Are we in a Recession?

Let me preface this post by saying that I am not an economist and that I won't be regurgitating statistics and arguing the definition of the term. There are plenty of economists and websites out there to do just that. They will argue to ends about what specific indicators prove that we actually are in a recession and then what the actual percentages of those indicators need be for it to actually qualify as one. I as an everyday person will just say that to me it feels like one.

Most of the people I know(including me) that are in the job market are just not finding jobs or if they are not the ones they want or their searches have been far longer then anticipated. These aren't people that you would think would have a tough time. They are all well educated most with masters degrees but yet the jobs just don't seem to be available. To add to this incomes seem to be going down not up at least for all intents and purposes they are flat. People today are not making much more then they were in the 90's while the cost of so many different things around us have doubled and tripled.

I don't think it matters if the numbers of the particular indicators are right or not. I think a recession is just as much psychological as it is economic. Psychologically speaking, in my opinion, we are in a recession. People are holding on to their cash like almost never before. People are afraid to make large purchases, to invest, etc... Confidence in the stock market is lower then ever, even the confidence in banks, usually trusted entities, is as low as it can be. A long time ago someone told me that the American economy goes through cycles, about every four to five year we have a downturn about every eight to twelve years a recession and about every twenty five years a depression. I think in a free economy this would probably true. In our convoluded fed controlled, SEC regulated world the cycles still are there but I think the ups are now lower and the down periods longer. I think the last few years were an abomination where a system was regulated on one end vis a vis the fed but not the other end with no regulation of the mortgage industry and more importantly the mortgage securities industry. The fatheads at large institutional firms, banks, investment banks and brokerage firms got rich while no one did anything to regulate them. The fed chairman at the time Greenspan kept warning that the growth in real estate was dangerous but did nothing really to curb it.

We are in a recession... and it may be a long time before we crawl out of this one.

Yes We Can, Can We Really?

Cheers, today was a historic moment in the history of our nation. If you haven’t already heard the news, Barrack Hussein Obama is the President-Elect of the United States. The news is spreading across the nation and trickling around the world as it is waking up to the news, “a new world dawns”.
What does this mean for the American people? What does this mean for the world? Could Obama unify the country? How will Obama fix the integrity and respect of America around the world? I suppose in due time all will be revealed and tonight we as a “united” nation take this moment in time to be a part of history. “Yes we can,” will quite quickly turn to, can we really? Let’s finally unify the country, start moving towards the change that we all seek no matter how big or small. It is a historic moment today but is that all it will be, just a moment?

Bandagi

Hmmm.... Where do I start. Bandagi, a word from the Hindi language, translated literally means a bond. I suppose what is amazing about being an American of color is the fact that you feel like an outsider as often as you feel like an insider. I am Muslim albeit not a very good one but when "Arab" and "Muslim" become slurs accepted by the mainstream media you start to feel that bond somehow get stronger. This is the land of opportunity and somehow an American who came up from nothing went to the best schools and was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review has to defend that he is not an "Arab" that he is not a "Muslim." Why does it matter... The attacks on September 11th were just as offensive to me as to the rest of America. I find the war that extreme conservatives in the Islamic world are fighting to be offensive and outright wrong. Oh and by the way for those that forget the attack on the World Trade Center in Oklahoma was carried out by a "White Christian". Wait John McCain is white and Christian and his running mate spoke at a rally for a pro seccionist movement in Alaska maybe we should be more worried about them... God seems to speak to Palin like he did to Bush and we all know where that got us.

Bandagi is a bond and I am bonded to my home, bonded to the good qualities it possesses and to the ones that still need work, I am an American...

Top ten reasons Palin should head the ticket

How many of you in the recent weeks have determined in fact that a Palin-McCain ticket would be far more appealing than a McCain-Palin Ticket. In winning Letterman style, I proffer the following top ten reasons why Palin should head the Republican ticket:

10. Amount of hairspray is the best measure for poise under pressure.
9. You can’t take the small town out of Palin, but she can bring the real America back into Washington, marginal literacy and all.
8. Much more willing to label terrorists, Arabs, Muslims, and all those other bad guys.
7. She actually requires less makeup for TV appearances.
6. It would markedly reduce the necessity for White-House subscriptions to many publications.
5. She doesn’t say “My friends”.
4. If I had to choose, God is more likely to speak to her.
3. Tina Fey provides the necessary comical outlet for presidential faux pas, who can really pull McCain off?
2. A governorship is clearly more executive a function than serving on the U.S. Senate.
1. Her recent proximity to Russia.