Ok, as many of you know, I don't really dabble in politics all that much. Truthfully, I prefer to focus my time and energy on topics which stroke my passions, personally. Even so, my cuz Farshad has been publishing very insightful and oftentimes controversial pieces over at The Voice X Change. And in the spirit of being in politically-charged San Francisco, I decided to publish the following by Farshad Farzad:
"Since September of 2008, it has been “the economy stupid.” John McCain, said on Meet the Press, with David Gregory, that he and Palin (Sarah Palin, Former Governor Alaska), were up 3 points and then the markets crashed. Reflecting back to last year’s election, I cannot recall one moment where I actually believed McCain had a chance to win. As soon as Obama got into office, there was talk about a 2nd stimulus package to follow the TARP that was passed by the Congress and pushed for by the Bush Administration. We were told that unless this 2nd stimulus passed, we would go through another Great Depression. Who do you believe? In April, Obama stated that our economy was improving and the first of the stimulus money was trickling into the economy. That the stimulus would help save or create 3-4 million jobs, yet unemployment is almost to 10%. Who do you believe? Today Secretary Geithner has come out to say that the recession is easing and that the United States economy is on the mends. Yet, last week Vice President Biden said that they underestimated how bad the economy was and could be. Who do you believe?
What happened to the transparency that was promised by Obama during the campaign? Does anyone actually have any idea what they are doing to fix the economy? Every day it seems like someone from his administration is coming out and saying something that contradicts what was said before. I just want the truth. Level with me President Obama. Everyone has credit card debt, student loans, car payments and most have mortgages. What is going on?
I am not an economist, but so much of our economy has to depend on the belief that the economy is strong. When people are confused they are going to save rather than spend. Maybe that is a good thing, maybe it’s not. All I know is that I just want to understand where our economy stands. The taxpayers shelled out over 700 billion dollars in aid, rather “stimulus,” or recovery, whatever you want to name it, yet unemployment is still going to hit 10% (and that number has to be skewed because it does not take into account contractors that are no longer winning bids).
I just want to know if I should buy that new Corvette or not. The big screen TV, can I finally stop shopping at Wal-Mart? Will my 401k stop losing money? If the experts don’t know, how in the hell can the common man know. Who do you believe?
Just keep it straight and get everyone to stay on message so we are not confused about what is going on. I want to believe you!"
