The Republican economic policies are not complex: cut taxes, cut regulation. Simple to say, simple to understand and very effective electorally.
Many of you bemoan the potential Obama tax hikes on those earning over $250K per year. I would argue that you and everyone else is suffering from far more "taxing" challenges than a potential limited increase to that portion of your earnings greater than $250K.
To say the least, Jim Cramer, CNBC "Mad Money", is prone to hyperbole but he has been all over this financial crisis since its start a year ago. A portion of his latest rant:
"We all know it. All of us. We know that the subprime mortgages that Lehman (LEH - commentary - Cramer's Take) wrote in Europe have come back to haunt them. We know that AIG (AIG - commentary - Cramer's Take) insured a lot of bad paper over in Europe when it decided to "avoid" the U.S. Subprime financial insurance, if you can call its multi-billion-dollar exposure "avoidance."
We know that Washington Mutual (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take) can't absorb the losses itself. We know that Downey (DSL - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Corus (CORS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and BankUnited (BKUNA - commentary - Cramer's Take) can't raise the money they need.
We know all of these things. I think the federal government does, too. We lived in an unregulated time where everyone acted badly and no one protected anyone, and now these institutions have to be dealt with in a way that is the least painful of all the painful ways.
Of course, though, this government has no desire to deal with things until guys like Bill Gross or the Chinese government say, "We are done buying your paper," when it came to Fannie Mae (FNM - commentary - Cramer's Take). I guess they want a run at the bank of Washington Mutual and they want customers to stop doing business with Lehman before that's sold for scrap, although I must say that the Bear deal worked pretty well for everybody except Bear shareholders. "
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