hu.man's Comments (243)

“There is one topic on health care reform that is almost never addressed. America is an aging nation and as a result we are facing mounting health care costs. All indications are that we will continue to age as a nation without any abatement. There is no national policy to address this issue which can undermine our ability to maintain a positive global competitive posture in years to come.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Median_age.png

The countries who are in worse shape in this regard are almost all exclusively first world industrial nations such as Japan and Canada. The more serious issue to address here is one of deteriorating demographics which is part of the malady of the modern age we live in silently chewing away at the foundation of our lives.”

“11 months from now, the voters will be cutting into the Democratic majority in the congress. Obama, on the other hand, will maintain a high level of popularity and more than likely will achieve a Teflon-like status over time like Reagan.

Even the big blunder everyone discounted, the second Bush, managed to pull two terms out of the hat. Obama will and can do better than Bush. The more progressively oriented part of Obama's agenda will be implemented in the latter half of his first term at the earliest and the second term at the latest.

I began this cycle being a Hillary Clinton supporter and quickly switched to Obama. He continued to amaze me with his political acumen during the campaign and beyond (i.e. appointing Hillary to be Secretary of State). I don't believe 11 months into his term he has suddenly dumb down and started making asinine decisions.”

“I think the most important question to ask now is how can we affect fundamental reform in the current atmosphere which is ripe to accept bold new ideas in the face of a serious crisis we have been going through?

This debate is valid and timely because as we all know, unless we are in a serious pickle, no one wants to change anything. From the standpoint what may be the most fundamental change that can directly address the root cause of the current crisis nothing is more urgent than bringing the Federal Reserve Bank under greater level of accountability for its actions.

Arguably, the current central banking system has equal or more power to the other three branches of the government and does not fall within a clear purview the established branches do. Congress needs to form a committee to affect fundamental changes in the Fed, perhaps even to include an amendment to the constitution that clearly outlines the line authority that emanates from this crucial institution.

Some changes could be that instead of having a Fed chairman that solely determines the direction of the monetary policy in this country, it could be decided by a panel of say 9 Fed governors like the Supreme Court. The concentration of unchecked power is alarming and troublesome. This issue needs to be addressed in an urgent manner if we are to not repeat the current scenario of flops, asset bubbles and bailouts again.”

“America schooling in Middle East:

Grade 1: Khomeini schools Americans on how their vast arsenal of power is useless against a popular uprising in Iran.

Grade 2: Saddam schools Americans into helping him in the war against Iran by providing him with critical satellite intelligence to push back the Iranian advance and avoid certain defeat.

Grade 3: Saddam schools Americans by invading neighboring Kuwait demonstrating his total disregard for regional security and American interests in the Middle East.

Grade 4: Saddam schools Americans in pouring billions of dollars into the Gulf War to drive him out of Kuwait which is something that could have been handled through negotiations.

Grade 5: Saddam schools Americans by staying in power after he was defeated in the Gulf War. CIA predicted that he was going to fall through a popular uprising.

Grade 6: Bin Laden schools Americans by attacking their soil on 9/11.

Grade 7: Americans respond to 9/11 by invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam. Iraqis school Americans by bogging them down in a 6 year old insurgency. Many American lives are lost and billions are spent in Iraq with little to show for it.

Grade 8: Americans also respond to 9/11 by putting troops into Afghanistan. Once again Americans are again being schooled by Afghans by a widespread insurgency in the southern region.

Grade 9: Americans commit to more troops in Afghanistan without a clear understanding of why they are being schooled over and over in this region.”

“Unemployment is a lagging indicator. Many employment agencies are now reporting a rise in temporary position hiring which is traditionally an indication of a positive trend in the overall employment picture in a downturn.

All economic trends are pointing upward or flattening out. If we continue on this same curve, we will be seeing a positive trend develop in unemployment reduction. The only looming danger is a double dip recession which would be an event large enough to result in erosion of confidence in the economy and a general pull back from the business sector.

I appreciate the call for fundamental reform in the financial sector and beyond. The time to enact those reforms is when we are completely out of our current crisis. It is only when we have had enough time to reflect on the events of the past couple of years that we can enact meaningful lasting reforms. Right now, any reform may be shaped by a knee jerk reaction.

I believe that many of our problems are the result of an outdated global financial system in an increasingly globalized world. There may just be the need to pull in more closely with the other developed nations in the world and create a system that increases accountability and closes cross border loopholes that has gotten us into so much trouble as of late.”

“Buffett just spent $26 billion to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. If he believed that economy was still deteriorating then he would hold off for a better deal. He is doing what any reasonable investor would do which is to purchase assets when you are convinced that a rebound is on the way. That way you can still take advantage of the discount that is built into the price because the recovery is not fully realized yet.

Buffett is talking with his wallet which is louder than any words he might say or pom-poms he might shake. He cannot articulate his position as well as an economist would because he isn't one. But if he was cheer leading the economic recovery but at the same time off-loading his assets, then it would be clear that he was not sincere about his views.”

“It is rare to hear from anyone these days who will find anything positive about the recent financial debacle that has rocked our nation. There is a lot of fingerpointing and people are generally disgusted with bankers and the titans of the financial industry.

It looks like the source of our negative focusing is the compunction to find the culprits and hang them with a noose. The only way to find the positive focus is to move away from this position and realize that the responsibility is borne by all of us and we can only collectively arrive at a workable solution that doesn't lay blame.

This is why we primarily repeat the same lesson over and over without seemingly learning anything from it. How many banking crises have we have had in the past 100 years or so? Yes there has been reforms but they never go deep enough to prevent the disease from coming back. It is a band aid approach that is destined to fail in the long run.

We find ourselves in the same situation again today.”

“May be repeating the "tag line" as you put it, is an egregious error on the part of the Ambassador. But Ahamadinejad's denial of Holocaust is akin to pouring salt on an open wound. Ahamadinejad demonstrates his complete disconnection from reality by making these hurtful assertions and then he claims that there is some sort of conspiracy afoot because further examination of facts regrading the Holocaust is somehow being prevented by the powers of the be here.

Ahmadinejad simply fails to understand no one wants to closely examined this truly shameful chapter of the history particularly those who were complicit in it by standing by and allowing it to happen. So Ahmadinejad's dwelling on this subject and the consequent annoyance by all those who want to move off the topic is particularly irksome because Ahmadinejad has absolutely no business injecting himself into the Holocaust debate.

Israel's anger with Iran may not be fully justified based on the "tag line" you refer to here but it is more than fully justified with Ahamdinejad's lack of sensitivity toward this stain (the Holocaust) that exists on the conscious of humanity.”

“Obama is a pragmatic and not an ideologue. If he were to follow the path proposed here, he runs a high probability of getting into trouble with the center and having his agenda derailed for some time to come.

Obama strategy revolves around getting the center firmly into his corner and then going after problems that have been sorely neglected for the past 30 years such as urban decay and educational inequality. Rest assured that the Obamas have not forgotten their roots.

The folks occupying the White House today are as real as they come in our largely contrived society.”

“This situation requires a lot more emphasis on diplomacy and lot less empahsis on the military. Total disengagement is not a viable option given our previous role in training and arming the insurgency there in early 80s. That is the original sin we are now payiing for in Afghanistan.”

“Palin has the potential to become the president if independents are alienated in sufficient numbers. That is how Bush got in.”

“I don't remember anyone laughing when W took the oat of office!”

“http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html

Look at the 1994 midterm election turnout. It is THE highest midterm turnout from 1986 to 2006.”

“CORRECTION:

It was in 1994 not 1992 when Clinton got himself in a jam.”

“Undoubtedly many on the progressive front of the politics feel that Obama has been a disappointment. Nevertheless, Obama continues on his path unfazed by scathing criticism he is now facing from his left flank. This is mainly due to the fact that he clearly understands that the support that makes the difference in elections comes from the center. If he loses the support of the center, then he is toast, to put it mildly.

In 1992, the right managed to undermine Clinton's agenda by handing him one of the worst defeats in the congressional history. The right did this by absconding the center through invoking scare tactics of the dangers of government overreach which is what the center buys into readily (hence the fear mongering about the public option on the health care reform from the right).

I believe Obama is working on an 8 year plan. Anything else would be short-sighted and fool hearty. That means going slow and taking the center along with you in every election cycle. As for the left, the back stop is Sarah Palin. The prospect of her ascendancy into the highest office in the land is enough to keep the left in check.”

“There has to be some sort of distinction between those who are seriously downloading movies and music and the rest of us.Any other restriction is just another method by which telecoms will be attempting to limit internet access to subscribers.

I would venture to say that we wouldn't even be discussing this if it wasn't for the downright disastrous record the telecoms have with the consumers over all manners concerning communication. Net Neutrality is just another way of saying we don't want to give telecoms free reign by allowing their nose under the tent.

So the message to telecoms is keep the net neutral and find a creative way of apportioning bandwidth. One such method could be prioritizing the traffic on the net. Telecoms just don't want to spend the money to develop the technology that can effectively handle internet traffic. Handling this dilemma like public utilities do which would be metering consumption is not the 21st century answer.”

“Obama is between the rock and the hard place. If he denies the troops requested for the Afghan war, then he will be deemed responsible for any possible set back in this campaign down the road. If he approves the troop levels, then he is caving into those who want us to become more mired in this seemingly never ending conflict.

Therefore, he has little choice but to give the go ahead to the military request. But, he must engage the diplomatic front in full force in order to bring a termination to the hostilities because this war cannot be won the military front.

The military may be able to at best contain the opposition and stop them from gaining any additional ground. But to think that any troop level will actually result in a wholesale triumph over the Taliban is sheer fantasy.

The troop level increase must be accompanied by performance conditions that military must abide by. Too often military just gets a pass under the banner of patriotism. It is time now that we hold the brass accountable for their failure to perform effectively. This is the only way that badly needed reforms can be enacted in the military.”

“The exercise in nation building can be futile one specially when there is no effective central government in Afghanistan and most aid needs to make it through war lords and regional administrators who would want a piece of the action before giving it the green light.

In a country when tribalism reins supreme, the key is to unite strong elements within the tribal hierarchy and create a central government out it. Karzai is not effective because he is not a tribal leader and not rooted within Afghanistan. He came from abroad to lead the country post Taliban collapse.

The solution to this problem is not more head banging. Obama's envoy to the region should focus on forming a coalition government and convince all the elements that it is in their best interest to unite under a single banner and work to improve the conditions in that country.

Once the government in place and the hostilities have ceased, then in the next phase we can focus on massive aid and development this blog is proposing. The aid is indeed needed to sustain the fragile government until it gets its sea legs.”

“Rather than diminishing the systemic risk, we just continue adding to it by allowing the mega financial institutions become even more mega. We need financial system reform on a global scale. Countries that won't play better opt out of the system (that won't happen, everyone will play - stand to lost too much for opting out). The entire global economic system was at risk and the recent financial collapse which is a clear demonstration of how interrelated the financial system is on a global scale.”

“The military is unfit for the missions of the 21st century. The military, in its current format is obsolete and neither the president and DOD can use effectively use it for any challenges that we are facing now. So it needs to be reformed in order to become an institution that provides effective utility applicable to this day and age.”

“The military is in major need of reform. Even though it is technologically at the very pinnacle of the 21st century achievements, structurally, it is still a throw back to WWII and the Cold War. The recommendations that the military is making for the conflict in Afghanistan is rooted in these glaring deficiencies.

Until the military takes a good hard look at its mission and purpose within the context of the larger society and attempts to update those to the 21st century, we will be mired in Iraq and Afghan type wars for some time to come. I am not sure how, but it would be really beneficial to encourage the military leadership to begin recognizing the increasingly diminishing returns of their efforts and make a sincere attempt to fundamentally reform its command structure and purpose.”

“I think the objection centers around transparency. Geithner needs to disclose more of what transpires between him and the heads of the big banks in his weekly meetings. This might be a good time for President Obama to ask Geithner to exercise more disclosure and pay more attention to the objections his critics are raising about his conduct of the office.”

“If there is a need for unplugging, then there is a need for simplifying ones life. We choose to over-commit because there is a perception of emptiness inside that needs to be avoided. Just try and sit quietly for 5 minutes or so. See if you can quiet your mind and bring your awareness to perception of the moment. It is much harder than you think.”

“We have a lot of obstructionists in the congress. Even with Bush, lots of legislation passed with the Democratic support in the congress and a sliver of Republicans who aligned themselves with Bush to push forward his agenda. Government runs on the back of Democrats regardless of who the president is. With a Democrat president, it is even harder to get that sliver of Republican congressional support the GOP presidents get. I think Ariana's point is that we need to get used to the fact Republicans are going to play the role of sour puss from now on. Obama just needs to discount the obstructionist bunch in the congress and move forward with his agenda regardless.”

“Thank you. This is a very important point. There was no Federal Reserve when the constitution was written. That institution is really a fourth branch of the government that projects unchecked power. A lot of the maladies we are now experiencing in the recent financial debacle can be traced to the Fed's past actions.”