State of the Union- A change in perspective

State of the Union : a change in perspective

I found the overall frame of President Obama’s State of the Union speech  most interesting, the U.S. economy needs to grow to catch up with other countries.  “We need to Out-Innovate, Out Educate, and Out-Build  the rest of the world,” or  our own standard of living will continue to decline.

This speech accepts the end of U.S. economic domination of the world economy a perspective made clear in the world wide financial crisis of 2007/2009.  The U.S. based corporations need to invest and the U.S. government needs to invest in crating a new future.

This change in perspective is not great, but it is realistic.

The  promise  of America should be a good job for all,  the opportunity to have  a rewarding career, and the chance for a life that is more than simply the workplace.  The austerity paradigm underlying the tax and budget cut mania is the enemy of human progress.  It does not promote good jobs, rewarding   careers, nor a fulfilling life.

And, this from the N.Y.Times

Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds

By SEWELL CHAN

WASHINGTON — The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry. [Chaired by Sacramentan Phil Angelides]

The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.

“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done,” the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. “If we accept this notion, it will happen again.”

While the panel, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, accuses several financial institutions of greed, ineptitude or both, some of its gravest conclusions concern government failings, with embarrassing implications for both parties. But the panel was itself divided along partisan lines, which could blunt the impact of its findings.