No end in sight

I feel bad for the next President with respect to our current economic prospective. I know I wrote and said this last year back in January of 2008, but the problem today from then, albeit just 12 months ago is five fold. Back then, we didn’t have a bailout for Wall Street banks which all them dumb azz senators (including Obama) signed off on and passed under the auspices that it would “fix our economic woes” - a bailout that gave these financial institutions approximately 50% of the United States GDP, without any strings attached or requirements supposedly to “free up credit markets.”

From his eloquent statements, I was under the opinion that Mr. Obama would not support the “reckless spending” that was reflective of the last 8 years – but his actions indicate otherwise. Obama talks about reigning in spending but his policies after reading are just as, if not even more reckless. Although I say this, I am inclined to give the President-Elect the benefit of the doubt. But things are drastic and not just from last January, but even more than when he was elected in November.

America's largest aluminum maker, the Pittsburg-based Alcoa, said it will cut 13 to 15,000 jobs. Makes me wonder what other raw materials companies will follow suit? Add to that the recent announcement that Airplane maker Boeing Co. plans to cut about 4,500 jobs; the announcement earlier this week that the drugstore chain Walgreens Co., will cut 1,000 jobs; data-storage company EMC Corp. (Boston) said it will cut 2,400 jobs; Logitech International (makes computer peripherals) and has offices in Fremont, California, expects to let go about 3,500 employees; and managed care provider Cigna Corp. announced it will be laying off 1,100 employees. Add to the aforementioned that Schlumberger Ltd. (oilfield services) plans to cut 1,000 jobs in North America and the rumor that Microsoft will reduce its workforce by 17% (15,000 workers), there seems to be no sight in end. Not to mention that down in these parts Georgia-Pacific may reduce its total workforce by some 25%.

I just hope that his desire to be seen as a moderate or centrist doesn’t reduce his ability to give us folks what we need for economic prosperity. The nation's unemployment rate got to 7.2 percent in December, and based on Labor Department's report, it is only going to get worse for President-elect Barack Obama. My concern is both pragmatic and rhetorical. His focus for Congress to "act boldly and act now," will just be a short-term fix and will not do ANYTHING to end the recession – it will be a while before this is over. Not to mention that his approach on taxes in contradict his own objectives (providing more discretionary income for middle-class families). Because if such was his desire, he would see that middle-class tax cuts amount to more loot than planned taxes for folks making more than $250,000 annually. All I am saying is that true, we need to take urgent and significant measure to deal with the economy, but they need to be reasoned and pragmatic. Taxing folks over 250k will only in my logic, make them move loot overseas to safe havens. If they were allowed to keep more of their loot, they would most likely save more, invest more, making more loot available for lending and more jobs. I don’t know where he got this advice from, I hope not Robert Rubin, who just resigned from being the head of CitiGroup ($20 Billion in losses last year). Whatever the case, things are bad, robberies are increasing and I am sure homeless shelters are becoming over-crowed nationwide. But then again, what do I know, its all speculation on my half. God Speed Mr. Obama, God speed.