Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mr. Obama’s socialist state

There is no question that with the announcement of the budget today, Mr. Obama has started the road to a socialist state. I’ve listened to his top economists. Not one, not one single soul has mentioned anything about ‘wealth creation’ or ‘balancing the budget’.
I am not disputing what Mr. Obama intends to do – it all sounds nice and dandy. I am disputing how Mr. Obama wants to pay for what he wants to do. Not even mentioning wealth creation or balancing the budget?

We can easily see now that for all the talk about ‘change’ and ‘special interest’ Mr. Obama has proven that his and his party’s interests come first. Not the nation's. I don’t buy that his interests are in rebuilding the nation. He could have said something like: we will balance the budget in 4 years or in 6 years or in 10 years.. but no talk about that. He could have said something like: this country has lost so much wealth over the past few years, we will recoup all that lost wealth in 4 years or in 6 years or in 10 years.. no talk about that either the day he announced his budget.
We did hear a lot of talk about how hard the times are, how difficult it is and all the social programs that we must do. That kind of confirms that the journey to a socialist state has started doesn’t it..
Unfortunately, now we can see clearly why there was all that talk during the campaign about Mr. Obama's significant inexperience in the matters of state.. Capitalist state that is..
I can guess that Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid will not demand that Mr. Obama balances the budget. Will the congressional republicans demand a balanced budget? I hope they do it.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mr. Obama’s quiet social revolution

Make no mistake about it, Obama’s speech last night represents the start of a quiet social revolution. His plan as outlined last night sets the US on a path to social transformation never seen before in the US history.
His plans for energy, healthcare and education are ambitious. What strikes me is not what he wants to do, but how little he bothers to tell us how he is going to pay for what he intends to do. We will most likely find out when the budget comes out, but it surely sounds like a massive financial re-organization, taking money from current projects and redistributing it to the new and ambitious plans. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that what he wants to do doesn’t sound good because it does. It’s how he goes about doing it that doesn’t sounds right..
I guess Mr. Obama is taking Rahm Emanuel’s saying that you don’t ever let a major crisis go to waste to an extreme. So Mr. Obama is using the current major crisis to implement and pass through one of the most radical social reforms in history. The problem I see there is that the way he wants to it defies common sense. It is not natural. Taking money from one place and putting it in another place is not just a simple action of moving line items around in a budget. That action means disruption and disruption means pain.
Unlike Bill Clinton and Al Gore who first worked on creating wealth, Mr. Obama’s first mission is to re-distribute the current money. That is not common sense. If he is smart, if he is powerful, if he represents ‘change’, he first needs to focus on creating NEW wealth. Only after you make the money you think about how to spend the money..that IS common sense, that is the natural way of doing things.But if Mr. Obama is concerned at all with creating wealth remains to be seen. For now, he continues to attack Wall Street. Like it or not, with good and with bad, Wall Street is the MAJOR engine for wealth creation in the US and Mr. Obama must stop the attacks and start working with Wall Street as soon as possible. Otherwise, Mr. Obama’s quiet revolution will be painful. Quite painful.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mr. Obama, the stock market is “everything”

When Mr. Obama goes to Congress today he will tell us how hard the times are, how hard his job is, how he cannot balance the budget, how he cares about 95% of the people and how he doesn’t watch the stock market..
True, Mr. Obama has not had a lot of time in office. True, there are a lot of hard and complicated issues he has on his plate. Did anyone tell him that being president of the US was an easy job? I hope not..We hire presidents because we are a complex country. The job is not “easy” Mr. President! And it will not get any easier either..
But the complexities of the job should not limit our potential, opportunities. In a dynamic economy such as ours no president can afford to minimize the importance of the stock markets in our economy.
We’ve heard the other day that the president will not even attempt to balance the budget within his first term. That is bad. It is bad behavior, not healthy for anyone.
We’ve also heard from his press secretary that the president is not watching the stock market. Forgive me for asking, but if you do not raise taxes and do not cut spending to balance the budget, how do you make money to pay for the adventure Mr. President?
Like it or not Mr. President, the stock market is “everything”. You will have to watch it like millions and millions of Americans do.. and you will have to treat the stock market as it was the most important thing in your presidency. Not if you can ‘find time’ for that.. not ‘after’ you take care of other ‘important’ issues.. The stock market is the engine of growth in our economy. Americans invest their own money to make their own destiny and yes, to ‘profit’. As profit is not just for the 5% of the people of this country. Profit is our way and it defines ‘all ‘100% of US.
So when you go to Congress today Mr. President, please acknowledge that we need more than a stimulus package. We need a strong stock market. A strong market cannot exist without confidence about the future economic growth. And if we are talking about trillion dollars investments. And if you truly believe that those ‘are‘ investments, give us your word of confidence Mr. President. Address the stock market as if it were the most precious gift you have received. Because it is.
Mr. Obama, the stock market is “everything”

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mr. Obama, BALANCE THE BUDGET ASAP!

I am not sure how a president can say with a straight face: I will reduce the deficit from $1 trillion to half of that in about 2-3 years.. please.. as a nation we have been playing this farce forever.. who needs a ‘reduction’ in the deficit? Do you need that? I don’t. In fact, I don’t really care.. so why reduce it at all?
I mean, if Mr. Obama really wants to do something serious he needs to tell the world that we as a nation will balance the budget within his first term in office. Not in the second term and not in ten years. Within his first term! Why is it sooooo difficult for our presidents to balance the checkbooks lately? We haven’t seen that kind of talk since Bill Clinton was in office.

Why can’t our presidents balance budgets? Or better yet, why aren’t the US presidents even interested in balancing the budget?
I believe that most of us think that there is only one way to balance the budget – one way for each party that is: democrats have to raise taxes and republicans have to cut programs.
Isn’t that view bringing us back like 100 years or so?
Why can’t we as a nation find ways to balance the budget the right way: by having a strong economy based on a strong stock market that fuels wealth creation.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore proved that was possible. We have the recipe – maybe Mr. Obama needs to talk to Bill Clinton and to Al Gore once in awhile..

I say we should demand that our presidents balance the books – just like everyone else on this planet!
Mr. Obama, BALANCE THE BUDGET ASAP!