President Bush gave a great speech today (haven't heard that one lately) about our current financial crisis. His main points were along the lines of what we previously mentioned here.
You can read more about his speech here.
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It's not all gloom and doom for the Rust Belt these days. In fact, this NY Times article shows how the best days might be ahead for states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa.
Three thoughts (that just so happen to be ones we've been saying here at The Relevant Elephant) stood out while reading this article:
Here is more of Obama's Chump Change, this time about our economy.
Obama Change: Protect U.S. workers and provide more government programs
Chump Change: Increase prices for U.S. consumers, make the U.S. less competitive, and raise taxes
Flanked by unionized Wal-Mart greeters, Obama can be found rollin’ back America with tax hikes and toilet paper rations for all.
It's nice to see people are learning a thing or two from us... especially if they're Harvard economists.
We probably can't take all of the credit, but here is a great NY Times article talking about our need for better financial regulation, not more. It makes three great points:
- We need a new regulatory structure that makes our market work better.
- Good regulation makes sure investors can get their money back.
- When making new regulations, our lawmakers shouldn't do it with a sense of vengeance but with a rational approach to make our markets work best.
It goes on to explain more about how we could set up this "better regulation," but you'll just have to read it for yourself. Some of it might be controversial, so let us know your thoughts.
We have talked quite a bit about taxes lately as it's taken a more prominent role in the presidential election. In order to paint a picture of how our current tax breaks are not just for the wealthy, here is a simple illustration by an economics professor from Georgia.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The presidential campaign has been awfully dramatic lately. Will there be a debate? Why did McCain go to Washington? Who's wearing lipstick?
While all of this drama might be entertaining, the most important piece of legislation this decade has seen is still being debated in Washington. In case you haven't seen the news lately, our financial institutions are in a bit of a pickle, and Bush has proposed spending $700 billion to buy up bad loans that banks have made, allowing them to lend freely again.
In the first two parts to this series, we gave Mayor Bloomberg's thoughts of the current financial woes and how we got here in the first place. In short, he said our government pressured banks to make bad loans, the banks were too aggressive in making these loans, and greedy Americans gladly bought more than they could afford. He also said the government shouldn't create more regulations but simply create a better (more simplified) system for oversight. Washington should also remember what fiscal conservatism means and work to get our country out of debt.
We've always heard how most Americans would rather have a beer with President Bush than other politicians. According to the Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Bush has (figuratively speaking) took it up a notch and bought alcoholic Americans a round of drinks. Let us explain.
In Part 1, we shared thoughts from Mayor Bloomberg about America's financial crisis, explaining what the government bailouts mean. Today, we'll give you his thoughts on how we got here in the first place.
Michael Bloomberg, business mogul and New York mayor, spoke at Georgetown last week. He talked about what's happening on Wall Street, the Federal Government's bailouts, and how we got to the place we find ourselves today.
While Bloomberg considers himself an independent, his economic views are mostly conservative. His assessment of what's going on with the financial industry seems to be accurate, and his prescription for improving it sounds convincing.
In this first part, we’ll cover Bloomberg’s assessment of the recent government bailouts and the need for fixing how Washington regulates the financial industry.
New York's Fashion Week wrapped up last week, but don't worry fashion fans... an all-new episode of the beloved Project Runway airs tonight.
Fashion has been newsworthy for decades, but Bryant Park is now mentioned more than ever thanks to Bravo, Heidi Klum, and Tim Gunn (aka the “Silver Fox”).
Few industries capture the attention of Americans quite like the world of fashion. While we could never imagine wearing 97% of the clothes paraded down the runway, we’re still captivated.
As we all know, though, the fashion industry can have its dark side – from malnourished models on runways to sweat shops in developing countries. These sweat shops, controversy aside, illustrate what truly makes the fashion industry work: trade.
President Bush will address the Republican National Convention tonight. While he's sure to focus on McCain, he might also mention the beneficial effects of his 2001 tax cuts.
As you might have noticed, this was also a large topic of discussion at the Democratic National Convention last week. A good amount of their speakers said Bush only gave tax cuts to the wealthy.
Not surprisingly, the two sides are at odds over the effects of the tax cuts. Some argue the tax cuts stimulated our economy, helped us recover from 9/11, and kept this current recession from being worse. Others say these cuts are reckless and have led to our growing federal deficit.