Presidential press conferences have evolved into a staged show.  I watched President Obama's press conference tonight and it was a joke!  Where was the first team in the White House press corps?  The questions were softballs.  There was not one question about the stimulus bill or the budget or Medicare reform or Social Security reform.  Where were the tough questions and really important answers?

The NY Times reporter was lost in space when he asked the President about what enchanted him most about being President.  I have never seen such an inane press conference in all my years of watching what used to be a major event.  This was a big nothing!  Where was the meat!

It appears that President Obama can't handle a real news conference and had to set up a staged show instead.  The President speaks very well when using a teleprompter.  He is a great speaker when delivering a prepared speech.  It appears he can't handle tough questions in real time from reporters that are not philosophically aligned with him.  It appears that he lacks toughness.

There are a lot of very strong willed people in the world that don't have any use for the USA.  These people will die before they compromise their objectives.  I wonder if our new President has the toughness to take them on.

TPM

The media is reporting that President Obama will be asking his cabinet for budget cuts at his first full cabinet meeting this week.  He wants to eliminate "ineffective programs".   Supposedly there will no be no sacred cows.  This is a positive action because it is very clear that our government's entire approach to spending doesn't work.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must be restructured as a first priority.

We can't afford our current level of defense expenditures.  We can't play policeman for the entire world.  We are the worlds greatest debtor nation.  We must share the global cost of keeping the peace with the rest of the world.  We need to make major cuts in defense spending with a focus on reducing major procurements for new combat systems.

We must stop stimulus type spending.  It adds to our debt without providing a material economic return to the tax payer.  We need to provide tax credits for investments and spending that provides a greener future for the nation.  I would support increased taxes on gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to force our nation to invest in more efficient energy technology.

We must deal with the big issues first and than tweak the little stuff.  Unfortunately,  our government tends to tweak the little stuff first and never deal with the big issues.  We will see if President Obama can change the approach to resolving the fundamental problems.  Don't hold your breath waiting for our government to change its approach to spending.  The government will make a lot more big economic and financial management mistakes before we correct our spending problems as a nation. 

The next big bubble to burst is likely to be the USA's national debt bubble.

TPM

Please note that thepurplemuse can now be found on Twitter.  Also see the Twitter box on my home page.  I am trying to spread the word.

TPM

It appears that President Obama fired GM's CEO this week.  Since GM is being kept alive by US government funding it is no surprise that the new administration is exercising its power.  He who has the gold rules.  In this case I happen to agree that the GM CEO should have been fired.  He should have been out of GM a few years ago.

Do we really want the President of the US and his staff deciding who should run corporations and what executive compensation should be?  I don't want that to be the case.  GM should have done a prepackaged bankruptcy months ago and we could have avoided the current situation.  I fear we will have the government telling the banks taking TARP money how to compensate their senior executives.  Any company that can give back their TARP money should do so and get the government out of their business to the maximum extent possible.

The IMF plans to sell a lot of gold bullion to create the fiat money to give to poor nations to help in the global stimulus program.  China and other Asian nations appear to be the potential buyers.  China dumps a lot of US dollar reserves in return for gold, which is hard money.  The Chinese get stronger while the west gets weaker from a monetary perspective.  It is virtually guaranteed that within a few years that the Chinese currency will be at least partially backed by gold and be the world's strongest currency.

How many trillions of dollars can the US Congress spend before the value of the dollar collapses against gold and stronger currencies? 

TPM