Ken's Comments

A very interesting story from the NY Times about the crisis looming ahead thanks to the Bush / Obama economic recovery plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/business/23rates.html?th&emc=th Essentially, the Bush / Obama economic recovery plan is a lot like taking out an adjustable rate mortgage with really low teaser interest rates. When interest rates go up, the Federal government is going to be slammed. The NY Times - not what I'd call a conservative news outlet - article has a quote estimating that interest payments on the money we've borrowed will be as much as $700 billion per year in the future. That is as much as we spent this year on the economic stimulus bill and we will be paying that each year. Now, just to review, what is Bush / Obama economic recovery plan? It involves spending lots and lots of money that the Government does not have including: Economic stimulus - $400 billion under President Bush if I recall correctly, repeated by President Obama at a higher ...

Interesting to see how President Obama is following in President Bush's footsteps on a number of important policies. For example President Obama is continuing: To bail out AIG The TARP program for Banks To bail out of GM and Chrysler The withdrawal from Iraq Not releasing photos of prisoner abuse Spending significantly more federal dollars than the amount of taxes collected There are others, but time does not permit me to research them all. It shows that President Bush's policies were not so horrible as was suggested by Democratic candidates on the campaign trail. At the same time, one must admit there are some things President Obama has done differently - environmental issues and cracking down on credit card companies would be two areas of difference that are notable and laudable. There are areas, such as rgulatory reform of mortgage lending or types of stock trading, where President Bush did not have a chance to offer solutions

Earlier I commented on Wolf Blitzer's really poor performance on an interview with Sen. Christopher Dodd that occurred on CNN last week. Later the same day, I saw Sheppard Smith, on Fox News, interviewing U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney confronted with a similar situation. His response was an example for all interviewers. Representative Maloney started to say that the Bailout meeting last week blew up because of Sen. John McCain. Sheppard Smith immediately interjected saying "Wait a minute..." Mr. Smith went on, in a polite fashion, to say that Fox News reports suggested that Sen. McCain was quiet at the meetings, that it was the House Republicans who objected, which led to Sen. Harry Reid blowing up. Mr. Smith then, in a non-confrontational way (e.g. not as a "Gotcha") asked Rep. Maloney if she could confirm or deny those reports. This caused Rep. Maloney to state that she was not in the meeting and really couldn't say what happened. That's good intervie...