Quote:
Originally Posted by Fipskuul
The people with no power do not get represented there. Hence, what they say will not represent the public's views, cause there is still no unity among the different groups in the region. America knows that. Depending on what US promises, those people will jump on the wagon immediately, without showing any kind of hesitation. They also know that.
Anyways, I don't think there is any single answer to the problems in Middle East, and forget about Republicans even Democrats will be clueless in finding any kind of easy solution. And, no, they cannot use the cheapest solution to color the eyes of the public and decide to get out the mess they have made before cleaning it.
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Hmmm, the "people" *are* the tribes ... though I get that you're saying the tribal leaders stand between the people and the elected government. Rather like the US seems to have the corporations and the wealthy standing between "the people" and their elected government.
And you're right also in that neither party is going to have it easy finding a solution .... but I have zero confidence in the party that got us into this situation
Back on the domestic economic side,
people may find this Standard & Poor 26Aug08 article on housing prices interesting. Its a website PDF file format:
http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf...ase_082653.pdf . The chart that covers housing prices from the 80s to the present is of interest.
Keep in mind that much of the middle class put a lot of their asset portfolio into their homes since traditionally home prices are more stable than stocks and equity loans can be used to access the value. Stocks became much less attractive to the middle class after the stock crash of the late 1980s. When housing prices plummet like this, that equity vanishes - very problematic if say, you've got an equity loan to finance a child's college education.
In my own case, between my wife and I - our stock/mutual portfolio has lost almost 40% of its value in the last 8 years and our house has lost value to its original purchase purchase when adjusted for inflation (even though the dollar value looks higher). When the big boys are able to play their shenanigans without personal consequence - everyone from upper middle class on down takes it in the nether regions.