Archive for April 29th, 2008
Wall Street’s army of old-white-guys-in-suits seems to be living in a different world than the rest of us. If you watch financial news or read financial newspapers, those hedge fund kingpins and stock speculators are trying to get the message out that the bad days are over and that the good days are right around the corner. They’re trying to tell us that recession fears are a bunch of hog-wash.
The irony is that they are spinning this bull at the same time Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful investor of all time, is saying the exact opposite. Buffett believes that not only are we already in a recession, but we should expect things to get worse.
“… My general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think,” says Buffett.
Maybe Buffett is so level headed and insightful because he doesn’t allow himself to be blinded by his billions and instead lives a humble life devoted to his family in Omaha, NE.
But, it doesn’t take an MBA to see the direction our economy has turned. Gas and food prices are rising and resources are becoming more scarce, the value of our homes is declining, friends and family are losing their homes and jobs and defaulting on debts, incomes are stagnating and inflation is raging: the situation ain’t good.
So, why the common sense-defying, Buffett-denying, sunny forecast from Wall Street?
They may indeed be too blinded by their billions to see what is happening on the street.
But, more likely they are so panicked by the numbers they’re seeing that they are rushing to plug the dike the best way they know how: drumming up business. Who can blame them? They believe the best way to stave off this recession is to buy-buy-buy. But, they know it’s a bear market.
So next time you see a Wall Street insider on television telling you the forecast calls for sunshine, look outside and see the storm clouds gathering. The forecast calls for rain.
Azerbaijan has prevented a shipment of Russian nuclear equipment from getting to Iran. Pretty damn good news if you asked me. It’s going to take more than the United States or France to reign in Iranian Mullahs (not to mention circumnavigating Putin’s rogue policies). Thank you, Azerbaijan!
What could Hillary Clinton be thinking? Aligning herself with John McCain around some pie-in-the-sky
ponzi scheme their calling a “gas tax break”? Honestly.
We are at such a critical juncture, the moment so pivotal, with concern to our economy, our environment and our way-of-life: this is not the time to be coaxing Americans to the gas station.
This is a time for visionary leadership. This is a time for revolutionary ideas and innovation! We have to come up with alternative sources of energy and transportation. We cannot remain dependent and addicted to oil and gas.
Clinton is proving that she is nothing more than another oil industry lap dog with this backwards move.
A former senior Federal Reserve official, Vincent Reinhart, told The Wall Street Journal that the Fed’s bailout of Bear Stearns is the:
This shouldn’t be shocking. Anyone with a sense of history can predict how this failure of policy is going to produce disastrous results. It was a slap in the face to free markets and takes bad lenders off the hook.
The bankruptcy of Bear Stearns would have been a great lesson for Wall Street. But eventually the Fed’s band-aide will fall off. Unfortunately, the wound is going to be worse.
I’ve been really concerned about Wright from the beginning. He was a hard pill for me to swallow. He makes me think twice about Obama.
And this is mostly because my father is a Methodist minister, I grew up around and attended many black churches, and my family even traveled to Israel with our African-American Bishop. Not one of the black preachers or churches I had contact with or attended as a youth preached Black Liberation Theology, no pulpit expressed anti-American notions or radical conspiracy theories. And most don’t! Wright is a fringe preacher. An extreme fringe.
(But, not on the South Side of Chicago.) … (And I didn’t grow up on the South Side of Chicago.)
And I know what it means to be a member of a church and sit Sunday after Sunday through sermon after sermon. I know that if you don’t agree with the sermon or the preacher then you move on and try the church next door (or try to get the preacher moved or fired). That is simply how it works.
And if you feel a certain connection to the congregation, but not to the preacher, then you continue on with the congregation and put distance between yourself and the preacher. This is just how it works.
(But, Obama is a politician first.)
However, after watching Wright on television yesterday and over the weekend on Bill Moyers, I have to say that he ain’t so bad.
This isn’t to say that he isn’t overly-suspicious of government and the democratic process. He is. You could even argue that he is hostile to democracy. But, his is a dissent which has been dissented since the formation of our country. And does not every man have a right to his opinion and to speak his mind? Of course.
But, the argument goes: “Do we want a man hostile to democracy counseling the future president of our nation?” Probably not.
But, if you actually take the time to listen to an entire sermon or speech or have Wright express his views in full, the anti-democracy quips are taken out of context. Not way out of context, but out of context all the same. Wright is merely trying to make a point with a couple too many ill-thought metaphors.
Wright waxes long and hard about the injustices done to African Americans - trying to make sense of it through sometimes far-fetched conspiracies. But again, he is simply trying to understand the pain and suffering of his congregation. He is not forward thinking, but backward thinking. Mining the past to make sense of the present. And the present state of many African-Americans makes his blood boil. And many times, instead of turning to God, Wright prefers to point the finger.
Wright comes from a specific generation of Black Liberation Theologians. It was a short burst of radical thought in the overall history of the African-American Christian Church in the early 1970s. Wright’s is such a fringe sect at this point that I would argue he is completely irrelevant in the broader context of the African-American church.
But, I’ve buried my lead: Wright is not a bad man. He is a passionate preacher with very specific views and a very distinct world view - which his congregation shares. Wright makes sense in his church in his neighborhood in Chicago. Full stop. And if you don’t live in the South Side of Chicago, and if you aren’t open to Black Liberation Theology then you aren’t going to “get it”.
I would argue that Wright is in no way anti-American. No way. If you listen to his sermons, read his speeches, then it is plain and clear that Wright is fully aware that he has the right to speak his mind and preach his preach because he is American. He cherishes America. He believes in freedom. He believes in justice. And many of his sermons seem angry because he doesn’t think that America is living up to its full potential - that our constitution has been trampled on throughout our history.
Americans should not be concerned that Obama attended his church or had Wright conduct his marriage ceremony or baptize his children.
I think that Obama was simply trying to get to know the people he hoped to represent in the South Side of Chicago. And in the process Obama was introduced to Christianity. That’s the story. It’s plain and it’s simple. And something that Americans should not be afraid of.