Obama looks older today than he was a year ago.
Obama looks like he’s aged in the past 1 year – look at this NY Times photo.
Update on October 20: Well, whaddya know. When I first wrote this post, I tagged it “irrelevant” and “nonsense”. Turns out that Fox News does not think this nonsense is irrelevant. They created a furore over this photograph of Sarah Palin on the cover of Newsweek magazine.
It seems that in politics and in media, no nonsense is irrelevant.
The New York Times, like every other news outlet in the country, is reporting today on the tough times on Wall Street, Lehman’s bankruptcy and so on. The article also had this nugget about what president Bush has to say to the American people (and, in this globalized, interconnected world economy, to the world).
Appearing briefly in the morning before reporters in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush characterized the recent events as short-term market adjustments that would have a limited effect on an otherwise sound economy.
“I know Americans are concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets,” Mr. Bush said at a ceremony to welcome the president of Ghana.
He added: “In the short run, adjustments in the financial markets can be painful — both for the people concerned about their investments, and for the employees of the affected firms. In the long run, I’m confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient, and can deal with these adjustments.”
Adjustments? It’s right up there with my other favorite word – corrections (as in stock market “corrections”). I’m pretty sure Poole will recognize this bit of Unspeak – “adjustment” is usually a good thing to make. It connotes refinement, improvement and gradual perfection. You’ve got to love the spin doctors of the Bush administration – they have given the world so many examples and case studies to learn their art.
On a related note, things are probably going to get a worse for real estate before they get better. See if you can spot the bubble in the chart below.
Chart of US real estate prices
Roben Farzad makes a refreshingly relevant case for how the government steals from the public. It is something that has worried me in the past and I am always surprised at why no one is raising hell about this issue. It’s probably because in this democracy, savers are in a minority. People who save, and taxpayers in general, subsidize the lifestyles of the bumbling idiots who ran Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns and I don’t know how many other financial institutions that will be bailed out in the next 1 year.
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