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