President Obama hit a home run when he was a kid too!
President Obama hit a home run today in London. Of course that wasn’t really Cricket was it? We don’t know the British terms for a good play but leave to those that do…..to praise the President for his accomplishments on the world stage!
It was certainly the President’s Baptism by Fire…..in front of the top 20 countries in the world. He had to deal with all the top dogs, all the big cheese machines and all the world’s press. He met on the field of battle and made us all proud. The French and the Germans wanted oversight on Int’l tax havens, they wanted limits on Executive Compensation, they wanted huge Regulatory regimes on Hedge and Derivative Markets. Additionally, there is every reason to believe that every bank in the world will have to report who has what and where….very soon! The days of the Secret Numbered Swiss Accounts are in fact: Numbered!
President Obama met with the leaders of China, Russia, India, Korea, Japan and of course Britain. What was amazing was that such a variety of issues were addressed in such a short period in time. We can recall at no other time in US History that so many leaders were met, with dialogue, with great exchange of views and with future dates for meetings set!
This was an impressive outing for President Obama….on the world stage as we say. A couple of issues that he is trying to push back here at home however may be meeting with a certain amount of “blowback”! The Republicans have kept busy building an alternative “Budget Proposal” to counter two major components of the Democrat Budget Proposal: “Cap and Trade” and huge tax hikes projected over the next several years! Today, Banking Rules got changed to affix a higher value on the so-called “Toxic Assets” which were rated at about 20% of their original value. Banks are now allowed to offer a “Revaluation” of nearly 60% of the original value of those Credit Default Swaps and others – in order not meet the reserve component and supposedly offer more loans for cars, students and homes. This is a contentious proposal at best…and certainly will do nothing to improve the balance sheets of any of these lending institutions in our opinion. “Mark to Market” should be the standard, has been the standard and we are shocked that that rule has been changed in mid-stream of this economic crisis.
The Administration is touting the shortfalls and crisis predicted in Medicare coming next year. They will be running out of cash to pay for Medicare and they seem desperate to find a solution. The Republicans seem to not be interested in this issue and we can find no solution they might be offering as a counter. Social Security however, even though a longer ramp up to shortfall…..is suffering right now due to the high unemployment rates that seem to be rising rather than falling. Those Withholding statements are drying up quickly and the Administration will have to deal quickly with some sort of fixes that may include “Means Testing”…exaggerated retirement ages and as a last resort…..diminishing monthly rewards for all of us.
The issues facing our country and world are immense. We must say however, that President Obama did a superb job on the International Stage his first time out! We wish him every good prayer and wish…that he can take this auspicious start and make it into a world recovery!
You forgot to mention he offered an olive branch to the Taliban, and they repaid him by telling us they are going to Blow Up DC!
The North Koreans are Launching ICBM Missles, because they know he will not do any thing about it.
The Iraninans are laughing at our new found weakness, as they are about to build their first NUKE.
Oh yeah, and he gave a really lame ass gift to the queen, while his wife was groping her