A Look at a Different Future for America

I think our country is in for some major changes in the near future, if it isn’t already happening. It has a lot to do with the shrinking of the world in general and of our growing dependence on other countries – a possibility we use to brush off as something that would never happen. But it has, thanks in part to the financial mess we find ourselves in today.

Thomas Friedman had a good piece in the NYT Op-Ed today and he spells it out so much better than I ever could, so here’s the major part of his column.

“Even though the dollar has strengthened a bit lately, we are going to need foreigners and sovereign wealth funds from China, Asia, Europe and the Middle East more than ever to survive this crisis — and they are going to need us to be healthy as well. In the process, we are going to become even more intertwined and dependent on the rest of the world.

Sarah Palin won’t have to worry that she doesn’t know what the Bush doctrine is. No one really knew what it meant. But it had something to do with the unilateral exercise of American power, and the next president’s ability to act unilaterally on anything other than vital national security issues is going to be reduced. As the old saying goes: He who has the gold makes the rules. Well, we no longer have as much gold, and until we get some, we will have to pay more heed to the rules of those who lend us theirs.

At a time when the U.S. government gets half its borrowings from abroad, at a time when the U.S. household savings rate is hovering around zero and China alone is already holding around $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury notes and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds — yes, that’s how you got that cheap subprime mortgage — it can’t be any other way.

Somebody better tell John McCain: We are all Swedes now. Forget about “Live Free or Die.” Until we get our financial act together, our motto is going to be: “Swedish spoken here — or Arabic or Chinese or German ...”

I would also bet that more and more of the foreign investors who come our way are going to want to buy hard, tangible assets — skyscrapers, real estate and real companies — not just mutual funds, T-bills, bank stocks or other equities. No problem. Americans own assets all over the world; foreigners have long owned substantial positions in U.S. companies. That’s globalization — and now you are going to see globalization and financial integration on steroids. It should help us, but also change us.

“The next round of capital that comes in from abroad is going to be much more demanding and move into real assets,” argued Jeffrey Garten, professor of trade and finance at the Yale School of Management. “Being a bigger debtor nation means losing even more of our sovereignty. It means conducting our economic policies with an eye toward whether others approve. It means bearing the advice and criticism that we have dispensed ad nauseam to other countries for over half a century. It means far more intensive consultations with other capitals on our fiscal policies and our monetary policies.”

At the same time, added Garten, “Corporate decisions will become more sensitive to international factors, in part because more non-Americans will be on the governing boards.” Ultimately, this could make American industry even more globally competitive — but for those who can’t pass global muster or enlist global collaborators, the consequences could be harsh.
Of course, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain dare talk about this now. They want to pretend nothing has really changed. The minute one of them steps into the Oval Office, they will tell us otherwise. That will be the January surprise.

There was a lot of talk after Russia invaded Georgia that globalization was over and we were seeing the return of “history” and the primacy of politics over economics. I think not. Politics and economics are always inextricably intertwined. History-making is rarely free. The Russian stock market has been hammered as a result of its invasion of Georgia, and the global slowdown has sunk Russian oil and gas earnings. No country is an island today.

Making history is not simply about the will to do so. It’s also about the way — the resources you have to achieve your ends. Whatever wills the next American president comes to office with, he is going to find that his ways have been diminished and restricted — until we roll up our sleeves and work our way out of this mess.”

Are we ready for a new day? A new role? Let’s hope we elect a president that can deal with the future in a much better way than Bush and the Republicans have dealt with the past eight years.

Oregon Coast

Just one more view of a part of our magnificent country!
It's one of my favorite places.

How can we afford to elect people who only want to use
this country for their own benefit, people who don't care
about protecting it, preserving it for all those who will come
after us? Is their kind of legacy what we want to leave for
our children and grandchildren? Look at the beautiful
places in your own part of the country, then look at where we
are headed with more of the same in Washington. I keep
pushing this because I am passionate about our country
and its future. I hope you see what I see, hope for what I
hope for and believe we can make a difference, together.

What is Racism, Really?

Earlier this morning I read an Op-Ed piece by Nicholas Kristof, NYT
that I found disturbing because I know it to be true from what I have personally discovered and experienced over the years. It is what a number of scholars call “racism without racists.” According to Mr.Kristof, “racism is difficult to measure, but a survey completed last month by Stanford University, with the AP and Yahoo, suggested that Mr. Obama’s support would be about six percentage points higher if he were white. That’s significant but surmountable. Most of the lost votes aren’t those dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.”

I would venture to say, and Mr. Kristof’s research seems to say the same thing, and that is that most whites who truly believe in equal rights will still recommend hiring white job candidates more readily that a black person with the identical credentials. Even though their folders may be totally the same except for one being labeled black and the other white, a white person making the selection will still choose the white applicant, but will think they are selecting on the basis of nonracial factors like experience.

It seems that conscious prejudice, as measured over time in surveys, has declined over the years, but the unconscious discrimination – what psychologists call aversive racism, has remained fairly constant.

Unfortunately, over and over again, I’ve found this to be quite true. Still on the other hand one could say that opposition to Obama is no more evidence of racism than the opposition to McCain is evidence of discrimination against the elderly. We are all quick to explain our reasons for voting for or against a particular candidate and I do believe that most Americans truly do not see themselves as racist or ageists, but how do they really explain the way they vote?

From the research that has been done it is very clear that racial biases are deeply ingrained within us. But at the same time, Mr. Kristof reminds us of a historical lesson on overcoming unconscious bias. That’s what happened with the decline in prejudice against Catholics after the candidacy of John F. Kennedy in 1960. Can we make this happen again? I don’t know, I hope so. It is time to move ahead and finally put prejudice of every kind behind us. I have said this before and I’ll probably repeat it several more times before this election is over, but regardless of the color of our skin, our age, rich or poor, educated or not, we all walk upright on two legs, we all yearn for the same opportunities, dream the same dreams for our future, for our children and grandchildren. It’s time to erase those lines that divide us so deeply and move ahead to help this country once again become the beacon of liberty, equality and hope that it once was. A belief, a dream that has been sadly damaged over the past eight years.

For the entire Op-Ed piece see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05kristof.html?th&emc=th,

Start Your Day With a BIG Laugh!

These days I'm looking for humor wherever I can find it and a couple of my friends have supplied me with some choice tidbits. You saw one last evening and now I want to start your Sunday with a whoop! We've got another month of politics/Palin/McCain/Wall Street, let's laugh when and while we can!

From Newshound Dave Barry's Colonoscopy Journal

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment -- for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place,at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis. Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to mein a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'He’s going to stick a tube 17,000 feet up your behind!' I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America's enemies. I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarmwater. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon. The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground. MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much theMoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. Then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future & start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet. After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if Ispurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that?Flowers would not be enough. At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked. Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand.Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this is,but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full FireHose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house. When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedureroom, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side; and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'DancingQueen' had to be the least appropriate.'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like. I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent.I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over,and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

About the writer: Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humorcolumnist for the Miami Herald. On the subject of Colonoscopies...Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite humorous... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:
1. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!
2. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'
3. 'Can you hear me NOW?'
4. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'
5. 'You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married.'
6. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'
7. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'
8. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'
9. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!
10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'
11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'
12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.' The best one of all:
13. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying my head is not up there?'

Debate Flow Chart

I had two friends send this to me within five minutes of each other and it is funny

so I had to share it. Reads about right to me!

Financial Crisis - What You Should Know

I have been looking for something in language I could understand to explain what this financial crisis is and what we should know about it. I found this article by Allison Linn, a senior writer for MSNBC and at least I could understand pretty much all that she said, so I thought I'd pass it on with the hope it might help someone else.

Crisis sparks confusion, questions about personal finanace.

While the rescue package is expected to help deal with the financial crisis, experts have warned that tough economic times are likely still ahead. Here’s what else you should know about how the crisis might affect your personal finances.

Checking and savings accountsNews that major banks including Washington Mutual and Wachovia have been pulled down by the crisis has sparked fears about whether Americans should trust their banking institutions to stay solvent.

Most banks are expected to continue functioning normally. Still, it pays to take a few simple steps to protect your assets in the event of a bank failure.

First, make sure that your bank is backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., better known as the FDIC. Under the changes approved in the bailout package, if your bank is a member of the FDIC then the amount of money insured would increase to $250,000 until at least the end of 2009.

Under previous rules, individual accounts were insured for up to $100,000, and joint accounts were insured for up to $200,000.

If you bank with a credit union, make sure that it is insured under the National Credit Union Insurance Fund, which provides similar protections for credit union account holders.

Retirement investments
The FDIC also provides coverage of up to $250,000 for certain retirement accounts, such as IRAs that are held in FDIC-insured financial institutions. If you have more than $100,000, it pays to check out the FDIC's online deposit insurance estimator.

Brokerage account
While most of us expect to see gains and losses as a result of investing in the stock market, some have raised concerns about what happens if the company that holds your investments runs into trouble.

If you are concerned, check to see whether your firm is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corp., or SIPC. Created by Congress in 1970, SIPC covers investors for up to $500,000 in the event a brokerage fails or securities are stolen.

It’s important to note that this does NOT protect people whose investment portfolios lose value because of drops in the market or bad investments. That’s because investing in stocks and bonds is considered to be a risky endeavor, with upsides and downsides.

“They’re not guaranteeing the value of the stock,” said Barry Ritholtz, chief executive of the research firm FusionIQ and author of the forthcoming book “Bailout Nation.” “They’re guaranteeing $500,000 against the company going belly up.”

Some brokerage firms also have supplemental insurance for certain investments, should their brokerage fail.

Money markets
Money market funds often have been considered a safe haven for stashing cash that you don’t want in riskier investments, such as stocks. Recent troubles at one large money market fund sparked concerns that even these investments — considered by some to be safe as cash —are not completely secure.

Hoping to quell the anxiety, the Treasury Department recently stepped in to provide guarantees for money market funds, using a Depression-era fund to back them.

Mutual fund firms, also, have taken steps to comfort worried investors, including disclosing money market fund holdings and posting information about their investment decision-making.

Russ Kinnel, director of mutual fund research with Morningstar, said the best way to assure that your money is safe in a money market fund is to choose a relatively large, low-cost fund from a large company. Those steps should make it less likely the fund will make riskier investments, and more likely that the firm itself will make investors whole should the fund “break the buck,” or fall below the target of $1 per share.

Consumer credit
For many Americans, the credit crunch that is a key factor in the current financial crisis has been a relatively abstract idea, affecting mainly large financial institutions. As the crisis unfolds, economists say we could start to see more of an impact on people’s everyday lives.

Consumers who are trying to borrow money for a new car or new home, for example, might find it harder and more expensive to get a loan. Some might find it tougher to get a new credit card, said David Wyss, chief economist with Standard and Poor’s.

People who already have credit cards likely won’t see much change, although Wyss said some credit card companies are starting to reduce credit lines for riskier clients.

“They’re getting tougher on who they lend money to,” he said.

Business credit
Economists are watching closely to see if the credit crunch is going to make it harder for small- and midsized business owners to borrow money.

That, in turn, could crimp their ability to do business, leading to layoffs and affecting related businesses. It also could make it tougher for entrepreneurs to find money for starting new businesses.

Mortgages
The crisis on Wall Street shouldn’t have a direct impact on people who are paying their mortgages on time.

If you are seeking to refinance your mortgage or take out a second mortgage, however, you may find it to be more difficult, if not impossible, because of stricter lending requirements.

A Peaceful Retreat to Orcas Island

After such a frustrating week, how about slipping away

to Orcas Island? Beautiful sky, clouds, water and a happy seagull.

These are the things that matter. Time to put all the ugly politics, the

frustrations behind and slip away -- even in our imagination, for a quiet

and beautiful weekend. We all need that time to regroup and focus on what is really

important and those things include our children, grandchildren, families, friends and all the

beautiful things that can and do fill our lives when we are open to receive them.

Time for a Giggle or Two

As those of you who follow my blog know, I can only deal with politics, Republicans, Wall Street,and the anger and frustration that seem to accompany anything having to do with the afore mentioned for just so long -- particularly since it doesn't appear as if the big picture is going to improve anytime soon. So, I turn to the little humorous truths so frequently sent to me by my 84 year old, good friend Fran, who is sharper and funnier than many and she still follows politics! I need to get her recipe. Maybe we can all start with these.

Eight Words with two Meanings

1. THINGY (thing-ee) n.
Female...... Any part under a car's hood.
Male..... The strap fastener on a woman's bra.

2. VULNERABLE (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
Female.... Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male.. Playing hockey without a cup.

3. COMMUNICATION (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon) n.
Female... The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male... Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with the boys.

4. COMMITMENT (ko-mit-ment) n.
Female.... A desire to get married and raise a family.
Male...... Trying not to hit on other women while out with this one.

5. ENTERTAINMENT (en-ter-tayn-ment) n.
Femal e.... A good movie, concert, play or book.
Male...... Anything that can be done while drinking beer.

6. FLATULENCE (flach-u-lens) n.
Female.... An embarrassing byproduct of indigestion.
Male...... A source of entertainment, self-expression, male bonding.

7 MAKING LOVE (may-king luv) n.
Female..... The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
Male.. Call it whatever you want, just as long as we do it.

8. REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
Female.... A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male... A device for scanning through all 375 channels every 5 minutes.

AND --

He said . . . I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it.
She said . . . You wear pants don't you?

He said . . ..... Shall we try swapping positions tonight?
She said . . ....That's a good idea - you stand by the sink and do the dishes while I sit on the sofa and fart!

He said . ... What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you?
She said . .....Turn sideways and look in the mirror!

He said . . How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
She said . . We don't know; it has never happened.

She said... What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is every night?
He said . . . A widow

He said . .Why are married women heavier than single women?
She said . . Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed. Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.

What Choices Do We Have? Not many!

I've been disturbed by the very idea of a bailout and, yet, as the days have slipped by more and more of what I have read by those who do know what they're talking about, say it's vital, if for one reason only -- to buy us some more time to work out a better solution. And they are saying this even though they don't like the idea either and see all the trinkets that have been added in order to get the bill passed. Paul Krugman, like Thomas Friedman is saying pretty much the same thing. I posted Friedman's Op-Ed article earlier and here is Krugman's.

October 3, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Edge of the Abyss

By PAUL KRUGMAN

As recently as three weeks ago it was still possible to argue that the state of the U.S. economy, while clearly not good, wasn’t disastrous — that the financial system, while under stress, wasn’t in full meltdown and that Wall Street’s troubles weren’t having that much impact on Main Street.

But that was then.

The financial and economic news since the middle of last month has been really, really bad. And what’s truly scary is that we’re entering a period of severe crisis with weak, confused leadership.
The wave of bad news began on Sept. 14. Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, thought he could get away with letting Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, fail; he was wrong. The plight of investors trapped by Lehman’s collapse — as an article in The Times put it, Lehman became “the Roach Motel of Wall Street: They checked in, but they can’t check out” — created panic in the financial markets, which has only grown worse as the days go by. Indicators of financial stress have soared to the equivalent of a 107-degree fever, and large parts of the financial system have simply shut down.

There’s growing evidence that the financial crunch is spreading to Main Street, with small businesses having trouble raising money and seeing their credit lines cut. And leading indicators for both employment and industrial production have turned sharply worse, suggesting that even before Lehman’s fall, the economy, which has been sagging since last year, was falling off a cliff.
How bad is it? Normally sober people are sounding apocalyptic. On Thursday, the bond trader and blogger John Jansen declared that current conditions are “the financial equivalent of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution,” while Joel Prakken of Macroeconomic Advisers says that the economy seems to be on “the edge of the abyss.”

And the people who should be steering us away from that abyss are out to lunch.
The House will probably vote on Friday on the latest version of the $700 billion bailout plan — originally the Paulson plan, then the Paulson-Dodd-Frank plan, and now, I guess, the Paulson-Dodd-Frank-Pork plan (it’s been larded up since the House rejected it on Monday). I hope that it passes, simply because we’re in the middle of a financial panic, and another no vote would make the panic even worse. But that’s just another way of saying that the economy is now hostage to the Treasury Department’s blunders.

For the fact is that the plan on offer is a stinker — and inexcusably so. The financial system has been under severe stress for more than a year, and there should have been carefully thought-out contingency plans ready to roll out in case the markets melted down. Obviously, there weren’t: the Paulson plan was clearly drawn up in haste and confusion. And Treasury officials have yet to offer any clear explanation of how the plan is supposed to work, probably because they themselves have no idea what they’re doing.

Despite this, as I said, I hope the plan passes, because otherwise we’ll probably see even worse panic in the markets. But at best, the plan will buy some time to seek a real solution to the crisis.
And that raises the question: Do we have that time?

A solution to our economic woes will have to start with a much better-conceived rescue of the financial system — one that will almost surely involve the U.S. government taking partial, temporary ownership of that system, the way Sweden’s government did in the early 1990s. Yet it’s hard to imagine the Bush administration taking that step.

We also desperately need an economic stimulus plan to push back against the slump in spending and employment. And this time it had better be a serious plan that doesn’t rely on the magic of tax cuts, but instead spends money where it’s needed. (Aid to cash-strapped state and local governments, which are slashing spending at precisely the worst moment, is also a priority.) Yet it’s hard to imagine the Bush administration, in its final months, overseeing the creation of a new Works Progress Administration.

So we probably have to wait for the next administration, which should be much more inclined to do the right thing — although even that’s by no means a sure thing, given the uncertainty of the election outcome. (I’m not a fan of Mr. Paulson’s, but I’d rather have him at the Treasury than, say, Phil “nation of whiners” Gramm.)

And while the election is only 32 days away, it will be almost four months until the next administration takes office. A lot can — and probably will — go wrong in those four months.
One thing’s for sure: The next administration’s economic team had better be ready to hit the ground running, because from day one it will find itself dealing with the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Sky Watch! Sunset From Our Deck in Seattle

These views are what soothe the soul and rescue one's sanity and reveal what is really important in life.