Techfun

At its core, populism in the United States remains what it has always been: a protest by ordinary people who want the system to live up to its stated ideals – fair and honest treatment in the marketplace and a government tilted in favor of the unwealthy masses, writes Michael Kazin in an essay in the current issue of Newsweek. “The best way for big men, and big women, to respond to such protests is to try to do what is moral, as well as popular — and treat Americans as partners in the grand enterprise of governance.”

In all the discussion and bitching about AIG there is a strong undertone of “we need to get revenge on these guys”. I can understand that desire but I think there are many people who are not really clear on why the US government felt that propping up AIG was money well spent.

With oil prices dropping down below $45USD a barrel its easy to forget the impact of $100USD+ prices of just eighteen months ago. People were driving less and trading in their gas guzzling SUVs for more fuel efficient vehicles. Now that prices have come down there is far less pressure on American’s to use less petroleum. Today, Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) President and CEO Robbie Diamond issued the following statement today in response to the release of government data showing that the 2008 trade deficit for petroleum and refined products was more than $380 billion, representing more than 56 percent of the entire national trade deficit.

Teens are confident that the Obama administration will be able to resolve the current economic crisis, according to a recent study from the Scarborough Kids Internet Panel (S.K.I.P.), an Internet panel tracking youth behavior and sentiment.

Back on December 7th, Propublica.com released an article called Bush by the Numbers that compared statistics that shape American lives before and after George W. Bush took office. They included data like National Debt on Election Day, Percentage of Americans without health insurance, and Average number of Superfund clean-ups completed per year. Some of the information is quite striking and say more about the state of the nation than a dozen editorial columns.

The reader response to the article was so good, they have released a second edition using suggestions from Propublica and Huffington Post readers.