World news

Will Obama's deficit reduction hurt/kill the recovery?

2011-04-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Most likely. He is calling for cuts to pretty much everything, ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to Social Security and pretty much everything you can think of. Overall he is saying he can cut $4 trillion off the deficit in 12 years.

Now I am a fan of getting rid of the massive amount of debt we have, but is this much cutting doing more bad than it is good? We are already walking on thin ice with the recovery and what Obama is proposing is going to make the ice even thinner.

During his speech he called for a 70% cut to clean energy spending, but just last week he was saying how much he wanted for us to cut our dependence on foreign oil, and spend more on clean energy resources. Sounds like a whole lot of BS to me.

It may sound like I hate Obama, but I don't. I hope his budget cuts help the economy in the long-run, but it isn't looking good at the moment.

France bans the wearing of veils

2011-04-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Muslim women wearing a niqab.

The law bans the niqab and the burka and fines people up to $125 for violations. This new ban on veils in France follows closely after the protests in Iran and Iraq over the burning of the Qur'an in the U.S. Could this be a bad move by France? Probably. The recent protests in Iraq and Iran over the burning of the Qur'an were bad enough, but this is just going to add even more fuel to that fire.

Some say the veil is a way to oppress Muslim women, but isn't banning the right to wear it voluntarily oppressing them also? I think if they really want to wear it they should be able to without getting arrested and fined. It seems to be an unneeded ban just to make the French government more money off of fines. It
definitely isn't a good direction the French government is taking with this.

(Video is property of Euronews)

Can Japan recover from the earthquake/tsunami?

2011-04-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

I don't think the Japanese people can get a break. With 2 M7+ aftershocks making the already bad nuclear problem even worse, things aren't looking good.

The Japanese government has said the damages caused by the disaster so far is over $300 billion, which doesn't even take into account what the radiation being dumped into the ocean is doing to their fishing industry(what didn't get wiped out by the tsunami).

How much is Japan going to rely on foreign aid for help? The U.S prides itself on being one of the most giving nations when a country needs help in times of need, but will we be able to help them rebuild? With growing concern over debt, will tax payers want us to spend even more money in another country?

I think we haven't even started seeing the long term effects this will have on the Japanese economy(and the world economy). Sure, the Japanese people are probably the most resilient and disciplined people in the world, but how long can they live in overcrowded shelters with dwindling food supplies?

The growing unrest in the middle east.

2011-04-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

Egypt(again), Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Syria, Iran and Iraq are all seeing major protests and in some cases major change.

Lets start with Egypt first: Everybody thought Egypt was all happy and finished with their protests but apparently a lot of them still aren't happy. 1000's of people protested in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday and Saturday. The military responded by shooting and killing at least 2 people. Sure does seem to be nice and calm over there.(sarcasm)

Libya: I'm sure most people already know about all the U.N air strikes and the back and forth fighting between the Libyan rebels and the forces still loyal to Gadhafi, so I wont talk about that. Recent news has been saying Gadhafi has agreed to stop the fighting and try to keep the peace, but it doesn't say that he will be stepping down at all which is the main reason why the rebels even started fighting. Considering Gadhafi has reigned over Libya for over 40 years and survived multiple coups and assassination attempts, I don't think he will be giving up power anytime soon.

Bahrain, Yemen, and Jordan: Most of the protests in these 3 countries have been relatively peaceful but have seen little change in the government. Maybe they will have better luck getting more people to join their cause once Libya cools down some. Never know.

Ivory Coast: The U.N and France have been having some fun with air strikes here too. They have been bombarding Gbagbo's artillery so they can't use it on civilians. After staying holed up in his house/bunker, Gbagbo's house was finally stormed and he was captured on Monday.

Iran and Iraq: The reason for these protests is because Pastor Terry Jones posted pictures of his church burning a Qur'an. I think the Qur'an burning wasn't what started the fire(pun intended) but it was the straw that broke the camels back. Seems like the Iraq and Iran people have been itching for an excuse to protest the U.S occupation in their country and this is the perfect opportunity to do it.

Syria: Next to Libya and Ivory coast, Syria has been the 3rd most deadly of the recent protests. The Syrian government has tried to calm the people down by closing a casino that had enraged the muslims there. They also said the teachers they had fired back in 2010 would be allowed back to work, neither of these things worked.

U.S Debt

2011-04-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago congress and the white house passed a stopgap budget bill to make sure the government stayed open. The bill cut $39 billion off the budget...so now we are only spending $3.43 trillion(give or take a few billion) just in 2011 alone. So how can they think cutting $39 billion is going to help the 14 trillion dollars of debt we have already?

As more and more baby boomers are retiring and wanting their retirement money the amount of debt per year is only going to go up.

How long before China loses confidence in our ability to pay them back?

How long before the politicians realize we are living on borrowed time?

Hopefully they realize before it's too late, and who knows...maybe it is already too late.

Soaring oil, gold and silver prices. The start of hyperinflation?

2011-04-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

With oil prices shooting ever higher and silver hitting a 31 year high, should we be worried about hyperinflation? It seems like we should be, considering the last time oil got this high back in 2008 the U.S economy almost collapsed. As the U.S keeps piling on more and more debt we are forced to print more and more money, which depreciates the dollar. Depreciation of the dollar combined with the oil, gold and silver prices is a bad sign for consumers trying to save money.

A lot of economists are saying that we aren't even in a recovery, we have just been lulled into a sense of security for the time being. I think as time goes on we will start to see the full impact the housing crisis back in 2008 had on the economy. Considering how much money the government pumped into the system to keep the whole thing from falling apart.

This is my first time writing a blog so bare with me as I get started.