Washington's Assault on Confidence Worsens the Economy

Don't Get Too Bearish Though - Everybody Else Already Is

When gas prices hit $4 this spring, it was predictable the economy's rate of growth would soften, but when politicians needlessly pushed our financial system towards the brink of a crash just to get their disfunctional club to the negotiating table, the first casualty is confidence.

There is so much money in this country on the sidelines. Financing is cheap. There is alot of demand building for home upgrades, goods, autos etc.  But investment is deferred because it isn't easy to take a risk now. The responsibility for this is our out of touch leadership in Washington; those who know how to win elections, but dont' know how to govern.

We all feel this fading outlook, but the loss of confidence is also showing up in the economic statistics. Consumer confidence took a huge dip 2 weeks ago. Orders for durable goods took a dip this week and business owners I work with, are not seeing the business they would like to see lately. The timing for this Washington contrived crisis is needless and badly timed. If Obama and Boehner would instill confidence and progress towards solving our problems, this economy would be doing well.

What do they know, these politicians?  They know how to get elected to and serve the money interests that get them into office. Whether it is an ideological interest or an economic interest group, these Republicans and Democrats will sell out their country's interest to take care of their sponsors first.

What don't they know?  They dont' know that America is great when the average person can work hard to better themselves. America isnt' great because of entitlements, or the rich or those who hold elected office and think this is a golden goose.

These politicians don't know that they are responsible to solve problems that are theirs to solve. They have abdicated their responsibility time and time again in the interest of being reelected. Witness our debts, our costly and broken health and education systems, our decaying, expensive and energy intensive infrastructure. Our unfocused unbelievably expensive foreign wars.  Idiot, unqualified politicians are behind all of it and they do nothing about it.

When will we take the influence of money out of our elections and policy making and get able and qualified people to govern in the public interest?

In the meantime, this story has been on the radar screen for months and alot of caution is built in. If the politicos get anything positive done, we can recover.