Frankly Speaking --- the state of US Economy

In his recent speech, President Bush declared that there was a real financial crisis and that US must act to prevent a major crash. A massive $700 billion dollar bail out was proposed.

Is that something that surprised me? No – as a person who likes to keep himself aware of the world around himself, I read the news and on goings. A very simple lesson I tell my kids and colleagues at work is – things don’t fail or crash over night, but they slip a little on a daily basis. It is our job as leaders to keep an eye on the slip and prevent the slide. What bothers me is that no one thought of this bail out in the past one year.

Over the past one year, we heard time and again from the President and his team, that the economy has strong fundamentals. I guess those were the only voices saying that. All financial gurus, news papers, economists were screaming in the other direction. One only has to look at the housing mess around to figure out that there is a serious crisis brewing.

Have you ever compared your grocery bills over the past year? I could swear that my Costco bills have increased by at least 60% for the same items. I used to spend on an average about $70 per visit and now, my invoice reads at least $120. Gas prices used to be about $1.70 about 4 years back. Now they are close to $4. Some idiot starts speculations on these and they start moving like a machine that takes three steps in one direction and one in the other. As one of the former FBI guys said on CNN, these greedy guys at Wall Street have succeeded where the terrorists failed on 9/11 – they have brought the US economy to its knees.

Frankly speaking – I am appalled. This deserves a full fledged investigation and prosecution of the culprits.

Choose Products Assembled or Made in America

I just returned from a vacation that I had taken with my kids to Washington DC. Washington DC is a beautiful place with a lot of history (from a US perspective, a lot means about 300+ years). My older daughter was nominated for the National Youth Leadership Conference and she had the pleasure of being part of 350+ student leaders from all over the country.

National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) program scholars represent the upper echelon of today's youth in both academic performance and community leadership. Each student is hand-selected for nomination based upon academic achievement as well as by distinguished educators, mentors or NYLC program alumni, ensuring that every participant possesses the drive and determination to emerge as a future & world leader. You can read about the organization here.

The trip gave me the opportunity to move around in Washington DC. I was staying with some friends in Alexandria, Virginia. On the advice of my friends, I decided not to rent a car to move around in DC. In hind sight, it was a great decision. The DC Metro system is extremely convenient for tourists. I’d catch a Metro train from Huntington to Union Station and then catch the trolley tour. The Train ride would cost me about $5 two ways and the trolley tour would cost about $32 for a whole day pass. One can get off and board the trolley at any of the regular stops of the trolley. There are even duck tours very aptly named as they include cruises in the river too, to take you for sight seeing along the river. One can also get to Mt. Vernon, the residence estate of George Washington. You can view the photos of my trip by clicking here.

While in Alexandria, I also had the opportunity to visit Mt. Vernon. This is the estate of George Washington. The estate is a beautiful, right by the Potomac river. George Washington and his wife Martha loved to live a very stylish life style. The splendor of the building is worth viewing. Kudos to the management for maintaining the site so well and keeping everything in a near pristine condition. The only thing that bothered me was that the shops in Mt. Vernon were full of Chinese goods. As an American (and I am not one yet), I’d be embarrassed to see foreign made busts of George Washington, replicas of guns, Salt and pepper shakers looking like soldiers selling in a place of National pride.

However that upset me. It got me thinking (D’uh!!!). Today the US economy is reeling. Jobs are dropping in weekly reports. It is time we took some drastic actions. I can’t expect the government to do anything towards this. The government is probably too busy trying to figure out a way to get out of war and do damage control. The only possible solution that comes to my mind is something that Gandhi practiced in India more than 65 years ago. It was simple solution then and it is a simple solution now. Stop buying things made abroad. Now, I know this is easier said than done. The things are a lot more complicated now. But we can make a start. Let us start buying things assembled in this country first. We need to get some manufacturing back in this country. And I don’t mean just cars. It has to be smaller stuff that is used in daily utilities. And that effort has to start from the public. Once the public refuses to buy good produced abroad, things will change for the better.

I for one have decided that I will try my best to give the first preference to American manufactured items. Even if it says assembled in the US, I will choose that over something that is made in China. What do you think?