Should we be worried?
January 25th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics | No Comments »This week has been an amazing week in history in terms of the economy of the United States and the world as a whole, the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke cut the rate by a historic 0.75%. I don’t know how much many of you follow these rate adjustments but the most that has ever happened in the last century is a .50% point cut with a 0.25% adjustment being the norm. This cut helped Wall Street significantly in curbing the large losses that were expected however my question to you, is it enough?
I think it is a good start but what we need now is a quick implemented economic stimulus package that helps business and the consumer. I was speaking to a good friend of mine who’s blog you can see on the blogroll. Please read her entry regarding this subject but she also mentioned that a recession in America would be necessary as a metaphorical immuno-booster. I am quite pro-American but think about this statement for a moment… The world’s economies are linked in the 21st century thanks to technology and open trade agreements. People can travel anywhere they want to with relevant respect to the immigration policy. We have massive migrations of workers from places like France, Poland and Lithuania to Ireland in the case of my current location.
What’s the point of all of that? Just back to what my friend said and what I will now say, the majority of the economies around the world are linked. With the slowing down (recession) of the American economy, 2008 is going to be a volatile time for the global economy. That being said, Friday the 25th of January was a good day for Asian stock markets who rallied significantly on the losses of this past week. This poses another question for the Average global citizen to think about. Is the safe bet to put your money in Asia? I am skeptical on that question but I believe with enough research that there are certain sectors you can invest in that will provide stable growth. The critical point though is research which is something I have not done but I urge every single one of you to do.
Lastly I have attached a graph courtesy of the American Research Group which shows that President Bush’s approval rating rose by 2% from December to January despite the worsening financial situation. What does this tell you? It tells me that despite my previous entry stating that most American’s are thinking about the economy, I think perhaps to a lesser degree I was wrong earlier. I still believe the economy is the chief concern is most American’s minds but perhaps other issues like healthcare are moving into the field of consideration. I think in terms of the domino effect as my friend Amilie mentions in her blog entry, we can expect Asian and European markets to keep feeling the heat however this will be nothing compared to what the average American feels.
The next entry will compare Barrack Obama’s Healthcare plan and Hillary Clintons. So I hope you have bookmarked this page.
