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Do you think Global Support of President Elect Barack Obama will Help Businesses?
Post 1 of 14
We are being pebbled with words of fear and division by disgruntled members of the losing party. This fear-ology is continuing to have a major impact on how consumers and small businesses behave. Do you want to save your businesses? Do you think if business world wide, are very vocal in support of The Obama Administration that consumers will also have faith enough to start buying again?



And What can be done on a Global level to make it known that Business are moving forward with confidence?




Thank you for your answers;


Moiko


10 Nov 2008 08:14
Post 2 of 14

I am reading Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" and have much to know which direction he will be heading after taking over the office of the Presidency of the world's largest economy.


To my personal thinking, his first priority is to re-establish the economy and win back the confidence of the Financial institutions which were devasted by the previous Administration for two terms.


This means that Domestic Policy will be first to create an environment for Jobs to the American working cl *. To retain the jobs, and create new job opportunity and employment. Obama wrote about the case study of two corporations from the ground level, what he encountered as Senator.


Google started by two Ph.D. candidates in computer science, Larry Page and Sergey Brin is the success story.


Obama visited the company, met by Google's general counsel, David Drummond, an African American around his age.  His impressions were: dress code informal, employees were young people, typing their laptops, PDAs, and at least half of the group of 50 new hires were Asian, and the other half Eastern European. There was no Latino or black American in the pool. In fact, according to David, just finding American born engineers, whatever their race, was getting harder - which is why every company in Silicon Valley had come to rely heavily on foreign students. Employees have new set of worries: since 9/11,  a lot of foreign students have second thoughts about studying in United States due to the difficulty to obtain VISAs. Top notch Engineers or Software Designers don't need to come to Silicon Valley anymore to find jobs or get financing to start up, high-tech firms are setting up operations in India and China at rapid pace and venture funds are now global. This could spell trouble for the US economy, explained David.


Second case: Maytag plant in Galesburg. The company has announced plans to lay off 1,600 workers and shift operations to Mexico. Already Galesburg's unemployment rate hovered around 8 percent, and with Maytag plant's closing, the town stood to lose another 5 to 10 percent of its entire employment base. Dave Bevard, the Union President, tried to make the management change its mind, but they were unmoved.


"It ain't like these guys were not making profit", Dave said.  "The factory was one of the most productive plants in the company, with quality workmanship, low error rates, and low pay." In Mexico, the wages are one sixth of the United States.


There is no doubt globalisation has brought significant benefits to American consumers. It has lowered prices on goods once considered luxuries, from bigh-screen TVs to peaches in winter, and increased the purchasing power of the low-income Americans. It has helped keep inflation in check, boosted returns for the millions of Americans now invested in the stock market, provided new markets for the US goods and services and allowed countires like China and India to dramatically reduce poverty, which over the long term makes for a more stable world.


However there is also no denying that globalisation has greatly increased economic stability for millions of ordinary Americans. To stay competitive and keep investors happy in the global marketplace, US based companies have automated, downsized, outsourced, and offshored.  The result has been a "winner-take-all" economy, in which a rising tide does'nt necessary lift all boats. Over the past decade, we've seen strong economic growth, but anemic job growth; big leaps in productivity but flatlining wages; hefty corporate profits, but a shrinking share of those profits going to the workers.


Street


  
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14 Nov 2008 20:57
Post 3 of 14

Thank you for your reply.  Seems as Obama did his homework.
15 Nov 2008 07:13
Post 4 of 14
I do not think Obama's initial policy will have good Global Support.

As the Americans are losing their jobs to outsourced production, software and service providers, elswhere, there is strong likelihood to put up some barriers, if not to restrict free trade. This may be for a interim period, and at the overview of the situation, the US economical crisis, which has gone global may not be resolved within a short period of time.

It may not be even solved during his term of office in the next 4 years. Global resentment of the US has already taken place, as the stock markets of the world are shadowing the Wall Streets and Capitol Hill decisions and rescue operations.

Some of the proposed solutions by Barack Obama are long term, e.g. the upgrading of skills, re-training of the workforce, and in education. The growing problems in the education ministry is the growing loss of good teachers, and students are dropping out by the numbers. This is because the money is not there, they cannot get good renumerations and the infrastructure suffers. That is why you see bridges collapsed and natural calamity taking its toll, the entire system of civil servants, like the fire department, home land security, medical and health care and etc. are suffering deficits.

This is my take only, so if you have other opinions, please be bold to correct me, and I will be humble to accept it.

Obama has to cut off the bleeding points first. Pulling out of Iraq for example can save the US Governments hundreds of billions a month. Reduction on the reliance of fuel oil energy could help save lots of money, which can be channelled to more productive areas.

American workforce has to be productive and lean and mean, so to attract investments overseas, and to keep the companies from going abroad. Tax cuts to be given to those who employ their own citizens, as the carrot to woe them to stay.

Americans can change their mindsets, may take a little longer, but the Americans can do it, like what they showed to the world when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and most of the Pacific fleet was crippled.  His aides were saying that was impossible to rebuild the Pacific fleet and launch counter-attack on Japan.President Roosevelt said "Impossible! I tell you what is impossible, he stood up from his wheelchair and showed them his courage." President Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States of America, on December 8, 1941, he made the famous speech which spurred on the courage and determination of the American people and changed history.


Joyce









24 Nov 2008 21:40
Post 5 of 14
cassiezhang1001
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Quoting from [James 007]:


I do not think Obama's initial policy will have good Global Support.



As the Americans are losing their jobs to outsourced production, software and service providers, elswhere, there is strong likelihood to put up some barriers, if not to restrict free trade. This may be for a interim period, and at the overview of the situation, the US economical crisis, which has gone global may not be resolved within a short period of time.


It may not be even solved during his term of office in the next 4 years. Global resentment of the US has already taken place, as the stock markets of the world are shadowing the Wall Streets and Capitol Hill decisions and rescue operations.



Some of the proposed solutions by Barack Obama are long term, e.g. the upgrading of skills, re-training of the workforce, and in education. The growing problems in the education ministry is the growing loss of good teachers, and students are dropping out by the numbers. This is because the money is not there, they cannot get good renumerations and the infrastructure suffers. That is why you see bridges collapsed and natural calamity taking its toll, the entire system of civil servants, like the fire department, home land security, medical and health care and etc. are suffering deficits.



This is my take only, so if you have other opinions, please be bold to correct me, and I will be humble to accept it.



Obama has to cut off the bleeding points first. Pulling out of Iraq for example can save the US Governments hundreds of billions a month. Reduction on the reliance of fuel oil energy could help save lots of money, which can be channelled to more productive areas.



American workforce has to be productive and lean and mean, so to attract investments overseas, and to keep the companies from going abroad. Tax cuts to be given to those who employ their own citizens, as the carrot to woe them to stay.



Americans can change their mindsets, may take a little longer, but the Americans can do it, like what they showed to the world when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and most of the Pacific fleet was crippled, President Roselvelt said "Impossible! I tell you what is impossible, he stood up from his wheelchair and showed them his courage."



Joyce











Hope the fanincial crisis ends up earlier, hope the "Spring" comes earlier.
25 Nov 2008 17:21
Post 6 of 14
Quoting from [cassiezhang1001]:


Hope the fanincial crisis ends up earlier, hope the "Spring" comes earlier.


It would not be coming back for the next two Springs. It will become worst before it becomes better, and that will take at least two years, if America is going on the right track to recovery.


Obama cannot do miracles, it also has to take the entire House of Senates and the will of the American people to make the change. But he has to make the influence, convincing them of the bad situation they are in, and relate to them the better position if they are willing to makeover their lives and foreign policy.


Street
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27 Nov 2008 18:18
Post 7 of 14
Quoting from [Street Smart]:


It would not be coming back for the next two Springs. It will become worst before it becomes better, and that will take at least two years, if America is going on the right track to recovery.



Obama cannot do miracles, it also has to take the entire House of Senates and the will of the American people to make the change. But he has to make the influence, convincing them of the bad situation they are in, and relate to them the better position if they are willing to makeover their lives and foreign policy.


There are many similarities between the 32nd President and the 44th President of the United States.


First, they are both mavericks, unique and unprecendented. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was suffering from polio fron 1921, was paralysed on both legs. He was the first president to fly in an airplane, and sit on a wheelchair. Barack Obama is the first African-American President.


They were both Democrats, in the summer of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt won the election by landslide victory, and in November 2008, Barack Obama won the electrion by landslide victory. Both of them were lawyers, Roosevelt graduated from Harvard University, so does Obama.


Roosevelt took office during bad times, it was the Great Depression and during his terms, the start of World War II, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war by Japan, which took America into the war in Pacific. Key phrase was "The New Deal" during Roosevelt's first term in office, key phrase is "Change". Also known as the President of the century, Roosevelt took America to great heights of economic and political power.

Roosevelt ran for four terms, but now the president can only run for two terms.


 
29 Nov 2008 06:43
Post 8 of 14
Quoting from [moiko]:


We are being pebbled with words of fear and division by disgruntled members of the losing party. This fear-ology is continuing to have a major impact on how consumers and small businesses behave. Do you want to save your businesses? Do you think if business world wide, are very vocal in support of The Obama Administration that consumers will also have faith enough to start buying again?




And What can be done on a Global level to make it known that Business are moving forward with confidence?





Thank you for your answers;



Moiko



The President of the United States does not control the economy.  The US has a free-market economy based on consumer demand, and now consumer demand is broken.  The president does not tell people how much money to spend, and he does not determine the cost of commodities such as energy, housing, and food.
 
The problems which are now being experienced in the US economy did not happen over night, and they did not magically begin in 2000.  The current economic conditions are part of a greater trend, which have their origins in the late 1950s
 
The main problem with the US economy is that there is no longer any real prosperity within the US.  In the 1960s (perhaps the last decade when the US had any real prosperity) the average head-of-household (usually the husband) could afforded to buy a modest house, and perhaps at least one car, or perhaps two.
 
However, as years passed, employee wages failed to keep up with inflation, and overtime prosperity began to fade.  As more and more workers enter the workforce, the need to pay a living wage disappeared, and the labor market was slowly tilted in favor of the employer, and not the employee.  Also, the additional workers who helped keep wages at an artificially low point also became consumers, placing additional demand on resources such as energy, housing, and food, causing the costs of these commodities to soar.
Of course unions managed to hold on in a few key industries, and create isolated pockets of prosperity, in an otherwise downward spiral.  Also, the chip-boom of the early 1980s, and the internet boom of the late 1990s both created temporary bubbles which soon bursts, causing an even steeper decline in the bust side of the boom bust cycle.  Also during this same period the typical US resident chose to indulge unbridled consumerism, with little thought regarding their own personal credit.  This only served to drive consumer prices higher, and create a false sense of sustainability.
 
Unless the new US President can fix the below problems, he will not be able to repair  the US economy.

1.  Reduce the population of the United States to what it was in the early 1960s,  or increase the amount of available resources such as land, energy, and food.

2.  Convince the US population to accept a much lower standard of living.

3.  Order US business to hire workers, and pay each and everyone of them a true living wages.

The US president is not a god, and he cannot undo 50 years worth of no planning at all.  No politician will be completely honest with the people and tell them the truth, because they know that for the most part the US has degenerated into a nation of  spoiled children, and the best way to get elected is to tell the people what they want to hear, and not what they need to hear.  We have killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

01 Dec 2008 16:27
Post 9 of 14
Hi Steve,


The President has no power to control the economy.


However the President do have veto power and the ability to influence the House of Senate. For democracy to work, you need capable and strong leadership. We learn it in history, during the time of Moses. There was Aaron and Mirian straying from the mainstream, worshipping the golden calf and Korah leading the sedition and  dissention among the Israelite. It is good leadership that will keep the unity  and lead the nation forward.
The current economic conditions are part of a greater trend, which have their origins in the late 1950s
 
Please  bear  with us, non Americans, we only know the facts and not the emotions neither the hype. During Clinton's time, the US budget debt was zero, acccording to the Chief Auditor, not me. However the Republican President, George Bush destroyed the reserves and gone into trillions of dollars of debts. Would I consider it as 50 years ago? No, it was only during the Bush's Administration during the past eight years. Congratulations, he will be receiving the Nobel prize of being the most incompetent Head of State in history.

 

The main problem with the US economy is that there is no longer any real prosperity within the US. 
 
America used to be the leader in the industries, such as iron and steel, coal and energy, and the car manufacturing. All these are overtaken by the Asian countries, who produce cheaper cars, computers, refrigerators, television sets, home entertainment and many other items we can name.  The baby boom and post Depression generation works hard and are the hungry lot of people, probably most of them are immigrants. 


America went into wars, the right decision  is the Korean war in the 50's. Where the North Koreans started it by running their tanks into Seoul.


But the Vietnam war was the wrong decision, supporting a regime against a group of people who initially were seeking independence from France. That was in the 60's and America losses were great, which later led to the pullout. Not mainly by the pressure set by the American people, the use of Napalm bombs, and Agent Orange. They say: "If you push a tiger to the wall, it will fight back with all it got, for it has nothing else to lose."


We are seeing a repeat of this in Iraq. 
 
1. Reduce the population of the United States to what it was in the early 1960s, or increase the resources.


2 and 3 also.
Birth control and population reduction is a negative way that will not solve the problem. There will be more immigrant workers, the Latinos, the Indians, the Eastern Europeans, the Polynesians and the Chinese. Stopping them will also not solve the problem. We have to first identify the cause of the problem and formulate ways to solve it. The handful of rich people who run the corporations become richer, with the cheaper labor available, and those workers work harder and are less complaining, do not join labor unions, so increases profit margin.


Your suggestion to solve problem by reductive method is not going to work. The reason for the loss of jobs is the  productivity standard of the US worker has gone down, it is not the low wages, neither is the problem with inflation, like putting the cart before the horse.


Street
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04 Dec 2008 17:19
Post 10 of 14
The main problem with the US economy is that there is no longer any realprosperity within the US.




2 and 3 also.
Birth control and population reduction is a negative way that will not solve the problem. There will be more immigrant workers, the Latinos, the Indians, the Eastern Europeans, the Polynesians and the Chinese. Stopping them will also not solve the problem. We have to first identify the cause of the problem and formulate ways to solve it. The handful of rich people who run the corporations become richer, with the cheaper labor available, and those workers work harder and are less complaining, do not join labor unions, so increases profit margin.





I'm not suggesting that any problem be solved. I'm only telling your the root causes of the problems. However, please show me any country with a chronic over population problem, that also enjoys a high standard of living.

True, for a period of time the Japanese did very well by selling product manufactured by lower paid Japanese workers, to higher paid workers in the US. But now that as come to an end, as the Japanese face competition from less expensive competitors.  It is alwasy a matter of whatever the market will support.

 "Aaron and Mirian," "the golden calf and Korah" and "the President do have veto power and the ability to influence the House of Senate." I have no idea what any of this is supposed to mean. However,  the US president does not have constitutional influance over Congress, they are two separate branches, and the constitution was designed to prevent undue influence.  Also, the presidents veto can be overrideen by congress, if congress can produce a two-thirds majority. 

Other than adjusting the interest rates, and cutting taxes, the president (Clinton, Bush, or Obama) has no control over the US economy.  The US economy operates on the principle of whatever the market will support. 

In order for democracy to work, you need informed voters, who casts their votes with the best interestes of their country in at heart. This is why the ancient Romans only allowed the very best of their citizens the privilage (not a right) to vote. Having a strong personality does not give you democracy, it gives you the cult of personality. 

Also, I never said Clinton was a bad president.  In fact I think he was one of the best Republican presidents the US ever had.  He beat the GOP at their own game, which is why they wanted to destroy him so badly.  Clinton was lucky to be president during a period during a time when the US did not face any great threats, and he balanced the budget by slashing defense spending.

Go ahead,  feel free to make the US the world's whipping boy within your own mind. 

08 Dec 2008 15:44
Post 11 of 14
Quoting from [upal]:

Also, I never said Clinton was a bad president.  In fact I think he was one of the best Republican presidents the US ever had.  He beat the GOP at their own game, which is why they wanted to destroy him so badly.  Clinton was lucky to be president during a period during a time when the US did not face any great threats, and he balanced the budget by slashing defense spending.

Go ahead,  feel free to make the US the world's whipping boy within your own mind. 

Looks like you are not an American citizen by birth, probably got a green card from the land of dreams. That's why you don't know the basic about the Presidency. all Americans learn it from schools in the Elementary level right up to middle school.

Bill Clinton is not Repulican... got it? He has similar history as Barack Obama, being raised by his grandparents, when his mother was single parent since the age of three. You called it lucky to be president? Then the Presidential Election in your mind is all like a casino.. gambling with  , and to be first nominated and later elected as President is like hitting the Jack Pot?

US the world's whipping boy..... what a new revelation, I heard of other names to describe the United States of America, in particular from an American Pastor who came from Florida.

He simply puts the nations in one word, America is "FUN, FUN FUN" he says. There is so much truth in it, as he is a native American, from Georgia, who grew up in a large family during the baby boom. It is party time most of the time, and selling a secret weapon to kill all the other people around the world..... the introduction of tobacco and cigarettes to the world. Then America becoming like India ttowards the turn of the 20th century and into the 21st, to be "PROUD, PROUD, PROUD", but went on borrow, borrow, borrow. Eventually turn into bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt.

With the same ever great feeling "America is too big to fall", America's pride will be the cause of its falll. Thinking that you are the GIANT, Goliah, and it will be hard to fall. Dr. John Avanzini came to a church and used the story of David with 5 smooth stones, he only used one stone to kill Goliah.

Do you know why the prices of Oil are falling? Read my lips if you can, it is the election of the next President of the United States of America. Nothing else, it is the man in charge that gives the oil producing countries the Olive leaf in the beaks of a dove.

Here is where you can read about Bill Clinton's life story: http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OP/html/Hope.html

Street 
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09 Dec 2008 17:41
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