What Others Think of Our Economy

One of the best article’s I read on our economy, and it came from a Canadian.

Here, are some of the major excerpts from the article published by UPI Asia:

Prescription for the battered U.S. economy

By Hari Sud
Column: Abroad View
Published: January 23, 2009

Toronto, ON, Canada, — The U.S. economy has spun out of control. The “band-aid” measures adopted in the past three months by handing over to banks half of the US$700 billion in aid voted in September, another US$18 billion to carmakers and now a $1 trillion dollar expenditure proposed by new U.S. President Barack Obama is headed for naught.

Some surefire cures for today’s economic ills are:

• Cut back on oil imports.
• Bring back manufacturing to the United States from China.
• Cut wages and salaries by as much as 20 percent with tax holidays for lower income groups.
• Reduce the size of government to cut expenses.
• Cut military adventurism abroad.

Although the United States is aware of its illness, it has trouble facing it. If an urgent and concerted effort is not made to address it, the future is insecure given its US$12 trillion government debt and several more trillion dollars in state, personal and business debt. And if the United States falters, the rest of the world will follow suit.

In the last 40 years, the United States has developed an unhealthy appetite for credit. The U.S. government, its citizens and its businesses live beyond their means. U.S. consumers have US$850 billion in credit card debt alone, and carry $2.7 trillion in other consumer debt. The latter figure does not include mortgages, which total $8 trillion. This is too large a burden for any nation to carry. To get out of this mess the United States has to start living within its means. But where does it begin?

Oil imports cost the country an average US$700 billion annually. This needless drain of cash occurs due to big consumer appetites for oversized vehicles, transporting goods long distances, traveling too much on minor excuses and generally living a high life.

Manufacturing lost to China under the pretext of globalization and price competitiveness due to cheap Chinese labor has to be brought back to the United States.

Chinese manufactured goods exported to the United States rose to US$340 billion in 2008. That is 8 percent higher than the year before, and the trend is likely to continue. U.S. exports to China for the same period were only $66 billion. This gives the U.S. a current account deficit of $274 billion with China alone. After oil, this is the second biggest drain on the U.S. economy – and it must stop.

A wage cut for white-collar workers and those who work on commissions, contracts and fat bonuses should be undertaken. The millions of dollars in commissions paid to chief executive officers of investment houses should be curtailed, along with those for workers in other sectors like information technology and engineering, where high wages have resulted in jobs outsourced to India.

This year’s deficit – expenditures minus income – is about US$385 billion and likely to rise. Gone are the days when former U.S. President Bill Clinton handed over the presidency to his successor, former President George W. Bush, with a $250 billion surplus. Something has gone wrong. The surplus has been squandered in providing tax cuts to the wealthy and fighting an unpleasant war in Iraq.

The United States also suffers from manipulative political lobbying. Close to US$4 billion is spent on politicians and officials to get legislation passed. This money corrupts politicians and officials. The country has to learn to run its democracy without lobbying. Legislatures have to vote on their integrity and convictions.

If Obama succeeds in force-feeding a bitter pill to the American people and politicians, the country may be on a stable path to recovery. Europe, which has similar problems to those faced by the United States, is going to have to pursue a similar remedy.

President Obama, Ms. Roe and Mr. Wade

There are of course many issues in regards to abortion, which has divided many Americans over the years concerning the Roe vs. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court back, back in 1973.  However, this is a new age of troubling times to contend with and I sincerely hope that we Americans cannot become boggled down in this touchy issue, at this time.  Instead, let’s work on fixing our economy, bring our troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan, coming up with fixes to slow down global warming and finally develop independency from foreign countries providing us with oil.

Today our President plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortions.  I support the President on this signing, but hope it will not bring out the protesters attempting to bind “church” and “state” into one nicely tight package.

What follows are excerpts from the AP Online Newswire Service, regarding the signing of the Executive Order:

Officials: Obama to reverse abortion policy

By LIZ SIDOTI and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writers

President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortions, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The move, long expected in the Democratic president’s first week in office, will be welcomed by liberals and criticized by abortion rights foes.

The policy bans U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of U.S. Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion. It is also known as the “global gag rule,” because it prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that even talk about abortion if there is an unplanned pregnancy.

The move was not a surprise as both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the gag rule during the presidential campaign. Clinton is to visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, through which much U.S. foreign aid is disbursed, later on Friday.

Organizations that had pressed Obama to make the abortion-ban change were jubilant.

“Women’s health has been severely impacted by the cutoff of assistance. President Obama’s actions will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don’t have access to family planning,” said Tod Preston, a spokesman for Population Action International, an advocacy group.

A True Test for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

An outstanding question today was published by “Time” as it wrote “Can Clinton and Her Envoys Rebuild U.S. Diplomacy?”  Everyone knows the damage to the international community former President Bush’s Administration created and the hard feelings our neighbors have towards us, but few can venture to guess how deep these feelings are and how long it will take to repair the hurt feelings.

I published before, here, within this plot about my personal feelings regarding Secretary Clinton and can only hope there exists a feeling of “forgive and forget” among the countries we’ve upset over the past years of selfishness behavior, protectionism polices and discerning attitude we have engaged in.

Here are a few excerpts from the Time article, which bare a peek at:

Can Clinton and Her Envoys Rebuild U.S. Diplomacy?

By Massimo Calabresi / Washington Friday, Jan. 23, 2009

The euphoria that greeted Hillary Clinton’s arrival at the State Department on Thursday was not unfamiliar. Every few years, the usually reserved diplomats at Foggy Bottom drop their world-weariness and get all googly-eyed over a new leader: when Colin Powell took charge in January 2001, he was mobbed by star-struck Foreign Service Officers hoping he’d reverse the department’s diminishing stature under Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright.

In early 2005, their adulation was even more desperate as they greeted Condoleezza Rice following Powell’s four-year emasculation at the hands of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.

What the downcast diplomats really seek is someone who will return the State Department to the central role it played in the days when American diplomacy shaped the most important world events.

There are reasons to be optimistic that Holbrooke and Mitchell, and Clinton herself for that matter, are part of a new beginning for American diplomacy. Obama had made rejuvenating diplomacy a centerpiece of his campaign, and he has named a serious and strong-willed team whose members, as much as anything, hate to fail. Both envoys are known to be energetic in the field and to have records of peace-making achievement, Holbrooke in brokering the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnia conflict, and Mitchell in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement that marked the beginning of the end of the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

If the weary diplomats at the State department want nothing more than action on the diplomatic front, they’re certainly going to get it from Holbrooke and Mitchell. Whether the two men will actually succeed may depend on the policies that guide their efforts and on Hillary Clinton’s skills in managing them. She had a simple message for everyone at Foggy Bottom on her first day at work. “This is a team,” she told the gathered diplomats, and “We are not any longer going to tolerate the kind of divisiveness that has paralyzed and undermined our ability to get things done for America.” Says Levy of the New America Foundation: “I think you can make it work.”

Geithner Looks to be “In” and the Economy “On”

President Obama’s choice for Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, has received the committee approval, which now goes on to the full Senate, and hopefully there won’t be the usual GOP foot dragging of which they consider bipartisan support (see here).

Geithner is possibly the right man for the job with his experience and intellect and has my support in getting the economy started in the right direction, but its my personal opinion that more time will be needed than some of the projections I’ve heard of, such as just one or two years.

Here’s what Politico had to say (excerpts):

Geithner gets committee nod

Geithner gets committee nod

By VICTORIA MCGRANE | 1/22/09 11:16 AM EST  Updated: 1/22/09 11:59 AM EST

Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner said Thursday that the Obama administration has no plan to request additional bailout money to prop up the nation’s financial markets — yet.

The panel approved Geithner’s nomination Thursday, 18-5, after grilling him for more than three hours over his personal tax troubles and his role in the bailout as head of the New York Federal Reserve. He now awaits confirmation by the full Senate.

Geithner’s statement on the bailout funds was part of his written response to questions posed to him by Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

Grassley’s question to Geithner clearly assumed that it’s a question of when, not if: “It appears that the $700 billion TARP program will not be enough. When will the administration be requesting additional bailout funding?”