No Quick Fix

There's no quick fix. There, I said it! There is no quick fix for the economy. We can't just do a stimulus package here, ship a dollar to this bank or that bank, whatever silly idea our little hearts desire. This isn't something we can get out of by printing more money and hoping that the economy holds together with bobby pins and glue.

It takes years to get into the kind of economic mess we are in. It will likely take the global population of the world at least a decade to pull everyone out.

By the way, I am for letting some of the institutions that have imperiled the economy go down the toilet. I've already seen many abuses of the so called "bailout" funds at AIG and others.

And let's talk about Detroit. I was born in Detroit and I grew up just outside of Detroit. I know just a little bit about auto companies; many of my family members work for them, my family sold products to them and I grew up with "auto brats". Most of the kids I grew up with had parents that were executives in Ford, GM and Chrysler. We went on field trips in my school to the Ford Rouge River plant almost every year. At my high school graduation party my gift bag was from my friend's at General Motors. Most of the people that I graduated with attempted to work for auto companies. My first car was an Chrysler Omni Horizon (which I rebuilt several times with junk parts bought in Detroit Junk Yards near 8 mile road off of Woodward Avenue). Am I an expert? No. Do I have much more experience with American car companies than many or most? Well, yes.

American car companies have been going out of business for almost 35 years. They've been consistently behind the times with some bright exceptions like Lee Iacoca and the K-car and the Ford Taurus. Even with those successes, they let them (the models) linger far too long and tend to fall back on automobile comfort food; big cars with bad milage and mediocre customer service. I can tell you about one of my relatives that has worked for Ford for 40 years and for 30 of them he's been shuffled around, had his hours cut and had his pay fiddled with consistently. He is great at what he does and I can tell you he knows one heck of alot about building cars. Whenever I've asked him about restructuring in Detroit he's told me the same thing: wait until the spotlight is off of the auto companies and everything goes back to business as usual; bad quality, products that are out of touch and executive pay that is inconsistent with performance.

Here's my point: the same guys that have presided over the last 35 years or so of Detroit mess are still there. After years of high gas prices, these people are just figuring that the world might need more fuel efficient automobiles? Or people might be sick of paying the Saudis for oil and want electric cars? Or that Toyota is now bigger than all 3 American car makers combined?

The Detroit Executives are just figuring out now that they need cash, coincidentally at the same time the banks seem to be out of cash?

Here's something to think about when you hear about how we should bail out the auto companies: all American cars get most of their key components from another country. My first car that I mentioned? The 1979 Omni Horizon had a motor by VW. That was almost 30 years ago. And if you are lucky enough to be able to afford a Ford, GM or Chrysler product in this economy, check out where the American car was made. My American car was made in Canada.

Make no mistake, I am for American workers. I am an American worker. But I am not for Auto Executives that make bad decisions consistently over decades and still get a huge paycheck. I don't want to bail out rich people. I want the people that really do the work to keep their jobs. And I can guarantee one thing: auto workers jobs ain't cushy. They aren't easy and they shouldn't be treated with such a lack of respect or honesty. Auto workers should be treated with as much respect and integrity as any Vet coming back from war. These people do hard jobs and shouldn't be at the whim of the "quick fix".

Thus the point of this: there is no quick fix. There's no quick fix for banks that bought mortgage backed securities based on nothing, there's no quick fix for insurance companies that were insuring mortgages based on nothing and there's no quck fix for auto executives that build huge cars and trucks while the price of gas is widely fluctuating and consumers are opting for hybrids, electric cars and product that is reliable and inexpensive. There's no quick fix for greed and stupidity. I am leery of looking at any politician as a potential fix for this. It has to come from the people.

The banks are still trying to make huge amounts of money off of mortgage backed securities and the auto companies are still trying to sell huge lots of SUV's. I just saw a new commercial for the Escalade Hybrid. The theme of the commercial was "game set and match". At $72k plus per car and at 20 MPG on the highway, is this a company that really needs tax dollars?

Marc

I continue to notice...

I continue to notice the quiet reserve coming from the Whitehouse relative to our current economic debacle. It's been pretty quiet from the President and/or Vice President, especially pertaining to the ridiculously high oil prices.

GW and crew are definitely pandering to their base, no doubt about it. One statistic that has blared out at me is one the Whitehouse Economics briefing page.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/income.html

Neocons may try and point to things getting better year over year. Seasonally adjusted disposable income increased by $89 whole dollars! Ok, so I won't use any straw man crap that I've heard on O'Reilly or Hannity or the other nuts out there. How about this:

If you are having trouble reading it, I'll help. The poverty level in 2003 was 12.5% and in 2004 it moved to 12.7%. 1.1 Million MORE people were in poverty than the prior year or 37 million total. Those stats aren't cherry picked or made up, they're right off the White House Econ site. And by the way, if you'd like to recognize some stats that matter, household income took a small loss. Not good because apparently it can mean the difference between eating/seeing a doctor and living below the poverty line.

Still think our chief executive should be thinking about our economy? If this were a company, most of the management would be seeing legal council about now. Wake up America, this is serious fuck up of epic proportions.

Marc

What's Missing?

No picture today. I thought I would make one point without any distractions:

Have you noticed that gas costs have skyrocketed, unemployment is up substantially, costs for normal people are going through the roof and our stock market looks like a carnival ride?

Have you noticed that $600 to to families so they could buy more garbage at Walmart from China hasn't worked?

The point I am making is that GW Bush and crew and 8 years of Republican rule got us here. Not the Democrats, not Senator Clinton or Senator Obama but Republicans. And now we're getting precious little from them except finger pointing at Democrats.

Essentially the lies and skewing of reality has stopped because we're spending too much and not building enough as a country. My point is over. Now the question is what can we do about our economic mess?

Marc

PS The only one's (as far as I can tell) that are uncorking the champagne bottles are oil companies, Saudis and some hedge funds. I wonder if the rest of us have to go "eat cake"?

Take the Bush-McCain Challenge!

Go Ahead, take the challenge and shock even yourself!

The United States: A Conservative Bastion

I had a spirited exchange at dinner last evening with a younger friend who believes that the U.S. is more liberal now than it was decades ago. He pointed to more tolerance of gays and Jews to back up his argument. Unfortunately, I had to strongly disagree with him. If it is the case that there is more tolerance of certain minorities today, I do not believe that the tolerance is universal...you would not find it in Des Moines or Paducah, for example, nor do I believe that increased tolerance of minorities that you find in parts of the "blue state" areas is a result of any shift to the left in this country. I think that the tolerance that does exist in certain relatively small areas of the country has happened in spite of our overall national shift to the right over the past four decades.

The last great liberal era in the U.S. occurred almost 45 years ago, when important civil rights legislation was passed and Medicare was instituted under Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society." With the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, we embarked upon our national journey to the right. Most notably, under the "Great Communicator," Mr. Reagan, the progressive income tax structure that was in place was gutted, adding fuel to the growth of economic inequality that today is nothing short of disgraceful. Right wing Republican presidents have predominated in office since Nixon, interrupted only by Jimmy Carter's failed presidency, and Bill Clinton's eight years of "centrist" governance that was marked notably by the destruction of welfare, called "welfare reform," which threw many poor people into the streets. "Dubbya" Bush, with the complicity of Democratic lawmakers, passed yet another tax cut for the rich during his first term and tried to destroy social security during his second term. Social Security, of course, is the most important lasting liberal program remaining from F.D.R's "New Deal," which was the great liberal era previous to LBJ's "Great Society."

On the social front, right wing politicians now universally demonize "illegal" immigrants to the point where hate crimes against them are on the increase. Attempts have been made to pass a national constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a blatant attempt to actually write discrimination into our constitution for the first time in our history. A few "blue" states treat gays and lesbians better, but only one allows marriage and thirty some states have written discriminatory provisions banning gay marriage into their constitutions.

As for our stature as a respected citizen nation of the world, that has been destroyed by our illegal war and occupation of Iraq. We refuse to sign the Kyoto Agreement, the treaty that encapsulates the international movement to protect our environment. We, along with China, are the two worst polluters in the world. We have renounced the Geneva Conventions and we have engaged in the torture of detainees. We have gutted key provisions of our own constitution, removing the great habeus corpus protections that have been the hallmark of democracy and individual rights for centuries, and we are engaged in spying on our own citizens. The current president is a liar, war criminal, and a law breaker.

No, we are not "more liberal" now. We have, in fact, dangerously drifted far to the right both in terms of domestic and foreign policy. If this trend is not reversed soon, there are observers that think we could actually degenerate into a fascist state.

Who out there now running for president would reverse this shift to the right? Not Ms. Clinton, who recently voted for what is essentially another blank check that would authorize Bush to attack Iran. All of the Republicans would continue in the mold of the current president. Liberals like Kucinich or Dodd have no chance to be elected.

We live in a very conservative, backward country. I fear for the future.

Photo: Another colorful view of our "private' path trough the park.

Jim

The Previously Unknown Lasting Impact Of The U.S. Civil War

Is it time to give Mr. Bush credit for his effort in Annapolis to forge a Middle East peace? Maureen Dowd doesn't think so:

After subverting diplomacy in his first term, now W. does drive-by diplomacy, taking a playboy approach to peace. He wants to look like he’s taking
the problem of an Israeli-Palestinian treaty seriously when his true motivation is more cynical: pacifying the Arab coalition and holding it together so that he
can blunt Iran’s sway.

So that's what Bush is up to! Silly me, I thought for a minute that had Dubbya had actually changed and has finally realized that U.S. presidents are supposed to use their power to help make peace in the world, and not start new wars.

Now, I've always wondered why socialist ideas have never had much of a chance here in America, in spite of all the inequality that has existed in various eras. I think that the band aid approaches that have been applied at various times in our history, e.g., during the Progressive era and the New Deal, have managed to keep any possibility of socialist reforms at bay. However, here's a new theory that is certainly novel:

I believe that the American Civil War, with its huge number of casualties, left
a collective cultural sense that tended to place beyond the pale views that
departed much from the middle. For example, although no doubt there were many
reasons why socialist ideas never made much headway in this country, I’m
inclined to think that an important obstacle was that a great many Americans saw
them as “extremist,” or even “un-American,” a view that in time played into the
hands of demagogues like Joseph McCarthy.

This is from noted political scientist Robert Dahl, writing in a book review in today's New York Times. Humm, the Civil War is responsible for cementing the American anti-progressive mindset, and even for the rise of demagogues like McCarthy...and, by extension, what we have as president today, a fellow who thinks he's on god's mission to save America and the world. Sheesh!

PHOTO: The Philadelphia Zoo's observation balloon aloft.

Jim

Bush Thinks Small

The great holiday tree is up at my favorite downtown Philly spot to take a break, catch a bite to eat, and do some people-watching: Liberty Place at 16th & Chestnut.

The New York Times lead article today notes that, with his "BIG" domestic ideas blocked - wonderful things like destroying Social Security - Bush is now thinking small and doing basically meaningless little things like opening up an air traffic corridor for the holidays. He's finally hit his stride. Keep it up Dubbya...as you told "Brownie"..."you're doing a heck of a job!"

Jim

Democrats Enable Bush - Again

Two Democratic senators have now said they'll vote in favor of Bush's nominee for Attorney General, in spite of the fact that the nominee will not state his position on waterboarding (torture.) Once again, the Democratic Party fails the nation by not insisting that any nominee for Attorney General clearly renounce torture. It's another sad day for this once great country.

Read the review of Sufjan Stevens' "The BQE" in today's New York Times.

PHOTO: One of the joys of visiting the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York City are the floral displays that are always present in the entry hall. This autumn arrangement graced the main desk on Thursday.

Jim

Oil Prices Continue To Rise, So...?

...when will the run up in the price of oil have an impact on the economy and on our pocketbooks? If this were June, with the summertime driving season ahead of us, the price of gasoline would probably be approaching $4.00 a gallon. You can't convince me that these prices are not manipulated by the big oil companies with the tacit approval of politicians like Bush. What will happen to the price of home heating oil and natural gas in the next few months as winter sets in? It's anybody's guess, but I wouldn't be surprised to see record prices. We'll pay because we have no choice. We have to heat our homes.

Oil at almost $100.00 a barrel is going to have an impact somewhere soon. Our only national energy policy is to let market forces work, as long as corporations reap the profits, that is. What we really need is an emergency national plan to deal with the energy crisis that we are facing. We need a plan like we had in WWII, that will require forced sacrifice and conservation and in all likelihood, eventual rationing. But that's not what we'll get. Instead, we'll all be forced to pay higher an higher prices for our energy needs until the price of gasoline, electricity, and home heating breaks the back of our economy. For some, the cost of energy already consumes so much of their family budgets that they cannot afford to heat their homes in winter. More and more people will fall into this category if something is not done soon.

PHOTO: One of the boat houses on Philadelphia's boat house row. We walk by these beautiful houses on our daily walks. Local high school and college rowing teams use these houses. The Schuylkill River is just on the other side of the house. When the ice caps melt, all of this will probably be under water.

Jim

Police State; War State?

I heard several startling statements on the Sunday morning political talk shows yesterday. The one that sticks with me the most has do do with US prisons. The population of the United States is 3% of the world's population. However, we have 25% of the world's prisoners in our jails! What this says about our society and our values is troubling, to say the least. The overwhelming majority of our prisoners are members of minorities. Some of the reasons for this are the lack of job opportunities, combined with the ill effects of broken families on our young people, and our ridiculous drug policies that criminalize the use of "soft" drugs like marijuana. Where are we headed when two of our biggest expenditures are for our wars and our prisons, to the tune of a quarter of a trillion dollars a year?

Jim

Congress Can Correct The Supreme Court

The July 26 New York Times has an interesting article on what can be done to de-politicize the court by balancing out the hard line conservatives appointed by Bush. In a nutshell, Congress has the power to "adjust" the number of justices on the court. A Democratic Congress could increase the number in order to give a Democratic president the opportunity to appoint liberal justices:

If the current five-man majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular
values, the election of a Democratic president and Congress could provide a
corrective. It requires only a majority vote in both houses to add a justice or
two. Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues might do well to
bear in mind that the roll call of presidents who have used this option includes
not just Roosevelt but also Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant.

Of course, this assumes that the Democrats win the presidency in 2008 and maintain control of both houses of congress. It also assumes that the Democrats have the political will to reverse the backward course that the Roberts Court has charted - which is not a given. It does give us some hope that the damage done by the Bush-appointed neanderthals can be limited.

Photo: "Bradley" - by Bob Russell

Jim

Petraeus: The Fox Is Guarding The Hen House!

I read on AmericaBlog that ABC News is reporting that General Petraeus, the commander of our forces in Iraq, has already determined that "The Surge" is a success and that he is planning for hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for the long haul. This is a surprise? The general reports to Bush. What did we expect, for him to say that Bush's plan was not working? The Democratic led congress should have used the spending authorization bills to insist on an independent evaluation of whether or not "The Surge" is effective. Bush could then ignore that just like he ignored the Baker-Hamilton commission report, but at least it would be one more factor in favor of ending our involvement in Iraq. It's too late for that now, so in September we'll no doubt get the General's rubber stamp of approval on "The Surge."

On a happier note, I had a session with my cardiologist yesterday and the report is good. I have this valve issue, but it hasn't gotten significantly worse in the past three years, so he was happy and so am I!

Photo: The new arbor I installed this year. The Hydrangea (left) was a gift from friends in Philadelphia almost a decade ago. Right: Lilac in its third year.

Jim

A Benefit For The Animals

One of the signature events early in the season in Cherry Grove is Henry Sterling's annual deck sale, a benefit with proceeds this year going to PAWS, the Pines Animal Welfare Society. Here's a picture of PAWS organizer Valerie with photos of some of the kittens that need homes. The weather was beautiful and the turnout for the sale was good.

On a sad note, one of the Grove's most colorful figures, Bill "Violet" Silver died in New York City yesterday. Bill founded the garden club, hosted "High Tea," and published a newsletter listing a calendar of community events. The Grove won't be quite the same without him.

The news this morning is not good. The Taliban are launching an offensive in Afghanistan; eight more U.S. soldiers are dead in Iraq; Israel is involved in more fighting; Iran continues to thumb its nose at the world; etc., etc., yet Junior Bush behaves as if all is well. I guess all IS well for him in his make-believe world.

Jim

Bush, Gasoline Prices, And The Energy Crisis

I made a two day round trip back to Philadelphia to pick up Dan and Nikko, our cat, and bring them out to Fire Island. It's fun to have the entire family together out here for the summer. The weather on Monday was spectacular. I hope it continues for the entire week and throughout the holiday weekend.

Do you wonder where Bush is when it comes to the record high price of gasoline? Has he made an address to the nation? Has he called his big oil buddies to try to "jawbone" them to hold down the price increases at the pump, produce more gasoline, etc? We know he's not in favor of conservation. Does he have any compassion for the American driving public in the face of record gasoline prices? It seems not.

We need presidential leadership, not a junior president, who is in the pocket of the big oil companies. A real leader will finally have the courage to be honest with the American public. We must rein in our outrageous levels of oil consumption. Automakers must re-tool and produce cars with much higher gas mileage, more hybrids and all-electrics. America must re-invest in mass transit. Americans will have to sacrifice by drastically reducing their consumption of oil, and by paying much higher prices for the gasoline they use. However, the profits should not go to big oil, rather, the money should be used for mass transit, research into alternative energy forms, etc. Breaking the back of our dependence on oil, especially foreign oil, will have the added benefit of defusing much of the causes for the hatred directed against America as a result of our oil-requirements-driven foreign policy and our oil-based wars, e.g., Iraq. We can do it as a nation, but we need leadership. Unfortunately, I don't hear any of the declared candidates for president being honest with the American public about the realities of our energy situation. Who will have the courage to finally tell the truth about energy to America?

Photo: a favorite trail through the Fire Island dunes...in the "meat rack"

Jim

What's Wrong With This Picture?

7:00 AM: Bush throws a "white tie" dinner for the Queen complete with all the trimmings, while the governor of Kansas attempts to deal with the aftermath of a disastrous storm without the national guard resources that Bush has squandered on Iraq. Bush's 200 year verbal gaff was telling. This is indeed reminiscent of 200+ years ago - in France. Will heads soon roll?

On education, one reader wrote: "So long as we fund education with property taxes, no underprivileged child will ever get an equal (or even decent) education. (And that is probably the most fundamentally unfair public policy we allow.") So, what's the answer? Where does the money come from for education? Maybe if we funded the war from property taxes and education from income taxes, the public would finally rise up and demand an end to the war.

Jim

Conservatism And A Condensed History Of The U.S.

In the United States, the early 20th century brought women the right to vote, and progressive taxation meant to address the inequalities of wealth that had developed with industrialization. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" helped the country through the great depression. The Social Security program was initiated to safeguard the elderly. In the 1960's, landmark civil rights legislation was passed, a War On Poverty was launched, and our leaders envisioned a "Great Society" and the elimination of poverty. Medicare and Medicaid were initiated to provide healthcare to our elderly and poor. Most of these accomplishments took place under what we would today call "liberal" policymakers in charge of government. We were on a roll toward a more just society.

Then, in the 1980s, came along "conservative" saint Ronald Reagan and the ascent of "conservatism" and "conservative" policymakers in charge of government. Let's see how we've been doing under Reagan and the Bushies (I & II.) First, Reagan cut taxes on the wealthy and then he racheted up defense spending. A war on entitlements aimed at the nations poorest citizens, was launched. Welfare was ended, curiously, under Clinton, but who ever accused him of being progressive anyway. Bush Junior tried as hard as he could to eliminate Social Security, but couldn't. He did manage to pass yet another huge tax cut which benefited primarily the wealthiest citizens. Our nation's neediest citizens, our 37 million poor people, have been demonized by right wing conservative zealots Rush Limbaugh and the like, and our 50 million citizens without medical insurance are left to fend for themselves. And then there's Iraq.

Now, I ask you...are we better off since "conservatives" have come to power? Can we possibly stand any more of them? No wonder Junior's approval ratings are at 30 percent.

About the photograph: In my younger, wilder days I did a fair amount of scuba diving. I enjoyed underwater photography. This shot was taken about 20 years ago in St. Croix. Dan and I spent a week at a gay men's resort there. The site is a piling supporting a pier that was used to dock cruise ships. Depth: only about 20 feet. The pier was later destroyed by a storm.

3 PM: The good news is that the sun has returned to Fire Island just in time for Bradly (our dog) and I to take a walk down to the Sunken Forest, an ancient holly tree forest that is both beautiful and spooky at the same time. The bad news is that our computer here on the island has died. I tried replacing the power supply but I couldn't get it to come back to life. RIP. So I'm stuck with a 10 year old clunker and dialup access for the time being. Russ Feingold just sent out an email about a health care bill that he and another senator will be introducing. I'll have to read more about it, but if Russ is involved it must be good.

4:20 PM: I just read online that Don Imus has hired a high powered First Amendment attorney and plans to sue CBS Radio for $40 million dollars. He'll need a magician. This is not about free speech. It's about what is appropriate over the public airwaves.

Jim