National Debt: September 2008 Archives

Yesterday, the word was an agreement framework was at hand. What transpired after that is anyone's guess, and I will offer some in a moment.

But, the facts are these: A group of House Republicans have opposed this Republican proposal from the outset when Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced it days ago. One hour after McCain's arrival in D.C. yesterday, bi-partisan statements were made to the media that a basic agreement was at hand. Today,that sentiment was reiterated in a bipartisan statement this morning. Then, Sen. McCain met with balking Republicans in the House and became their spokesperson in the White House meeting which ended just 30 minutes ago. Now there is no agreement, Sen. Shelby and another spokesperson at the White House announced.

There is nothing as depressing as to be right about calamity foreseen and have such warnings go unheeded. To see what is coming, take advantage, and walk away, allows one to feel intelligent, profit from the knowledge, and avoid looking back at the suffering of others who didn't see what is happening. This, of course, would be the corporate executives and Republicans in power who fought against regulation and oversight since 1994, and won.

Few off Wall Street are paying attention, but, there are fundamental structural changes taking place in our economy, that are going to require new economic models, metrics, and updated economics education if anyone is going to manage the economy well for Americans. The consumer backbone of our economy is yielding to exports and business consumption, even as the consumer's role in products and services shrinks.