Obama's Economic Hope Teeters at the Edge of a Chasm of Public Fear
The failing economy will be the dominant political narrative until it turns around. The Obama administration understands that Obama's political standing could tumble by the midterm elections if the voters do not see results of his programs over the next 18 months. But there is one thing that he might do immediately to bolster confidence: renew the term of Chairman Bernanke, which runs out in January of next year. It is fortunate that a student of the Great Depression was in place to react with speed, imagination, and candor. We should not risk another chairman. We have already had too many risks.
- Read more by Mortimer Zuckerman.
- Read more about economic stimulus.
- Read more about the Great Depression.
Reader Comments
Rich
The analysis of how we got here is mostly correct but the read of public sentiment is wrong--the very high approval numbers that Obama continues to get despite public furors such as the stimulus bill and the "teaparties" shows that the public is not drowning in pessimism; they believe Obama and his administration are handling it and that their lives will start to improve by the end of this year. Zuckerman's heroic picture of the banks and capitalism may be mostly wrong--the big cash movements created by their machinations produced a bubble which, when it burst, stripped all the beneficiaries--from upper-middle class salarymen to overextended homeowners with a credit card--of their artificial gains. What is left is the "real" economy, the businesses and occasional factories and local banks, doing what they've always done. America desperately needs to become a steady-state economy along the lines of the European social democracies, where public and private need have a reliable balance, so that we can stop obsessing and arguing about the phony economic thought behind cowboy capitalism and instead be able to focus on life's important matters, like going to mars or creating intelligent machines or curing disease...
Josh of NY
Josh of NY: "An average taxpyaer making $50,000 pays only 3% in federal taxes.. We are not being bailed out by an average taxpayer but by the same "rich" that this administration so fervently denigrates"
Who's your accountant? I get soaked to the tune of about 30% every year, just in income taxes. We won't even go into fees, sales taxes and all manner of hidden taxes, which would take it northward to about 50% or so. And that was true when I only made $12,000/year, too!
A Spiritual solution to the economic problem?
Could the answer to the economic problem be beyond equations, and formulas and calculated probabilities?
Perhaps we need to grow up, and apply spiritual attributes to our strategies, like economic democracy and social justice.
Perhaps the "invisible hand" helps those who help others.
One strategy that meets the spiritual test is enhanced profitsharing. www.profitsharinguprising.com
Allow businesses a tax credit for returning 20% of net profits back to employees.
This is the next great advancemnt for humankind.
All are invited to join the profitsharing uprising.
This will increase household income quickly and dramatically.
It will refine capitalism to the model that was envisioned by our forefathers.
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