What now?

As the business and political writer I’ve been blessed with our current economic state. I’m a “big picture” kind of guy. So let’s start with the problem on Wall St. Confidence. You all know the picture on Wall Street, it’s dire. When average citizens have problems with confidence is where you have big problems. People save. Our country didn’t become the most prosperous country on earth because we saved. Am I encouraging living beyond your means? For my investment’s sake, “yes.” I personally wouldn’t live beyond my means though. The next round of pain will hit government agencies. Government makes money by the movement of money. When money doesn’t change hands because people are saving, banks are hoarding, and jobs are diminishing, the government’s coffers begin to wane. That will be the next round of pain and I’m predicting that it won’t be long seems how we’ve already allocated $700 Bil and have the largest deficit in our nation’s history, thank you Bush (you minimizing government spending Republican). Thanks for bankrupting our country like all those companies you bankrupted (notice that his Wikipedia page is devoid of any of that information).

The Bailout Plan is aimed at restoring confidence in the financial system of the United States. “Will it work,” you ask me. The answer is an emphatic, “NO.” Here’s why. It is not addressing the issue at its core, confidence in real estate values. President Bush came on today and said that it’s going to take time for the plan to work. Eventually confidence will be restored in the market but not because of the Bailout Plan. Nonetheless, like the amazing politician that he is (who else can bankrupt companies he’s worked for and still become president? - you have to admit, he’s a great politician) whenever the economy recovers, he will claim victory for the “Recovery Package.” But I digress. Why won’t the package work? To make a long story short, have you ever been in the line at the DMV? Our government is excellent at raising money, not spending it.

So what’s going to happen now? I hate to give a plain answer for a complex situation but, we’re going to have a flat to modest market for the next couple of years (hopefully) (more on that in a second), a rise in unemployment, pressure on businesses and “rough times.” So, the best you can do is maintain a positive attitude, ignore Wall Street, go about your life and let me report to you the trials and tribulations. Why do I say, “hopefully,” when referring to modest market gains for the next few years? THIS IS THE GREATEST TRANSFER OF WEALTH OUR GENERATION WILL SEE. The opportunities to invest in great companies at bargain level prices is, forgive the pun, PRICELESS! It not only goes for the market and 401k investing but real estate investing now. The risk is in failing to invest right now. Your money buys more now than it will in a year, guaranteed.

Now that my business rant is done, what about politics you say? Who am I voting for? I’m voting for the best candidate for the job, and you should too. What’s the biggest issue for me? We need to re-allocate the wealth to the middle class. A healthy middle class is a healthy country. Which party would do that? I can’t say at this time but haven’t I asked enough questions in this article?

My current Election Prediction ticker: Obama/Biden ticket by 16% - STILL (since my Oct. 1st call)

Debate Score:
McCain: 2
Obama: 2
Neither impressed me. Obama needs to ignore McCain’s attacks and focus on the answers of the questions. McCain needs to stop reporting on Obama’s career and focus on his own political record.

If anyone has some specific stocks they would like me to review just post them in the comment section and hopefully I will get to them the next time I post.
And, I’m going to add a Bit to my posting called, “Disgraced Politician of the Week.” This week’s Disgraced Politician of the Week is Karl Rove. The man who brought us George W. Bush. Karl recently had a link on the front page of Yahoo! that said he predicts a McCain win in November. If I were a Republican, I would be extremely angry that Karl Rove is still a republican public figure. He’s a disgrace. If you’d like to know more, go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove .