Ponderstorm My Brainstorm on Life & Politics

Yesterday director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Bloomberg News columnist Kevin Hasset reported at Bloomberg.com that Democrats are the ones who created the current financial crisis that we find ourselves in as a nation. According to his commentary, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “exploded” and injured many bystanders (some fatally). “Take away Fannie and Freddie, or regulate them more wisely, and it’s hard to imagine how these highly liquid markets would ever have emerged. This whole mess would never have happened.”

Hassett reports that as of the end of June 2008, “Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than $388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments.” He continues (emphasis mine).

Some might say the current mess couldn’t be foreseen, yet in 2005 Alan Greenspan told Congress how urgent it was for it to act in the clearest possible terms: If Fannie and Freddie “continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,” he said. “We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.”

What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.

But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

Hassett suggests that many Democrats may have opposed this bill due to the massive financial contributions they received from Fannie and Freddie. He continues Read More…

Posted under Barack Obama, John McCain, Politics

In the Sunday, September 14, 2008 edition of the Washington Post (Page B01), Randall Kennedy’s “The Big ‘What If’” article was published. Its subtitle, “The hopes of black America ride on his shoulders. But the outcome’s way up in the air.”  When I first read this article I found it interesting yet missing something. After having a few days to mentally chew on it, I now offer the following quick comments.

This opinion piece is obviously written from Kennedy’s perspective. He begins by stating a few demographics, namely that he is a “black man born in 1954″ who grew up during the civil rights movement. He weaves his personal history into his current and expected reaction within the current political climate. The subject is Barack Obama and what this stage in history means to black Americans: “With intelligence, verve and elegance, Obama has opened the public mind to the idea of a black president and made that idea broadly attractive.”

In the fourth paragraph Kennedy builds the case for the basis of the article and in the fifth asks the question that for which the article is entitled.

I know that the conclusion to this electoral drama is far from determined. Yes, political gravity would seem to favor the Democratic candidate after two terms of Republican control of the White House. Yet the possibility is very real: Barack Obama could lose.

If that happens, then what? How will I feel? How will other black Americans feel? How should people like me feel?

The remainder of the article addresses these questions and feelings. I offer my perspective, in part, below. Read More…

Posted under Barack Obama, Campaign, Politics

A liberal friend asked me to read an article entitled “Insanity” by DarkSyde at The Daily Kos and pointed out that he thinks it pretty much sums up how most liberals feel about the past 8 years and what this election is about.  I found the article cleverly written and coming from an unusual angle.  It made me stop and think because on a foundational level I actually agree with a some of the broad assessments made in this article even though many of them are grossly exaggerated.

Republicans are often blamed for all the nation’s problems of the past 8 years. I concur that the GOP has been part of the problem for 4 of the past 8 years; however, remember, the Senate was evenly divided when Bush was elected and then 1 GOP member switched to Independent and caucassed with the Democrats so the GOP didn’t control both houses until 2003 and then lost in 2007 after the 2006 election cycle. In fairness to Republicans though, during the 4 years of complete GOP control, Democrats have blocked and/or watered-down virtually all Republican proposed solutions to the problems this article blames them for.

However, in spite of the problems, the overall issue is bigger than simply who controls Washington. The underlying problem in Washington, as I see it, is systemic and part of human nature. It’s something our Founding Fathers were aware of and repeatedly divided government in an attempt to mitigate. It’s simply this: Power corrupts. It doesn’t take a rocket scientists to see that both parties are now corrupt. That doesn’t mean that all members in both parties are corrupt but that the system is corrupt with power. There’s a creeping loss of individual rights and personal liberty every year regardless of which party is in power.

So that brings me to my next point. Since both parties are corrupt and there’s no third party that stands a chance at winning this election cycle, what am I to do as a voter?  I feel I must take the path of less damage and that’s why I am going with the Read More…

Posted under Politics, Taxes

I’m sure this shocked many on the left and many in the mainstream media, but the Republican convention was more watched than the Democratic convention AP Television Writer David Bauder reported today. He writes: “The Republican convention was the most-watched convention on television ever, beating a standard set by the Democrats a week earlier.” Also interesting is that John McCain and Barack Obama both were tied at 42.4 million viewers each for their respective party nomination speeches.

Overall, “more than 40 million people watched political speeches on three nights by Obama, McCain and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin,” Bauder reports. “Three times in two weeks, political speeches were watched by more people than the ‘American Idol’ finale, the Academy Awards and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics this year.” Interestingly, speeches by Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton didn’t achieve these numbers.

According to Nielsen Media Research there were an average of 34.5 million people watching the GOP convention over three days. Nielsen suggested that “proved people are becoming more interested in what the Republicans have to say.” Nielsen reported that the Democrats had an average audience of 30.2 million over their convention’s four days. That’s more than 4 million viewers for the Republican convention.

Interesting numbers and interesting times. I think these latest numbers show a reinvigorated Republican Party due in large part to the inclusion of Sarah Palin on the ticket with John McCain.

Posted under Barack Obama, Campaign, John McCain, Politics

What follows is kind of a “stream of consciousness” rant based on my reactions from Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech last night during the Democratic National Convention.

After Obama’s speech last night I was very disappointed in him. Honestly, I saw the night as historic and wanted to enjoy the moment 45 years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I expected to hear an uplifting speech that talked about the greatness of America. In spite of my reservations regarding Obama’s vision and viewpoints on many issues, I was prepared to take pride in the process and a nation that could overcome slavery and racial prejudice to consider a minority for the highest office in the land. However, in spite of my best intentions, Obama turned me off and actually made me angry.

For starters, you can’t give 95% of families a tax cut when a huge percentage of them pay nothing in taxes. He simply lied since it’s impossible. How can you cut somebody’s taxes who doesn’t pay taxes? Obama likes to criticize George W. Bush but at least Bush told the truth when he said everybody who paid taxes would get a tax cut. If elected, Obama will have to cut taxes on “the rich” to even partially keep that 95% pledge. (See here for a chart breaking down who pays taxes — note the bottom 50% of income earners pay less than 3% of federal income taxes and the top 1% pay almost 40%!)

You can’t tax the rich enough to pay for and Read More…

Posted under Barack Obama, Politics