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Well who cares? I do and I am sure you do too. Already, the buzz is the 2004
Presidential election. Can you imagine that it is already time to start thinking about that?
At the moment the pundits and the historians are comparing the younger President Bush to
the elder President Bush. They are all speculating about whether or not he will suffer the same fate his father did.
However, there are stark differences. This time around, although the war in Iraq might be over the war on terrorism sure is not.
There is also much talk about tax cuts and how it would be irresponsible to cut taxes now.
Even if
you do not know anything about taxes, you can tell that this idea sounds BAD and
it is definitely not the way to go. Sometimes blessings come in small mercies and the good Lord
has provided two Republican Senators who won't go along with a tax cut just yet and two others
who will not go above a certain amount.
The Democratic field of presidential hopefuls is crowded, maybe overcrowded, and the left needs another Bill Clinton-like figure, another peron with charm and charisma, who is not that well known to come forth and save the party. Well in fact save us.
In a few months the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down decisions in major cases that will affect our lives.
So far no Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has resigned or has had to step down and so President Bush has not yet
had the opportunity to appoint anyone to the Supreme Court. However this might not remain
the case much longer. And in any event we are seeing his choices get on the lower federal bench. Don't forget that these appointments are usually for a lifetime.
While I would not like to see an activist court, I certainly do not want to see an ultra conservative one either.
The latest economic figures show that unemployment is up. It's the highest it has been in eight years at a whopping
6%. The figure might be higher as many Americans have simple fallen through the crack and
out of the job market. In the past three months, the economy has lost over 500,000 jobs and
the economy grew by only 1.6%. Is there anything rosy? Well the stock market is rising.
The President, in a concerted effort not to have the same experience as his dad,
is now turning to the economy. We are more than a year away and so anything can happen.
At the moment is doing the right thing, taking advantage of his war success in Operation
Freedom Iraq. If he could now bring peace between Israel and the Palistinians, with his
Middle East roadmap then that would certainly be an accomplishment.
The thing about President Bush is that he operates under the guise of "low expectation" and then he just shocks us. You have to give him props for that.
Counting Down To Graduation May 21, 2003 -- The End of Law School
Book Review
"The Trials of Phillis Wheatley" written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
By Stephen Earley Jordan, II
White America assumed slaves were nothing more than an inferior species; animals, jungle bunnies, that could never be taught to read or write, let alone live a civilized life. When reading and writing was accomplished, the credibility of Slaves' works was put to test, as Whites claimed the creative aspect of the writings was stolen from the Whites, and that Blacks truly had no true understanding behind the words they may write. All the while, slaves were always under public scrutiny.
People most always call to mind Frederick Douglass, who was given an inch of knowledge by learning the alphabet, and allegedly taught himself how to read and write. Most always people tend to forget Phillis Wheatley. And, more importantly, people only read one or two or her poems in an African American Literature course, then never follow it with any worthwhile intelligent discussion.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "The Trials of Phillis Wheatley" express this matter-of-fact, while delving into the corrupt, and not-so-hidden agenda of political figures, allowing the reader to, perhaps take this newfound knowledge and apply it to our present country at-large. This nonfiction work tells us how, Wheatley, a slave, was raised to read and write by her mistress and master, and was among their supposed favorites-if ever a thing existed. Gates allows the reader to understand how an African American is always seen (by Blacks and Whites) as either "too black" or "too white" with their abilities, or lack thereof. Gates offers brief explications of Wheatley's somewhat controversial work, primarily focusing on how Wheatley described her skin like "Cain's" and a "diabolical dye"-a poem which became an outlet of Black criticism from then until now, opening a door for modern day Black folks to call Wheatley nothing more than "Uncle Tom's Mother" or Aunt Jemima.
Very informative prose, yet disappointingly and to some extent unexpectedly, Gates' writing is somewhat sophomoric in its essay-esque approach, scattered thoughts, and poor analogies (i.e., referring to Wheatley as a Toni Morrison of her time, then referring to Wheatley as the Oprah of her time). Though educational, it easily could have been written as a high school/college term paper, instead of this Harvard professor. However, this gives the layman writer hope, to rummage through his old college term papers and expand on old philosophies, only to result in the same quality of work as Gates
Why the Stock Market Is Rising
by John Mauldin
May 2, 2003
Analysts Are Still Bad
It's the Flipping Indexes
Value is Where You Find It
Why is the Market Rising?
Is the Dollar Going Down for the Count?
Anniversary Waltz
Today we speculate about why the stock market is rising and whether it can continue to do so, given all the negative economic news. Along the way we will look at a very interesting study on stock values which will be different than the usual report you see. The world is coming to an end, or maybe not. Like an Impressionist painting, the picture looks different depending upon your distance from the canvas.
Up close, the economic picture is not all that pretty. "Unemployment jumped to an 8 year high of 6.0%. The economy lost 525,000 jobs over the last three months. Since World War II, there has been only one time that the economy lost jobs for three straight months without being in a recession, and that occurred during a steel industry strike in 1952." (Bloomberg via the Street.com).
Most economists think the U.S. would need to see a growth rate of 3% to 4% for a sustainable recovery and an increase in hiring. Unfortunately, the economy only grew at 1.6% last quarter, and the ISM (Institute for Supply Management) numbers fell to 45.4, its lowest reading since October 2001. Below 50 means the manufacturing sector is not growing and below 45 typically means a contraction is in the works.
Capacity utilization is an anemic 74.8%, making it difficult for companies to increase earnings by increasing prices.
They are increasing earnings by cutting employees and expenses. CONTINUE
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MAY 2003
Now That The War Is Over, What Comes Next?
