There Is No Middle Ground

‘Common ground’, ‘working together for the good of the American people’, ‘getting the job done’ - all wonderful sentiments, designed to say nothing and, at the same time, placate the masses.

There remain huge differences in the underlying understanding of just what ‘the job’ actually entails. Oh, we can talk about getting unemployment down to 8%, especially if it involves fudging the numbers. We can cut the federal budget the same way. We can improve our education results by giving every graduate a test showing three objects and asking which two are alike. We can offer the people healthcare, houses, and rice (cakes on the fourth of July). We can even fly the flag at sporting events and ‘cut and paste’ the words of the National Anthem onto a teleprompter. We can open our borders and invite everybody who wants to come in. We can export our industries, our secrets and our livelihoods to the hungry abroad. We can take a hands-off approach to brutality and genocide. We can do all these things, but there is one thing we can never do: regain trust in our government.

The way things are today, you’re either for something or against it. It all depends on what you ultimately wish to accomplish. It’s like we’re surrounded by trees in the forest and we can’t find our way out. Each tree demands our undivided attention - each one, a life and death decision - sapping our strength and resolve. Every step involves us in banal argument. What we lack is the long view.

The long view is out there. It’s being consummated right now as we speak - while we argue about this and that.

Egypt is a perfect example. Listening to today’s developments, you’d get the idea that it’s complete and utter chaos over there and that our government doesn’t have the slightest clue about what to make of it. I don’t happen to buy that. I think they know exactly what they’re doing and that it’s playing out exactly the way it was envisioned. No surprises there.

I had to laugh when I heard that Mubarak wants to go to Germany after he steps down. He was our dictator, after all! You mean to say we don’t have a place for him right here in the good ol’ USA? Or maybe, he doesn’t really want to come here, knowing what we did to him.

I still remember how we kept saying that Bush single-handedly made us into the most hated nation on earth. From what I can see, this hasn’t much changed under Obama. In fact, we’ve managed to lose quite a few friends along the way. We certainly haven’t made any new ones. We’re about to lose Israel, and the Suez Canal to boot. What’s that supposed to get us? In case nobody has noticed, the Latin American dominos are falling one by one. What does anyone want to bet we won’t have a communist government on our border with Mexico after their next election?

John Batchelor cites ratings, civility and a depth of understanding the issues; when he should be shouting from the rooftops. Ditto, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy. Either you want to kick over the sand castle or you don’t. There is no middle ground.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Something Has Happened

The world’s economies are imploding. Not that it makes much difference now, but I ask myself, “Did it start with the housing bubble in the U.S.?” Did the insane policy by our government forcing the banks to lend to people who never had a prayer of paying it back result in generating of so much publicly traded toxic paper that it ended up compromising currencies world-wide?

If so, how long will it take for nations around the world to start pointing fingers stateside? Has their reluctance to do so been due to their own disregard of economic principles? Clearly, the integrity of the dollar has been hurt. So far, the banks have absorbed all the blame. At what point will banks drop the pretense and tell what really happened? That what they ended up doing was in response to existential threats from our political class who urged them: First, to continue lending; and, second, to deal with the fallout creatively in anyway they could - short of naming names, of course. As long as the current crop of political elites remained in power, banks were assured, they would be protected. And the banks played the game.

Market signals are oracles. Oracles have no reason to lie. Their integrity is impeccable. Only men can twist the veracity of said signals to suit their own designs – or to ignore them entirely. The rising price of gold, the instability of equity markets, and chronically high unemployment all expose the slight of human hands and the effort to achieve something outside the realm of possibility. Oracles are blunt. They scream the truth amidst the blizzard of whispered lies.

Incompetence? I hardly think so. The oracles are screaming louder. “Name the culprits!” they scream. “Understand their motives!” As the Obama administration (through its mouthpiece, The New York Times) continues to advocate a doubling down on failed policy, we can almost envision the pillow being lowered over the gasping head on the sickbed. Death panels. Rather than taking the screams as proof of potency; rather than taking the oracle’s screams as a warning; the screams must be stifled at all cost.

Last night there was an earthquake off the coast of India. At one thirty in the morning the birds awoke and went nuts. In Chennai, it was a pleasantly balmy night and air conditioners were for the most part turned off - windows open. It took most people till sun up to find out that something had happened.

A Great Foot-Dragging

I don’t think it’s simply a matter of (a lack of) jobs either here or in Great Britain. In countries that have essentially become prisons, in which there are essentially only two classifications of people - wardens and prisoners – there is simply not much incentive to work. Where governments routinely demand upwards of 50% of every monetary unit of sweat in return for shoddy and insufficient services, it has become far more productive to just lie low and wait for the economic climate to improve. The commonly heard complaint about high unemployment, therefore, is merely shorthand for the frustration felt by employers and employees alike who find themselves trapped by ideologically-driven policies that make little sense in the real world.

Add to this the assault we are witnessing on a daily basis on tradition and values, and many consciously (or unconsciously) decide to quit the system voluntarily. We are essentially on strike. Any time kids are sent home from school for the crime of wearing tee-shirts displaying the flag; any time terrorists are given milk and cookies while being read their Miranda rights; any time Al Sharpton opens his mouth; any time a crèche is ordered dismantled at ‘holiday’ time; any time lawmakers vote themselves a pay raise in the dead of a Friday night, we are reminded that this is no longer a country we can wholeheartedly support.

Unemployment, much more than governments’ failed effort to artificially ‘stimulate’, represents a great foot-dragging by the American and British people. Unless and until this is recognized for what it actually is, there will be no improvement in the numbers. We will continue to sit on our hands.

Drastic Alternatives

Barack Hussein Obama will have to decide what it is he wants to happen. Does he want the unemployment rate come back down to normal? We all assume he must want that - at least he says so. In order to do that, however, he would have to change his policies and admit he was wrong. He would have to abandon the idea of wealth re-distribution; reparations; central planning; single-payer everything. He would have to declare himself a friend of industry; capitalism. He would have to begin thinking in terms of American exceptionalism, which involves believing that what's good for America is also good for the rest of the world.

As there is no indication of our president yielding on any of these issues, I would guess the economy will continue to fight him for the remainder of his days. In normal times, under a more conventional president, we, the people, could expect things to improve after this current administration has been voted out. If, as many now suspect, the Republicans are in on it as well - and that we will be doing nothing by our vote except changing hats - our jobless malaise may well last indefinitely.

The key point to watch in all this is whether or not our government will hold off on ‘cap and trade’ legislation for as long as it takes to re-evaluate the science that’s driving the issue. (Remember, McCain was totally on board the ‘global warming’ bandwagon as well.) If not, America is screwed three days to Sunday and Americans should begin to consider more drastic alternatives.