The Year Of Campaign Chaos
Yet Freedom
McCain Replaces Palin With Startled Deer
Blaming Homeowners For This Crisis? Please
Memo To Republicans - Politics Is War
The Uplifting Debate
A Movement to Break the Silence of Churches in Political Campaigns
Of Generals And Victories
Post - Wall Street
Michelle Obama's Fearful Vision
Only Ourselves To Blame
Interesting Times
Memo To McCain: Take The Gloves Off
Main Street Need To Support Bail Out
A Heartbeat Away
The Curtain On The Last Act
Trust Us? In A Pig's Eye, I Say
Hoover-Era Ghost Stories No Longer Apply
America's Nervous Breakdown -- And The World's
Harper's Index
Why Independents Care So Much About Health Care
Gagging On Wall Street's Bailout
Does McCain Still Agree With Reagan That Government Is The Problem?
The Grip Of Bad Ideas
Who Needs To Pay Their Mortgage And Who Doesn't?
In Sunny Santa Monica, A New Appreciation Of Life
The War To Promote Terror
If Rescue Passes, Here's Who Gets Credit And Blame
Hail Mary Vs. Cool Barry
How McCain Can Still Win
Biden Can't Abide By The Truth
Adult Supervision Required
Pols, The Press And The Financial Crisis
Dear Congress: Put The Gun Down Now
No Country For Liberals
Palin Wins Big With A Reagan-Like Flair
Boon For Voter Fraud, Bust For Democracy
The Hidden Imam
And In Other News …
What Is A Loophole?
It Was Palin's Night To Avoid Losing
Compassion, Certainly, But Justice, Too
Gotcha Questions For Katie Couric (And Her Colleagues)
Palin Alone Disqualifies McCain
Taking Stock of Testosterone
Whodunit ?
The Worst Of Both Worlds
The Change That Has Already Happened
The Supersize Bailout
Pundits Side With Wall Street Over Main Street
How To Talk To Someone Who Sounds Racist
Tough Speeches Instead Of Tough Choices
Palin Dominates VP Debate
Why the Bailout Is a Crock -- Opinion
Catholics And Abortion (Again)
Blind Defense of Koran Abrogates Reality
The Sky is Falling
What McCain Learned From The Rough Rider
McCain's Debate Challenge



In Rehab: Sweet Things About Slowdown
Froma Harrop 5/15/2008
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The morning after overdoing it, some of us take pleasure in the cleansing process. The carrot juice goes down smoothly, and a simple walk feels virtuous. One vows to exert more self-control and give yoga another try.

The current economic downturn creates its own kind of a hangover and also a potential learning experience. For many consumers, it has tolled closing time on too much borrowing, too much spending, too much sweet talk about real estate. The game is over. But while the dawn may seem cruel, it sheds light on certain truths that had been suppressed. Enrolling one's finances into a 12-step program is a healthy thing to do.

As American consumers can no longer mask rising prices and stagnant wages with borrowed money, they will demand greater discipline from Washington — on budgeting as well as the energy policy. The sessions in rehab can also include expressions of regret over the lost opportunities of recent years.

For example, the 50-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax proposed by maverick presidential candidate Ross Perot in 1992 would have created an earlier incentive to use less foreign oil. Consumers would have long ago demanded more economical cars, and Detroit would have secured more of the market
for them.

We now have the higher prices needed to encourage conservation, but the money isn't filling the U.S. Treasury — as Perot's 50-cent tax would have done. Instead, it's going to various foreign autocrats and terrorists. (Too bad we didn't follow the European model and use gas taxes to fund health care.)

Collapsing house prices are bad for people who paid their bills by riding the real-estate rocket. But it's good for first-time buyers who wanted to buy a house but weren't willing to borrow up to their eyeballs. There's finally a reward for prudence.

Case in point: Ilda and Manuel Mendes, parents of two, thought they could never afford a home in the expensive Boston housing market.

Now they can. According to The Boston Globe, they've just bought a place in a working-class neighborhood for $50,000 below the original asking price of $430,000.

Slowdowns can advance the environmental cause. The high cost of gas has fueled a surge in mass transit ridership. In car-dependent Southern California, drivers see some lightening of traffic. For example, the morning commute from Simi Valley to Los Angeles has reportedly fallen by six minutes over the last year, state officials report.

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By Manny Francisco - Manila, The Phillippines * Posted 05/06/2008
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© Copyright 2008  Manny Francisco - All Rights Reserved.
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