Any one of these deserves greater attention, but the real world is currently demanding a great deal of my time. But here a couple of things I think I think.
1. Obama is turning out to be exactly who I thought he would be and yet I dislike him even more than I thought I would. His efforts at various reforms of the society are wrong-headed and perilous. He is also abusing the executive branch and has concentrated power in the presidency to a degree that I’m not sure has precidence. Currently, a man with one year of experience in the business world (as a financial advisor) is the effective uber-CEO of the world’s largest budget, two major automotive manufacturers, large national banks and investment firms (and a number of smaller ones), and is also trying to become the head of a nationwide HMO. I don’t know why people aren’t more worried about this than they are.
2. What depresses me is that I’m not convinced that if McCain were president and/or if the Republicans were still the majority in Congress, they wouldn’t be doing many of same boneheaded things Obama and the Dems are.
3. Regarding the auto companies, we’re witnessing what happens when the government takes over a business: it screws it up. Anytime the government meddles in a market, it disrupts how that market operates. A free market should be a meritocracy where only the best succeed and the good survive. Politics, though, is an aristocracy of influence where the best connected succeed and the well connected survive. I greatly fear that GM and Chrysler are going to become like Amtrak. The companies will continue to operate inefficiently and will lose money (all the more so now that the unions have such a big stake in them) and they’ll just continue extorting Congress for more money. After as much taxpayer money as has been invested in the companies, no politician wants them to completely fail on his/her watch and so they’ll just keep pumping more money while always claiming the automakers will become solvent, profitable, and independent tomorrow. Would anybody like to buy a Trabant?