Clinton

President Obama Stimulus Package will not do that much

President Obama's stimulus plan will not work. He is focused on the big picture while ignoring the small ones the make our economy work. Only local value added economies work. Economies based primarily on making money on money rather than making things do not and are burning out. President Obama does not even mention the history of Free Trade failures. Free Trade and Globalization means centralization. This means all the good and bad are centralized. All the bad that was controllable in de-centralized ways are now out of control.

The cause of our economic crisis is primarily about Free Trade that moved our production of the things we use and eat to other parts of the planet. The crisis is about cheaper imports meaning cheaper wages, underemployment and unemployment.

The Evil Doers of the Financial Crisis

Many folks are asking what the hell is going on, how did we get here and who is responsible?

The Washington post has named names on what and who are responsible for this disaster.

The issue at hand was regulation of the derivatives market and Brooksley E. Born wanted to regulate it. This is 1998, the Clinton administration.

It seems Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. didn't want any regulation on the growing shadow banking system called derivatives.

It's the Policy Stupid

I have been watching the Democratic as well as the Republican primary and I must say at this point, the entire country seems to be stuck on stupid. From the media blackout on Clinton to the DNC rules and disproportionate distribution of pledged delegates, not counting two entire states, and then the superdelegates, well, I think it's fair to say the process is one rigged game where the actual voters don't seem to count for much.

To make matters worse, it appears policy has gone by the wayside. An intelligent, well researched and analyzed policy positions and debate on the effectiveness of those positions is long gone from the political blogs.

Presidential Campaign Policy Positions - Buried and Probably Gone

The blogs are full of it. Thousands of bits in cyberspace declaring the Democratic primary is over before it is over, misogynistic rhetoric abounds, talk of somehow this is a great political realignment and if you aren't paying attention you would swear the second coming of Christ is upon us.

There are those of us who actually pay attention to policy positions, who want the new political realignment to be about policy change. Are we really going to get that? Well, frankly I don't think so and this is why.

Firstly, there are 49% of Democratic voters who are having their candidate of choice ripped a new one daily in the main stream press and in the blogs. That's half of all those who voted in the Democratic primary.

What's Wrong with Taxing Capital Gains?

Capital Gains taxes were asked about in the last Democratic Presidential Primary Debate.

Capital Gains are the profits someone makes from investments on Wall Street. Reporter Gibson asked both Obama and Hillary on raising these taxes.

Here is the exchange:

GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton," which was 28 percent. It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.

But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.

OBAMA: Right.