The Economy Bandaid - lets stimulate

The world was abuzz, the messiah had spoken, the savior has arrived, your problems will be transformed into nuisances and your nuisances will melt when this savior aggrandizes the house that the Americans built. Well, I am not crazy, err.. not yet anyway.. but that’s how I translated all the post-Obama electoral victory news coverage. I feel very sorry for him, lets scan what is about to confront the new US president in the coming days… a couple of wars going nowhere, an enemy dispersed, strong and diverse, an economy that’s in the maddest of all tailspins, a health care system that reeks with stale ideals, an education system that’s been downgraded, a housing market that’s looking like a mazy abyss than a green pasture with an azure embellishment and a disgruntled group of denizens desperate for some good news and ready to be waken from the nightmare of endless negative missives in the name of news reports.

Welcome President Obama, no pressure there… we re considerate…. once you are done fixing everything that everyone has drawn up in their list, you can cure melanoma, achieve the drug for immortality without aging and find a world where everyone sits on their fanny and makes a million bucks a day.

I think among the million bytes of digits that scanned the globe as the US election run-up ratcheted one question stuck that was asked by a reported struck a chord in me … “ Senators Obama and McCain, do you for even a minute think, do I want to win and inherit this mess” .. Ofcourse they said the right answers but the kind of mess they are inheriting is unfathomable, really historical and deadly in its cocktail of complication and consequences.

The most famous rallying cry “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country” galvanized then Americans, Obama is no stranger to catch phrases, he apparently is an eloquent talker, but walking the walk and talking the talk are two different things. The economy rightfully has taken center stage and is sucking all the resources into working in this issue, but there are 100 other ones that are as scary as the economy, not the least of which is the security threats.

How do you not feel obligated to help the President Obama in every single way, he is trying to patch and fix on the go one of the most epic financial collapses a once-a-lifetime – hopefully – event for us. Now, this issue is not isolated to US or even Europe, the way every economy in the globe is structured we are mostly a house of cards, every single failure has a cascade effect, be it a bank going kaput or a insurance company going broke or a car manufacture going insolvent. Sometime I do feel angry, I mean a few thousand ineligible borrowers have rocked everyone’s boat and we are all swimming or trying to anyway upstream. Its time to hold hands and help each other out. The stimulus package will be a nightmare – any final version that gets approved – because of the burden its going to impose on coming generations, but there is no choice.

The mark of a true fighter is when his wound is exposed and his salt is down, are we gonna stand up and do something about this or not. I like every other Joe Smith, do want certain assurances of how these gargantuan bailout money is being spent. I need assurances, checks, double-checks, reports, status, insight and every damn nickel accounted for. But, lets also get smart. Lets not eat out if we don’t have to, lets not buy every single ipod that comes on the market, lets save some money and spend smartly. Don’t switch off your AC or heater but do switch off your TV. Take the public transport, donate to charity than going on a ski trip. Keep your resumes current, stay sharp and focused. Watch your leaders, whether what they say is what they do, watch yourself and your family and finally realize.

It didn’t take one bad decision to lead us to this rut, it took a series of hidden debacles to get here, it took turning a blind eye when a sore spot is spotted, so there is no silver bullet. No one decision can create the 2 plus million jobs last year or the ones that are gonna be lost this year. But we each can have a personal motto, spend wisely, be prepared and do your part to stimulate the economy. Every one wants to be part of the party but not everyone likes to clean up the dishes, you may not have wrecked every thing but lets be part of a solution. Support President Obama in his trials, his hits and misses, we need call him out if he proposes something unworkable. But lets also be reasonable, the man is under the spot like no other for the reason he inhibited something, not procreated, so lets cut him some slack and remain hopeful and work hard.

Recession Fears: Is an information overflow feeding panic

Each day... each hour... each minute... we are updated with information... Information that fritters through various sources... next door neighbour, your milkman, the TV man and ofcourse the internet..

We seem to learn about a spoilt milk packet in China before we seem to know what ails our restroom shower. We seem to know that Zimbabwe has a million percentage inflation before we even can recollect the number of distant cousins in our spouse's family...

Point is we are being fed with millions of pixels, every minute... we have become obese with information.... some of us see 'breaking news' in flashing red in our sleep... we seemed to be informed tha Obama is still searching for a dog, we seem to be informed that Sarah Palin bought 150k worth of clothes when we cant recollect the last time we bought a pair of trousers for our parents....

This plethora of useless information is an admissable snack if we are receiving positive news.. but whats the effect of this information orgy when it brings negative news. I mean, we seem to learn about another bank collapse every hour.

I wonder how was the great depression of the 1930s era... what kind of information was available, how frequently did they get them... what exactly did the then President convey to the denizens... were they better off.. when they didnt know it... for instance do the company's workers concentrate better if they arent declared as dead men walking... was it better for the psyche when u werent deluged with job loss information...

take for instance the Lehman brothers.. they were in "talks to sell to a Korean Company" on day 1... by day 3-4 the talks went cold... day 4.0000001 it was on the internet.... day 4.0000002 there were 18 internet experts downgrading the stock to junk status... day 4.5 customers start withdrawing money... day 5 bank files for bankruptcy.... i have never seen or even remotely heard prior to that an instance of an 100 plus year old institution crumbling hopelessly and basically vanishing from the scene...

i, for one, felt.. the speed of the information... the sources.. many of them off the record and illegal leaks.. were too many and it ultimately lead a mad spree to withdraw their money from the bank and it just crumbled... a similar thing happened in Washington Mutual bank... a similar thing happened in Germany... in UK... the point is.. maybe these companies had a chance if they just had a little more breathing room.. maybe if the information had been cold for 1 more day.. some other financier pours money into Lehman... maybe? we will never know.. because there is no stopping.. there is no pausing... there is one constant... the refresh button.. millions of articles each minute... about why we should buy this.. why we should sell that.. why we should stand pat...

I am not for a minute suggesting that customers or onlookers should not "know" stuff... but maybe they should not be "fed" to death with information... i just get the feeling we are at a point were things are happening at a such a fast pace we can neither pause nor take a deep breath.... its driven us to the point were we have become addicted to our "refresh" button on the browser... its feeding panic.. i just wish we had a little bit of scaled back information... maybe we will even relax a little bit.... maybe thats a good thing...