I know this blog is a bit late, but what can I say? I'm your average lazy American.
First, I found this article saying how economists jobs today are tougher. No longer are the days of guessing what the effects of certain things will have on the economy, but here is the time when we have to guess how politicians will react. How will the President react to this company asking for bailout money? Will he ignore the request or provide the company with money? Will the money, assuming he provides it, have strings attached? Very interesting article.
Very interesting and true that is. All we hear about on the news nowadays is how so-and-so company is seeking a bailout. It makes it tough to be the President or other politicians in power because the man in charge has to pick who is worthy and necessary enough and carries enough trust with them to receive bailout money, something that must be very hard for anybody, even men in charge, to do.
Very funny piece on nyt.com talks about how Jim Cramer has proclaimed the recession to be over. (Take what Cramer says with caution, just warning all readers!) The op-ed tells us to assume this is true just for the point of the article. And that point is to determine what Americans have learned from this recession. And that is simple. Taking a gamble on something you cannot afford right now, rather than making investments in proven longterm investments, as was seen in the housing market, will prove devastatingly bad results. It is important ot change the focus of the people, and for us to learn so that a recession doesn't happen in our near future.
Once again, a very interesting piece. I would have to agree with it in the sense of once again, the housing market was something we heard about on the news that just didn't seem to go away, but yet contained a problem no matter how many times we were warned about it. We need to adjust moving forward to survive as a country.
Susan Lee over at Forbes presented an article that talks about how we as a country should still be angry at the government for providing bailouts for a variety of reasons. It degrades our nation's character when we can reward countries that do something wrong, for instance. Two, it degrades our political culture. We trust politicians to do what's right and seldom is giving bailouts to those who fail something right in the minds of most peoples' eyes.
Very interesting artcile. I hate when government provides bailouts. It just doesn't seem to point to the sense of achieving on your own, and providing our own money to try to help save tanking businesses doesn't seem to have a positive effect.
Have a happy Easter everybody!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Week 7 Blog
So, a lot of stuff happened this week, so I will get straight to the point with my views of three articles this week.
Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei refer to Barack Obama as the nation's CEO. They say that what he has done during his brief presidency thus far is take the bull by the horns in terms of the nation's economy. He pretty much forced the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, to resign from his post, and he has been doing everything in his power to fix the economy. Not long ago, he criticized AIG for paying out bonuses to those that helped the country fail economically. This past week, he helped partner with investors to buy $1 trillion in bad assets. So, as the authors of the article point out, it is clear that he is taking over our nation's economy and making that his number one plan of action.
Personally, I don't know what I think of this. I mean, our nation's economy is in shambles, but is Obama stretching his power when he forces the CEO of GM to quit. How can he do it? I mean, I agree that Wagoner isn't a very good CEO, but still, I think maybe he went a little too far there. But, if his plans are successful, then why complain? It's ok, in this case, to break the rules as long as it benefits the country. I mean, what's the harm in it? On the other side, if, four years down the road, the nation's economy is not better, or, God forbid, worse, how will we look back on actions like this? It'll be interesting to see.
Howard Fineman had a very humorous piece about how Obama is becoming "Super Prez" sort of like a Mr. Fix-It to the United States. Something "in the lab" went horribly wrong, and as soon as he got inaugurated, the President decided to take action on his own. Is there an evil CEO like Rick Wagoner? Well, President Obama can use his superpowers to fire him. If an industry is in trouble, he will send his own "czars" to protect it. Very humorous article.
I really enjoyed this article. The author does have his point. I mean, Obama has become a celebrity whom everybody expects to fix everything. He's appeared on "The Tonight Show," "60 Minutes," and even ESPN, anywhere possible to get a spare word in. He has taken action as well, he's pushed spending plans through Congress with relative ease. It's an interesting analogy, but I can see the superhero thing. Very, very compelling.
I saw an article on CNN.com that detailed Obama's new plan to restore global economy and end the world's recession. The article mentions that British prime minister Gordon Brown is aligned with Obama on this plan, and the two were part of a group of 20 world leaders at a summit recently. Obama wants the leaders to act with urgency. Brown helped Obama come up with five goals for this proposal, one is obvious, and that is to restore the global banking system.
I like this policy. It shouldn't be surprising, I mean I am far from a moderate. But the recession is a scary thing, and the US isn't alone in dealing with this. Why not put the world's leaders in one place, try to think up a solution to this mess, and let's hopefully get ourselves out of this. Some, like French president Sarkozy, don't like the ideas presented at the summit, but still, I think we must come up with a solution to the problem. Therefore, this is a great thing, in my honest opinion.
Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei refer to Barack Obama as the nation's CEO. They say that what he has done during his brief presidency thus far is take the bull by the horns in terms of the nation's economy. He pretty much forced the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, to resign from his post, and he has been doing everything in his power to fix the economy. Not long ago, he criticized AIG for paying out bonuses to those that helped the country fail economically. This past week, he helped partner with investors to buy $1 trillion in bad assets. So, as the authors of the article point out, it is clear that he is taking over our nation's economy and making that his number one plan of action.
Personally, I don't know what I think of this. I mean, our nation's economy is in shambles, but is Obama stretching his power when he forces the CEO of GM to quit. How can he do it? I mean, I agree that Wagoner isn't a very good CEO, but still, I think maybe he went a little too far there. But, if his plans are successful, then why complain? It's ok, in this case, to break the rules as long as it benefits the country. I mean, what's the harm in it? On the other side, if, four years down the road, the nation's economy is not better, or, God forbid, worse, how will we look back on actions like this? It'll be interesting to see.
Howard Fineman had a very humorous piece about how Obama is becoming "Super Prez" sort of like a Mr. Fix-It to the United States. Something "in the lab" went horribly wrong, and as soon as he got inaugurated, the President decided to take action on his own. Is there an evil CEO like Rick Wagoner? Well, President Obama can use his superpowers to fire him. If an industry is in trouble, he will send his own "czars" to protect it. Very humorous article.
I really enjoyed this article. The author does have his point. I mean, Obama has become a celebrity whom everybody expects to fix everything. He's appeared on "The Tonight Show," "60 Minutes," and even ESPN, anywhere possible to get a spare word in. He has taken action as well, he's pushed spending plans through Congress with relative ease. It's an interesting analogy, but I can see the superhero thing. Very, very compelling.
I saw an article on CNN.com that detailed Obama's new plan to restore global economy and end the world's recession. The article mentions that British prime minister Gordon Brown is aligned with Obama on this plan, and the two were part of a group of 20 world leaders at a summit recently. Obama wants the leaders to act with urgency. Brown helped Obama come up with five goals for this proposal, one is obvious, and that is to restore the global banking system.
I like this policy. It shouldn't be surprising, I mean I am far from a moderate. But the recession is a scary thing, and the US isn't alone in dealing with this. Why not put the world's leaders in one place, try to think up a solution to this mess, and let's hopefully get ourselves out of this. Some, like French president Sarkozy, don't like the ideas presented at the summit, but still, I think we must come up with a solution to the problem. Therefore, this is a great thing, in my honest opinion.
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