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DEL.ICIO.USLeftovers from a businessman’s lunch
Or, what people with money talk about late at night, in the kitchen, while balancing their checkbooks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Forbes, in town for that Casey Cagle fund-raiser, likes to talk. Fortunately, he likes to talk about more than politics.
Some non-political highlights from his Thursday speech:
Too much is made of consumer debt, Forbes said. “When you look at the American consumer, and add up what they own in stocks, bonds, banks CDs, market funds, and life insurance policies, and take out what people owe on credit cars, take out what they owe on mortgages — American consumers today are plus $26 trillion. American consumers are the biggest suppliers of capital in the global credit market.”
Not enough has been made of inflation. “Over the last two years, to be blunt, the Federal Reserve has been printing, inadvertently, much too much money,” Forbes said. “We have a new federal reserve chairman. Never complain again about what it costs to educate your kids and grandkids in colleges. The tuition we’re paying for Ben Bernanke’s education will vastly exceed anything you pay for your kids. He’s a smart guy, eventually he’ll learn it.”
On immigration, Forbes said no one’s talking about the core reason for the uproar among Americans. Mexico’s economy is a basket-case. Fix Mexico’s job-engine — he cited Ireland’s transformation as an example — and the border problem disappears.
Comments
By Ugotta B. Kidding
June 8, 2006 09:24 PM | Link to this
But this “immigration” thing isn’t about fixing Mexico’s economy. It’s all about CHEAP LABOR for U.S. businesses. So the ILLEGAL INVASION continues…as our President and Congress turn their heads.
By dg
June 9, 2006 08:15 AM | Link to this
Wow, uttering the word “Mexico” sure puts issues that we Americans could actually control right on the back burner. American savings is now at 0 and our credit card debt is at an all time high. Could we do something about that, yes. High gas prices are now having an effect beyond the gas pump. We are paying more now in everything we purchase due to the increased cost of gasoline. Could we do something about that, yes. But just say “Mexico” and oh! how we get on our high horses and bash Fox and bash illegals. Mexicans have been quietly crossing the border illegally for sixty years and working here without much fanfare. Now that we are in mid-term elections with an unpopular president in power, it seems that we are concentrating on something that is farthest from our individual control. Why do something when we can just run our mouths and do nothing?
By Van
June 9, 2006 09:24 AM | Link to this
And just how did Ireland become a finacial power house?
Did someone bail them out? Did someone help them so their people would not migrate to England?
I don’t think so, i’ll bet they did it themselves, through enterprising industralists, free enterprise and guts.