July 3rd, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
The Economy is officially the number one issue on the minds of Americans given the new record price of oil today and other negative economic indicators. Analysts also point out, rightly so that it is the current party that takes the blame for a bad economy. John McCain is running for that party at the moment and he is going to have a hard time justifying current GOP policies that have not done any good for the American economy. Deregulation has allowed American companies to take advantage of the system to “cook the books” and create the current sub-prime crisis that sparked the global economic downturn. The Iraq war continues to cost the American people and future generations of Americans more money that they do not have. Tax cuts to the oil companies have done nothing to prevent the price of oil increasing to $145.44 cents as of today. Companies deserve a certain measure of freedom but you let a dog run free and you can guarantee he is going to do some damage.
A recent Gallup poll show’s the negativity of each state with regards to the Economy:
This poll clearly indicates how important the economy is to the entire of the United States and the Gallup methodology is as sound as ever conducting a proportional amount of interviews with the States population. This news is the golden egg for Senator Obama because like I suggested above; Senator McCain is going to have a hard time explaining how his economic policies are going to change the economy. Conducting a quick calculation in terms of electoral votes, Senator McCain retains a total of 72 electoral votes based on every state with a negativity score of 55% or less. This would mean a decisive victory for Senator Obama in the most optimistic scenario but a victory none the less in the most pessimistic scenario.
The task for the McCain campaign is to craft an effective economic strategy that veers away from the current GOP set of policies but not so far that Senator McCain distances himself from the Republican base. That isn’t going to happen given this his lack of knowledge on economic issues:
June 18th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics, Irish Politics |
The Bush Administration will continue to push for a lifting on the ban of offshore drilling today which will likely only sate the American appetite for oil for 2.5 years at the most. The problem is that the President has only proposed a short-term measure with no thoughts about what is going to happen after we exhaust those oil supplies? I am not against lifting the ban however it should be lifted with intention to keep the price of oil stable while the Government invests greater resources into alternative energy sources. For the moment I would like to draw your attention to two sites that I found during my research on gas prices. The first is gasbuddy.com where you can put in your relevant location data and they will tell you where the cheapest price of gas is in your local area. The second site is pumps.ie which operates similarly to gasbuddy.com with the exception that Ireland is not that big hence there are relatively few choices to choose from:
GasBuddy.com
Pumps.ie
April 3rd, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
Finally Senator Clinton has turned her attention to the more pressing need of the Democratic Party, which is to attack Senator McCain. She has released a new “3am” advert, which you will find here:
This is a very interesting advertisement because if you consider that her poll numbers are declining in PA, she could have run an advertisement attacking Senator Obama but she made the right choice and for that I congratulate her and her campaign manager. This advert showcases the GOP philosophy of non-intervention which simply cannot happen in the current financial crisis. Why should ordinary people pay the price for companies who have packaged mortgages in the form of securities? They shouldn’t and the government should step in and help these people save their homes.
Senator McCain’s campaign immediately released a response to that advertisement that showcased the typical conservative/republican ideology that all Democrats do is raise taxes. The advert proceeds to not even address the issue of how Senator McCain would deal with the current financial crisis but generalizes by stating he would grow jobs etc. How are you going to generate jobs in the USA Senator McCain when companies are situating their labor base in well educated low cost countries? of which the USA is not one of them.
January 25th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
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.
January 18th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics |
Its about 11:06 pm here in Ireland and too my dissapointment, Hillary Clinton has in all esscence won the Nevada Caucuses. This is not bad news by any stretch of the imagination for an Obama supporter like myself however I have this feeling that Mrs.Clinton will start to pull ahead in the coming weeks and months. This is nothing something I would like to admit because I adamantly believe up until this very moment that Barack Obama is the best choice for the next president for the United States but I must accept the reality of the situation.
Clinton has most likely won in Nevada but there are still many other States where the Obama campaign can turn it around. I think the biggest problem with the Obama campaign and the canidate himself is that people percieve him to be inexperienced to run a country like the United States. Speaking to a colleague of mine at work the other day, she said the only reason she supported Clinton was because she had more experience. I agree that this is a good reason to support a canidate however it should not be your only reason. Mr.Obama is a new to Washington in ever sense of the word but I think the United States needs new at the moment.
I love the USA and I think it is a great country but there are some fundamental flaws that need to be fixed. The economy for one, considering the lackluster economic package the president offered this past week. Have a look at the ABC Facebook poll that I extracted from my facebook account:
Americans are worried about the economy contrary to what Republicans will tell you, and no wonder considering the sub-prime crisis, slow job growth and slow down in home sales. Foreign entities are ploughing cash into debt laden American companies like Merrily Lynch, Citigroup which is not only a security risk but is something that could hurt American policies in the years to come. Despite my favoristism towards Mr.Obama I believe the next president needs to take drastic steps to change the direction of the economy.
It’s getting late here so I would like to conclude with a Video from Hillary Clinton’s stop in Nevada (Courtest of YouTube of course):
