On January 20th, 2009, Barak Obama accepted the toughest assignment of his life and quite possibly anyone’s live. Capitalism is being put to the test. This is not a quiz in Economics, it’s the graduate exam. In this age of globalization no one has escaped the effects of our financial meltdown. The grade we receive by both our allies and our enemies will determine our ability to continue as a world leader. This is not a test we can afford to fail.
A successful recovery will not be measured by who is pleased, but by how evenly we are all displeased. It has become clear that trying to please everyone is how we got into this colossal mess. Programs that allowed those who could not possibly afford a home, access to money they could never pay back, is just one of many example on how we, as a society, have failed to take a responsible role of leadership in our own domestic affairs. What we need is an approach that evenly distributes the pain of recovery across all segments of the population. The chances of passing this test are greater if we each of us shoulders part of the burden. We either all pass or we all fail
The economy is like a sick patient and so far, all that has been done is to try to reduce its temperature with bail-outs and stimulus packages. Hopefully, this will keep the patient alive until a real cure can be administered. However, sometimes suppressing the symptoms only masks the real disease and the result is terminal. We have infected the entire world with our condition. If we become weak in the eyes of our enemies, they just might strike at us in revenge. It would not necessarily be a violent act. We are not the only country capable of economic sanctions. Our debt with China is huge and our dependence on their manufacture of consumable goods is frightening. If China should chose to send us to the back of the class, I am not sure how we would recover.
Catering to special interest groups must stop along with the child-like faith that those in power will take care of the weak. Congress continues to pander to special interest groups, basing its decisions not on what is right for the country, but on whom it can please. It is not clear to me that our legislators have the ability let alone the desire, to actually represent America in deference to their own greed. One of Obama’s first tests will be getting these sycophants to actually do the job they that our taxes pay them to do as opposed to what they are paid to do by political donations. President Obama must start with his own cabinet; demand openness and honesty. Then h must drive it into Congress using the Attorney General as a hammer. We had eight years of attacking the officials of other governments for their unacceptable behavior; now it is time to clean up our own house. This is a take home test we need to give our full attention.
The predatory nature of Wall Street has been exposed and the impact to non-investors as well as investors is now evident. You can not drive the foxes out of the hen house by throwing in more chickens. Bailing out failed companies to protect those they have robbed will only work if the robbers are removed from the companies. So far all we have only bailed out are the bonuses of an affluent group of executive felons. While Congress pontificates on how much macramé they can create by stacking up the money in various denominations, people continue to lose their homes and their jobs. If this program is to have any impact, it must be tactically administered to stave off our immediate issues not strategically administered as a long-term cure. The strength of our dollar on the world market is the real grade here and we receive that grade card daily.
President Obama does not have to answer all the questions in order to pass this exam and I would definitely advise him against guessing. He should just do the best he can on the questions he knows and move quickly to the next one. Four years may seem like a long exam but it will be over before he knows it. But when he puts his pencil down everyone in the world will know the grade. Pick up your pencil Mr. President and open your exam.
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