A House Divided - Part 1
More and more people are becoming aware of the Chinese economy’s rapid growth. It has grown 10% this year as the US economy flounders. Are our politicians working for the Chinese? Either they can’t or won’t do anything about the loss of jobs to overseas manufacturers. If you want the American economy to spring back you have to do something about it yourself. And it’s not all that complicated. Just buy things made in America. That is, if you can find something at Walmart that’s made in America. Some entrepreneurial folks could start a whole line of products and you got a whole new movement. Dump the foreign made goods into the bay. Maybe something the Tea Party might even endorse.
The US economy is in trouble, but the problems didn’t just happen over night. It started when politicians started deregulation in the 80’s. When regulations were loosened the corporate raiders started to strip apart companies and sell them piecemeal. The Wall Street guys saw that companies were worth more dead than alive. In essence, the companies that weren’t growing fast enough, but which were still healthy, were just mowed down. That left us with a lot less companies which eventually grew to big to fail.
Then there was the S&L fandango, and more recently they hit upon Derivatives and other scams - selling bad deals such as bundled mortgages. And then they turned around and bet that the mortgage bundles would tank. Why is this legal? It’s a conflict of interest. It’s like if your child was behind in school, and rather than the teacher helping your child, the teacher takes out a bet that the child will fail the course. How long could a teacher get away with that?
The problems of the last thirty years are a litany of big business going overboard, not just into the realm of greed, but into fraudulent and illegal activity. It doesn’t make sense to let them continue with deregulation and somehow think that’s good for the economy.
One of the greatest fears the big drug companies have is that people will start to understand the healing properties of herbs. The drug companies spend millions to lobby Washington to prevent people from using herbs. People have to educate themselves about simple, inexpensive ways of improving and maintaining their health.
Another thing I don’t get is, why this hullabaloo about maintaining the Bush era tax cuts for the super rich. This thing about the tax cuts “help grow the economy” is an urban myth perpetuated by Wall Street. The tax cuts have been in place for eight years and they haven’t grown the economy yet.
And finally, whatever happened to cooperation and civility? The big question is: can we put aside our differences to work together for the greater good? We, as a nation, have to start looking for the common ground, for those values which bring us together, and focus on the goals we all have in common. Beware of those who conscientiously seek to divide America by demonizing the opposition.
"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." Matthew 12:25
The US economy is in trouble, but the problems didn’t just happen over night. It started when politicians started deregulation in the 80’s. When regulations were loosened the corporate raiders started to strip apart companies and sell them piecemeal. The Wall Street guys saw that companies were worth more dead than alive. In essence, the companies that weren’t growing fast enough, but which were still healthy, were just mowed down. That left us with a lot less companies which eventually grew to big to fail.
Then there was the S&L fandango, and more recently they hit upon Derivatives and other scams - selling bad deals such as bundled mortgages. And then they turned around and bet that the mortgage bundles would tank. Why is this legal? It’s a conflict of interest. It’s like if your child was behind in school, and rather than the teacher helping your child, the teacher takes out a bet that the child will fail the course. How long could a teacher get away with that?
The problems of the last thirty years are a litany of big business going overboard, not just into the realm of greed, but into fraudulent and illegal activity. It doesn’t make sense to let them continue with deregulation and somehow think that’s good for the economy.
One of the greatest fears the big drug companies have is that people will start to understand the healing properties of herbs. The drug companies spend millions to lobby Washington to prevent people from using herbs. People have to educate themselves about simple, inexpensive ways of improving and maintaining their health.
Another thing I don’t get is, why this hullabaloo about maintaining the Bush era tax cuts for the super rich. This thing about the tax cuts “help grow the economy” is an urban myth perpetuated by Wall Street. The tax cuts have been in place for eight years and they haven’t grown the economy yet.
And finally, whatever happened to cooperation and civility? The big question is: can we put aside our differences to work together for the greater good? We, as a nation, have to start looking for the common ground, for those values which bring us together, and focus on the goals we all have in common. Beware of those who conscientiously seek to divide America by demonizing the opposition.
"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." Matthew 12:25
posted by Andy Fraenkel at 8:50 PM
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