The picture is as clear as mud -----------

I have been silent for awhile as I really felt a need to watch, consider and to paraphrase the Fonze, “get the drift.” I am not really there yet. The picture is mixed there is no clear cut direction other than a continuation of the Presidents campaign rhetoric. The President and his spokesmen are still using vitriol about the Bush years as a crutch for the predicament we and the rest of the world are in. The more robust left leaning members of his party still clamor to open “Bush” investigations and hold trials not dissimilar in tone to the “off with their heads” of the French revolution.

Yet, when you look at the decisions and orders the president has made to right the perceived wrongs they leave themselves great wiggle room to stay the course. The president has called for the closing of the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, yet no one wants their citizens back and turning them lose is out of the question noting that significant numbers of repatriated prisoners have gone right back to “jihad.”

Vice President Biden, in his ever grating manner, reinforces the point that we are getting out of Iraq yet it was the tenacity of Bush, after following bad advice and exercising poor judgment, that brought on the surge that led to last weeks very meaningful elections in that country.

Alas, there will be no victory in Iraq and Iraq will not be a shining example of democracy that lights the Middle East in our time, or maybe any time, but they may indeed be able to resist falling under the umbrella of Iran. The troop surge and time has allowed for this to happen.

The new presidents appointments and his creative layering of authority were first applauded and now are being denigrated. He has routinely sent up the usual “name” candidates and they routinely arrived up with “inadvertent” personal tax problems and/or all sorts of other underlying questions such as why so many people paying or gifting large amounts of money to the nominees or their spouses. This is not only a curse of the Democrats as neither of the major party luminaries seem able to stand reasonable scrutiny. Unfortunately the power that our power seeking elected class covets includes a disdain for playing by any set of rules that causes then to restrain their appetites.

As to the layering of authority, President Obama is populating the White House and the west wing with heavy hitters that can get his ear before the cabinet secretary’s can even weigh in. Who will rule Treasury, Geithner or his ex – boss Summers. Will special envoy Mitchell and very special representative Holbrooke hold sway over Hillary Clinton? Such egos will not be contained.

The President has also clearly stated that torture is out -- but what is torture? Leon Panetta, set to take over the CIA, has allowed at his hearing that he has to give consideration to some strenuous methods of interrogation. It seems that water boarding, a very uncomfortable but relatively harmless technique (unless the subject has a heart condition), is now clearly defined as torture and if one is willing to say it is torture they are considered good guys and just need to think of another as yet unlabeled way to gain vital intelligence

And then we come to the economy.

All are perplexed and despite the helter - skelter spraying of money at banks and quasi banks the slow down and pain continues. The stock market responds to every effort to solve the problem even when on the same day they receive news of further faltering deterioation. On Friday of last week, as it was announced that there was a further loss of some 600,000 jobs in January, the market rallied strongly on the news that the vaunted stimulus bill was about to be approved but minus about a $100 billion of nonsense that it originally included.

The whole framework of the stimulus effort rests on the theory that we must promote economic growth to the level that we have seen in the past twenty years or so. Economists point out that only with this type of sustained growth can we pay off the debts that this crash is layering on our citizens and future generations. Yet it was the leveraging of earnings and capital beyond the norms of history that got us into this mess. Our financial institutions, our government and a very large percentage of our citizens were and or are way over leveraged. If acceptable economic health can only be achieved by continuing to live on such leverage we are indeed in trouble and no stimulus so conceived can give lasting relief. Indeed, even partial success of such a stimulus will be fueling a worse catastrophe for the future.

But I am not against a stimulus. Things must be tried. To sit and await an accelerating collapse is unthinkable. But the money must be pointed at jobs and infrastructure improvements. Politically philosophical meandering, as we go through mandatory deleveraging, that can only take place over time, will not work. We must spend wisely for all, to have hope for any.

I sympathize with President Obama who, this weekend, has gone off with his family for a breather at Camp David. But the campaign is over, Bush is gone, he has to get real and stay real.

Get my drift?

Hair of the dog----

Here we are in the holiday season of 2008. As we approach New Years Eve the media will be full of advice for those who in care free celebration, or, at least as likely, in an attempt to tame their worries and associated anxiety, over imbibe.

The overhanging problem is that this country has been over imbibing for at least 20 years. Consumption, at all levels, from consumer to corporate to congress have left us in a perpetual, over extended stupor, with an economic hangover that the government is trying to cure quickly. They have tried mutual support, with J.P. Morgan Chase swallowing Bear Stearns, Wells Fargo gulping down Wachovia, Bank of America absorbing Merrill Lynch (we hope). As they pursued that remedy they also tried going cold turkey and abandoned Lehman Brothers. They also effectively absorbed the sinking entities most closely associated with the housing bubble, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.In separate efforts they overdosed AIG on aspirin, as in almost unlimited money and are trying to save Citi Group by removing it’s toxic “assets” and transfusing new funds.

But, so far economic equilibrium is not in sight.

Now, a collaborated effort to feed the entire country, the entire population, a hefty dose of the “hair of the dog,” is in process. After New Years Eve, many of those in grouchy agony reach for a spicy Bloody Mary (some throw an egg in it) to re - hydrate, get some nourishment while letting the alcohol dilate their blood vessels and to again reach the mellow painless state of being drunk. The analogy here is that the government is now pleading with banks and lending sources to offer more credit in order to prime the consumer spending pump. Indeed, retailers have pulled out all stops in promoting Black Monday (day after Thanksgiving sales that try to stimulate holiday purchases) urging consumers to take on more instant gratification debt. In other words to get drunk again.

This is going on as virtually anyone with an ounce of sense understands that the mountain of debt layered on this country is virtually beyond comprehension. What they are doing is urging everybody to reach for a Bloody Mary or two, or three.

The banks are resisting this effort. Not that they mind drunk consumers, they love it. But bankers while greedy are not too nervy and they have learned (after this period of gross excess) that the consumer is not up to paying the accumulated bar tab. Hence, many of the people being urged to spend can not get the credit to continue to feed their acquisitive habit.

As the banks and hedge funds are forced to de-leverage to survive, so must the consumer. Some will not get the message and others are too far gone to continue an economic life so why does the government urge the consumer on? The answer is simple the entire economy is over leveraged. Equity in homes or tangible toys such as luxury cars, boats, ATV’s etc., is nil. Unrealistic and unwarranted real estate prices have collapses and equity in homes is either gone, due to values falling, or all ready backing expenditures for the toys that they are still paying for.





Further, prices for food and other basics, even though commodity prices have crashed over the last few months, have still not fallen though manufacturers have all ready cut package sizes and raised prices when they had a need and an excuse to do it.

The concerted effort to get the consumer to spend is, after the other steps mentioned have so far fallen short is a last gasp.

Only with the consumer continuing to spend can we support the economic beast that years of over imbibing created. The dim hope is that is if just enough “hair of the dog” is swallowed we can avoid a very hard landing, an aorta ripping crash.

I am not sanguine.

People do not turn on a dime and with the turmoil that everyone is hearing about, even if not yet directly experiencing and despite the crowds that turned out for Black Friday specials, the need for gratification induced by spending, is giving way to caution or outright fear.

President elect Obama plans a massive job creating stimulus focused on rebuilding the nations infrastructure. It is being compared to Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act that gave millions work , if not rewarding employment. The Great Depression ended as time played out, the economy stabilized and then blazed hot with World War II creating real need and hence prosperity after victory.

Which brings us to today.

While we have far more safety nets than the 1920's and into the1930's, we had simple ways to create work for lots of people. In looking at the workers photographed in the 30's we see hoards of men with shovels. Not too different than when looking at the really old photos of laborers building the trans continental railroads in the mid 1800's. Now when you look at infrastructure workers you see a team of a few “watchers” and machines, big machines, chewing the earth. It will be a challenge to put today’s growing levels of unemployed into productive work much less positive employment.

A mess, and we did it to ourselves. Sure a bunch of clever and or unscrupulous folks made ridiculous amounts of money creating and servicing the demands of the consumers and most of them will get to keep the greater part of their gains, but the nature of human beings means that it will all happen again.

For mankind, too much is never enough. Anybody for a Bloody Mary?

Taking the medicine----

In the 1959 Broadway hit musical “Lil’ Abner”, that was based upon the enduring comic strip by Al Capp, General Bullmoose, in a cynical takeoff on the congressional testimony of Charles Wilson, a former Chairman of General Motors, sang “What’s Good for General Bullmoose is Good For the USA”. Bullmoose, an evil industrialist, tried wine, woman and song to steal Lil Abner’s potion for strength (Steroids?) but the paid fem fatale, Passionata VonClimax, proved unable to separate Lil Abner and Daisy May and Dogpatch fought off the special interests, that were determined to make Dogpatch ground zero for an atomic bomb test.

This week in Washington, the three current chairman of GM, Ford and Chrysler, all of whom are in dire financial shape are aping the late Mr. Wilson by claiming that the bankruptcy of any of the big three automakers will unleash an economic disaster upon the entire country and hence the government must provide an open ended bridge loan until the economic tide turns.

In short, the rubber has hit the road and the now the wheels are about to come off for real. General Motors management has informed our elected officials that the corporation is facing imminent death, as they are hemorrhaging the life blood of all businesses, money.

Congressmen, senators, President Bush and President - elect Obama all agree that the country must maintain a vibrant automobile industry as a foundation of our dwindling industrial base. The industry representatives estimate that counting suppliers, dealers and after market businesses the industry gives employment to some 3 million people and that failure of any of the Big Three will mean losses of massive tax revenue and will be on the hook for huge amounts of unemployment insurance. No one, however, has been really coherent on how the government could help other than by just writing a check. Many disparage the idea of a bridge loan, pointing out that it would be throwing good money after bad by supporting a failed model.

The have a very valid point.

Many economists, lawyers and business people have called for the automotive companies and especially GM to use the existing remedy of bankruptcy to gain time to restructure. Mr. Wagoner, the GM Chairman states that GM is not even considering such a step and that no restructuring plan has been laid out by GM management. He is also taking the position that since he and his colleagues are the ones with experience in running large car companies who else is better suited to handle things after the “loan” is granted.

I was going to go off on a tear and do a blog on prepackaged, debtor in possession, Chapter 11 being a possible solution, but in Tuesday’s New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin did the job for me.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/business/economy/18sorkin.html)

First consider the dire predictions of Mr. Wagoner, et.al. If the 3 million job losses are accurate it would mean that the companies would file for Chapter 7 under the bankruptcy laws, meaning the companies would close their doors and a trustee would lead in an “orderly” liquidation. If this were to happen I would agree with the overall tenor of Mr. Wagoner’s predictions as orderly is a subjective word and an immediate liquidation of the Big Three would be chaos.

But as Mr. Sorkin points out Chapter 7 is not called for but rather what is appropriate is Chapter 11 of the code. In Chapter 11, guided by the courts and not the politicians, a company presents a plan for the restructuring of a business into a workable model. Huge powers are given to the judge who hears all the competing claims from creditors, shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers and by far the most important, the demands of the entity willing to put up the new money needed to keep the concern in business. In short, the new money talks and the old BS walks. The new money, steps in front of old debts and effectively “crams down” it’s terms on the other interested parties.

Leases and all contracts can be broken, creditors can be forced to take a haircut on what is owed them and when they will get it. Debts, except for the new money, may all be adjusted for the common good. Everyone feels the pain but hopefully the level of pain is better than the alternative, death of the entity. For the shareholders it is not a pleasant thing. They usually get wiped out or diluted to near zip by the new money.

But can we, the country, take the medicine. The real money will still come from the government but the deal the government demands must be at least as tough as I have outlined . But, that will be tough to accomplish if for no other reason than that the Democrats draw massive support from the unions all of whom will stand with the United Auto Workers (UAW). It is the UAW contracts that are a primary reason why our auto makers can never climb out of the hole that has been dug going back to the 1960's. Congressman Barney Frank, who brought us sub - par Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has already opined that Chapter 11 is simply another union busting trick.

If the domestic auto business can be rationalized and restructured for today’s world it will be far reaching but with immediate short painful effects. But it could work. All labor will be repriced and it will force a very real readjustment to fixed assets like homes, etc. All adjustments will be down but will at least stabilize and be more competitive in all fields as time moves on.

But can we take the medicine. No spoonful of sugar will make this medicine palatable.

Economic reality ----

Economic reality is related to gravity and excessive financial engineering has an analogy that I call economic alchemy. Rejecting the power of a dried eyeball of the newt the modern financial alchemists, rather than striving to turn lead to gold, ,turned illusionary financial solidity into leveraged fools gold.

Like all the artists of illusion, be they magicians, or politicians and clergy of all stripes, the financial engineers simply had to build the illusion and let human nature run with it.

When humans recognize a magicians illusion for what it is and while they may still be unable to see how they were tricked, they blithely proclaim that they always knew that the lady in the box was not really being sawed in half.

However, a magical illusion, performed by a professional usually has no lingering negative effect on the deceived. If anything, an entertaining illusion may offer a relatively cheap education, as it demonstrates that just seeing, may not be truly worthy of believing.

However, if the illusion causes war, consider the illusion of the "Thousand Year Reich" that Hitler sold to the German people, or causes economic catastrophe, consider the Great Depression, the price of the education is very, very dear.

History shows that such a painful education does not last for too long, generations die and the public forgets.

And that is where we are now and it is why no form of stimulus or bailout package will avoid us having to pay a very hefty price as illusion gives way to reality.

It does not mean that Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson should not keep trying, shifting and revising the programs and mechanisms hoping to prevent or at least slow a systemic and catastrophic collapse, but for a long time to come our society will not have a level economic environment such as what was enjoyed until our excesses led to a bubble, an illusionary period of perpetual well being, that has indeed burst.

In the 1990's economists and "big thinkers" ridiculed Japan for failing to bite the bullet and bankrupt many banks that were swamped with billions of bad loans, many based upon crazy real estate valuations. Japan muddled through with a decade of stagnation. But the people buckled down and as only the Japanese can they endured. With our government extending virtually unlimited credits to the banks; by permitting at risk financial firms to become banks; by shoring up AIG, the insurance monster that was spawned like a financial horror creature from the black lagoon of greed and by than letting the same institutions now book their "assets" at values far greater than the assets would bring on the open market we are doing virtually the same thing we scorned Japan for.

And good luck to us! If all we end up with is ten years of stagnation we will be getting off cheap.

The real risk is cataclysmic, systemic collapse. The real risk is another Great Depression or worse. Deflation of valuations joined by inflation of currency, as we print dollars, is not a remote possibility.

While we cannot let our industrial base collapse we can no longer fund it’s current structure. If we are to bolster such basic industries as our automobile business it will take a form of bankruptcy and consolidation that forces real change on the industry. To fund more of the same from Detroit will not work in the long run. It will become a habit, a dependancy.

Testifying today before congress, George Soros, who I had the pleasure of working with and observing some thirty years ago opined that a, " deep recession is inevitable and that a depression cannot be ruled out." I remember him as a tough cookie with a remarkable mind. Not always right but very willing to change on a dime as the situation demanded. Conservatives hate him as a Liberal and thus discount what he says. They do so at their peril. First they should examine his long track record of reading economic factors as marked by his amazing long term financial success.

I believe he is right.

Hence, any and every effort, by the government, to hold our fall to that of a recession must be tried. Every remediating effort must be examined and reexamined with a willingness to get egg on our collective faces if a new approach is needed.

This is not a political or philosophical issue, this is a survival issue.

The only President we have -----

During all of President Bush’s tenure in office a major segment of our population, accepting the lead of the Democratic political leadership attempted, with significant success, in turning every issue into a direct attack on, or an opportunity to undermine the stature of the only President we have. In fairness, the Republicans, led by the likes of Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich were less than constructive when dealing with positive initiatives of Bill Clinton during his eight years in office.

While it is certainly clear that political life calls for vigorous opposition and while it is certainly clear that both of the last two sitting presidents earned opposition attacks, the effort to totally demean, even destroy, our designated leader has been distasteful in general and costly to us all, as individuals and as a nation.

Things have gotten worse during the Bush administration, during a time when when our nation has been under threat, a time when a level of proper respect for our country’s carefully built structure cries out for maintenance.

Adopting the theme of Mr. Obama’s campaign, it is time for a change. And yes, I mean that in many ways.

For our nation to survive as a true land of opportunity, one that made Mr. Obama’s improbable ascendency possible, it is mandatory that the basic concepts, the foundational strengths of this experiment in democracy, be maintained. Every way must remain open for any person to achieve "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but those rights, though available to all cannot be guaranteed for all.

The idea that seemed to leak through from Mr. Obama’s philosophy is that rather than making sure that opportunity exists for all he is willing to extract the property and wealth from those that have achieved and to redistribute it to those that have not been able to do so.

While it makes all the sense in the world to insure that all people be equally able and encouraged to achieve, that steps be taken to insure that opportunity be available to all, those that have failed to make their way should not expect reach their goals in life, no matter how modest they may be, by taking away from those who have achieved their own goals, no matter how modest they are.

When Mr. Obama takes the oath of office in January I would hope he proceeds in a way that build on the basic precepts of this republic. I would hope that the extremes of both party’s be overwhelmed by the centrists and that we are able to move forward with a constructive agenda.
This is not a cry to keep taxes low. In fact, taxes must and will go up. It is the use and the method of using the needed tax dollars that will be the critical issue that will speak to the country’s future.

We need not be wed to the Bush tax cuts nor does it mean that we should discourage investment, there is room to maneuver for all. In the meantime the simple problems like Afghanistan, Iraq, the entire Middle East and our periously over extended economic balance sheet must be tended to.

Mr. Obama has a very full plate.

The least we can do is support his efforts and, when we can not, to let him know what we are having trouble with, but in a way that preserves the dignity of his office and as the elected leader of this country.

He too will be the only President we have.

The meat of the matter-------

Finally, the Presidential Campaign is focusing on the meat of the matter. While the platforms of both parties are, in many respects, hopeless blather, in August three economists at Bank of America did a concise, side by side comparison, of central parts of the economic import of the programs proposed by Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama.

http://montclairrepublicancc.org/McCain_and_Obama.pdf

The analysis has been picked up by Republicans and forwarded here, there and everywhere but the crux of the differences has not gained sustained traction with the majority of the public until the last presidential debates. While the analysis document from the BOA economists has been embraced by Republicans, it does not, to me, appear to be biased or political in nature.

It was the now famous "Joe the Plumber" that finally brought the key and overriding issue to the forefront. That issue, as explained by Mr. Obama to Joe, was, that through his tax plans, " he intended to spread the wealth around." While Senator McCain raised it numerous times in the debate he still has not been pointedly coherent in framing the issue and in countering the Obama camps claims that the McCain approach is, in the long run, the same thing.

However, the BOA analysis points out that Mr. Obama intends to increase taxes upon high wage earners (those reporting net income, after deductions, of over $250,000 a year). In addition, while his plans call for spending bundles of money on many new programs he also intends to drop many millions of low income people from the tax rolls (in addition to the existing millions not paying income taxes today) and then provide additional tax dollars to them by actually giving them a credit as in sending them a government check. The government is already doing this and Mr. Obama wants to vastly expand this misguided, corrosive, free ride.

So, while he claims that he will not raise the taxes of the "middle class" by one penny he is most definitely intending to take more tax money from the middle class to further turn the poor into a dependent class. It amounts to perpetual and thus perpetuating, welfare. A subsidized existence, a public dole, that sucks any form of positive societal contribution out of the recipients. No matter what uplifting name the politicians give these programs, they are destructive and actually poison a healthy society.

The entire concept of any citizen being excused from paying taxes is grating. None of us like paying taxes but most understand it is necessary. Indeed, if being an American is a privilege, and I think it is, we must understand that the wonder of this country has a cost and some of the cost, only some, can be paid for with money, tax money.

Are there inequities in our society? You bet! In recent advertisements in the New York Times they are listing a new duplex in Greenwich Village for some $21 million, marked down from over $23 million. Looking at something like that and the pay scales of many senior executives or investment bankers compared to the wages of many hardworking contributing members of society and the word inequity is mild.

Gobs of money taken from those overly compensated folks as well as the middle class, to be used as a way to blast and propel contributing people out of poverty, is a worthy endeavor. However, paying off the poor is counter productive in trying to reduce the problem and infuriating to an honest taxpayer.

Can intentions and plenty of tax dollars, like the tide, lift all boats---no chance. Some boats leak, some have holes in the hull. Poverty has always been with us and always will be but one would think that we can do better in pushing it back. A government give away, that inbreeds ever greater dependency does not lift souls much less leaky boats. Such an effort is not the answer, it will actually make things worse as it plays to some of the worst aspects of human nature.

Mr. Obama would not agree with me. Thus I have real problem with Mr. Obama as this is the central theme of his campaign and may very well be the defining basis of his very being. Mr. McCain and many of his core supporters, who have chosen to calling themselves conservatives, have simply labeled it socialism, considering that pejorative at least one step worse than being a plain liberal.

Mr. Obama, ever cool, with a nod of knowing explains that Mr. McCain just does not get it. Some truth to that, but neither does he.

If he is elected and I think he will be, every effort must be made to point his intelligent consideration to the fact that in trying to save this country from itself his current plans will likely ensure a historic slide.

Looking forward--------

I was born in 1936, in the middle of the Great Depression. Needless to say I remember nothing about those days in a macro sense, but quite a few things at the micro level that effected my family, until well after the depression was over.


My father, who was an orphan, managed, with the great assistance of an older brother, to graduate college and law school. However, in that economy, the choices for young lawyers without the right connections, who were also highly idealistic, was not good. Before I was born as unemployment reached over 20%, my father quit the law, took the test to become a teacher. He then worked worked until just a few years before his death as an educator for the New York City Board of Education. While teachers today are still not overly well compensated back then they were in far worse shape. At the same time he worked other jobs, tutoring children, running night schools, summer camps and during the war, also in the summer, as an electrician in a shipyard racing to turn out cargo ships to haul sustenance and the tools of war to the troops in Europe.
As I remember it we never had any money and were not even able to finish a month without the check book and wallet being completely empty. A revolving loan of five dollars, from my grandmother, until the 1950's, carried us through. We owned some furniture (some of it still in use), always rented and frequently moved, to take advantage of the free months rent each land lord would give to attract new tenants. We had no debt and no stocks and not until 1948, when we almost went off the Bear Mountain bridge in our 1934 Pontiac, with the leaky fabric roof and no heater, did we get a "modern" Chevy, which was a pre war design.


I do not remember feeling behind the curve until late in high school when I saw my friends families prospering, while my father, who by personality and life experience, remained very risk adverse, staying well protected in the civil service system.


That is what I see looking back and unfortunately what I see, and worse, for many, as I look forward.


The financial crisis we are in today is not just a low level economic dip that anyone my age has experienced from the 1970's through the Dot. Com bust of the early 2000's. This is the real McCoy and it will take years for the effects of the recent and continuing collapse for the economy to restore itself to a comfortable growth rate. To date, in most local economies the pain is primarily affecting real estate values. But the spill over into everyday life will follow and hang on with a vengeance.


The popular belief of certain politicians, that Wall Street is not connected to Main Street is total eye wash and the concept that what has happened is the fault of greed confined to Wall Street is worse than self serving.


The ones who ran and prospered unnaturally on the greater Wall Street were a creation demanded by the satisfaction of the wants and hence needs, of those living on Maine Street. The ability to effectively regulate and control both sides of that equation has always evaded man and the governments they create.


Even when governments try, the ingenuity of man soon finds a way around the pesky regulations to serve the needs of hard wired human materialism and personal greed.
It is also safe to say that the economy and lifestyle that enfolds us as we recover will not look like what we have seen over the past 50 years. In addition this country will not have the same international position and clout that we earned and have enjoyed since world War II. For my children and my grandchildren it will be a totally different reality with many unpleasant experiences for them that they will, at the least, learn from.


Fresh leadership will come to the table. We will, in my view, be watching Barack Obama take the oath of office in January. I see no way for a majority of the people to elect a candidate tied to the party in power, no matter how loosely, as the country becomes immersed in a debacle such as the one we now face. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama, bright and articulate as he is, is not equipped by experience to assume such a position and his underlying philosophy, no matter how he tries to play it down, runs far from the basic foundations that have contributed mightily to the successful American experience .


In fairness, I also feel less than enthusiastic about Senator McCain primarily because of his age and his choice of a running mate who could well be less than a full heartbeat from the presidency. As for the fringe candidates, I cringe.


So, if Mr. Obama is elected I will offer my full support and all my energy, in my less than meager way, to urge him and his administration to face reality, to forego their airy dreams and bring us back to equilibrium without killing the advantages of the American economy and reasonable free market activities that cannot be stopped in any event.


If he follows the lead of ranking legislators in his party who, along with a good many Republicans, turned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the absurd behemoths they became, in a misguided effort to provide home ownership to those who could not afford homes, we will be in worse shape.


If he tries to effectively redistribute the wealth of America to those who have not, for any number of reasons, earned it, his cure will poison our economic well for far longer than a decade. His plans to remove more low wage earners from the tax rolls magnifies his philosophic beliefs and is totally inappropriate. While there can be much debate as to what a fair, graduated tax should be the concept that some can avoid even token payments for the right and good fortune of being an American is wrong.


One should look forward with enthusiasm, this country always has. It is difficult for me to do so at this time.