Academics, being a privileged and rarefied lot, almost by second nature consistently look down the field. Hey, it's what one is supposed to do when one has lifetime job security and is freed of many of the burdens that occupy most others in the American workforce.
For the above reasons, and others, academics tend to see things others don't. Case in point: the slumping stock market, the U.S. recession, and decidedly less-cash-flush credit markets.
For the jarring, but not-very-rigorous (nor persuasive) commentators on the 24-hour cable news channels, Sean Hannity of Fox News among them, this down-time for the U.S. economy has led to the rise of President Obama and the Democrats!!! Oh my!!! Not quite: one can detect that Hannity is not looking down-the-field.
The conditions we're experiencing today represent, among other things, a test of the U.S.'s 401K system of defined contribution pensions -- sort of like its first big encounter with harsh weather. The 401K system works well, but it is not perfect, as many Americans nearing retirement age with depleted 401Ks have realized. If the U.S. economy does not start to recover by Q3/Q4 and the bull market does not resume by 2010, look for these Americans to increase pressure on their elected officials, specifically their Congressman/woman, to address their needs, and provide them with a better chance at a decent retirement.
You don't say?
No, don't look for the United States to adopt the pension system of France or Germany. But do look for increased public pressure to seek changes regarding how most employees amass funds for retirement income, if the U.S. economic recovery, and all of the good things it implies, does not begin in the immediate quarters ahead.
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Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is writing a book on the U.S. presidency and the U.S. economy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-10-2009 @ 6:58PM
sosted said...
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Never, never, never give up.
No crime is so great as daring to excel.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.
Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
There is no such thing as a good tax.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last
If you destroy a free market, you create a black market.
In Russia, a man is call a reactionary if he objects to having his property stolen and his wife and children murdered.
Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage
The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom not trade; character not technicalities.
The root problem of modern economics: the strange discordance between the consuming and producing power.
We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except for the politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.
All the Quotes above by Winston Churchill,
Hmmm---- Wonder why Obama did not want his likeness in the White
house?