Obama's es"State of the Union"

Any thoughts on his speech Tuesday night?

I at least agree with one or two things that he said: now is the time to tackle all of these big challenges. I mean, everything's in the crapper, so why not do all the crazy stuff now, right?

Although he didn't say it, there continue to be rumors of banks being nationalized, which just gives me the heebie-jeebies...and of all the Presidents to tackle social security reform (or its complete phase out!), Obama and his socialist tendencies is the last person I would have wanted to do that.

Sad though, that I do kinda agree with him that we "wasted" our many years of surplus. However, I believe it is turning out that the supposed surplus wasn't so much a surplus as much as it was a wave of strong GDP based on underlying and accumulating household debt.

Separately, if Obama does open up his energy policy to include more nuclear plant developments, I might be finding myself a job at the NRC. We'll just have to see:)

Bailout?

Ok. I am not a banker, nor an economist. I understand a little about how this works, but I would love to hear from the familial bankers and construction weenie (haha) what their thoughts are on this. My first take on this is that this is not a solid idea. Don't get me wrong, Heather and I are being greatly affected by this. It turns out that the house we put a contract on, the current mortgage holder of that house is Indymac, which is currently owned by the Federal government. Hence, the large amount of waiting we're having to do, since the mortgage process is now like an extended multi-month long trip to the DMV. The Feds at Indymac even told the seller's real estate agent: "It's taking 60 - 90 days to get around to the paperwork, so don't call us, we'll call you. But you can send in letters and faxes." (I guess they need things to burn?) Anyway, Heather and I are being affected by this like many others, and we're financially sound. What I want to know is, how would the government buying all these "troubled assets" be a good thing? Are we simply "passing the buck" (literally speaking) to the next generation? A report said that, "the aim is for the government to buy the securities at a discount, hold onto them and then sell them for a profit." Anyway, I am just not sold on this idea. I think I'd rather pay the heavy "finanical meltdown" pricetag now rather than wait a generation from now and have China effectively blackmail us with all of the treasury note debts we'll be owing them...talk about a meltdown. Enough of my unskilled rants- speak to us, Oh great bankers and weenie.