Musings
Return to Common Sense
May 26, 2012
Leadership - “Management is doing
things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Peter
Drucker.
Politics
– Voter Question: “How did that vote for Obama work out for you? Are you better off today than when Barack Obama was
elected? Is he making the economy better or worse?
Politics
– Obama hides his high school and college records to mask that only affirmative action allowed his admission to
elite schools and qualification for diversity scholarships.
Politics
– Obama hides his fundamental transformation to socialism by controlling large parts of the economy through overwhelming
regulation rather than outright nationalization.
Politics
– Barack Obama, by embracing same-sex marriage, may have claimed
the distinction of the first African-American President
to lose the African-American voters.
Politics
– By attacking Bain Capital and private equity firms, Obama is demonstrating a lack of knowledge of how the free market
capitalist system works to grow the economy.
Media
– Newspapers continue to hemorrhage readers with only political
ads in the 2012 election to save them, but I expect many newspapers
will disappear after the next election.
Politics
– I expect that the 2012 Presidential election will
be the most racist campaign, with baseless accusations used to distract
voter attention from Obama’s record of failure.
Politics
– Now that the Republican Party has settled on Mitt Romney, I expect
that the TEA Party members will vote for him in November, but leave the Party to become Independents.
Leadership - “Effective leadership is not about
making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” Peter Drucker.
Economy
– The recovery is the weakest since WW II due to the uncertainty of looming higher taxes, and the
anti-business rhetoric and regulatory strong-arming of this administration.
Economy
– It is no fun being poor in the United States, but a lot better than being poor in Brazil,
China, Cuba, France, India, North Korea, Russia, or anywhere else in the world.
Deficit
– The deficit last year was $1.3 trillion, but the unfunded
liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, and other retirement programs are
not counted, otherwise it would be 5.0 trillion.
Finance
– The federal government accounts for 88% of all first-mortgage originations and the
government also controlling an estimated 90% of the
student loan market.
Number
unemployed for 27+ weeks or over – New high for long term unemployed:

Entitlements
– The biggest entitlements (Medicare and Socials
Security) recipients fund their own
“accounts” while most others are means-tested
with no contributions by recipients.
Debt
– I expect
that the country’s credit rating will again be
downgraded after Congress debt ceiling discussions again fail to find
sufficient spending cuts to halt deficit spending.
Deficit – I expect
one or more states to declare bankruptcy by 2012 and seek assistance to recover from the bad
economic decisions of the past under federal judicial protection.
Housing – I expect
that it will take four or more years at the current
rate for the backlog of foreclosures to finally clear, before we see any
signs of life of a robust housing recovery.
Leadership
– “Leadership is solving
problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is
the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that
you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of
leadership.” Colin Powell.
Europe
– NATO allies have slowly been decreasing their support for this
Atlantic alliance, and now European nations account for
less than a third of NATO’s total expenditures on defense.
Africa
– I expect that Obama will create a “crisis”
so he can inject American troops into an African country to demonstrate
his “military leadership”
in this Presidential election year.
Israel
– I expect that Israel will be attacked by Hamas again in 2012 and the IDF will retaliate by invading and then annexing Gaza based on the concept of
defensible borders.
Israel
– I expect that
Israel will suffer a nuclear attack from
Islamist extremists by 2012, and Obama will
stand aside and not help defend this longtime ally.
Asia
– I expect
that North Korea will attack South Korea and
attempt to reunite Korea by the 2012, and Obama
will be an unwitting accomplice as he abandons this
ally in a time of war.
David Coughlin
Hawthorne, NY