Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Payback Is No Fun For Anyone

Payback Is No Fun For Anyone

There is a major threat of recession not only for America but the world.

It seems like greedy bankers provided questionable mortgages to hundreds of thousands of people that are written down as losses in billions of dollars by major banks and brokers not only in America but in the world. The total damage looks to be at least one trillion dollars, probable two trillion dollars. In order to stay in business these institutions are seeking and receiving relief from the Europeans, Arabs, China, Japan, and Korea, which is not provided for free, but is paid for by stock ownership. Now America's major banks and brokers are hostage to influence of foreigners which is unhealthy for America.

Overnight foreign stock markets were significantly down and to prevent or minimize the same thing in America's markets, the Fed further reduced rates by 75 points in an unprecedented action.

President Bush also moved to provide as much as $800 to each taxpayer hoping to provide some liquidity to household budgets that they would go out and spend it immediately once the measure is passed by Congress and signed by him.

Where was the oversight on the bankers granting these risky mortgages? From executive management self monitoring, the boards of directors for these institutions failed to watch out for the stockholders, the bank examiners should have cried out, the credit rating organizations failed to do their job, and I am sure many other watchdog organizations also failed. It is sickening to realize that our deposit money from our checking accounts, certificates of deposit, holiday clubs, and savings accounts were used by the banks to fund the stinky mortgages. It is even more sickening that the executives for the most part remain in their jobs, as well as the board of directors, and even the so called watchdog people. And it seems like none will be prosecuted also. And the middle class will pay for this havoc with impending layoffs of hundreds of thousands of employees in aggregate in America.

The skunks in Washington flooded the supply side of labor with illegal aliens, alien workers replacing qualified Americans in American jobs in America, and unabashedly outsourced millions of good paying American jobs overseas, which reduced wages and benefits and sometimes even eliminated benefits of labor in America. American corporations made very high profits but the wage increased went to the highest level employees but not to the lower end. Before the Bush junior administration the difference between the lowest paid employee of a company to the highest paid employee was a ratio of from 20 to 40 times, but now the ratio is from 100 times to 200 times and sometimes even higher. It is fair to say for the past 7 years American labor has been shortchanged.

The 800 dollar tax rebate recommended by Bush is an admission that the American public has been cheated. It a one time deal. More is needed to be fair with American labor and the poor. Millions go hungry, homeless, and cannot pay their heating bills or afford health insurance in America. The standard of living for the american middle class has been going down with the Bush administration.

If Washington wants to prime the pump to get the economy going again they must:
1. Raise the safety net maximum qualifications so that more people can obtain benefits.
2. Prosecute the employers of illegal aliens.
3. Eliminate the H1B program as well as other similar programs that enable aliens to come to America to replace qualified Americans on the job.
4. Free trade destroys American industries and American jobs and must be changed to a fair trade policy where American industries can still thrive and is fair to both countries involved in the trade. American economists were alarmed when it was reported that manufacturing declined recently. Duh? That is what happens when tens of millions of American manufacturing jobs go overseas. Right now American furniture manufacturing is in a depression due to imports. Farmers should be up in arms because they already are losing in the juice, honey, and other business to foreign producers. Millions of call center, information technology, engineering, accounting, legal, graphic art, editors, and other jobs have been lost in America to Americans and sent to foreign countries. All other countries are protecting their industries and jobs, but America led by Bush is facilitating the demolition of American industry and destroying jobs.
5. Make the tax structure fair to reflect current levels of wages and prices. Single people earning less than $20,000, married couples with no children earning less than $30,000, and married couples with 2 children earning less than $50,000 should pay no tax.
6. Provide homeowner and landlord relief across the states by funding school building and infrastructure replacement and improvement. Believe me many people are strapped in the country as well as most states, counties, and towns.
7. Create an national energy plan that will provide immediate relief. America cannot wait 20 years for relief. Americans are suffering with heating their homes this winter and it expected to run even higher each of the next several years strapping them even more. America is converting its food supply to energy causing excessively higher food prices which should be stopped.
8. Extend the federal unemployment benefits an additional six months for the unemployed. Daddy Bush did it, why cannot Junior do it?
9. Ralph Nader called for a minimum wage of about $10 during the last presidential election in 2004 and John Edwards called for raising it to $9.50 last night during the debate (1/21/08). Washington shortchanged labor with the recent minimum wage increase and it should be rapidly increased to $10.00 and adjusted annually for inflation.
10. The Bush cabinet seems to be a bunch of dummies, but I think it is really President Bush forcing everything to come from him and he is a bottleneck stifling some good work that could be accomplished. Most of the cabinet workers are qualified and caring individuals and are capable of doing good work. I used to think highly of Harvard Business School, but maybe President Bush did not learn much there. Bush should give some guidelines to his staff and get out of the way for their creativity. Bush seems to be a micro-manager and he should not be because the job is too big. Bush is the Oops President. Oops, a mistake here. Oops, another mistake. President Bush should realize he does not have all of the answers and that his staff can sometimes provide better answers to America's problems. Governor Whitman of New Jersey led the EPA and found out that Bush was flawed and quit, I do not think I would have ever worked for the man.
11. Bush facilitated many things like the Iraq war, tens of millions of illegal aliens, very little work accomplished on the border fence with Mexico, increasing the number of H1B visas, exporting millions of American jobs overseas, and the free trade instead of fair trade activities and more failures and did not think about the consequences of his actions. Right now it is all very painful for rank and file Americans. Republicans, democrats, and independents should work together to provide necessary oversight on the White House. Bush has always been out of control and America does not need another year of havoc. It will be up to the next elected President to correct the remaining Bush league failures.
12. Now is not the time for half measures for all of the damage done to the citizens and economy of America during the Bush administration.