Curtis Faith @inflector: Do you expect any significant protests in the U.S. this summer? If so will they change the discourse of the election?
ANSWER:
This election seems to me to be the most boring election of the century. I can’t think of two more bland candidates who probably agree on just about every issue out there. Maybe Clinton-Dole 1996 was boring like this.
So I don’t see unrest. I see 26 consecutive months of private sector job growth. I see the lowest household debt obligations (rent, leases, etc) divided by income since 1984 so household America has essentially deleveraged. I see a stock market that has had an enormous run off of the lows. I see two wars that have been going on for 10 years longer than they should with no end in sight. I see taxes being debated over a percent here, or a percent there and only talking about people making a million above or more so no real change.
Where’s the unrest? Where’s the potential change? Nobody really cares about anything anymore. Occupy Wall Street was a flash in the pan because they were protesting the wrong street. All the gold is hidden. They let children see the gold on tours but they never actually audit the gold so we”ll never know. I see existing home sales improving, new home sales improving, consumer spending at an all-time high, wages per hour improving even after inflation.
Does that mean Obama was “good”? Of course not! Obama did nothing. Romney will do nothing. We’ll still be at war everywhere. People will still get killed. Healthcare will still be a mess. The economy will still be unable to figure itself out. Wall Street will have more and more flash crashes because the technology is surpassing and exploiting the real goals of capital markets.
The President can’t do anything. He’s useless. He’s a pawn. There’s trillions floating around in Swiss banks that have their fingers in every transaction that occurs here in the US. We have no say. We have no unrest.
And, at the end of the day, we have no rest.