False solutions that were built on political paybacks rather than good sense, such as ethanol will now also be cast into a new series of study, if this consuming public knows what is good for them. The leadership of both political parties defied scientific evidence and economic sense and passed along a policy that knowingly created upward inflationary pressures on food costs; while doing little for the net alternative energy picture of America. Why? Because of campaign cash from Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the United States Corn Growers (USCGA) and others. Again, in the marketplace, Wall street investors after pulling back on their own losses, got a shot in the arm through Bush and Congress's Energy bill that defied logic and good sense by raising the ethanol requirements, rather than deregulating in the right place.
Within the last year alone, the nation's corn price has increased by a whopping 80%; increasing the cost of milk by 37%, the cots of eggs by 46%, the cost of corn sweetener based Coca Cola by 11%, the cost of feed for poultry, mutton, pork, milk and beef producers by as much as 70%.
As a sign of a reality check, watch the newly launched IPOs of these boondoggle industries "" the ethanol producers to see if this is a reality check or just a sharp blow to the US Economic led by world wide investors.
True causes lie underneath all of the symptomatic hoopla that you will see today.
Re-read my post on OpEd News last week that was a pre-emptive strike at using tax rebates as stimulus and the sham they bring to economic policy. Therein lie the base strategic solutions that will be required.
Neither party seem ready to tackle the big issue. That's because they created it. There is but one party in Washington, DC these days and that is the MONEY PARTY.
John Edwards and Ron Paul, among the presidential candidates show the most understanding of the causes, effects and what must be done to fix this mess. The Republican Party is scared to death of Ron Paul and cast him as a crazed loon. The Democratic establishment see John Edwards as a more credible threat and have kept him under wraps and cast him as an angry man for speaking truth to power in most cases, including the economic crisis that is upon us.
But let's be honest, this is far bigger than a presidential campaign. If John Edwards were elected President of the United States, he would have to force the Democratic Leadership "" his own party to divert their attentions from making corporate campaign deals long enough to concentrate on your problems and mine. I'm convinced no other Democrat could do that. But the challenge is huge.
The same principles would apply to the challenges faced by a Ron Paul presidency.
So as you watch the ticker and then listen to the talking heads speak as if they had marbles in their mouths; understand that whatever happens today will happen in spite of your investment fund using your own dollars to soften the blow of what the World traders have already passed judgment over.
The United States economy entered into a recessionary economy in October, 2007. We have but felt the early stabs of a recession. This time we do not have a strong dollar to use to defer the effects on export trading; we do not have credibility within the World "" a commodity long ago sacrificed to prop up failing personal relations and respect for this US President.
Will Other Powers Help us Bail Out?
While playing loose with the truth, the Bush Administration used an arrogant assumption that made us look even worse. The European powers had felt the Bush Administration had taken them for granted and in fact, insulted their long-standing commitment to America. As we saw only a few days ago, it was the personal Bush relationship with the Saudi Royal family that he pledged to leverage (but which refuted him deftly) that has become the rising power within World trade. Throughout the week, we heard of more and more World investment in the ownership of America's financial institutions and banks. With the Chinese and Japanese floating our national debt, we now face the Saudi's owning a disproportionate share of our banks. Yet, still as a Presidency and Congressional leaders say "it ain't so"-, the truth becomes the new reality.
And with this new ownership, comes about a new influence within policy decisions for war and peace as well as domestic policy.
Through all of this meltdown, don't loose sight of the pure fact "" and the most concrete fact of all in Washington today "" INFLUENCE DICTATES POLICY.
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