Mark Knows It All

As we go through the 2012 election cycle, the behavior of the press has been disturbing. What we are seeing is the death of journalism and an even stronger alliance among those in the media and the Progressive political movement in the United States. There is continual questionable journalism surrounding hard news stories in an effort to shelter the media's candidate, Barack Obama, from any political fallout. It’s tough for Americans to make decisions about who best to deal with serious issues if the media simply refuses to report what those issues are. Here is what the media is not reporting. On the economic front, which is the least of our worries notwithstanding how bad things are, durable goods orders are down 13.2%, the lowest January, 2009, and previous months’ figures are being revised downward. The economy in China is slowing down. And more importantly, the turmoil in Europe, the largest economy in the world when taken collectively, is pushin...

The summer of 2012 has been the summer of my discontent. I don’t take to change well, and there has been lots of change. Some was by choice, but most was life just happening. My mother-in-law passed away a few weeks ago after a rather lengthy illness. Those of you who know me also know we didn’t get along that well, but she was very sick and no one wishes that on another human being. I have been to a lot of funerals this summer. Several of my relatives died unexpectedly in addition to several of my friends and clients….not a good summer. Those who are wiser than me told me it is a function of my age. I am 62 going on 63. I hear people my age referred to on television as “seniors” and “older.” I don’t feel I am either of those except when I go for the 20% Tuesday night discount at the Perkins. Hey…a buck’s a buck!!!! But where I have felt my age is in coping with daily life. The world has changed. I have done my best to change with it. I have succeeded in some things, and...

I have never watched a nation’s foreign policy implode right before my eyes. America has big problems in the Mideast. Pakistan and Iran are watching the paper tiger burn up front and they will feel emboldened. Israel has to be on the verge of nervous breakdown. War will be here sooner rather than later, and it will be bad…really bad. Once again America is learning that there is evil in the world, and it isn’t us. No matter what our faults, we are the good guys. Appeasement does not now, nor has it ever, worked. Peace is only achieved through strength.  It is much more cost effective in blood and treasure to maintain strength rather than to rebuild it. America has lost all influence in the Mideast. We have turned our back on Israel, our most important ally in the region. We have lost Egypt. Pakistan is next and the most dangerous because of its nuclear weapons. Iran is still on the path to war. Iran is telling us what it is going to do. We have to listen. War is now...

As the Democratic Party opens its convention in Charlotte, the national debt is passing the $16 trillion mark. Can you comprehend that number? It is beyond me how any responsible government official believes that is okay. The figure is equal to the total GDP of the United States. That makes us Greece. On its face, the national debt is a complicated issue and may or may not be as awful as it seems. Let’s start with the upside. We are not Greece. The main problem facing the debt ridden southern Mediterranean paradise is that the money it is spending isn’t its own…literally. Greece uses the Euro as its currency and therefore is spending the European Union currency rather than its own. It has no control over monetary policy, or how much money is circulated. The United States prints its own currency and has the option of going down to the basement to the printing presses and print a whole bunch of money to pay the debt off. Upside #2 is that most of our debt is...