Jenaicklefritz’s Weblog

I’ve been reading a lot about Wall Street in the news recently. Frankly, it’s had me a little worried, though I do not fully understand big business firms and banking as well as I should like. Anyway, I decided that the issues will be resolved by the experts, so I won’t fret about it too much. But then today in Golden, Colorado, Sarah Palin made a speech, which used the demise of Lehman and the buying of Merrill by Bank of America to solidify the Republican plans for economic reforms—which I find to be useless in the overall scheme of the American-Global Economy.

Sarah Palin stated in her speech this morning, “[M]anagement on Wall Street has not run [the banks] responsibly, and has put companies and markets at risk. They place their own interests first instead of their employees and the shareholders who actually own these companies. So John McCain and I—we’re going to put an end to the mismanagement and abuses in Washington and on Wall Street that have resulted in this financial crisis. … It’s so important that the United States gotta remain the strongest financial market in the world. It must be the market that the American people and investors everywhere can trust. … [Wall Street reform] is gonna be one of the highest priorities of our administration.”

Okay, well, it maybe true that there have been errors, mistakes, and wrongdoings in management of a few banks this last week, but let’s get one thing straight: The Democratic Party has always had a far greater grasp on the concept of economy than the Republicans. Sarah Palin’s vow that she and Johnny are going to reform Wall Street and fix our domestic market and improve the global economy is laughable and a little more frightening than the current decline in Wall Street this very moment. Do they even have the experience or knowhow in this area? Let’s look at what really has been happening to the American market, shall we?

The way I see it, the US was doing fabulous economically from 1991 to 2000. If memory serves me correctly, that was nearly the entire terms of President Clinton, who served America from 1993 to 2001. During this time, the US prospered with the longest economic growth in its history. But as soon as the Republicans (George W. Bush) took the White House in 2001 and the US suffered terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th of that year, the economy went into a recession and only became worse over time.  It’s true that the US economy began to recuperate in 2002 thanks to increased productivity and household spending, but the tight labor markets, the drag in household markets and the astronomical mortgage problems cannot be ignored as being key in the falling economy today. Overall consumption is affected by the housing and mortgage slump, and without household spending, general US cash flow begins to look like a heart stopped up with grossly high cholesterol. Basically, all the money is stockpiling with the rich, while the middle class vanishes and the lower impoverished class grows at alarming rates. This means US consumption in general is weakening exponentially and a solution could be difficult to find if not employ.

So what does this all mean? It means that bank management is a mere micro-fraction of the problem. It doesn’t even amount to the tip of the iceberg—it’s practically an eyesore on the economy, if that. What we need is economic reform, not simple management reform on Wall Street. The problem is not so high up. We need to start from the bottom, and work our way up. That’s what Obama has been saying for weeks.

In addition to everything else, rising oil and commodity prices can increase the risk of inflation more than we are already experiencing. I’m guessing that most people feel the crunch everyday when they fuel up to drive to the job that might not exist for them tomorrow, or try to buy the groceries for the week’s dinners for a family of four. True, the Federal Reserve is holding back on well-anchored inflation expectations, thanks to the many different scenarios predicting the next great depression and crumbled economy, though I’m not sure if that makes me feel fiscally protected or not. We shouldn’t only prepare for the worst; we should constantly be working for the better. No more economic stagnation! Let’s move for real change and positive reform.

While recent fiscal performance is anything but favorable over the last eight years, the key challenge may still yet to have been recognized, so our politicians really shouldn’t be pussyfooting around with Lehman, Merrill and A.I.G. True, those firms have made an excellent example for the McCain/Palin points of view, but they still pale in comparison to the overall crisis our country is facing.  Reforming unsustainable entitlement programs could be the answer for a little while, but how does that help the millions of people who make up the lower class? Sure, without the reforms Palin talked about the federal spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will increase sharply over coming years, and threaten the long-run of fiscal maintainability, but without a solid middle class, those beneficial programs wouldn’t be accessible to anyone other than the wealthy anyway.

Again, I’m not “technically” a Democrat, because I refuse to blindly follow a political party, but I believe that what Obama is looking at when it comes to our economy is far better than anything McCain and Palin have suggested to fix our nation’s problems. Start from the bottom up. Don’t rely on the trickle-down effect to solve anything. The time is now, we cannot stagnate—and that is exactly how the McCain administration will try to run things. They will fix a small problem at the top, and hope that the trickle-down affect will do the work for him. Well that’s not good enough! We can do better. YES WE CAN.

Oh, and one more thing… I just felt the need to point out that Sarah Palin seriously does not know how to make a real speech. She always makes her addresses in public scream “hockey mom on a soap box” more than political candidate, if you ask me. Point in case: in her speech I just discussed today, she said:

“So glad to be with you here in Jefferson County [Golden, Colorado]—which is the beautiful gateway to the Rocky Mountains—it’s gorgeous here! Kind of selfish here, also; it’s great to be in the state that Denver Bronco Chris Cooper and the Avalanche’s Scott Parker [incomprehensible mumbling]. Both Chris and Scott are from Alaska and they got a lot of fans up there. And, you know, Scott was part of the Avalanche team that brought home the Stanley Cup. Another son of Alaska, Mark Schlereth—he helped the Broncos win the Super Bowl in ’98 and ’99! See we got that connection. And Alaskans—we like winning! And with Colorado’s help, we’re going to keep that streak going, it’s why we’re here—with your help, we’re going to elect John McCain the next President of the United States of America.”

Let’s break this down a little—translate it—if you will.
“I’m glad to be in a state almost as beautiful as my own. It’s gorgeous here! I’m selfish, I know. And it’s also very gratifying to me that some of your top athletes are actually Alaskans in Coloradan disguises. You know, Scott Parker, Chris Cooper, and Mark Schlereth are not really fighting for your state, they’re fighting for mine. And you know what, it’s okay, because we don’t have professional teams in Alaska. We just whore them out to the lower 48’s teams. That’s the only reason your Coloradan teams won at all—because of Alaskan talent. You know, that’s also why I’m running for Vice President, because John’s team wouldn’t stand a chance without a real winner. He’d lose the game and bring shame to the Republican team. But the Republicans know what winning is about, and that’s why they drafted me—an Alaskan—someone who knows about winning and will bring McCain all the way to victory. And that’s how we’ll win the war in Iraq, too! I sent my son over there just four days ago. My son is also an Alaskan, and he will crush the Iraqi team and bring the American team to victory just like his mom will for the Republics and how Scott, Chris, and Mark did for their respective Coloradan teams. We don’t just play they game—we own it—breath it—win it—always. Vote McCain!”

Yes, that woman has been hanging out with too many cheerleaders and listened to too many half-time speeches in the locker rooms. The Presidency is not a sporting event, although every time I listen to her talk, I wonder where the popcorn venders are… No, Sarah Palin is turning the election into the Stanley Cup or the Super Bowl. This is not what politics is about. The war is not played on short clipped grass or ice with distinctive goal lines. Hell, we don’t even know who is playing for whose team in War! Whatever she’s trying to accomplish with the whole “team captain” routine is pretty much lost on me. But, hey, maybe I’m just not as sports-minded as I thought I was. Why don’t you be the judge of her speech? You can view it RIGHT HERE.

Amended ex post facto:

Gawd it felt good to get all that out of my system. I’ve been wanting to be more humerus in my writing and blogging recently, but all I seem capable of doing lately is criticise Palin and the McCain ticket for their obvious shortcomings in the race for the Presidency. It’s just so easy! Anyway I hope you enjoyed today’s read and found this post to make up for my last two cop-outs. Cheers and good luck, Americans.

P.S.

Have I every mentioned on here that if McCain dyed his hair green and wore purple face paint, his head would look like an eggplant? Just thought I’d throw that observation out there. (Hey, at least his head would match what I predict his presidency to be if he makes it in to office– vegetative.)