Bush Countdown

Posted on by

With all the election madness, I forget how excited I am that Dubya’s reign is almost over. Here is a gadget so we can all keep track and be a little happier every day from now till January 20th 2009!

Dont forget to vote Obama/Biden Nov. 4th! (and if you’re not voting Obama, make sure you vote-we have troops overseas fighting for this country and all our rights and privileges!)

Click below and enjoy =)

Get the Bush’s Last Day Countdown Clock widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!

The Need for the Bailout

Posted on by

We do need the bailout. I am in no way supportive of an average CEO compensation package being, according to SEC Commissioner Roel C. Campos, 400 times more than the average employee’s compensation. We know now that the bailout comes with limits on this, as well as giving the taxpayers a chance to get back money or make a profit in the future when the government buys up these bad debts. The government will be taking a stake in these companies who seek the help of the government. I am a huge fan of this because it is regulation and we need it. Bad.

Time for Regulation

Call me a socialist, I probably am, at least comparable to what Europeans are. I liked economics in school and I did well at it and the one thing I remember very clearly were the “sterile” models that were used for, well, everything. “All other things being equal” sound familiar? In real life, everything happens at once, its not standing still. The formulas used to calculate the derivatives, and indeed derivatives themselves, have been criticized by Warren Buffet as “financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”

Derivatives, according to the New York Times, are “exotic contracts that promised to protect investors from losses, thereby stimulating riskier practices that led to the financial crisis.” Alan Greenspan and other members of the Fed fought for years against any kind of regulation for these derivatives, with their rationale being the private sector and the markets would act responsibly and that Wall Street could be trusted. Really?

My issue with so much of this stems from one very, very, painfully basic concept of free trade that you learn in basic microeconomics: Once government is introduced, free markets no longer exisit. No country on the planet has free markets; tariffs, taxes, social programs, tax breaks, tax cuts, tax credits…these all mean NO FREE MARKETS. The simple supply and demand graph gets all crazy when government is thrown in, meaning things cannot reach equilibrium. Equilibrium is the lifeline and purpose of free markets.

I don’t understand how so many people can preach about free markets without realizing that our (foolish) commitment to them is actually hurting us. Other countries are taking advantage of our low tariffs (such as Honda and Toyota selling their cars here at very low prices) and then putting high tariffs on the goods we send (our cars in Japan are much higher in price because of Japan’s tariffs). This is not free trade, free markets or competition. Look what this has done to the auto industry.

Moderation vs. Excess

Obviously, our point in this country with regard to free markets is to lead by example. But with the European Union growing substantially and having a higher GDP and population than the US, how can we continue to do this? Maybe its time to get in and play the game. Get some money, reap the benefits of being a big player. Dont’t let other countries take advantage of us. Let’s regulate some, protect what’s ours and encourage true competition by working to set even tariffs or be prepared to raise ours in certain cases.

The Bailout is the first step to regulation and I really hope that it is done in moderation, because as much as de-regualtion has been loved by most in this country, we will all now suffer because of the excess of the elite few. Moderation is key. Its time to get in and play the game.

College Debt: Consuming Young Americans

Posted on by

I want to talk about some of the enormous issues we, the young Americans, are facing today (and have actually been facing for awhile now) and, in later posts, write about some things that we can do to change things.

College and Student Loans

Alot of us have gone to college or are currently attending college and the belief was (and still is) that we would pay exorbitant sums of money for our degrees and get good-paying jobs with growth potential once we graduated. But, according to Marcy Gordon and The Seattle Times, the reality is that those good entry-level jobs are drying up.

Other people I know are also struggling to find the jobs that pay off those loans or are taking out more loans to go on to graduate school. My question is…What effect is all this debt going to have on our generation? Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money says that, on average, students have well over $20,000 in debt from loans at the age of 23 or 24 and most people I know have far more debt than that.  If your total debt is, say $40,000….thats a down payment on a house, a new car, savings for a young child’s college education, etc.

This debt truly limits our buying power when we can’t find the jobs we thought we would be that would enable us to pay down these loans. No one seems to be talking about this though. When the baby boomers are retired and the country is looking to us to invest, buy homes, take vacations, spur spending, we will still be paying hundreds of dollars in student loans a month.

The Economy

The economy at present is in bad shape and some predictions have it being very slow for 5-10 years. Many writers and reporters are talking about lost jobs in the American economy but almost no one talks about what it means for us, the young Americans. Let’s face it people: if a company is cutting back, going under or merging, what are the first jobs to go in most cases? The entry-level jobs and the early career jobs. These are OUR career paths and they are disappearing and no one is really talking about it. The Seattle TImes did put a couple of good articles in there about the absolutely paralyzing amount of college debt young people have and the drying up of good job prospects.

Ms. Pulliam’s articles from MSN Money on the subject, however, only acknowledge the debt and then go on to give ways to get out of it and stay out of it. Good advice, but if your loan payment is $300 per month (or more), your rent and utilites are, say, $800 a month, car insurance at $80 a month, health care monthly costs around $100 per month, groceries at $200 a month, most of us have credit cards too… how exactly are we supposed to put away for retirement, begin to diversify our portfolios, save for a down payment on a house and also have a “rainy day” type of savings making an average graduate salary of $30,000 per year????!!!! I want to know if other recent graduates are experiencing these kinds of realities!

I also want to discuss what we can do to change it. Obviously, voting is a huge aspect of this and I know we most likely wont see the changes for ourselves. I’m still ready to try to change things for us. I want America, the land of opportunity. I want the chance to apply my hard work and knowledge from my education to this country and make it better and I have some ideas which I will share in another post. What do you think?