Wednesday, January 27, 2010
MUST READ
Go to AOL News and hook on to "Obama: Advice from a Turnaround Specialist" named Anthony Holmes: it's good and logical reading.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
A WAKE-UP CALL
Well. folks, I guess we're getting a wake-up call. I refer you to the latest from Daily Politics on the web---"The Fox Juggernaut: Why It's Number One", a very challenging piece on how the liberal establishment and middle-grounders like I have underrated and laughed off the Fox Network as the voice of the right. It pains me to say so, but I think the article has a point: that the center and the left cannot ignore the center and right-of-center majority in this country. Sarah Palin is a joke, but there are too many who don't think she's funny. Massachusetts was also a bucket of frigid water thrown all over us. And Fox News has been quick to cover and encourage that bandwagon.
I'm not suggesting that the non-rightwingers should roll over and die, but I think we better learn to present the more progressive agenda in a more palatable way, perhaps breaking the programs into smaller chunks which can be understood, absorbed and digested more easily.
This starts with our President. I believe he can lead us in the right direction, but he has got to engage people on a more populist basis and stop projecting what has become his almost-too-cool image. I don't mean he should become simplistic and talk down to people, but he has to find a happy meeting ground where he can engage and convince. He's enough of an orator that he can find the right words and reach out on a more emotional level. He can still project his aura of brains and competence but with a lighter touch, and doing it a bit slower might help his program and aims in the long run. He also needs to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty with some tough politicking.
I don't like the Tea Partyists, Glenn Beck Bill O'Reilly or Sarah Palin. But they are not idiots and they are pressing the right buttons right now. Plain and simple, slow down the agenda a bit and reach out to their audience. Don't abdicate it to Fox.
I'm not suggesting that the non-rightwingers should roll over and die, but I think we better learn to present the more progressive agenda in a more palatable way, perhaps breaking the programs into smaller chunks which can be understood, absorbed and digested more easily.
This starts with our President. I believe he can lead us in the right direction, but he has got to engage people on a more populist basis and stop projecting what has become his almost-too-cool image. I don't mean he should become simplistic and talk down to people, but he has to find a happy meeting ground where he can engage and convince. He's enough of an orator that he can find the right words and reach out on a more emotional level. He can still project his aura of brains and competence but with a lighter touch, and doing it a bit slower might help his program and aims in the long run. He also needs to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty with some tough politicking.
I don't like the Tea Partyists, Glenn Beck Bill O'Reilly or Sarah Palin. But they are not idiots and they are pressing the right buttons right now. Plain and simple, slow down the agenda a bit and reach out to their audience. Don't abdicate it to Fox.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
I note a new statistic in the papers: 62% of Americans do not approve of our President's economic course of action. What this really means, of course, is that people are pissed off that the economy has not improved dramatically with an upsurge in jobs.
You remember the sign Bill Clinton had in his campaign office in 1992---"It's the Economy, Stupid!" Plain and simple, that's what it is all about. And whoever is in power, even if they were not responsible for the failure of the economy, catches the blame and is the most convenient target for critics.
On the one hand you have the right-wing Republicans screaming that Obama is taking us down the road of ruination with his fiscal policies and "socialist" leanings. On the left, you have several noted Economists (Leftish is the operative description by the Right) like Stiglitz and Krugman claiming that Obama has not spent enough, that his stimulus package did not go far enough or deep enough to effect a cure.
Look at the health care debate. If Massacusetts goes Republican, the health care bill is in deep doo-doo. And we will be back where we started with 40+ millions with none or inadequate health insurance. The Insurance Lobby has done their hatchet job to perfection. The irony is, who would have profited most from the proposed plan? Duh, the insurance ccompanies. It's strictly a win-win for them.
Personally, I think part of the problem is due to Barack Obama's sometimes excessive pragmatism: he is trying to please too many people and that never works. He is too much the moderate on occasions, seeking the middle way.
I simply don't believe there is a cheap way to get us out of the morass we're undergoing. I believe it is going to take more governmental intervention in the form of job programs, more government meddling in our lives in order for us to snap back. I don't particularly like the prospect of Uncle Sam hitting my hip pocket any harder. but I don't see another choice. I haven't heard a Republican solution either.
Can we call again for some bipartisan cooperation to work together for a solution? Is there a common ground? Let's try.
You remember the sign Bill Clinton had in his campaign office in 1992---"It's the Economy, Stupid!" Plain and simple, that's what it is all about. And whoever is in power, even if they were not responsible for the failure of the economy, catches the blame and is the most convenient target for critics.
On the one hand you have the right-wing Republicans screaming that Obama is taking us down the road of ruination with his fiscal policies and "socialist" leanings. On the left, you have several noted Economists (Leftish is the operative description by the Right) like Stiglitz and Krugman claiming that Obama has not spent enough, that his stimulus package did not go far enough or deep enough to effect a cure.
Look at the health care debate. If Massacusetts goes Republican, the health care bill is in deep doo-doo. And we will be back where we started with 40+ millions with none or inadequate health insurance. The Insurance Lobby has done their hatchet job to perfection. The irony is, who would have profited most from the proposed plan? Duh, the insurance ccompanies. It's strictly a win-win for them.
Personally, I think part of the problem is due to Barack Obama's sometimes excessive pragmatism: he is trying to please too many people and that never works. He is too much the moderate on occasions, seeking the middle way.
I simply don't believe there is a cheap way to get us out of the morass we're undergoing. I believe it is going to take more governmental intervention in the form of job programs, more government meddling in our lives in order for us to snap back. I don't particularly like the prospect of Uncle Sam hitting my hip pocket any harder. but I don't see another choice. I haven't heard a Republican solution either.
Can we call again for some bipartisan cooperation to work together for a solution? Is there a common ground? Let's try.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD---USUALLY
I am so blessed and lucky: recently, a whole slew of beneficient people whom I don't even know are ready to send me tons of money. One kindly lawyer in Kenya was about to send me $45,000,000, and all I had to do was pay him legal expenses of $800.00. Another English widow of a Lord who runs orphanages is ready to send me a cheque (British) for 1,500,000 pounds if I can simply send her 100 pounds for administrative expenses. I've had so many of these wonderful donors in touch with me recently that I figure it's some residue from the Christmas season: you know, good will toward men and all that jazz!
The one that offered me $45,000,000 I just had to answer. My reply was brief: "Here, phishy, phishy, phishy!" Funny, I never heard from him again.
Are you recently getting an epidemic of these scams? I figure it must be related to the dire state of the world economy where every con artist is taking advantage of world yearning for a fast fix or a windfall. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, "said the great New England philosopher, Henry Thoreau, and the usual trickle of scams has become a flood as people become more anxious. It's sad, really.
The one that offered me $45,000,000 I just had to answer. My reply was brief: "Here, phishy, phishy, phishy!" Funny, I never heard from him again.
Are you recently getting an epidemic of these scams? I figure it must be related to the dire state of the world economy where every con artist is taking advantage of world yearning for a fast fix or a windfall. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, "said the great New England philosopher, Henry Thoreau, and the usual trickle of scams has become a flood as people become more anxious. It's sad, really.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
BUY AMERICAN---MAYBE
I received an email today about buying American, which, on the surface, seems like being for motherhood and against sin. You have seen this email or similar about comparing brands in big retailers and finding, for example, light bulbs made in Mexico (by GE) and a private brand made in Cleveland, Ohio. Being a good American, I forwarded it on. Upon receiving it, an old friend, with whom I once worked at an American company, gently reminded me that our old company manufacturing garments is now primarily buying overseas and even shifting the last of the products they made in the U.S. to Mexico by 2011 and that a lot of our old business associates and friends would be out of work if we buy only American.
He's right. Sometimes many of us are too quick waving the flag, forgetting that a lot of American jobs are provided by foreign companies. Look at Honda, for example, who make a ton of their cars in Ohio. The same with a lot of other foreign car companies around the states. These companies---and other foreign industries in addition to cars---provide employment for a lot of people.
We also have to remember that in the long run protectionism rarely is of long-term benefit. Ask most economists, and they will remind you that the Smoots-Hawley bill back in the mid-thirties, enacted as a protectionist measure by Congress to "save American jobs" in actuality only exacerbated the great depression. Protectionism starts price wars, and everybody suffers.
I spent a business lifetime in the clothing business, ranging from basic underwear to sports apparel. Back in the twenties the textile business vacated New England for the South with cheaper wages and tax incentives to move there. My grandfather started an underwear manufacturing company in Ohio in 1899, and within my lifetime we were a rarity, operating in the north. I, in the third generation, sold the business in 1972 and by 1992 the company was finished. The South was deserted for overseas, beginning in the sixties, and it is a real anachronism to find an American apparel company. The company my old friend and I worked for made goods in America for many years. When I retired in 1995, they were just starting to import. The rest is history. The point is, we kissed textiles good-bye a helluva long time ago, and I'm afraid they won't come home, which is a reality to be faced.
It is a truism and fact of life that business chases profit and will go where the return will be maximized. So, next time you have a knee jerk reaction like I did, better think in terms of a world market and can American jobs compete there. I still believe we have enough innovative thinkers here in America to create new ideas and jobs, which has to be a constant cycle of innovation, creation, reproduction by cheaper imitators and then back to innovation again. And the beat goes on...
He's right. Sometimes many of us are too quick waving the flag, forgetting that a lot of American jobs are provided by foreign companies. Look at Honda, for example, who make a ton of their cars in Ohio. The same with a lot of other foreign car companies around the states. These companies---and other foreign industries in addition to cars---provide employment for a lot of people.
We also have to remember that in the long run protectionism rarely is of long-term benefit. Ask most economists, and they will remind you that the Smoots-Hawley bill back in the mid-thirties, enacted as a protectionist measure by Congress to "save American jobs" in actuality only exacerbated the great depression. Protectionism starts price wars, and everybody suffers.
I spent a business lifetime in the clothing business, ranging from basic underwear to sports apparel. Back in the twenties the textile business vacated New England for the South with cheaper wages and tax incentives to move there. My grandfather started an underwear manufacturing company in Ohio in 1899, and within my lifetime we were a rarity, operating in the north. I, in the third generation, sold the business in 1972 and by 1992 the company was finished. The South was deserted for overseas, beginning in the sixties, and it is a real anachronism to find an American apparel company. The company my old friend and I worked for made goods in America for many years. When I retired in 1995, they were just starting to import. The rest is history. The point is, we kissed textiles good-bye a helluva long time ago, and I'm afraid they won't come home, which is a reality to be faced.
It is a truism and fact of life that business chases profit and will go where the return will be maximized. So, next time you have a knee jerk reaction like I did, better think in terms of a world market and can American jobs compete there. I still believe we have enough innovative thinkers here in America to create new ideas and jobs, which has to be a constant cycle of innovation, creation, reproduction by cheaper imitators and then back to innovation again. And the beat goes on...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
IT'S ABOUT TIME...
After the recent bowl games, especially Boise State-T.C.U., should there be any doubt it is time---long overdue---for a playoff system? When you come to the end of a regular season and have five undefeated teams, don't you hear a message? Now, for the rest of the winter and until next football season, you will have Boise fans bitching that they should have been in the mix for cnsideration as National Champions, no matter what happens in the Alabama-Texas game. And they certainly have a legitimate claim for consideration.
I know, I know, you have all the athletic directors and presidents, rubbing their hands with glee as they contemplate additional income from bowl games. O.K., you can still have all those meaningless games where a 6&6 team plays a 7&5 team in the Condom Bowl if that bobs your cork, but set up a playoff system for the top eight teams. Certainly within the top eight you can silence the critics as to legitimate contenders. So what if the regular season is cut to 10 or 11 games? The cream will rise to the top.
Even the President wants a playoff system. Of course, that will automatically make the Republican right against it, so I better shut up.
I know, I know, you have all the athletic directors and presidents, rubbing their hands with glee as they contemplate additional income from bowl games. O.K., you can still have all those meaningless games where a 6&6 team plays a 7&5 team in the Condom Bowl if that bobs your cork, but set up a playoff system for the top eight teams. Certainly within the top eight you can silence the critics as to legitimate contenders. So what if the regular season is cut to 10 or 11 games? The cream will rise to the top.
Even the President wants a playoff system. Of course, that will automatically make the Republican right against it, so I better shut up.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
BUCKEYES BUCK ME UP!
Well, all I can say is, the boy became a man: Terrelle Pryor lived up to his great expectations and played the game of his life in the Rose Bowl yesterday. Also, I have to put in a plug for my hometown boy, Brandon Saine from Piqua OH, who acquitted himself with distinction. And, almost equal to Terrelle, the Buckeyes' defensive unit who permitted Oregon's acclaimed offense to be on the field for only a tad over 19 minutes, fulfilling the old axiom---if you don't have the ball, it's tough to score.
It's a pleasant change to see the Big Ten hold their own against the other conferences in the bowl games. Ohio State also got a large monkey off its back when that conservative coach, Jim Tressel, who looks like somebody's C.P.A., broke the mold and went for broke with his young quarterback and a gambling game plan.
As a former resident of Ohio and lifelong fan of O.S.U., I feel good today. The Buckeye future looks bright. Maybe one day they can find a way to beat an S.E.C. team!
It's a pleasant change to see the Big Ten hold their own against the other conferences in the bowl games. Ohio State also got a large monkey off its back when that conservative coach, Jim Tressel, who looks like somebody's C.P.A., broke the mold and went for broke with his young quarterback and a gambling game plan.
As a former resident of Ohio and lifelong fan of O.S.U., I feel good today. The Buckeye future looks bright. Maybe one day they can find a way to beat an S.E.C. team!
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