We’ll hear a lot about experience this fall. And the news about Governor Palin’s daughter is sure to stoke up discussion of family values. There will be discussion about Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oh, and gas prices and offshore drilling.
But will anyone talk about how the U.S. needs to borrow $2 billion dollars a day to keep our economy running? That’s what happens when you run a huge trade deficit and a huge budget deficit.
On top of that, our financial institutions have lost a bit of money in the housing market lately. Lucrative lines of business based on bundling up assets -- housing, credit cards, etc -- have dried up lately. So Wall Street is going hat-in-hand around the world raising money. Singapore has kicked in some to buy up a stake in Merrill Lynch. Abu Dhabi owns more of Citigroup. The Korean’s are interested too, though they are fighting over the price Lehman Brothers believes it deserves.
I really don’t have much of a problem with the rest of the world investing in Wall Street firms so long as they are properly regulated and the terms are transparent.
My real concern is with the size of the hole we have dug for ourselves. Remember that Wall Street -- our financial prowess -- is one of the greatest American assets. To much of the world, the U.S. is Wall Street. Now our system is shown to be crippled by rash decisions, excessive leverage and hubris.
Our nation isn’t broke, but it is in financial distress. Fixing that is a topic worthy of a presidential campaign. It’s a shame we won’t be hearing much about it this fall.
Comments
During these times of "financial distress", have many or any Wall Street leaders taken a cut in salary or bonus? The only headline I recall is of fired CEO's with golden parachutes that could cover quite a few mortgages. America still works hard but the vast majority of America has no idea what a bundled asset is, who makes them and how you lose billions of dollars so fast (and get paid to do it!).
I watch Nightly Business Report as much as I can hoping to get a sense of what will eventually affect our lives. As far as candidates go, I wish it would be mentioned that Senators Obama and McCain are individuals who can promise us whatever they want, but when the time comes, the President will still have to work with his team and face a Washington monolith that doesn't change very readily. I also wish more coverage was given to the people behind the candidates - those people who will be advising and carrying out the President's agenda.
For what it's worth as far as economics - our family spent 5 weeks in China this summer and got to know some of its educators. After seeing their work ethic and desire to be successful, I think America is going to wake up someday and discover China passed us up because they worked harder than us.