Stan Geiger

Time to Return to Fundamentals

Wall Street is in a tizzy yet again. Lehman Brothers is out of business. Merrill Lynch just sold for half what the company was worth just a few months ago.

Insurance giant AIG might be next on the list of the grand demised. That bit of news might be the biggest head-scratcher of them all. Insurance has historically been one of the most profitable businesses in this country. Warren Buffet---the richest man in the world---has made his fortune in the insurance biz. How in the hell can an insurance giant go belly up?

Are we ready to get back to fundamentals in America? One can hope. But I don't hear much coming from our "leaders" that bolsters my confidence.

According to the Obama camp, the great savior will cut taxes for 90 percent of Americans while increasing federal spending across the board. That in spite of the fact that, should he win, he will be presiding over a government that will borrow nearly half a trillion dollars just to make it through his first year in office.

John McCain clings to the Reaganomics nonsense that says rich people should not be taxed. That in spite of the fact that, should he win, he will be presiding over a government that will borrow nearly half a trillion dollars just to make it through his first year in office.

Go back to the '60s. The Great Society promised to eradicate poverty through government programs. We have poured trillions into government programs since. Poverty---if you haven't noticed---still exists. In fact, it's gotten worse. Nowadays, you don't have to be jobless to be impoverished. Tens of millions of people in this country that have jobs are impoverished.

"Progressives"---that do the most pointing to poverty statistics---advocate more of the same as the solution.

More money for education? We've done that. We've done that in spades. We've poured countless trillions into common education. Yet the quality thereof seems to get worse every year. We've poured tons of new tax money into state colleges and universities. In spite of that, greedy educators have pushed the cost of higher education beyond what most can afford in the absence of huge borrowing.

Obama advocates even more tax money for social programs and education.

Back in the '80s, the notion of not taxing rich people was installed as a part of our national fabric. Just as some have refused to give up the failed policies of the '60s, many have refused to give up the failed policies of the '80s. Republicans continue to cling to the idea that government should borrow rather than tax the rich.

Don't worry about tomorrow, just borrow, borrow, borrow. That seems to have been the mantra of this nation throughout my lifetime. The cows, it seems, are coming home.

We experienced a post-90s stock market collapse. We are experiencing a real estate meltdown that has now made its way to Wall Street. In that process, we are learning even our once-rich Uncle Sam can't bail out every poorly-managed company in the land. He's got debt problems of his own.

It's time to get back to fundamentals. It's time to get back to fundamentals in the home, in the corporate world and in the halls of government. It's time.

---