When the Stock Market goes up...

When the Stock Market hit the 10,000 level again recently, I thought, "Oh, no. There goes the real economy. There goes the concern by politicians for Main Street America."

It seems like when Wall Street and the Stock Market are doing well, American politicians from the political parties often forget about what has been happening across America--industrial and rural America--in terms of the loss of good-paying, good-benefit, community-building jobs for the past 30 years.

Though I too have a teaching pension that is somewhat affected by the Stock Market condition, I find myself often rooting against Wall Street and the Stock Market, because of its political power and usual selfish nature.

It really aggravates me when we poor and middle-class taxpayers and all of America bailed-out Wall Street mega-banks and businesses, so they then can turn around to enjoy profits and wealth and economic security without, what it seems like, a shred of humility or concern for the rest of the nation.

For example, did the banks, without any demands of the government, decide to allow homeowners to stay in their homes with renegogiated payments in order to avoid home foreclosures? Did the big businesses pass their own in-house proposals concerning the reasonable limit of grandiose CEO pay and bonuses? And many of the "rescued" banks manage credit cards. Did those credit card rates go down in appreciation to the consumers who saved their Wall Street butts? No, probably they went up, in order to screw over consumers one more time before the federal credit card law kicks in for more control of outrageous rates and card conditions. There you have it.

That's Wall Street. That's big business. It's been that way since John D. Rockefeller bought his way out of Civil War military service and used unfair practices to establish a monopoly and control a whole industry. (And though Standard Oil Company might have been called a business "too big to fail," it was nonetheless broken-up because it violated anti-trust laws.)

Lots of people blame the government for providing big bail-outs for Wall Street, though many economic scholars say it was critical for the U.S. and world economy at the time. I'm willing to give government the benefit of the doubt that the crisis needed quick financial response, though I think there should have been many conditions tied to the money, including the aspect of breaking-up the businesses that are too big to fail.

But even more, I'd like to know specifically what Wall Street and big business, in receiving the bail-outs, have done for Main Street America, jobs, workers, and taxpayers. I'd like to see the tally sheet for that. I'd like to know how they have actively worked to pull America out of economic recession and how they have helped people--regular people--deal with their financial problems.

Until I know that federal help for Wall Street actually amounted to benefits for all and not just for a few at the top of the big business ladder, if I sound like I care less about what happens to Wall Street nor at where the Stock Market number arrives at the end of any day, it is because of long disillusionment and lack of respect for the ethics and conduct of big business.

The president who is needed...

With the economic disaster of the Bush years (collapse of the economy and huge deficit in return for nothing but endless, costly wars), America needed one particular president.

America didn't need President Kennedy, President Nixon, President Ford, President Carter, President Reagan, President First Bush, or President Clinton.

A part of President Johnson was needed in terms of social programs that make life better for Americans. A part of President Eisenhower was needed in terms of developing large work projects like the interstate highway project. A part of President Truman was needed in terms of ending discrimination, this time for gay soldiers, in the military.

But mainly, following the disasters of President George W. Bush, America needed President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Obviously, on the 2008 campaign trail, John McCain, with his Republican beliefs that the economy would remedy its own problems without any governmental involvement, sounded like President Hoover, not FDR.

Barack Obama, pushed by other populists on the campaign trail, talked about the need for smart, progressive policies that would help citizens by adding jobs, end wasteful spending on overseas military occupancy, and provide a real, comprehensive health care plan.

With 15 million people out of work, America needs an FDR-style jobs creation plan that, in the same FDR manner, doesn't acquiesce decisions and funding to the will of the state governors and state governments. Some people say WWII got America out of the lingering problems of the Great Depression. But, if so, exactly how? It was because, in expanding FDR's pre-war jobs programs, Americans were put to work in communities and in factories that made products for the war effort. (Many of those factories, by the way, that were unionized then or later for good wages.) If FDR had deferred those jobs to some foreign, cheap-labor country, the war effort itself--employing large numbers of soldiers on the governmental payroll--would have been largely deficit without community and job benefit. That wouldn't have created a lasting, better American economy (and also is why modern wars are budget-busters now). FDR knew that jobs were needed here, whether or not there was a war.

Now in his presidency, we, and Obama himself, should hope that he is the FDR that the country desperately needed and needs. That's what will give Obama a legacy and pull America through its tough times.

Information Station...

Here are some interesting news items from TV, newspapers, and the Internet...

In the current U.S. job market, there are six applicants for each job opening.

Recently writing about Iraq and its future, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Ricks described the Iraq War as the biggest mistake in recent American history.

In 1950, life expectancy in the United States was 58 years. It is estimated that half of the babies born in the U.S. this year will live to the age of 100.

According to an article in the AARP Bulletin, Elizabeth Smith, 28, of Sumter, S.C., recently won a $2 million jury verdict after a dentist at a Florence, S.C., clinic extracted all 16 of her upper teeth--13 by mistake. Smith's attorney said she now has trouble eating and covers her mouth in conversation. Implants will cost about $80,000.

According to a New York Times poll, 65 percent of Americans want a public option included in the health care reform legislation.

Run, jump, and kick for good health care...

Ha! So, Rio de Janeiro and Brazil get to host the 2016 Olympics.

Sorry. It is hard not to chuckle about President Obama's pro-active attempt to snag the Olympics for Chicago, especially when, to the great mystery of progressives, he has been anything but pro-active concerning the public option for health care reform.

Let's hope that, while Obama was in Denmark, he got a good view of the impressive European single-payer health care systems.

Let's run, jump, and kick for a good American health care system.