Economic/Market Highlights 10/20

The market is rallying back nicely, but the trend has to continue. There is a possibility of it sliding back into the red again. A downward trend has pressure behind it. Lets see over the next one week.

This is off topic…

I am very very SCARE. I hate to admit this but when I get a bit nervous about Obama I tune into O’Rielly to ground myself as he has ways at put things into perspective.

But, tonight O’Reilly SCARED me… He said, I am paraphrasing, he is very uneasy about the possibility of a committed left senate, committed liberal media and sympathizing Obama – - if he becomes president… there will not be any checks and balances. And he also added that it will be difficult for the people to be informed.

I have this fear that we will become a state country under Obama – just like Cuba and China as far as freedom of speech.

PLEASE! Where are the goods on Obama stop this mad train!

I so despise Obama!

I wonder how long until the drop in oil prices is reflected in overall consumer prices? Could this offset Fed-induced inflation?

Turn your fear into a vote and activism! Don’t let it get you down!

I appreciate your additions to this blog, LD, even though I don’t understand most of it.

I sorry if my Grandmother was sick and I have free access to a jet I would not wait until Thursday? and he is not bringing wife and kids?

He is once again using his grandmother

This is not about his Grandmother… it is birth certificate run…

It is amazing that O’Reilly would actually point this out — lately he has been sipping the Obama koolaid, too.

Hopefully, O’Reilly woke the heck back up!!

Yes, I will vote and I am doing everything I can to raise awareness. I am please to say that I did turn some Obama supporters to vote for McCain.

That’s wunderbar!

This is a very sobering article I just stumbled across about Obama Sr. and Jr. After reading it you will know exactly what Obama wants to do if he wins.Its lengthy but worth reading to the end.

Like Father, Like Son
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, August 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Election ’08: Barack Obama’s economic blueprint sounds like one his communist father tried to foist on Kenya 40 years ago, with massive taxes and succor shrouded as “investments.”

——————————————————————————–

IBD Series: The Audacity Of Socialism

——————————————————————————–

As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. advised the pro-Western Kenyan government there to “redistribute” income through higher taxes. He also demonized corporations and called for massive government “investment” in social programs.

Barack Obama Sr., who died in 1982 at age 46 in a Kenya car crash.

Writing in a 1965 scholarly paper, Obama’s late father slammed the administration of then-President Jomo Kenyatta for moving the Third World country away from socialism toward capitalism. He chafed at the idea of relying on private investors — who earn “dividends” on their venture capital — to develop the country’s fledgling economy.

“What is more important is to find means by which we can redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all,” said the senior Obama, a Harvard-educated economist. “This is the government’s obligation.” The “means” he had in mind were confiscatory taxes on a scale that redefines the term “progressive taxation.”

“Theoretically,” he wrote, “there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.”

Therefore, he added, “I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development.”

As Obama’s father saw it, taxes couldn’t be high enough, so long as the collective benefited. “Certainly there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay,” he said. “It is a fallacy to say that there is this limit, and it is a fallacy to rely mainly on individual free enterprise to get the savings.”

His son is also pushing massive taxes and “investments” in social programs — at the expense of free enterprise. Sen. Obama wants to raise the top marginal income-tax rate to at least 39%, while increasing Social Security taxes on those with higher incomes by completely removing the payroll cap. That means many entrepreneurs would be paying 12.4% (6.2% on employer and 6.2% on employee) on Social Security payroll taxes alone, plus the 2.9% on Medicare taxes, for a total federal tax rate of 54%.

In addition, Obama wants to jack up the capital-gains tax rate and reinstate the death tax.

Echoing his father, he argues that the government should impose “tax laws that restore some balance to the distribution of the nation’s wealth.”

And likewise, he asserts that the nation’s wealth ought to be rechanneled by government into “investments” in the economy and welfare programs that create “a new American social compact.”

“We can only compete if our government makes the investments that give us a fighting chance” in the global economy, the Democrat presidential hopeful said in his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.” “And if we know that our families have some net beneath which they cannot fall.”

“Training must be expanded,” his father proposed as one of his government “investments.” Likewise, Sen. Obama wants to “invest” billions more in federal jobs retraining.

His father’s critique of Kenya’s economic policy was published in the East Africa Journal under the title “Problems Facing Our Socialism.” One discovers — after reading just a few pages into his eight-page tract, where he waxes quixotic about “communal ownership of major means of production” — that he wasn’t criticizing the government for being too socialistic, but not socialistic enough.

Obama Sr. described his own economic plan, his counterproposal, as it were, as “scientific socialism — inter alia — communism.” Yes, Obama’s father was a communist who wanted to put socialist theory into action — by “force.”

He trusted the collective over the individual, a theme he successfully instilled in his son, also Harvard-educated, with whom he visited once for a full month in Hawaii, even speaking to his prep school class. He kept up correspondence with his son through his college years.

(Media accounts portray Obama’s father as being completely out of his life after leaving his mother and him at age 2. But Obama’s first book, “Dreams From My Father,” reveals that he remained an influential force in his life. Obama’s first autobiography was devoted to “my father.”)

Listen to what “the Old Man,” as Obama and his siblings called him, wrote in proposing government-run farms: “If left to the individual, consolidation will take a long time to come. We have to look at priorities in terms of what is good for society, and on this basis we may find it necessary to force people to do things they would not do otherwise.”

He explained that “the government should restrict the size of farms that can be owned by one individual throughout the country.”

More evil than individuals, Obama’s father believed, are heads of corporations. More evil still are the bankers and investors, who conspire to control the world through their evil capitalist system.

“One who has read Marx cannot fail to see that corporations are not only what Marx referred to as the advanced stage of capitalism,” he wrote. “But Marx even called it finance capitalism by which a few would control the finances of so many, and through this, have not only economic power but political power as well.”

It’s clear from Sen. Obama’s own writings and speeches that he too is no fan of business or our system of “chaotic and unforgiving capitalism,” as he wrote in “Audacity.” He’s fond of bashing Wall Street “greed” and the post-Reagan rise of individual investing over government investing. He wants to roll back the “Ownership Society.” He resents the profit motive and individuals “on the make.”

“Rather than vilify the rich,” he laments, “we hold them up as role models, and our mythology is steeped in stories of men on the make.”

This is no small point. The man who wants to be the nation’s CEO actually believes we’re living in a feudal society where the rich plunder the poor. And he thinks they should not only be vilified but punished.

“The problems of poverty and racism, the uninsured and the unemployed are rooted in the desire among those at the top of the social ladder to maintain their wealth and status whatever the cost,” he wrote. “Solving these problems will require changes in government policy.”

That is, massive taxation, among other things (or “inter alia,” as his “brilliant” father would say).

Obama wrote in “Dreams From My Father” that he was trying to impress his father by taking a low-paying job organizing and agitating in the Chicago ghetto right out of college. “I did feel that there was something to prove to my father,” he said.

Yet, suspiciously, he does not once mention his father’s communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory. No doubt he wanted to keep that hidden. All he tells readers is that his father was pushed out of the Kenyatta administration. He does not explain why.

“Word got back to Kenyatta that the Old Man was a troublemaker and he was called in to see the president,” Obama wrote, quoting his half-sister, “because he could not keep his mouth shut.” About what, we aren’t told.

However, Obama writes sympathetically of a comrade of his father, Oginga Odinga, who stepped down as vice president and tried to start his own party. He too was angry that President Kenyatta was letting private investors buy up businesses and land “that should be redistributed to the people,” Obama said.

By 1967, two years after Obama Sr. penned his paper, Odinga had been placed under house arrest for holding a rally that turned into a riot.

Like Obama’s father, Odinga was a member of the Luo tribe of Kenya. His son, Raila Odinga, ran for president in 2006. That year, Obama traveled to Kenya and appeared with Odinga at rallies where he criticized the pro-U.S. government Odinga wanted to oust.

When he lost the election the next year, despite Obama’s tacit endorsement, angry Odinga supporters crying fraud sparked riots that resulted in some 1,500 deaths. Amid his ancestral country’s civil unrest, Obama took time out from the campaign trail to phone Odinga to voice his support.

After weeks of violence, Odinga was granted a power-sharing deal. He’s now acting prime minister.

He’s also a something of a communist like his father. An East German-trained engineer, he named his oldest son after Fidel Castro. Paralleling him, Sen. Obama wants to open dialogue with Cuba and once proposed lifting the trade embargo.

The two sons have much in common. However, the son who would lead the U.S. learned from his father’s mistakes and keeps his “mouth shut.” Obama learned that revealing his real beliefs can jeopardize his quest for the power needed to put his “redistribution” plans into action.

Thanks LD. Economics is a difficult subject for me, but I am enjoying your articles very much. Hope you will stay around!

Berg: “Obama & DNC Admit all Allegations”

According to Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a party upon whom requests for admissions have been served must respond, within 30 days, or else the matters in the requests will be automatically deemed conclusively admitted for purposes of the pending action.

On September 15, Philip Berg served Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee with a request for admissions. Barack Obama and the DNC acknowledged service in their motion for protective order, filed on October 6 in an attempt to persuade the court to stay discovery. The Federal Rules require that a response be filed within the 30-day time limit, and Barack Obama and the DNC have not.

.

Berg contends that the failure to respond and serve the response within the time limit is “damning,” and made two appearances overnight on Rollye James’ talk radio program, the second one coming shortly after midnight, during which he disclosed the meat of today’s filings and the ramifications the defendants’ failure to respond may have.

“They did not file answers or objections or anything else to the request for admissions we served upon them on September 15,” Berg said to me shortly before midnight, noting that Obama and the DNC did in fact acknowledge service of the admission in their motion for protective order. “They knew the admissions were due. They knew they must object or answer specifically in 30 days. Here, they did nothing.”

What prompted the rally??

Paulson’s plan to partially nationalize American banks.

MARIA WRITES “I so despise Obama!”

WHY?

6 million hits. Congratulations Larry, Susan and all of the other contributors to this blog!

Why do you ask why?

are you a Obama supporter? I hate what I fear, and I fear Obama.

Few comments relating to above:

Nice to see the stock market rebounding. However, I hope we do not overlook this warning shot across or bow.

Naturally Michelle would not be going along to Hawaii to visit Obama’s ailing grandmother. It is Michelle’s nature to upset people and with his grandmother in such serious condition that would not be good.

OT – read this a short time ago on Gretewire – a post under Gov. Palin’s visit to CO today:

I did go and look up the Global Poverty Act of 2007 sponsored by BO. It sent a cold wave over my body when I read it. Any time a nation gives up it’s sovereignty to the UN for any freakin’ reason that’s SCARY. But it was the part about the US having to give up it’s small arms that freaked me out. AMERICA give up it’s GUNS? I never thought I’d live to see the day when America would be told to give up her guns. We must not let this bill pass the senate. VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!

Does anyone have anything more on this? Do we have to give up small arms as a condition of the Global Poverty Act? Am heading to bed but will be looking into this act tomorrow. If in fact there is something about the US having to five up its small arms, I think this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

Comment by Maria3 | 2008-10-20 23:55:06

are you a Obama supporter? I hate what I fear, and I fear Obama.

I asked because I found “despise” to be extreme.

I did go and look up the Global Poverty Act of 2007

YOU ARE A LIAR

I’ve tried posting this several times… I’ll try once more:

Bernanke Endorses Obama

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122455027730552509.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

This is a test message

October 16, 2008

Don’t Blame Capitalism

By Peter Schiff

Amid the chaos of recent days, as the federal government has taken gargantuan steps to stabilize the financial markets, realigning the U.S. economic system in the process, comes a nearly universal consensus: This crisis resulted from government reluctance to regulate the unbridled greed of Wall Street. Many economists and market participants who were formerly averse to government interference agree that a more robust regulatory framework must be constructed to cage the destructive forces of capitalism.

For the political left, which has long championed the need for such limits, this crisis is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Absent from such conclusions is the central role the government played in creating the crisis. Yes, many Wall Street leaders were irresponsible, and they should pay. But they were playing the distorted hand dealt them by government policies. Our leaders irrationally promoted home-buying, discouraged savings, and recklessly encouraged borrowing and lending, which together undermined our markets.

Just as prices in a free market are set by supply and demand, financial and real estate markets are governed by the opposing tension between greed and fear. Everyone wants to make money, but everyone is also afraid of losing what he has. Although few would ascribe their desire for prosperity to greed, it is simply a rose by another name. Greed is the elemental motivation for the economic risk-taking and hard work that are essential to a vibrant economy.

But over the past generation, government has removed the necessary counterbalance of fear from the equation. Policies enacted by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which were always government entities in disguise), and others created advantages for home-buying and selling and removed disincentives for lending and borrowing. The result was a credit and real estate bubble that could only grow — until it could grow no more.

Prominent among these wrongheaded advantages are the mortgage interest tax deduction and the exemption of real estate capital gains from taxable income. These policies create unnatural demand for home purchases and a (tax-free) incentive to speculate in real estate.

Similarly, the FHA, Fannie and Freddie were created to encourage lending by allowing primary lenders to turn their long-term risk over to the government. Absent this implicit guarantee, lenders would probably have been much more conservative in approving borrowers and setting interest terms, and in requiring documentation of incomes and higher down payments. Market forces would have kept out unqualified buyers and prevented home-price appreciation from exceeding the growth in household income.

Interest rates contributed the most to creating the housing boom. After the dot-com crash and the slowdown following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Reserve took extraordinary steps to prevent a shallow recession from deepening. By slashing interest rates to 1 percent and holding them below the rate of inflation for years, the government discouraged savings and practically distributed free money.

Artificially low interest rates invigorated the market for adjustable-rate mortgages and gave birth to the teaser rate, which made overpriced homes appear affordable. Alan Greenspan himself actively encouraged home buyers to avail themselves of these seeming benefits. As monetary policy caused houses to become more expensive, it also temporarily provided buyers with the means to overpay. Cheap money gave rise to subprime mortgages and the resulting securitization wave that made these loans appear safe for investors.

And even today, as market forces deflate the credit bubble, the government is stepping in to re-inflate it. First came the Treasury’s $700 billion plan to purchase mortgage assets that no one in the private sector would buy. Now it has recapitalized banks to the tune of $250 billion, guaranteeing loans between banks and fully insuring non-interest-bearing accounts. Policymakers say that absent these steps, banks would not be able to extend loans. But given our already staggering debt burden, perhaps more loans are not the answer. That’s what the free market is telling us. But the government cannot abide solutions that ask for consumer sacrifice.

Real credit can be supplied only by savings, so artificial steps to stimulate lending will only produce inflation. By refusing to allow market forces to rein in excess spending, liquidate bad investments, replenish depleted savings, fund capital investment and help workers transition from the service sector to the manufacturing sector, government is resisting the cure while exacerbating the disease.

The United States reached its economic preeminence on the strength of its free markets. So far, the economic disaster exacerbated by government policies is creating opportunities for further government interference, which will lead to bigger catastrophes. Binding the country to a tangle of socialist ideals will seal our fate as a second-rate economic power.

The writer, who was economic adviser for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign, is president of Euro Pacific Capital. He is the author of “The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets.”

Just as prices in a free market are set by supply and demand,

This is a delusion. Time to grow up and treat econonomics as a sub-set of sociology and social psychology.

Thank you Joe Plumber..You exposed Obama as a fraud on American workers and employers.
We are the backbone of America!!
By a 4-1 ratio we reject Obama’s socialism

http://theamericansentinel.com/2008/10/20/actual-job-creators-favor-mccain-4-1-over-obama/

People must be feeling better. Sarah is drawing record crowds everywhere she goes.

Maybe Sarah is giving Americans confidence and she’s single handedly injecting the economy!

“Palin Rally Breaks Record

Local News Posted on October 20, 2008 by Peter Schaller

With just 15 days to go until Election Day, there was a record breaking crowd at Suplizio. According to Mesa County Republicans the rally drew 22,000 people making it the biggest in Grand Junction’s history. The speech was only about 15 minutes, but it touched on a variety of issues from energy independence to the economy.

The crowds have cleared out and now the army of 400 volunteers are tearing down. Mesa County is overwhelming red with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats 2 to 1. The last event like this at Suplizio Field happened back in 1974 when President Ford came, but today it was all about Sarah. Her visit lasted less than 2 hours, but the scramble for our state’s 9 electoral votes is far from over.In politics a lot can happen in 15 days.”

http://www.krextv.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4642

yeah!

I’d don’t know about the Global Poverty Act, but Barack Obama’s campaign has been sending threatening letters to news agencies in PA and OH to stop airing NRA ads regarding Obama’s anti-gun record.

http://www.nrapvf.org/news/Read.aspx?ID=11588&T=1

Okay. Obama has hinted he’d retain Henry Paulsen as Treasury Sec’y. And Robert Gates as Defense Sec’y. Maybe a role now for Colin Powell. Bernanke’s hoping to stay on in an Obama administration by offering an endorsement. Who’s next, Dick Cheney? Alberto Gonzalez?

Where’s the HOPE and CHANGE we can believe in???

That’s what I think

I wrote Andy Martin an email about this, he is in Chicago. supposedly muckraking…
he wrote back saying there is news and news took place, more to come shortly

we will see but I do NOT believe anything about the mysterious Grandmother who no one ever sees

Steve you think despise is extreme but not liar? I can’t stand Obama…You got a problem with that?

I meant Hawaii, Andy Martin is in Hawaii

How’s my favorite Plumber doing tonight?

Obama is Scum…Anybody got a problem with that!!!

You can bet the republican’s will fight like mad to defeat another stimulus package of $300B that Nancy wants and Bernake thinks is a good idea. Two good things happened with this. Powell’s endorsement is now old news, and Bernake is a failed government worker who would have been fired long ago. Now McCain can go after Bernake, Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, Waters, and Obama,and put it all in a neat little ACORN shell.

Obama says “there is nothing wrong with stealing votes”

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/news/politics/obama_ok_with_ohio_tactics_134488.htm

oh. my. god.

arrogance or stupidity or both???

we knew Obama was a criminal but jesus… we never thought he would come out and admit it…

well, maybe he is turning over a new leaf? he did come out with “spread the wealth around” a few days ago…

anyway, here is the full story on the stealing votes quote:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/news/politics/obama_ok_with_ohio_tactics_134488.htm

a. hillary
b. mccain

america first!

I’m not too concerned with national polls, Obama can win the popular vote for all I care, I just want McCain to win the electoral map, its the state polls that I care about, we NEED to win PA, NC, VA, FL, and CO, I think we got a good shot at Colorado since Sarah got 25,000 to come see her today at BOTH events, Sarah alone is giving us all hope

Obama’s not going to win. The whole idea that the most liberal senator could become President based on the youth vote and minorities is laughable. The entire farce will be over in two weeks.

As to the topic, there’s the market and then there’s the economy. The fundamentals of the economy are good, just like John McCain said that one time before he had to walk it back. If you have a college degree, you are 97.5% likely to have a job. (Unemployment for college grads is 2.5%.) You may not get a raise or a bonus this year, but lower gas prices and interest rates will help you make it. If you can’t pay your mortgage, there will be a government program to take your interest rate down and forgive some of the loan balance. It’s going to be okay – the S&L crisis was a lot worse in some ways.

Unfortunately for McCain/Palin, the electorial count is where the real problem currently lies.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Oct20.html

An informative website. The national map has a useful rollover feature.

In California alone home sales are up 65%-people are buying foreclosed homes. fyi…lookin’ good for McCain….

all the political analysts, polls and media pundits in the world cannot predict this election. It is all up to We the People, of the United States of America. And it will be determined on November 4th in the polling booth when millions of Americans who love this country cast their votes for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. There is not enough thuggery, cheating, and money that can overpower the good of God. And Obama can call himself a Christian but HE IS NOT.

WHat Illness did Obama mother died from?

Barack Obama still smokes.

Barack Obama is hiding his grandmother mystery illness.

Obama only relseas a one page documenmt of his health history.

John McCain has relseased several pages of his medical records. And yet the media wants more.

WHat Illness did Obama mother died from?

Barack Obama still smokes.

Barack Obama is hiding his grandmother mystery illness.

Obama only relseas a one page documenmt of his health history.

John McCain has relseased several pages of his medical records. And yet the media wants more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

this will blow your mind… a bunch of Sleazy politicians enraged that anyone would want to regulate Fanny and Freddie and defending the crooks who drove the economy into the ground…

Take these sleaze balls names down and vote them out!

a. hillary
b. mccain

america first!

Why did he NOT bring his wife or kids when he spent that week in Hawaii on “vacation”?

Why did he only visit his “beloved Grandmother” for one hour when he was there “on vacation” for an entire week?

If she had been such an integral person in his life and he loved her so much, why wouldn’t he at least bring his wife with him to say goodbye and his children – if he’s making the trip anyway?

When my parents cross over – would I bar my husband and my children from saying their goodbyes or would I want to include them as part of the family structure?

This is Michelle Obama’s ‘virtual’ mother-in-law – who DOESN’T go to your mother-in-law’s deathbed to pay your last respects and give them your love?

Once again, I say that the way Obama has had his half sister keep her under lock and key during his entire campaign (primaries and general) and kept the Grandmother sequestered from any questions from the Press – IT’S BEYOND CREEPY.

Once again…no speculation…no antennae waving or alarm bells going off by our “intrepid” U.S. Media?

Larry – I appreciate all your posts and Susan’s, but I especially appreciate the financial ones because I need to gain more knowledge in this area and your insight helps provide perspective.

Tristan – Although I used to be a liberal…I am rethinking a lot of my former positions – I pray to God you are correct because the thought of Obama as President with a Democratic Super Majority in power who are already talking again about The Fairness Doctrine – our country will cease being anything like the country we are today – and I mean that in the worst possible way.

HOWEVER, my gut tells me BO is going to win this thing – that it might not even be close (electoral vote wise). I believe the popular vote will be close, but that doesn’t win elections.

Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, dies of Ovarian and Uterine cancer.

If oil prices drop by 50% and gasoline prices drop only 25%, this is not evidence of screwing the consumer. It just shows that some portions of the price of gasoline come from things other than the raw material (petroleum) from which it is made (e.g. refining, research, exploration, marketing, distribution, wholesale and retail markup, etc). These other costs are more stable.

Mostly, I think we’ll see a return to some failed policies, like the fairness doctrine.

LD – great post. Thanks for much needed info, context and perspective. I’m still trying to educate myself in this area so not always sure I know what abreviations stand for like Libor and CDO’s.

…or ‘new’ converts like me stopped watching after he interviewed BO, confirming my notice that he had begun sipping the forbidden drink…

Interesting perspective on cause and effect… but knee-jerk reactions that the disparity in pricing results from greed and avarice are so much less bothersome.

John McCain released a room full of medical records…..Obama a letter. His mom died of Ovarian Cancer….a horrible way to die.

Libor is London Interbank Overnight rate…rate used by banks in lending to one another. Typically this rate has run at .1 to .2 over the Fed Funds rate, which si currently 1.5%. Libor is now app 4% . That spread of 2.5% reflects the fear in the banking system. In light of that governments aroudn the world have broguth out the bazooka to backstop the banks and flood the system with liquidity which hopefully opens credit lines again.

CDOs are “Collateralized Debt Obl;igations” which are pools of underlying loans and other forms of corporate debt that Wall St. bundled and sold to investors. These deals often incorporated significant leverage which is exacerbating the losses. This is where the next “multiple hundred billion dolalr losses” will come not only for the Wall St. investment banks but also the investors (banks, insurance companies, money managers).

Hope this helps!!

The far right presumes to tell us not only who the real Americans are, but also who the true Christians are?

They’ve presumed too damn much. Their presumption that they should also own and control the nation is one presumption too many.

I’m liberal on the social issues and centrist on the economic and foreign policy issues and a registered Democrat. But I’ll be the first to put a socialist or a terrorist up against the wall.

It’s so simple anyone should be able to figure it out: McCain is totally out of touch with economic reality. His statement that “The fundamentals of the economy are sound” should alert anyone to the danger he represents.

The fundamentals are as follows:

The nation is now over ten trillion dollars in debt. We doubled it in 8 years. Much of this debt is owed to our economic competitors. This is a number so large most cannot even conceive of what it means.

We’re adding to that debt faster than any time in our history. Current policy could add another trillion in a single year.

We’re dependent on early 20th Century energy technology, and on foreign sources for 70% of the obsolete fuel we need the most. We have no control over the supply or price.

By and large, our work force is deep in personal debt. We’ve encouraged them to live on credit and discouraged them from accumulating personal savings by artifically suppressing interest rates. Meanwhile, the solvency of the Social Security retirement system has been placed in serious doubt by the uncontrolled growth of public debt.

In a world becoming increasingly dependent on technology, one out of every three new members of our work force isn’t even graduating from high school. By the standards or the rest of the industrialized world, we’ve become a nation of dummies.

We’ve allowed our domestic manufacturing base to decline. We’ve actually created incentives for corporations to move U.S. manufacturing overseas. We’ve allowed our most advanced technological innovations to be exported–even critical defense technologies.

Our infrastructure is literally falling apart. Our roads, highways, bridges, dams, water treatment facilities, etc; all have been long neglected. As of 2003, nearly 1/3 of all bridges in the U.S. were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Any political leader claiming that the economic fundamentals are sound simply doesn’t have a solid grasp of the situation.

Here’s an accurate graphic representation of a cube composed of 1 trillion pennies.

http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/thirteen.asp

To get an accurate idea of the current size of the national debt, imagine 1,000 such cubes.

500 of them have been added by the Bush administration during the past 8 years.

60 would represent the direct cost-to-date of the War in Iraq.