EEEKonomics

The world economy is bad. Know why? Here are some popular guesses:

Bad mortgages?

Conflict of interest of rating agencies?

Leverage?

Structured Finance?

Collateralized Debt Obligations? Whatever they are?

E-Z Credit?

House flippers?

Alan Greenspan for not reigning in credit availability?

Sub-prime credit?

Barney Frank for pushing easy mortgage credit?

Oil speculators?

Phil Gramm for pushing repeal of Glass-Steagal?

Well, it beats the hell out of me. But it seems that everyone agrees we have a big problem.

Asking what the solution is gets a lot of talk and a lot of plans, but not any real explanation of why The System can't absorb these credit failures without completely breaking down. It's all about confidence, say our experts. Confidence? What happened to rationality? Remember the rationality of the markets? Just last year our good Republican leaders were telling us that markets were soooo rational that we should, as a society, allow The Market to determine healthcare and education policies.

At least we are having a better day that Sir Allen Stanford whose stock appears to be falling in the market of public opinion.

Among other things I don't understand is why gold is so grand these days. Why are yellow rocks that we can dig out of the ground any better money than papers with Presidents? Well, many people believe in gold (idolatry!) and think that the yellow brick road to the gold standard is the best way back to confidence.

But I doubt it. Confidence is just a stepping stone to what we really need, which is spending! And the best way to get people to spend today instead of save is good old fashioned inflation. Inflation also has the benefit of being selective, which allows today's inflated markets, like housing, to stay flat while other prices in the consumer's basket rise.

So let's go back to those pre-Volcker days and pump up the money supply. Size matters and we need a big fat M1 for a de facto devaluation. I'm telling you, it's the cure.

Wall St Wants Obama

Jim Cramer says that the investment community wants Obama. Appearing on The Chris Matthews Show on Sunday, Cramer said that under Bush we "have the worst of the worst" and that we "need a new broom." He also said that Obama's tax plan "will work." As for McCain's tax plan, Cramer said that the only to benefits would be to those "making over $2.8 million per year." He also tossed in that investors don't trust McCain.

That is pretty incredible. Cramer is the controversial, and possibly insane, host of CNBC's Mad Money. I don't know where he got that $2.8 Million number, but it's a pretty severe indictment of McCain's plans.

At the more serious and somber Bloomberg News, on last week's Political Capital with Al Hunt, intrepid financial reporter Alison Fitzgerald stated that under McCain's tax plan the top 1 tenth of 1% (o.oo1) of taxpayers would realize a tax cut averaging $800,000. This is in stark contrast to Obama's plan to allow many, if not most, of the Bush tax cuts expire, basically returning us to tax levels similar to Ronald Reagan's, while pledging not to increase taxes for families making less than $250,000 a year. That covers most of the folks I know. The tenor of the show seemed to be that Obama's plan was more realistic, though neither adequately addressed the looming budget deficits.

Bloomberg's Albert R. Hunt

In other news the Newsweek poll shows Obama ahead of McCain nationally ahead by 15%. Even my home state of Georgia is in play. Hey, we are the state of MLK, Jimmy Carter, and Sam Nunn. Why the big surprise?

World Hunger and the U.S.

World Hunger Fights Back

Just last year people were commenting that one of the big stories of our time that didn't get any press was that world hunger was no longer a necessity because we (human beings) now produce more than enough food to feed everybody on Earth. That's pretty impressive. Peoples who did suffer from starvation were mostly victims of war or political repression, and, of course, poverty. And it was the starvation of people who went hungry because of poverty that seemed the post preventable.

Well, it appears that world hunger is making a comeback. And it's not because of biofuels.

If you care about world hunger, check out these Bloomberg articles, (well written by a reporter with no apparent public photo):

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aAbQtBfGM.mI

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aFRoij5an3fg

So, since this blog is mostly about domestic American politics, let's rope that in. As "The Greatest Nation In The History Of The World" I'd like to see more talk in this presidential election about what we, As A Nation, can do about world hunger. Maybe we could carve off 5 minutes in one of the next debates from the segment reserved for "what dirty Arab country will you bomb next?" and "if your sister was tied to an atom bomb, how much would you torture Cat Stevens to save her?" questions, and ask about feeding the hungry.

It might even be what Jesus would do. You know, be the good guy. Aren't we the good guys?

I'm off to get a bagel. Jesus always makes me think of bagels. I'm thankful to have them.

Jesus feeding people.