Election Day in the USA
It's Election Day in the U.S.
I told my staff to figure out the best time to vote and to go ahead and do
it -- don't worry about time away from work. I can't reach half of 'em by phone
or e-mail so they must have chosen the busiest time and the longest line! Hey,
anyone ever heard of a BlackBerry?!
I have no idea who'll win (could be a stunning Nader upset, eh what?), but
I do know that the main candidates talked more about George W. and William Ayers
than about our huge IT industry.
And of course, both lectured about the economy, but seemingly none (except
maybe the Libertarian) passed second-grade math. Apparently, when you have a
$10 trillion deficit and a collapsing economy, the answer is to increase spending
and cut taxes. If I ran Redmond that way, it would be out of business; and if
I ran my house that way, I'd be in a run-down apartment and my 1980 Porsche
928 would be repossessed.
And you have to run your IT shop within a budget, and can't justify massive
deficits by quoting John Maynard Keynes. Unlike you and me, our candidates love
to focus on Keynes' idea that deficit spending stimulates the economy, forgetting
that he advocated paying off these debts during prosperity. Oops.
That said, I personally like and admire the two leading candidates. I'd defend
each with equal ferocity in a bar fight. (Who would be a tougher tangle and
why? Place your bets at [email protected].)
What can the U.S. to shore up the economy, and should it even mess with what
might be natural business cycles? And what about tech? Should politics get involved?
Hanging and non-hanging chads welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/04/2008 at 1:16 PM