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Let’s Get Political

I’d like to first thank Olivia Newton John for inspiring me to write a clever title. I thought that with all the hoopla surrounding Mitt Romney’s selection for his running mate, that I’d stir the pot a bit and discuss one of those infamous taboo subjects…politics.

Forget abortions, forget gay marriage, and the legalization of marijuana. The nation's economy and its lack of perceived upswing will be at the heart of the political discussion this election year, as it should be. What Mr. Romney will have you believe is that he has a solution. I promise you that he does not. He's not an economist by trade, he just happened to be at the right place at the right time with Bain Capital. Even an economist doesn't have all the answers. They utilize incentives and observe trends and then quantify those patterns and illustrate the results graphically.

It's no secret that every party tries to seize the upper hand and claim that they have the solution to the other party's short-comings. The focus has been on the national debt, which is entirely too high. Let me point out that in the mid 90's the debt was well under control and then a certain cowboy, who shall remain nameless, galloped into the nation's capital with grand ideas, but only succeeded in getting us into not one, but two decade long wars that were an incredible drain on the economy.

So here's the political conundrum: There are over 500 congressmen on the national level; what are the odds that they would arrive at some kind of universally beneficial consensus instead of favoring the constituency that keeps them in political office and paying them a 6 figure salary? The President, regardless of who it may be, is going to be nothing more than a figure head, a powerless monarch until Congress does some housekeeping and decides they would like to make progress instead of collecting a paycheck under the guise of having the best interest of the people at heart. Let's not forget, Congress has A LOT of authority, and passing bills and new legislation into law is their responsibility.

As for the question of whether or not inflation and printing more money is killing the country's economy, the answer is not YET. Right now, the world bank accepts payment in the form of US dollars. This gives us some international pull because we can run up all of our debts, pay our creditors, issue bonds, and it's all kind of like xeroxing Monopoly money. If it never existed in the first place, how can you pay for something? However, this is the system that's used day in and day out, and for now it works. If they ever demanded payment in something other than dollars, we would be in a world of hurt, but for now, we can breathe easy.

I could go on and on about these issues and more (and probably will at a later time), but I'll stop for now in anticipation of all the feedback I'm bound to get. As always, thanks for reading.