In Today's Musings . . .

Random Thoughts April 23, 2011

Several news organizations are reporting that GM will soon regain its spot as the number one car manufacturer in the U. S.  Let’s see, the Obama policy of rescuing  Gm resulted in saving the company, savings hundreds of thousands of jobs, keeping the auto industry more competitive and it all cost less than bailing out AIG.  Exactly why do Radical Conservatives have a problem with this?

The resignation of Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R) was apparently motivated by the desire not to have his ethics issues made public.  Just another example of how the party that espouses family values doesn’t seem to have any.

The WSJ has a report that Americans spend about $1.2 trillion in things they don’t need (actually a non-scientific Commerce Department report).  Gosh, and the Federal Deficit is $1.2 trillion (more or less).

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/23/number-of-the-week-americans-buy-more-stuff-they-dont-need/

The U. S. dollar continues to weaken and this is actually a good thing despite the name.  A weaker dollar stimulates U. S. exports and makes imports more expensive, thus increasing Aggregate Demand, which is the engine that drives the economy.  In the long run a weaker dollar can lead to inflation and higher interest rates, but in the short term the U. S. economy needs the weak dollar.  We’ll deal with the long term effects later.

Besides, any economic policy that results in criticism from Europe, Asia and South America must be right.

The Financial Times reports that Obama is being blamed by the public for the bad economy.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c76f7c5a-6d07-11e0-83fe-00144feab49a.html#axzz1KOO7Stwt

 Let’s see, Obama is forced by Radical Conservatives to implement policy he did not support, and then is blamed when that policy does not result in as strong an economy as expected.  Of course, had Obama stood firm for his principles he would have a stronger economy and stronger approval.  Let’s see if he learned this in the coming debate on the debt ceiling.