More on Failed Democracy in the US

August 29, 2010 Leave a comment

More on democracy in the US.  It says what I tried to express in an earlier post.  Our democracy is not standing up to our hopes and expectations, and inequality is the most terrible result of this failure.  The electorate is being sold policies that basically will hurt most of us in the future when spending on health and social security has to be constrained.

Tocqueville’s observations no longer ring true. America is no longer a land of equality, and it’s largely because our democratic system no longer promotes “the welfare of the greatest possible number.” And that’s because many citizens are only too eager to support policies that are “opposed to their own advantage,” like the then-popular (and apparently still-popular) Bush tax cuts, which shifted the relative tax burden from the rich onto the middle class… What Tocqueville underestimated was the power of money in modern politics and the marketing genius of modern politicians, which have freed democratic politics from the constraints of the actual interests of the majority.

via Democracy in America « The Baseline Scenario.

Filed under Economy

More on The Dire Economic Future

August 28, 2010 Leave a comment

This could well be the future we are in for, and this is what the City of Coral Gables should consider in reorganizing government, reducing staff and rationalizing pension funds and other benefits.

It could happen that property values will not return for many, many years.  Does this mean that the City of Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County and the State of Florida can keep raising taxes, indifferent to the financial conditions of their residents and businesses?

Read the following for taste of reality (and history).  This explains why my parents, who lived through the Great Depression, were so frugal and conservative with their money.

The Reinharts examined 15 severe financial crises since World War II as well as the worldwide economic contractions that followed the 1929 stock market crash, the 1973 oil shock and the 2007 implosion of the subprime mortgage market.

In the decade following the crises, growth rates were significantly lower and unemployment rates were significantly higher. Housing prices took years to recover, and it took about seven years on average for households and companies to reduce their debts and restore their balance sheets. In general, the crises were preceded by decade-long expansions of credit and borrowing, and were followed by lengthy periods of retrenchment that lasted nearly as long.

via Carmen Reinhart Warns That Economic Recovery Could Be Slow – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Coral Gables, Economy, Miami-Dade County

Coral Gables Future Economy: Who is Thinking About It?

August 27, 2010 Leave a comment

I have been wondering about what the future of Coral Gables will be like.  Will healthy retail sales return for local, regional and internationally focused business.  Will growth and prosperity return to the city or will the city live through a relatively long period of tepid growth?  Will the city reconstruct its future on the basis of real estate growth, expanding services for important companies located here and will we take advantage of a traditional sectors such as education (UM).

Will the city and the business community in Coral Gables and South Florida attract more dynamic businesses, activities and businesses.  Or will we be stuck in an economic time warp that portends the reactivation of real estate, finance, administrative and technical support services to international trade and large-scale but traditional business with inherently slow grow opportunities.

I wonder who is thinking about new and important sectors that could be the basis for a more rapid and sustained growth of the city?  I trust that the Chamber of Commerce and regional business leaders are indeed thinking about this, but the city of Coral Gables seems too quiet about the future.

Filed under Coral Gables

Lots of Structural Unemployment, Especially in Coral Gables and South Florida

August 27, 2010 Leave a comment

I was interested in the comments in an interview on CNBC of the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, who talked about structural unemployment in the construction sector.  This is very relevant to Coral Gables and South Florida.  What he says is that there are lot of workers who have been in the construction sector, that this sector will not likely come back, and that these people need to be retrained, to be literally moved to other types of employment.  They will not be able to get back to construction work.

Who in the State of Florida is doing anything about retraining these surplus workers and getting the local economy on another footing with new and more dynamic sectors.

I don’t hear anyone in the City of Coral Gables talking about this problem and how Coral Gables might promote new, dynamic sectors (or what is called today “clusters”–synergistic groupings of complementary businesses).

Filed under Coral Gables

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