Is Bush Crazy? (Or Are We?)
Is it Genocide? (In Darfur)
Are We Headed For Recession?
These are questions I want to touch on briefly, before heading off to Arizona for a couple of weeks. As to the emotional and mental state of the Prez, let me just say that I'm worried for him. As Nancy Pelosi said (of his state of denial), "It's sad." He doesn't look well, or sound good. He's under enormous pressure. He has a tiger by the tail, and can't let go. And he gets angry at people who don't understand the situation as he misunderstands it.
There are said to be people who hate the President. I am not one of them. He's a fellow Methodist and, I believe, a decent fellow. I wish him well, but fear the worst.
Rabbi Emanuel Rose wrote recently in The Oregonian: "An overwhelming majority of the common people no longer accept the disparity between the words of the administration and the facts on the ground. The people, who generally prefer to believe and support their president, increasingly have concluded that they have been misled, decieved or denied accurate information." I believe that's the President's situation also. He sounds like he too has been misled and denied accurate information. Or he lacks the background and understanding to properly evaluate what he is being told. Either way, it's a disaster becoming a catastrophe! We don't have any idea how many Iraqis we have killed, because we have never bothered to keep track. This says to the Muslim world that we don't care how many of them we kill: to us it's inconsequential.
Speaking of disaster, and not caring, there is now a big argument raging about whether the killing in Darfur is a genocide. Was it, in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutus? What do you think? What would you call it? I call it inconceivable that we stand by wringing our hands, and refusing to supply the money, arms and transport for neighboring African peoples to go in and stop the slaughter. Why haven't we stepped in a long time ago? Our responsibility is proportionate to our ability. From whom much has been given, much will be required. We are watching another holocaust.
Turning now to our economy here at home, with a public debt load now exceeding
$8 trillion, and private debt approaching that amount, and remembering that the Iraq war costs (over one trillion now) are not being counted in these figures, Paul Krugman warns: "Since last summer, when the housing bust became unmistakable, interest rates on long term bonds have fallen sharply. They're now yielding much less than short-term bonds. The fact that investors are willing to buy these long-term bonds anyway tells us that these investors expect interest rates to fall. And that will happen only if the economy weakens, forcing the Federal Reserve to cut rates. So bond buyers are, in effect, betting on a future economic slowdown." Krugman is an
economics professor at Princeton, and writes a regular op-ed column for The New York Times. I've found his opinions highly useful, and usually reliable.
More when we return from Arizona. jgoodwin004@centurytel.net
fellow who is in way, way over his head.
Is it Genocide? (In Darfur)
Are We Headed For Recession?
These are questions I want to touch on briefly, before heading off to Arizona for a couple of weeks. As to the emotional and mental state of the Prez, let me just say that I'm worried for him. As Nancy Pelosi said (of his state of denial), "It's sad." He doesn't look well, or sound good. He's under enormous pressure. He has a tiger by the tail, and can't let go. And he gets angry at people who don't understand the situation as he misunderstands it.
There are said to be people who hate the President. I am not one of them. He's a fellow Methodist and, I believe, a decent fellow. I wish him well, but fear the worst.
Rabbi Emanuel Rose wrote recently in The Oregonian: "An overwhelming majority of the common people no longer accept the disparity between the words of the administration and the facts on the ground. The people, who generally prefer to believe and support their president, increasingly have concluded that they have been misled, decieved or denied accurate information." I believe that's the President's situation also. He sounds like he too has been misled and denied accurate information. Or he lacks the background and understanding to properly evaluate what he is being told. Either way, it's a disaster becoming a catastrophe! We don't have any idea how many Iraqis we have killed, because we have never bothered to keep track. This says to the Muslim world that we don't care how many of them we kill: to us it's inconsequential.
Speaking of disaster, and not caring, there is now a big argument raging about whether the killing in Darfur is a genocide. Was it, in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutus? What do you think? What would you call it? I call it inconceivable that we stand by wringing our hands, and refusing to supply the money, arms and transport for neighboring African peoples to go in and stop the slaughter. Why haven't we stepped in a long time ago? Our responsibility is proportionate to our ability. From whom much has been given, much will be required. We are watching another holocaust.
Turning now to our economy here at home, with a public debt load now exceeding
$8 trillion, and private debt approaching that amount, and remembering that the Iraq war costs (over one trillion now) are not being counted in these figures, Paul Krugman warns: "Since last summer, when the housing bust became unmistakable, interest rates on long term bonds have fallen sharply. They're now yielding much less than short-term bonds. The fact that investors are willing to buy these long-term bonds anyway tells us that these investors expect interest rates to fall. And that will happen only if the economy weakens, forcing the Federal Reserve to cut rates. So bond buyers are, in effect, betting on a future economic slowdown." Krugman is an
economics professor at Princeton, and writes a regular op-ed column for The New York Times. I've found his opinions highly useful, and usually reliable.
More when we return from Arizona. jgoodwin004@centurytel.net
fellow who is in way, way over his head.
posted by John Goodwin at
8:58 AM
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