Is the Recession a Crisis of Confidence?

Ben Stein in a stupid hat makes the point that it's all about confidence. If Obama and all of Obama's top financial leaders said the recession would end in a year, then it would end in a year, he says in the video below. That may be true. But that doesn't fix the problem.

I think Obama sees the big picture, completely missed by those who are just thinking about the stock market and relieving the pain. The rich are even hurting, which is why there has been so much urgency for bank reforms. But the fact is our economy has long been out of whack. Stocks have been completely over valued. Not that I'm giving stock advice, but now seems like the time to buy. Stocks are finally below value and it might even be prudent to wait to see if they dip lower. Housing has been completely over valued. We have too many malls. We over built. Consumer spending has been off the charts. Debt is sky high. We're killing our planet.

The big picture is to not get ourselves in this mess again. The big picture is for Americans to begin to save more of their income, regardless if it hurts the economy in the short term. So-called experts say now is the wrong time to be saving. They're wrong. The big picture is rethinking the economy so that it isn't driven solely by consumer spending. Our economy and our planet needs more than just consumer spending. The big picture is to enact reforms that prevent bankers from becoming bankers to live high on the hog, forgoing ethics and morality. The big picture is revising the tax structure so that it doesn't favor the rich and lifts more of the poor out of poverty. The nation has been on a path of haves and have nots. We can't continue to live as a me-first society, survival of the fittest (those with the most money). The big picture is to learn some lessons and not just go back to the way it was. For that reason the recession is good for us.

Steele Proves He's More of the Same

I didn't expect the newly-elected RNC chair Michael Steele to be so divisive so soon. He even calls up Joe the Plumber's favorite bone, "redistribution of wealth." Soon, he'll be speaking with Sarah Palin at his side and he looks like he'll be another Rush Limbaugh tool. The GOP is a vacant lot.
Sorry Mr. Steele, but the American people rejected republican policies and their divisiveness. Good luck with that. 

CNN: "I know we're living in the era of bipartisanship," Steele joked to the House GOP congressmen who gathered this weekend to discuss policy and politics. "I thought it was very important to send a signal, and you sent it loudly, very clearly, that this party, the leadership of this caucus, would stand first and foremost with the American people. You made it very clear that in order to grow through this recession that you not redistribute the wealth of the people of this nation."

The former Maryland lieutenant governor specifically spoke about his mother as he slammed the Obama plan.

"My mom was a sharecropper's daughter with a fifth-grade education," Steele said. "And my mother knew how to balance the budget without taking money out of my pocket."

Steele drew cheers from the crowd when he pledged the GOP would re-take the majority in Congress, beginning with the fight over New York's 20th congressional district — recently vacated by the state's newly-named senator, Kirsten Gillibrand. She defeated GOP Rep. John Sweeney in 2006.

"I'm in the business of winning elections," said Steele. But he also noted that he was unsuccessful in his 2006 bid for the Senate.

Listen to him address the House republicans, the most Palinesque types (it starts aroun 4:20 if you want to skip ahead):

He says he's in the business of winning elections. Isn't that Karl Rove's mantra? Ick.