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[Boston ITer]

All right, I'm hearing it in all six directions that B.O. will change our economic luck.

Horsefeathers!

The most he can do is create a guns 'n butter economy with the emphasis on butter (i.e. govt spending, greater deficits).

So for once, John and I are on the same economic/political page. True, I don't see this fellow as a 2nd coming of Gov Patrick, however, I think this inauguration hoopla is nauseating and a huge waste of money (~$200 million, last I'd checked).

The man is an administrator, not a savior. Ok, he can help oversee some of the reconstruction of our financial services sector and provide welfare for the downtrodden and perhaps, even shore up Medicaid. But that's all! The next two years will be a very challenging time for our think tank denizens who believe that years of a financial, rather than R&D [ plus high-end manufacturing ], economy wasn't going to hurt our prospects down the road.

Well... it's payback time and it's going to hurt. People will be broke, townships will do down the tubes, and there'll be a drifters all over the place.

[john p]

I just heard Obama's address.

He said all the right words; typical. People put him in office for those precise words. Living up to those words is not easy.

When he talks about "Responsibility" does that mean that people have to deal with their own self created hardships, or does that mean they can be irresponsible and expect a bailout? He evoked the speech that Washington gave his troops at Valley Forge. Do you think that people have any sense what that type of sacrifice is? People will be at Inauguration Parties and talk about the flat screen t.v. that they're going to buy from China that they'll get with the "Stimulus Package".

Here's the deal, many today are lightweights; they hear those words and have no motivation or even concept of having to fill those words solid. We are caving in because people are lightweights and our integrity has an inflated Price to Earnings Ratio. If you are someone that gives an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and you work hard to better yourself and others, you fill those words. Most can't talk like Obama but they can live the words that Obama talks about. We will continue to sink until there is enough load bearing capacity, enough bedrock to hold. Those guys in Valley Forge were that bedrock, they were being pushed back and they held. It doesn't matter if you like Obama or not, people will be bedrock and tough and loving because that is their nature. Obama saying it or not doesnt' make a difference, people that are bedrock will hold and there are enough to matter which is why I'm optimistic. Even if Obama is full of it, hopefully there is a critical mass that actually believe those words. He may be insincere, but if he can get people to fill solid those words that is a good thing.

[Boston ITer]

Well, an inauguration speech is exactly that... a speech.

I think the problem is so fundamental that no one can really talk it, in a public setting.

But why is this different from let's say FDR or JFK? In FDR's time, really "fear" & protectionism was a concern and in JFK's time, the Pax Americana. When FDR took the helm, the USA was the most industrialized nation in the world, overshooting Britain. And at JFK's time, the world was cleanly segregated into `red vs free` with the stars and stripes carrying that torch of freedom for the rest.

Now, the rest of the world, esp China & East Asia, are the most industrialized and the US is living on its line of credit. No offense, but that's a serious problem, it has little to do with shoring up housing. People can live in trailer parks and still perform meaningful tasks. The key is that those tasks have got to be meaningful and digging ditches or creating *Google hits* isn't among them. Those are non-tradeable services. Even tiny Switzerland still makes exportable pharmaceuticals, chocolates, and designer watches, in addition to banking. Their minuscule 7.5 million population can survive on that. Now, what about a nation of 300 million?

I just wish that the average (non-govt employee) viewer would stop believing that a change of guard could really change their world.

[Boston ITer]

[john p]

Poor Dick Morris is beside himself. He must be getting emotionally induced ticks and having sleepless nights. I also need to be talked down off the ledge, but I can laugh at it when I feel like crying. Don't forget, I come from an extended family that are all Democrats. They are literally telling me to get therapy and medication to calm my nerves. The crazy part was that I wanted Kerry last election because I knew Bush would screw the pooch and overspend.

Listen to old Dick's thoughts:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/01/the_obama_presidency_here_come.html

[Boston ITer]

Well, the problem with Dick Morris is that he doesn't know where to draw the line.

True, if we left things alone [ pseudo laissez-faire] (and support R&D nationally) that we could go places, using about 50% of the Japanese/South Korean model but not all of it. In fact, I believe Toshiba { see Japan Inc mid-80s } had the first commercially successful laptop, IBM's thinkpad came out a bit later.

Finally, heath insurance for 50-somethings isn't economical, for the private insurer, so perhaps the govt could either shore up medicaid or end the Cuba embargo and send people there for treatment.

Now, we have a situation of bail-outs (banking/corporate welfare), handouts (general welfare), and shyster science (so-called green technologies), but in the end, it all looks like a slew of pork barrel projects.

Sorry but that ain't a future nor something to be hopeful about. And realize, unlike Germany or Holland, the US has declining manufacturing sectors with a burgeoning population so we can't just tax our nifty-fifty corps and put everyone on the dole.

[Boston ITer]

Christopher Walken, psycho villain extraordinare, in the 007 film, "View To A Kill" back in '85, threatened to eliminate Silicon Valley, as a way of controlling ~80% of the world's chip production.

Today, that plan seems rather quaint, concerning that 80% of today's chip aren't made over there, and even so-called development efforts are lagging.

So in effect, in twenty years, our MBA culture/society has succeeded in fulfilling the dreams of a fictitious Bond-caliber megalomaniac. Now isn't it sad, that all an industrial terrorist has to do is simply wait and that industry will self-implode in America?