Author George Stargell Archive

Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration understandably overshadowed pretty much everything else in the news for the last week or so.  His presidency represents a stark change from the policies and approaches of the past, both from the perspective of the White House and the perspective of the American people.  This country faces dire, urgent problems, and President Obama’s ascension to the White House offers many people a sense of hope that maybe we can start to address those problems and dig ourselves out of the holes we’re in.

Unfortunately, the concentrated spotlight on Obama meant that even the parting words of then-President George W. Bush got little play in the media.  That’s unfortunate because, as Tom Engelhardt, founder and editor of TomDispatch.com, noted in a recent Tomgram, President Bush dropped a bomb on the media at his final press conference (or “exit interview,” as he termed it).

Take a look at what President Bush said:

“Now, obviously these are very difficult economic times. When people analyze the situation, there will be — this problem started before my presidency, it obviously took place during my presidency. The question facing a President is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem. And I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free-market principles when I was told by [my] chief economic advisors that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression.

“So I’ve told some of my friends who said — you know, who have taken an ideological position on this issue — why did you do what you did? I said, well, if you were sitting there and heard that the depression could be greater than the Great Depression, I hope you would act too, which I did. And we’ve taken extraordinary measures to deal with the frozen credit markets, which have affected the economy.” [emphasis added]

Um … wow.  The leader of this country and the free world was warned by his chief economic advisors that we could be headed for something worse than the Great Depression?  Did you know that?  Did you read about it anywhere?  See it on TV?  Hear it on talk radio?

Yes, Bush and Cheney were virtually booed off the stage at President Obama’s inauguration, and no, his administration didn’t exactly drape itself in glory over the last eight years.  Still, when Oval Office discussions start centering on economic conditions that could make the Great Depression seem favorable by comparison, shouldn’t that be brought to the attention of the American public?  And don’t we have a right to know whatever it was that caused Bush to “chunk aside” his “free-market principles”?

For a detailed analysis of what this may mean to all of us, I recommend that you read Mr. Engelhardt’s Tomgram in full.

I came across an article the other that I found very disturbing. It’s a piece, written by Nick Turse for TomDispatch.com, about some particularly extreme reactions to foreclosures by homeowners across the country. He searched through a variety of local news websites nationwide and found a whole lot of stories about people committing suicide in response to being foreclosed (and/or threatening others when the authorities came to evict them). Some of these folks just didn’t want to leave their homes, others were angry about being evicted, and still others were trying to help their survivors pay the bills by allowing them to cash in their life insurance policies.

I don’t know the rule, but I’m pretty sure insurance companies can and will void a life insurance policy if the insured commits suicide, although policies, regulations, and laws may vary from state to state. (Heath Ledger’s estate is apparently suing his life insurance company for not paying his daughter $10 million because the company claims that his death from a drug overdose this past January may have been a suicide.)

In any event, I’m certainly not advocating suicide as a means to solving a financial problem (just so we’re clear). I do recommend keeping an eye on loved ones or friends who may be in danger of losing their homes, though. If suicidal tendencies were easy to spot, there’d be fewer suicide attempts (or so I like to think), so be sure to listen with a keen ear when you talk with someone close to you who’s in a difficult position with their mortgage or some other financial situation. If you hear any comments that sound a little suicidal or self-destructive in any way, don’t just dismiss them as a joke or a throw-away line.

While we’re on the subject: How would you recommend coping with foreclosure? What would you do if you found yourself in danger of being evicted?

When I was young, the term “Black Friday” always had an ominous tone about it, along the lines of “Black Monday,” “Black Tuesday,” and “Black Friday,” terms associated with the stock market crash of 1929. (I’m not old enough to remember the stock market crash — heck, neither are my parents — but I’m fairly well-versed in American history.)

“Black Friday,” of course, refers to the Friday after Thanksgiving, when holiday shoppers fill the retail stores and buy up so many items that it helps the various retailers reach profitability for the year, moving from red ink (i.e., losses) into black ink (i.e., profits) on their books. As I grew older, I came to realize the difference between the terms (aided in part by a job I took as a Macy’s stockboy one year, a job from which I resigned on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving after hearing horror stories from veterans of previous “Black Fridays”).

This year, though, the term “Black Friday” brings to mind those dreaded terms about the Crash of ‘29. Not only are today’s stock markets way down for the year, but retailers from Kohl’s and Lowe’s to Sears, KB Toys, and a host of others are so concerned about the huge drop in consumer spending that they’re offering all sorts of discounts, substantially reducing their profit margins on discounted items. Their goal is to make up for the price difference by selling larger quantities, but that may be a hard goal to achieve this year.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that up to 128 million people could go shopping this weekend, which is a lot of people but still seven million fewer than they estimated would be shopping a year ago.

“Retailers realize that low prices will get consumers into stores this holiday season, and this could be the most heavily promotional Black Friday in history,” according to NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Shoppers who held off buying a DVD player or winter coat over the last few months will find that prices may literally be too good to pass up.”

So … will you/did you find some prices “literally too good to pass up” this Black Friday, or are you sticking to a tight holiday budget this year?