic malady is likely to bring instability and stagnation. It makes civil unrest and chaos more likely particularly in the poor countries where hunger is common.

Meanwhile, the public overwhelmingly craves that Obama comes victorious in reversing the ugly course of business. How best he can do it is subject to debate and entails vigilant waiting. While he prepares for his inauguration in January, Americans gripped with worry need to give him time and the benefit of the doubt. (Photo Credits: JSDart)=0=

RELATED BLOG: “Dr. Doom’s economic crystal ball & the need to say the truth” Posted by mesiamd at 10/30/2008

Americans looking for solution(s) to the financial mess are better off to decide if they know who are accountable

When Pres. George Bush aired the dire warnings of US Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserves Ben Shalom Bernanke that the $700 billion bailout plan must be carried out quickly because the financial crisis can ruin the economy of the nation, America was in panic. Many reflexively agreed to pass a fast legislation for an economic rescue, when the initial shock of the experts’ warning dissipated. The men in the main street started asking what would be the implications if government, at the expense of taxpayers’ money, bails out the ailing privately-run Wall Street. They worried about the future of their homes, savings, credit lines, investments, businesses, and retirement portfolios.

There is urgency in the passing the bail-out package. It looks like the Democrats who control the Congress saw this and Nancy Pelosi (D,) the majority speaker of the House of Representatives and her cohorts announced that a deal was about to be reached. Psyching the people, they made it appear that a bipartisan consensus was in the offing only to reveal later the legislation didn’t pass for lack of votes. This caused the sharp drop in the Dow Jones industrials and huge losses in the market reverberated all over the globe.

Pelosi (D,) was quick to blame politics. In a very nasty statement characteristic of partisan politics, she alleged the Republicans killed the legislation. But in truth a third of her party (95 Democrats) didn’t support the bill she wanted to pass. The new bill had to be rewritten for another vote probably on or earlier than Thursday, October 2, 2008.

The bail-out package bill was killed partly due to apparent rush and lack of deliberation. Many legislators in both political parties needed clarification of the nature of the bail-out. There were lots of questions to be answered before a decision could be made. That was what the American people demanded for the bill they barely could understand.

Democrats and Republicans alike in the meantime called on to stop blaming those who were responsible for this financial meltdown. Speaking in the name of “patriotism” to focus on problem-solving, they were successful in keeping the angered public silent as they were warned of dire consequences if nothing was done quickly.

But as disgusted Americans pondered on their future, many demanded to know who were responsible for this mess. They realized knowing these people was as important as coming up with the solution and deciding whom to vote in the November presidential election. They asked why they, the taxpayers, had to answer for the indiscretion, greed, recklessness, and lack of oversight of Wall Street.

There have been talks that Sen. Barack Obama (D) is somehow involved in the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which triggered the financial market crisis which doesn’t have easy solution to date. Few Democrat supporters including the liberal media are interested to talk about culpability lest they stymie the gains their candidate over McCain (R) in the campaign trail. On the other hand, the Republicans who were in the administration failed to prevent the financial catastrophe that they knew was coming.

The genesis of the money problem dates back longer than the Carter years, but majority of the biased media expediently pinned blame almost solely on Pres. Bush. Moreover, the media had been mum of past attempts of Pres. Bush and Sen. John McCain to make changes in the mortgage lending system, long before the meltdown, but their attempts were foiled by the Democrats, many of whom had been emboldened by interest groups which supported them as politicians. Some of them are the most vociferous in trying to bail-out a failed system that they helped create.

As the Americans try to put together the broken pieces, there is a picture that emerges. If they miss the correct interpretation, they may end up choosing the less qualified president who has to deal with the serious repercussions of this financial mess which is expected to persist. Whichever political party the public looks up to, there is just too much blame and accountability that must be bravely and honestly confronted. The time to do this is now. Isn’t this what the Democrats refer to as “multi-tasking,” the ability to do more than one thing at a time? (Photo Credits: SilveryLily; MacRonin47; Winnie0917) =0=