September Seven Years On

At the tern of the millennium this country was faced with a new finical hardship as we watched the Dot Com bubble burst around us. Pensions, retirement funds, and jobs where lost all across the board and if that was not bad enough the country was about to be rocked by the worst attack this country has ever seen on American soil. But little did we know on September 11 2001 as we watched two passenger aircraft befall the greatest symbols of our financial might in the world that we where also witnessing the start of the worst financial crises we have faced since the 1930s.

Our government responded to a slowing early 2000 economy and the worst disaster in our history by flooding the money markets with money. Overnight Banks found themselves with more money than they could handle and their only way to processes it all was to increase their lending output. At first things went well; 'those worthy' of receiving loans found life become easier. But in time the category of people who made up 'those that where worthy' dried up and the Banks still had plenty of money to hand out. To solve this dilemma, and perhaps through a little greed, the Banks turned to those who where unworthy of receive loans and began to hand them the noose with witch to hang us.

7 years and two weeks after the September eleventh attacks that noose has finally been pulled tight round our necks and just as we watched the symbols of our finical might fall those 7 years ago we are now forced to witness the real thing. In these times of hardship we, as most people would, turn to the leaders of our land for help, and what have they given us?

As I type this our congress is debating whether we the people of the United States of America should invest 700 billion dollars of our hard earned money into buying bad debt from the financial industry. Oh course like you and most Americans this idea is not at all appealing to me; I feel angry about being force into what we all know is a bad investment and 700 billion dollars is more money then I can even imagine. On the other hand I know that to let the financial industry collapse would be a far worse prospect for us all. I am torn and so I am left wondering what does out next leader say?

Both John McCain and Barack Obama both say they dislike this bailout plan but neither of them is willing to stand up against it. I find this stance to be unworthy of the next leader of our great nation. All they are doing is mimicking the sentiments of America hoping not to misstep and loss the presidential election. We the people do not like the idea of baling out the financial industry, and so they do not like the idea of bailing out the financial industry. We the people are too afraid of the consequences to stop a bail out, and so they say they need to stand be hind it for our sake. In these times we do not need leadership that follows us we need leadership that we can follow.

But their may be hope for us yet; yesterday John McCain made statements indicating that he will be suspending his campaign in order to go to Washington and grapple with the greatest financial threat our country has faced since the 1930s. Barack Obama for his part indicated that he wants to put politics aside, though has not put his campaign on hold, and work with John McCain and other republican congressmen in a bipartisan manner in order to solve this problem.

The question for we the people now becomes whether or not to be cynical about their motives. The cynic in me knows that John McCain has only suspended his campaign because it is a way for him to conserve money, of which he is lacking compared to his rival Obama. It is also a way for McCain to repair his failing image as a man who does not understands the economy. While his action of suspend his campaign does show leadership it was also the politically expedient thing to do.

Obama is not above this scrutiny either; it also shows leadership to state that one wishes to work with their opposition in a bipartisan manner in order to pull this country up by its bootstraps. However it would be political suicide to say anything else in a time when this country hungers for bipartisan responses to all our problems. Here too Obama's actions show leadership but are also political expedient.

Like with everything else during this campaign the muddy water makes it very difficult to tell what these two men are really thinking and I find that as we get closer to November I may be in the uncomfortable position of not knowing who I should support. Maybe that's where the 700 billion dollars "investment" really comes to save the day; this figure is so larger that the next president will find that his first term will be dedicated entirely to fixing this mess. He will have no time or money to do anything else and we as a country will have 4 years to tell whether we made the right choice in our leader before he ever has time to create any lasting change. If we find him unworthy there's always 2012.