Barack Obama

I'm really happy to see that he won the election. I don't know a whole lot about him or if he will do a good job and he's definitely got his work cut out for him with the present state of the economy and uneasy foreign relationships. But he's definitely a canary in the mine. Watching his speeches I can feel his passion like that of Dr. King or Malcom X. He has definitely made me more interested in politics and gave people hope that change is possible.

On another note

Recently I've been taking a look at the whole economic crisis so that I can try to understand a little bit as to whats going on. I've found that its really difficult to understand just what it is investors do on Wall St and even worse In some cases a lot of them don't understand what it is they do either. But I've come to a conclusion; that we live in a world of specialized knowledge. In the case of investors, they have a knowledge that people outside their world don't understand. They told people they could make extra money or buy houses more cheaply without them really understanding how.

But is it their fault?

I don't think that's exactly correct. The second conclusion is that we live in an extremely competitive society. For example all of these investment companies are watching each other. They read about each other in the magazines and they know about each other's financial products. They will do whatever it takes to get ahead, even if that means doing something a little shady, like as I said before swindle the general public who are ignorant of what we are actually getting ourselves into.

Should we regulate?

In some cases yes. But another conclusion is that technology and information are moving much faster than the law. In the case of investors who have PHD'S in economics, they are often smarter than the law. In the last decade they have been very good about finding loopholes in the system so they can get those extra dollars. So even if you create a wall, someone will find a way to break it.

We got to know when someone is swindling us. We have to create better ways to see through the bullshit. Hopefully that isn't the case with Obama. He's made big promises and I hope he can achieve them. I really want to see some light prevail in this world.

check out some interesting stories about just how disturbing this crisis is;
"From the midwest to the MTA"
"Taking Hard New Look at Greenspan's Legacy"
and I also recommend the documentary on Enron