WHERE ARE THE ECONOMIC EXPERTS

We always thought we had a pretty good education. We are well grounded in the sciences, have read all the classics, know our history, ancient and modern, well versed in world geography and other cultures, able to read three languages, and better acquainted than most in the arts. However, we admit to having only a superficial knowledge of economics. We were smart enough to hire a good accountant, but even he is knowledgeable in the nuts and bolts of our tax system.

So we are not surprised that no one in our Congress has a clue on how to turn this economy around. While we recognize that good people feel obligated to act in a crisis, we are frightened that so many people who are so ignorant of economic theory are so determined to throw so much money at the problem. We have heard of Keynesian economic theory, the belief that massive government spending and low interest rates will keep an economy reving like a well tuned engine. However, your attention is directed to our masthead. We are moderate. We are uncomfortable with actions that stray too far from the middle of the road.

Everything about our elected officials reaction to this financial crisis is too extreme. Too much money is being spent too fast by people with too little expertise and too few safeguards. We fear that the pendulum has swung too far in other direction. President Obama may have been swept into office by a public seeking a change, but we are pretty certain that the American electorate did not think that change would be greater government spending, fewer financial safeguards, and more corruption.

We return to that point on education. We would like to hear from a couple of experts on the subject, perhaps a Nobel Laureate or a well published University professor or anyone else that is not remotely connected to a politician. We spent a career advising companies on long range planning. We frequently were told by CEOs that they couldn’t afford to take the time to do all that planning and we always told those CEOs that they couldn’t afford not to do the planning. Those that didn’t heed our advice are no longer CEOs. Now we tell our Congressmen and Senators take the time to listen to the experts before you act.

OBAMA DOES GOOD

We like to cultivate the image that we are moderate and middle of the road. So it was inevitable that President Obama would do something that we admire. Twice this week President Obama has show a political pragmatism that heartens us. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had incensed middle and conservative America by earmarking tens of millions of dollars in the proposed stimulus plan for family planning. Fiscal conservatives failed to see the connection between birth control and financial stimulation and social conservatives saw it as a late Christmas bonus for abortion clinics. However, anxious to provide an olive branch to recalcitrant Republicans, President Obama made it clear that he would have the offending dollars removed from the stimulus package in exchange for bipartisan support.

In a second, brilliant, PR maneuver, President Obama gave his first exclusive television interview to Al Arabia, a network focused on the Arab world. The moderate network, based in Dubai and owned by a member of the Saudi royal family, reaches 23 million Muslims in the Persian Gulf. Telling Muslims, ”…Americans are not your enemy.”, Obama promised to do a better job at listening to the concerns of Arabs than had his predecessors. He reminded Al Arabiya viewers of his Muslim connections, “I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in a Muslim country.”, associations he sought to minimize prior to his election. While most Americans may find the ingratiating tone of the interview somewhat embarrassing, it served to put critics of the US on notice that there is a new sheriff in town. Whether the interview will be taken as a gesture of good faith or a sign of weakness remains to be seen, but it caught everyone off guard, including us.

In the meantime, we may be from the Volunteer State, but we will adopt the attitude of our neighbors from the “Show Me” state.