Hello everybody. I am reenergizing my blogging after a lengthy hiatus. Unfortunately, blogging doesn't pay the bills and I had to work as a contractor for one of the high tech biggies of the Silicon Forest.
It's been a strange year. The last post I made was March 2008 about the plunge protection team (President's Working Group On Capital Markets). That's when things were getting particularly shakey with the economy and I could tell things were spinning out of control when we saw the big financial stocks begin to creak and groan. I'm not a financial advisor, but I do have friends and family who I informally advise and after July 4, I began to spread the word. "Get out of the market. Now." I had actually liquidated my own 401K funds and spread them among FDIC insured institutions (the ones with stronger balance sheets) and Euro accounts.
The problem with 401K accounts and the reason this bubble is completely different than the dot-com bubble is because this time the toxins of the financials was firmly embedded in "value funds," "long-term equity funds," and other such misnomers that imply the securities that make up the funds are of firms with strong balance sheets and conservative capital management--something I blogged about back in 2007. I predicted an early 80's type of recession--higher interest rates, bank failures, and a general blood-letting throughout the economy.
Well folks, we are now passing the 80's comparison, matching many post-WWII recession comparisons, and drifting toward a Great Depression type of scenario, but I'll leave that argument for future blog fodder.
The other big developments of the past year are political. President Obama got elected amidst much hoopla about "change" (a buzzword that if you study election history seems to pop almost every four years and has been the mantra of everyone from Clinton to Nixon to Nelson Rockefeller to Theo Roosevelt). It should come as no surprise that we're getting more of the same and Obama's cabinet appointments tell the story. Hillary suffered a humiliating primary loss, but got a consolation prize as Secretary of State. Somehow that office is now more prestigious than a Senator from New York and that itself says something about how power in America has been consolidated in the Executive Branch---and is intended to stay that way.
On the Republican side, the most formidable candidate was Rep. Ron Paul, a medical doctora who set records fundraising among troops who have served in Iraq. No matter what campaign triumph of Paul, he went virtually ignored by the mainstream media, leaving us with a Saturday Night Live skit campaign of McCain and Sarah Palin. At one point when questioned on his own life of government health care and benefits he stumbled for words and replied with, "I've never been an astronaut, but I know the challenges of space." Steve Martin couldn't have been funnier.
That left Cynthia McKinney for the Green Party, some totally forgetable Libertarian candidate, and yet another appearance from Ralf Nader who had no party affiliation. Nader, of course, got to spin his wheels on the political talk show circuit while former Georgia Congresswoman McKinney, despite being the most accomplished Green candidate ever was completely ignored. I suppose that's what happens when you question the 9-11 Commission on-record about 'Vigilant Guardian,' the NORAD exercise that was conducted in the weeks prior to September 11, to prepare for the hijacked jet-liner scenario that Bush and Condi Rice didn't think anybody could have foreseen.
Bringing the current state of democracy closer to home, Portland elected Sam Adams as mayor, making him the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. Our proudly progressive community hailed this as a major breakthrough for the gay and lesbian cause, but within weeks of being sworn in the mayor, 42, was forced to admit that he had sex with a teenage intern whom he had been mentoring. It was an accusation he vociferously denied during his campaign. When the story broke, Sam defended his actions because he waited until the very young man turned 18. In fact, the major city mayor drove to Salem to attend the lad's birthday party, thus making sure he was legal. Barely. Prior to that, the would-be role model restricted his mentoring activities to some heavy pettin' and kissing in the City Hall men's room. This chain of events now has the Portland gay community bitterly divided about whether Sam is a victim of homophobia or a reinforcement of the worse stereo-types about homosexuality.
In my own life I've done some blogging under a pen name for some more mainstream blogs, but the message of this blog needs to get out, so I'm back. The blogosphere has continued to bifurcate to the extremes--a narrow focus on the scope of debate framed by the corporate media in one direction and outlandish conspiracy theories about aliens and cults on the other. This is getting back to basics, facts. News and views for those with the eyes to see and courage not to look away. Now that we've skipped across the last year, touching topics relative to this blog, I'll bid you adieu and try to stay more up-to-date.
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