Election Thursday: Economic Turmoil!

WARNING - FOUL LANGUAGE
Wow, is it windy outside; and I had the most bizarre dream last night. Anyway... Hey folks! It's Election Thursday!

Military.com has an article about Senator Obama's inconsistent and incoherent stance on ROTC. Why am I not surprised that the man who has a problem taking a position on anything is flip-flopping on ROTC?

FSM has an interesting article comparing Governor Palin to a younger Baroness Thatcher. Meanwhile, Lindsay Lohan, that paragon of virtue and intellectualism has lashed out at Governor Palin over Palin's church and its stance on homosexuality. Call me crazy, but I'm going to put more stock in the columnist who compares Palin to Thatcher, than I am to Lindsay Lohan. There was a time when Lindsay Lohan was adorable (I know, I have some jpegs on my old computer); those days have long since passed, and Lohan should now consider retiring entirely while she's still just a minor embarrassment to humanity.

M@, who could become my flatmate in a matter of weeks, and who probably still can't tell time, pointed me to a really compelling video. Please watch it, because not only is Craig Ferguson more impressive than I had ever realized, but he's someone who knows what it is to choose to become an American of his own free will.



He's right. It's an important election, and voting is your duty as an American citizen. It's what separates us from human beings in countries that are literally no more developed than ancient, barbaric cultures. Voting is what allows us to have iPods and cable television and Rick Warren and all sorts of other important and unimportant things. So do it

The weak economy is quickly becoming one of the important issues in this year's election. I'm getting more and more frustrated about it, actually, because the current problems are based largely on two things. The first was that corrupt politicians in Congress (mainly Democrats) blocked efforts and calls by Senate Republicans and the President to enforce more oversight and supervision of Wall Street, and to reform corrupt and fraudulent practices by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The second is that mortgage lenders - to include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which shouldn't exist in the first place - have been making loans to people who they shouldn't have been making loans to, and - surprise! - many of those high risk loans fell apart when the market shifted.

Now, if you ask me, oil prices have been at least one factor in this. The price of oil has shifted the budgets of many American families, pushed many (who already had bad spending habits to begin with, and shouldn't have been given home loans in the first place) to rely on things like credit cards. As I've noted previously, Democrats are also largely to blame for the energy crisis because they've blocked both domestic oil drilling (and refining) and the construction of nuclear energy stations. For those things, you can further blame the environmentalists, who now hold the Democrat party in a veritable stranglehold. If we'd actually pursued President Bush's agenda during the course of the last eight years, we'd still have cheap energy, Wall Street would have been better supervised, and we wouldn't be in this mess.

Now, as for the prospective $700 billion dollar bail out plan - I sort of grudgingly support it. I've heard people talking about how President Bush and his team are trying to push this through quickly; the fact of the matter is, the Bush team has been trying to manage this situation without some kind of bullshit bailout for the better part of the last year. That's why they've been dropping interest rates. In case some of you hadn't noticed, this latest crisis came during a week in which the American exchange rate and the price of oil were doing great - oil was close to ninety dollars a barrel, and the exchange rate was the best it had been in four years. That doesn't happen due to shitty management by a President. President Bush didn't tell all of those banks to make bogus loan; what he did do was take steps to make the market more amenable to those who were just below the point of being potential home buyers. I have no doubt that there are plenty of folks like that out there who are surviving and paying their mortgage payments every month. Unfortunately, there are also thousands upon thousands of lenders and borrowers who have screwed the rest of us.

I'm grudgingly supporting the bailout plan, not because I'm thrilled to spend that kind of money, but for several reasons. First, this isn't about bailing out banks - it's about people like you, and me, who can be, will be, and are being adversely affected by this situation. Second, some of the money in question, maybe even all of it, will be recouped - in effect, the government is taking a stake in the failing banks, and that will theoretically allow it to institute additional requirements of those lenders, if the Democrat-controlled Congress doesn't fuck it up by throwing in some bullshit welfare giveaway, like the stupid and ineffective "Economic Stimulus Package" goat-rope that already put the country further in debt for no benefit whatsoever. You know what they say: we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately? Yeah, well, either way, we're all hanging.

To be honest with you, except for probably never being able to trust anyone who works in mortgages again, I'm not actually worried about the market itself. I believe, and history backs me up on this, that the American economy is fundamentally sound and strong. The weak link in this situation is public perception, and that perception of weakness (coupled with the unnecessary energy price fiasco) is what's causing this. I plugged some money into the market last week, and I have no worries about riding this out. Further, I've only ever taken on an amount of debt that I could easily afford, and I don't live beyond my means - the only debt that I have is my vehicle, and I pay my bills like clockwork. I'm not particularly worried, unless Senator Obama gets elected and slashes military spending, possibly putting me out of the job. Aside from that, I have literally no fear because I've made sound financial decisions, even if that didn't always leave me in a completely comfortable and glamorous situation. If you've made responsible financial situations, you shouldn't be worried, either; and you should capitalize on this situation to make some money.

Speaking of Senator Obama, I will be furious beyond belief if this turmoil benefits him. As I've mentioned previously, President Bush has wanted to take steps to fix these loopholes for years (so has Senator McCain, just for the record). Meanwhile, Senator Obama's been buddy-buddy with the folks who have been fucking Fannie Mae up. Don't believe me? Have a look.




Senator Obama is the last person we need untying this Gordian Knot. Ugh. I'm not so much blaming it on him, as I'm saying that while Senator McCain and President Bush wanted to fix the problem, it was Senator Obama who was buddying up to these fraudsters who were making the problem worse. That's an issue not only of judgment, but of Senator Obama's questionable judgment (which seems to be turning into a hallmark of this campaign). Sometimes, I'm literally speechless at the total lack of coherence of the Democrat party when it comes to economic policies or scruples. Social issues, I can give them, because you can at least make an argument for flexible morality - not a very good argument, but an argument nontheless - but this is just ridiculous.

Alright, that's my weekly rant. Tune in tomorrow for a calmer, gentler approach... To AMF!