It's ALWAYS Been the Economy Stupid, and We Still Don't Get It

I'm going to confess that as someone who regularly plays the market I have been largely uninvolved and ignoring the nosedive. See the thing is, a blind pig should have seen this one coming, oh, about 2 years ago. Aside from this being what I call a golden stock shopping opportunity I'm not really all that interested. Not sure what part of "you can't keep spending money you do not have" or continue expanding the number of people living in absolute poverty without eventually destroying your economy most people still aren't getting but there it is in a nutshell.

As usual our fearless leaders are getting the solution all wrong too. Color me not surprised. Tax bennies for corporations and rebates for everyone who already has money and goddamn well ought to learn to budget...gee that's gonna help. NOT.

For anyone still in doubt let me 'splain it for you in really, really simple terms. You aren't going to like it but this is what has to happen: real income has to rise at the bottom end. That's right Joe Monkey autoworker, it ain't about you....it's about the gazillion or so people cleaning motel rooms, serving you at the drive through window and picking your goddamn lettuce. It's basic math: we have too many people with no discretionary income and when that happens who in the hell do you imagine we are going to sell all our goods and services too? Even Donald Trump can only eat so many Whoppers.

Now we could just blame "corporate greed" and rant and rail at big business, it might feel good but it's only a piece of the story. The real story is the other few million of us in the great middle class who want it all, want it now, and want it on the cheap. "We" were ok with ignoring the fact that a whole lot of people had to be working a lot of hours for less money than it cost to live decently in order to provide the rest of us with all these goodies and as usual we are continuing to ignore this fact.

That right there had a lot to do with my bottom line when I went with Obama because he is the only candidate who gets this. Clinton and Edwards may get it but they are not going to act on it, no way Jose, they will continue to pander to the middle income folks who got us into this mess in the first place. Sadly those are the people who are more likely to vote....just look at our last 8 years if you have any more questions about that. Oh, and by the way Michigan voters: Mitt Romney is going to bring back our auto industry about the same time I learn to pull live rabbits out of my ass. You can't bring back an industry that has no market and poor people don't buy new cars every other year.

In the meantime all is right in my world, I did not lose my ass in the market because back when we had halfway decent schools I learned basic math, the Daily Show is back on the air and there is this young guy called Woozie who gives me hope that the kids coming up now may not turn out to be the same waste of airspace my generation has turned out to be.

Most of all I am still floating on the thing we aren't supposed to talk about but I'm gonna anyway: Senator Obama's young daughters standing up on that podium after the win in Iowa changed the world for an entire generation of young people in this country. Most of us older geezers don't really get that, neither black nor white but the kids get it and that's all that matters.