Ken's Comments

If you're waiting for a miraculous economic recovery don't hold your breath. I think we are seeing the economy contract after 15 years of false prosperity. Spending next year could cause the economic downturn to level out and perhaps even put us on the road to positive growth. But things are not going to get back to where they were for a long time. In some ways, that is probably a good thing, too. Since the adoption of the laws in 1994 causing the lending industry to lower its stanards for issuing mortgages, I think the economy has grown at a rate faster than it should have grown. This has not entirely been due to the mortgage situation. Recall that we had the "Dot Com" bubble in the late '90s. We also had major companies falsifying their financial records - remember Enron, MCI, Adelphia Cable to name a few - to create significantly higher stock prices. All of this translated into higher salaries, bonuses, and wealth for many people. After the dot com bubble burst

As the Bush Administration's term in office winds down we get to see who is interested in doing what is right for the Country versus who is interested in doing what is right for their party on display. President Bush, by all accounts, has been extremely gracious and helpful to the incoming Obama administration. On the other hand, we see actions that indicate Speaker Pelosi will consolidate her control of the House of Representative so that all dissenting opinions will be pushed down. The Country has not benefitted from the extreme partisanship of the Democrats during the last two years of the Bush Administration and the country will not benefit if the Democrats continue this behavior during the Obama Administration. During the post-election period, President Bush has allowed President-elect Obama to move to center stage on economic issues. A political commentator described it as the U.S. having two Presidents -- one on domestic policy (Obama) and one on foreign policy (Bush). Presi