There is a line between news and propaganda, and in my opinion, Katie Couric and the news department management have crossed that line. There was no talk about how the talk down of the economy by Obama and his cronies is tanking the stock market, there is still no viable plan for dealing with toxic mortgages, and banks are living in uncertainty because threats to allow judges to write down mortgage principals could wipe out their ability to make loans. There are other, unreported bright spots in the economy, despite Obama's best efforts otherwise; I know a small IT company in northern Virginia which has had to replace two employees (whom found positions nearer their homes), has already staffed 3 new positions since the beginning of the new year, and is probably going to add at least another 2 to 3 positions over the next few months, and I have a nephew whom expects to graduate with an engineering degree from the University of Texas over the coming year, and he is already being courted by a number of prospective employers.
This is not to say there aren't challenges; in large part, we are seeing spending and capital strikes, mostly resulting from uncertainty, which is being aggravated by a bumbling, clueless, incompetent Obama Administration. It's like we have the first attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) President. It's as if he is intentionally trying to overload the circuits of conservatives by announcing some new radically liberal proposal every other day (today's special was overturning Bush's restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research). I thought I might have trouble finding material to write about early in the Obama administration, but already I have a backlog of dozens of posts just waiting to be written.
I personally regard the fact that Americans have gone from a negative to a positive 5% savings rate as a good development after years of living beyond one's means. However, the kinds of numbers we are seeing--with car sales dropping a quarter or more--seem to be more the result of fear and uncertainty than an intrinsic drop in vehicle demand. One of my brothers, who goes on a vacation (often outside the US) every year with his wife, said that this year they aren't going.
Obama's negative talk, in conjunction with escalating federal red ink, promises of higher taxes on higher-income people and investment income, and government interventions in energy, automaking, banking, and health care scaring off investors, is creating a vicious cycle; the market, and I also feel the American people, don't believe that Obama's approach is working or will work. Where it is true he has honeymoon popularity ratings, a solid plurality still believes that America is headed in the wrong direction. What this means is that Obama doesn't have nearly the mandate he thinks he does for radical social democratic change. I think people are giving him credit for trying, but a lot of them aren't sure anyone can resolve this mess.
