American Politics and the Faltering Economy

[Joanne98]

Down Goes the Peloton
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
By ALAN FARAGO

A small percentage of Americans ever heard of the peloton; the tight-knit pack of riders leading a bicycle race. But Americans generally are clueless about so much of what the rest of our trading partners understand: the United States has dropped to the back of the world economic peloton.

Democratic candidates for president have it right: the responsible party for stripping the gears from the US economy is over there, on the other side of the aisle. Americans do understand what is happening close to home. For that reason alone, by November the next president of the United States will be a Democrat.

Who knows what Congressional Democrats are doing now, trying to cobble together rescue plans to stop a tidal wave of homeowner foreclosures. People are clamoring for help. So is industry, in particular the homebuilders and their supply chain whose enthusiasms-directed primarily through contributions to Republicans-succeeded in inflating one of the biggest bubbles in US economic history.

Whatever Congressional Democrats might propose, it is not enough to prevent the long-delayed recalibration of the economy.

The New York Times reports that a bill drafted by Senate Democrats, objected to by Republicans and the Bush White House, "would have provided $4 billion for state and local programs to rehabilitate abandoned housing; $10 billion for states to raise low-cost mortgage money through tax-free revenue bonds; and another $200 million for counseling services to help homeowners renegotiate their loans."

It is like building a lean-to against a hurricane.

There are certain immutable truths, for Democrats. One is the same for politics as it is for common investors: don't try to catch a falling knife.

The best counter that Congressional Republicans can muster: make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

For the rest of common shareholders, last week stocks fell for the fourth straight month. The dollar declined to a record low against the Euro. The Wall Street Journal reported that the FDIC is advertising to hire retired experts, in anticipation of a rash of bank failures. The Fed is finally acknowledging the rampant inflation that has been coursing through food and energy costs for many years. On the Champs Elysee, a bottle of water costs $10 US dollars. Precious metals are on a ride to the moon.

In the peloton there is speed in numbers. But when one at the front of the peleton goes down, the whole pack tangles in a mess of skin, blood and asphalt.
http://www.counterpunch.org/farago03042008.html

[pretzel4gore]

1. they allowed bush to steal the 2k election

what did anyone expect? (they expect everyone to forget the 2k election, but that was the catastrophe; 911 was nothing)