If you wonder why President Obama is focused on saving the American automobile industry, if you wonder why he is trying to upgrade and expand the electric grid, if you wonder why he wants government to invest in cutting edge technology in every field, look no further than the test facilities of dozens of auto manufacturers – here and abroad.
I count no less than 9 strictly electric cars heading to market right now, e.g., Aptera 2e, with 8 Plug-In Hybrids, e.g., Chevy Volt, right behind, and another 8 “normal” Hybrids, e.g., Toyota Prius, being improved and prepared for market today.
Big companies like BMW, Mitsubishi and Toyota are getting ready to roll out a slew of electrics. There’s a Mini Cooper available this month, all electric. Other electrics are lining up for introduction over the next four years.
Plug-In Hybrids will be led by the Volt that will do the bulk of its moving on electric power. It’s scheduled for November 2010. Ford, Chrysler and Toyota as well as new companies in China, Europe and here at home all have next generation hybrids in development. There’s a hybrid sports car known as Fisker Karma, and that airplane look alike, the Aptera 2h, set for 2010. Made in California, the only state where it is available right now, the Aptera gets about 300 mpg!! It’s a three-wheeler so technically not classified as a car, but who cares. Bring on that 300 mpg!
Look, it is not only the “green jeans” who will be buying these cars. It is ordinary people like you and me who want to help clean up the environment even as they drive a spiffy car their children won’t make fun of.
I love cars, always have, and that’s why I see an exciting future for America and a strong economy to support that future.
But, boy, have we lost a lot of time! I will not digress into a discussion of what the misadventure in Iraq cost us except to say it cost us something none can retrieve: time. Those who criticize President Obama’s haste on so many fronts should understand he is a man seeking to make up lost time. He is getting a lot of help from inventors in the auto industry who obviously have not been sleeping these past 8 years. President Obama and those in pursuit of scientific discovery are demonstrating a laser-like focus on the great potential remaining to be tapped in a nation of 315 million citizens. His focus is on health care, energy, and transportation.
Obama knows we have a unique opportunity to chart a new path in the way we get around. The answer, when it comes, is likely to have a positive impact on global warming by reducing our contribution to greenhouse gases. But most importantly, increased productivity, resulting from anticipated innovations, will feed real growth that, in turn, will diminish the role of inflation. And that is, unquestionably, our most worthy goal.
If you like the status quo, if you like cars that roar along antiquated roadways, burning a depleting carbon based resource, belching an ever increasing amount of noxious fumes, then you probably can’t see a future that has anything but higher taxes and bigger government in store for you. There are some, however, who see an America whose best days are ahead….and those days are unlike anything we have seen in our entire history.
Don’t you have a feeling the 21st century began on January 20, 2009?
7 comments:
What do you mean by the "role of inflation"?
Inflation enables nations to repay their debt with cheaper dollars. A trillion dollars is easier to repay when it is only worth $500 billion in an inflated economy. I don't refer to the "role of inflation" as something to be desired. It would be better for productivity increases to drive real growth.
I do understand what inflation is I just wanted to be clear on the context you were using it in. One of my great concerns with this industrial revolution type of growth line of thinking, is that you are assuming that the intent is to pay off this created debt when that is the last thing that the "owners" of the biggest banks which happen to be the dividend earning stockholders of the Federal Reserve would want us to do. Yes we are talking about the same old families of Europe that have held the purse strings here for generations, the Rothschilds, Warburgs, Rockefellers, Morgans, etc. If we were to pay off that debt from the proceeds of the aforementioned growth then the interest payments, which can be restated as the Feds profit margin, goes away and the Fed will not be making as much money for its stockholders as it would if we never paid off the debt. Just prior to its creation there was some unreast in our financial system to say the least, but nothing like the 2 crashes, 10 or so recessions, and at least one depression that the Fed has presided over since its creation. Not to mention that it was vitually the same moment, in 1913, that we realized as a nation that we could lend/borrow money that did not exist until we borrowed it, borrow way above our heads and only make interest payments which were the only margin the lenders got anyway, that we stopped paying principal on the national debt and it has been growing ever since. A couple of additional facts:
1. Since the Feds creation we have experienced over 1000% inflation, just remember how much a coke was in your day.
2. Mr. Warburg, the guy that was the principal architect of the Aldrich plan which is what the Federal Reserve Act was based on, of Germany was representing the Rothschilds at the Jekyll Island meeting that conceived these National Reserve Associations as they called them and his brother designed the Reichsbank for Nazi Germany which ironically sent their inflation throught the roof too all the while lining the pockets of the men that owned the banks that were the stockholders of that central bank, the Warburgs and Rothschilds among others.
I say all of this to say that unless we change this culture that was created by the creation of the Federal Reserve I do not think we will ever attempt to pay the debt off again, the interests, pun intended, are not lined up. Sorry if I rambled a bit, just had a lot of thoughts.
I appreciate your comments but I do not see the Fed as the evil one in our current economic difficulty. I do not buy into the financial conspiracy theories that we have all heard for generations. If there are names attached to the descendants of Warburg, let's have them and hand them over to the proper authorities.
But I do worry about all the money we are spending to shore up the economy. Did we have a choice. No, we were in a free fall. Obama did the right thing. To be sure, economic doubts still exist, and while the dust has not settled, the economy seems to be progressing slowly and some measure of confidence is returning to the risk-takers....AND they are the ones who will determine how strong we are in another generation. Until then, the federal government must provide steady guidance and also the means by which good ideas get to market.
If you want to worry about something, worry about the "bought" Blue Dog Democrats and a few "bought" Republicans in the middle who are scuttling efforts to give relief to homeowners facing foreclosure (already lost that one to the banking lobby) and the "bought" members of Congress who are subverting efforts to pass the anti-usury legislation that would prevent credit card companies from imposing exorbitant fees on their customers. The "bought" ones are trying to add an amendment to permit people to carry guns in national parks to protect themselves. Unless this non-germane is defeated in conference, it will kill the bill that is our best chance in years to control credit card highway robbery.
That's not the Rothschilds or the Warburgs ruining your country, it's the private banking lobby and those "patriotic" members of the NRA, and their lobbyists who are doing it for them.
But who is behind those lobbyists, the owners of the biggest banks many of whom are decendants of these old rich families, Morgans, Rockefellers, Rothschild, among others. I do not think the current members of the Fed have made a deliberate attempt to cause this harm, they have simply been operating the system that was created by these me in 1913 and that they have been taught is the only way to do this. That systems design leans significantly in favor of the largest banks in the country from the FDICs policy that only allows it to bailout a bank that they deem as essential to the econmomic health of the community, to the way the mark to market and comp valuation accounting rules are set up which touched off this "free fall". To expound a little the problem with the FDIC bailout rule is not so much with the rule itself, it is with the people charged with applying it. The rule requires a determination of essentiality for the COMMUNITY, but to date only once have they ever bailed out a bank that was not at least tied to one of the largest banks in the country and that time it was done during the late 60's under the threat of a race riot as it was a minority owned bank called Unity bank of Mass. Even with the bailout that bank still closed a couple of years later because they had poor business practices that they were not required to change and NO there were not any riots. The combination of the real estate comparable rule, mark to market accounting pratice, and the Fed's relaxing of lending rules, which was encouraged by our elected officials and which I will not take the time here to detail each of these as I am sure you and your readers are well aware of them, resulted in a "free fall" brought on by only 3.3% of all home mortgages slipping into foreclosure. So to me the system is bad and slanted in favor of the banks because they got bailed out for carrying proportionately very little bad debt on their books while the retirements of so many Americans are left decimated. The fact that they are tacking onto another bill aimed at helping these people is further evidence these major financial players and the elected officals they have bought must go.
Oh my...I don't know where to start.
Let me close this exchange by going back to something you said early on: You said you were concerned with "this industrial revolution type of growth thing." Don't be concerned about it. Believe it. It's coming and it's going to lead America into a new and dynamic economy, the likes of which we have not seen since the two Industrial Revolutions we have experienced. And just like them, many will be oblivious to the changes wrought until they realize they have missed the opportunity to be involved. What a time to be living!!
I am just saying WHEN we make this great leap forward, and I do believe that this much investment in science and technology will spawn many great things with which to grow our economy, dont forget the financial system too. It is old, outdated, and in bad need of cleaner burning fuel. Sorry to give so many summary examples, but our history is riddled with them and I do not see us making changes in the financial SYSTEM that indicate we are identifying these glaring flaws and creating something better. I dont want us to get caught up in all the feel good excitement and forget to build a new and innovative financial system equally exciting, havent heard any talk about that and it IS a large part of the problem.
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