(Article first published as “The Fatal Conceit of Perpetual Prosperity: Will It Sell?” on Blogcritics.) Winston Churchill once said, “The biggest argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Today, the truth of that observation is being determined in democracies around the globe. In the U.S., with politicians sharply divided along partisan lines on how to solve our fiscal crisis, voters will decide on the path forward. Are they up to the task? Will they buy the perpetual prosperity…
At different times in American history, the Do Nothing label has been stuck to Republican politicians and even the entire party. Like the time, way back in the day, when Woodrow Wilson glued it on President Taft and his administration. The most famous use of the term was by Harry Truman in his successful campaign against Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential race. The phrase helped to keep “Give ‘Em Hell Harry” in the White House confounding all…
WASHINGTON DC (AP) ¬– The Chinese government this week sold the assets of the former U.S. government to American business interests for .00001 cents on the dollar. The fire sale brought the curtain down on an investment drama that ended poorly for both China and the U.S. After Uncle Sam defaulted on payments, the Chinese were forced to foreclose on significantly overvalued collateral securing their investment. Their own government in limbo since the foreclosure, Americans can breath a little…
(Article first published as The Sum of Our Parts on Blogcritics.) Most everyone has heard the saying, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s been around for quite a while and generally means that together pieces produce a result not independently obtainable. It has several applications. First uttered by Aristotle as a philosophical precept, it is also a tenet of Gestalt psychology and an expression of the concept of synergy. And, it’s a notion most…
(Article first published as A Little Pawlenty Is Plenty on Blogcritics.) If you’re one of the millions who doesn’t have a clue about Republican Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty, and you want to change that, watch this. It’s a video from a Sunday news show recorded earlier this month featuring an interview of the former Minnesota governor. In it, Pawlenty bobs and weaves his way through defending his questionable “Better Deal” plan for fixing our deep national debt problems. He also…
If past voter behavior is any indication, President Obama will have difficulty winning the next election with the gargantuan economy millstone hanging around his neck. The unemployment rate today stands at 9.1 percent, up from earlier in the year. But, that figure doesn’t include everyone who is out of a job or has to settle for part time work when full time is needed. When those people are counted, the percentage rises above 16 percent of the labor force…
