Affirmation: is America failing ?

At least one other person in this world seems to agree with my previous posting "Is America Failing ?" here is the link to Businessweek cover story: "Sub-prime wolves are backed" - FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime

News: Goldman execs "forgo" bonuses

Wow!! so nice of them to "forgo" their hard earned bonuses in the unprecendented bull market. Especially when Goldman and their customers are doing so well now and have such a rosy future ahead of them. May be we ought to send them our next tax rebate check to help out their starving families.

Unfortunately can't fire mail them and their criminal cronies to Mars. Its amazing how well the cronie networks work. Too bad most of us are not in one and obviously have failed to even get a fraction of the congress out of these even in these direst of times. Board of directors who are supposed the protect the company and its assets, use the same to protect their cronies. And the congress is working overtime pumping public funds into these as fast as they can get their hands on them. And the news media is happy to play along with them, diligently following the line and eating the sound bites (like the title above) off the hands. And too bad suckers ... you just voted for reform or change and we are going to get neither. This time we have voted for change and hope that we will be left with at least that in our pockets when all this ends.

Media obsession with "Pregnant (wo)man" stupidity

what are top news items this week
"US in recession",
"Germany is recession",
"Japan is in recession",
"Man is pregnant"
"100s of homes burnt to ashes in California"

I don't have words in my dictionary to explain the level journalistic brankruptcy here. It is simply unbeleivable to see channel after channel disect and discuss this nonsense, this hoopla about nothing ... about a woman who called herself a man and has already delivered a baby recently. And "CNN means politics" decides that this deserves a full hour with mr Larry King while LA is burning, Congo is falling off the world map and a couple of millions of Americans have just lost their jobs.

Is America Failing ?

American economic bailout package
Version 1: Buy bad mortgages
Recapitalize banks and financial institutions
Verson 2: Recapitalize banks and financial institutions
Force them to lend to individuals

@ the same time
Socialist Europe came up with
Take over banks in the name of recapitalization
Communist China
Rebuild infrastructure.

Can't for the life of me someone remember why we have this foreclosure crisis. It is just ridiculous solution that looks exactly like root cause of the problem itself. Is Henry Paulson so retarded that he can see this simple thing. Government allowed banks to lend to people who are not credit worthy and hence housing bubble followed by the foreclosure mess. Then how come lending more money to the same people becomes the solution all of a sudden ? Or is it corruption or cronyism ? How else could one explain the haste ? The explaination that pruchasing bad mortgages would take time screams, "I need to spend the money before the current presidents term runs out" (and hence my time to take care of my partying cronies in AIG and CITI).

Why can't we the start infrastructure projects to aging american infrastructure and massive reeducation programms to sagging education standards. Infrastructure projects will like i wrote in my previous blogs will be the most cost effective thing to do given the cost of labor, raw materials and energy at this time. Then instead of forcing banks to lend to insolvent individuals without jobs, they can actually lend to subcontractors with actual government projects and their employees with good salaries. And investing in education will not only gaurantee a bright future for young americans but also create new job opportunities aging baby boomer population. Which can only only help the younger generation benefit from the knowledge base. Education also means cutting that shortage in medical staff and stem increase in the medical costs. The possibilities are endless but will america take the challenge and do the right thing .... or will it fall for populism ?

Best time to boost infrastructure and revive economies

Every time you turn on the television or radio you hear the word economy, infrastructure, unemployment etc.. You hear countries that lack infrastructure or countries whose infrastructure is crumbling. You hear lay off of 1000s of workers. Prices of raw materials like copper, steel and aluminum dropping. Energy prices going down etc..

But it is always followed by more doom and gloom than the silver lining. There is no better time than now for the governments around the world to say "yes, we are going to take charge and borrow money and fund infrastructure projects". Because:
1) credit is cheap, investors would be more than glad to buy government bonds when their stock investments are going negative by the second.
2) plenty of construction labor, equipment and companies are idle at this time. They would be more than glad to bid on a government project which is guaranteed to pay than for a company that might file bankruptcy tomorrow night. There will be great competition and government could choose the company with best quality and fastest track record for the lowest price.
3) raw materials are cheaper, oil price is lower and dollar is stronger so more bang for the buck. Together this is a strong concoction that could be a shot in the arm for any government project.
4) recent high prices oil price and economic downturn together have reduced traffic on the roads. Which means best time to do road repair, expansion and improvement projects. Which also means opened opportunity for public transportation to have another shot (since trams were systematically done away with, by Detroit automakers). It has opened up a chance to develop high speed train corridors like SFO/LA, PDX/Vancouver-BC, DC/Montreal etc, NY/chicago etc.
5) recent high oil prices have also raised awareness and a need for US energy independence. Which also opens need for building power lines to connect places where there is abundant and uninterrupted supply of solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and hydro powers with high demand centers.
6) Fence along the border to reduce illegal immigration, drug trafficking and prevent another terrorist via porous southern borders.

I sincerely pray that politicians regain some sense and do something sensible and responsible once their lives at this time of crisis.