• Japan – A Need Of Friends In The Aftermath

We have observed the graphic images of the Japanese and their nation, succumbing to the overwhelming forces of nature destroying lives, infrastructure, and economy.

In a couple of years the currents of the Pacific and prevailing winds will scatter debris across North America’s shores. Those will be reminders of the life changing devastation and very human tragedy that has been, since that infamous day March 11, holding Japan in a state of shock. Who will Japan look to as it rebuilds.

The world’s third largest economy, and America’s second largest debt holder, is being battered with power shortages and supply-chain difficulties that impact production of its principal exports, as concern grows that nuclear contamination could affect its food supply system, and its water sources. Japan is very aware that such a calamity, the reality of which has been literally slammed into its consciousness, will tax all of its emotional, spiritual and economic reserves. Japan also understands that in this time of confusion, and catastrophe, while it welcomes help from foreign shores, it knows that it is in a very lonely place.

Japan’s dependence on nuclear energy is not about to change since it is devoid of natural resources, and nuclear has presented the best insulation from the vagaries of the oil fields of the Middle East. Once Japan has had a chance to mourn its dead and heal its injured, and once it has answered the needs of over half a million new homeless, it will revisit its vulnerabilities. The dedication, work ethic and pride, which created the ingenuity behind the high quality products which the world markets clamored for and absorbed, will address itself to the question of self-sufficiency with renewed vigor.

Japan will launch its considerable wealth and industry to solving a breadth of weaknesses that recent events highlighted. It will address itself to long-term solutions for its energy needs, as well as the fragility of its food and water supplies. In a dramatic shift from the past half-century’s regressed strategy on defense and military, we can expect Japan to take strong strides toward more military self-reliance. For now, it welcomes all the help it can get including that of foreign companies who have already contributed significant funds to the relief effort.

As the state of the art USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier along with other U.S. ships in the region provide welcomed humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the Japanese cannot help but be touched, even inspired, by the indomitable American spirit of the Sailors and Marines who have donated and collected goods and supplies, personally augmenting the official relief effort. This touching and much needed accomplishment, in the face of the monumentally devastating crush of one of America’s truly best and closest allies, served to balance the impoverished tone and shapeless delivery of, “Our hearts go out to our friends in Japan and across the region, and we’re going to stand with them as they recover and rebuild from this tragedy” from the Obama White House teleprompter – then, exit stage left for Rio.

The whole of the Japanese population is looking inward for strength, but in its isolation it will also look to friends for support through the next few years of rebuilding and restoration. Fortunately, there exists an American population, far from the self-absorption of Washington that the people of Japan can look to for a confirmation on the meaning of friendship.

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• Leadership And The Middle East Crisis

In one generation our world has shrunk immeasurably, yet it has also exploded unrecognizably. The Internet and the social media superimposed on it has claimed responsibility for igniting revolutions and/or demonstrations throughout Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Oman and Bahrain.

Overthrown governments in Tunisia and Egypt are a problem, however, revolutions in countries such as strategically critical Libya and Bahrain present a whole different set of even more troubling uncertainties. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates are implementing measures to snuff out those potential fires of unrest by “buying” segments of their populations before they get out of control.

Saudi Arabia increased salaries to public employees by 15% and made claims that it will improve education, infrastructure and healthcare through the trickling of $36 billion down through Saudi society – from the top. The Saudi pre-emptive strike is a short-term plug in a leaky dyke holding back unrest it doesn’t understand, and blames on foreign disruptive forces. It’s king and ruling family lack the capacity to ignite the entrepreneurial or creative innovation required to build a country for long term success.

Countries that are currently home to 2/3 of known crude reserves are now unstable, and have escalating conflicts that will further the bloodshed in the streets. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to foresee continuing rises in oil prices which will in turn feed the monster of inflation to affect prices of most products and foods around the world.

Through the sandstorms of all uprisings there are religious forces influencing the fighting, particularly Shiites colliding with Sunnis. We should be particularly concerned with evolving conflicts on the streets of Bahrain, where a Sunni king rules a 70% Shiite population. Bahrain is the banking capital of the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for the naval forces in the Persian Gulf and the whole regions, is based on the island. Bahrain’s strategic importance is immeasurable. Shiite Iran which has long funded and armed insurgencies occurring amongst its Muslim neighbors is just a stone’s throw across the pond, while Sunni Saudi Arabia is a walk across the 16 mile causeway, but Saudi Arabia’s Eastern province with a Shiite majority, holds critical oil production facilities.

There are parallels in perspectives that exist between the House of Saud and the Administration in the White House, and should either or both continue to proceed in denial, there are outcomes that will negatively impact the populations of the two countries.

Both the House of Saud and the Obama administration are attempting to purchase support of their respective populations. Such measures are very temporary, stopgap solutions rooted in ignorance. Both ignore reality. King Abdullah heaving bushels of dollars out his palace windows, briefly quieting the simmering discontent he doesn’t understand, and Obama’s stubborn refusal to listen to the message bellowed from America’s streets through the midterm election bullhorns, suggests confusion at the top in both countries.

The current United States leadership appears conflicted between choosing the objective of championing America’s propensity to uphold principles of freedom and democracy, and maintaining stability in the region. Those are not mutually exclusive missions for the Middle East, yet any breakdown of decisive direction and action will provide Iranian leadership an opportunity to expand it footholds from which to spread its religious doctrine of hate and slaughter across the Middle East.

A majority of any population does not want handouts – this truism applies in America, and it applies in Saudi Arabia, as well as Bahrain. As we have witnessed, it also applies in the streets of Teheran. People seek safety, freedom, dignity, transparency, and justice, within which they can actuate the lives they pursue for themselves and their families. A transition to more open governance is inevitable. It will take decisive leadership from the West to ensure that such freedom is provided and maintained in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

We may soon reach a point when America will be forced to draw a line around Bahrain’s sands. American presence must not leave Bahrain’s shores, and Bahrain cannot fall to extremist interests. It certainly cannot be allowed to slide under an Iranian manipulated extremist thumb. Stability in these critical countries across the Middles East will have positive impact on the West, and the Obama White House will have to demonstrate some heretofore obscure measures of resolve.

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• The Great Void In Education

Watching teachers lead young children by the hand to demonstrate on the streets of Wisconsin, educating them on the finer art of union bargaining methodology, it becomes abundantly clear that great voids exist in the educational continuum. The void becomes even more obvious when the Oval office, and possibly the Democratic Party, meddle with the State leadership by championing Union actions such as shutting down schools.

As we set out on our paths through life, we come to recognize that students graduating from High School, University or College, are lacking some necessary tools and percepts critical to all endeavors, personal or business, which academia could have provided. Union tactics are not among them.

Evidently, too many voters during the last Presidential elections forgot that a community organizer gains power and influence by making chimerical promises to susceptible listeners. He assures them that government controlled economic activity will lead to redistribution of wealth, . . . “You’re being oppressed so that you can’t get what’s yours, . . . I’ll get it for you through government.”

The community organizer Does Not imbue the community with personal motivation, or any sense of individual purpose. The Community organizer is incapable of distinguishing the difference between controlling the game and its players, from the enforcement of laws that shape how honestly the game is played, particularly by its biggest players. He also confuses Wall Street and Banking, with the business and corporate sectors of the Nation’s economic engines.

Although we are social beings, our greatest learning and our deepest satisfaction come from within and these are energized through accomplishment. The good and the bad of all our experiences, big and small, are positive as long as they are ours, . . . ours without blame, or deflection, or passing the buck.

Those who would stifle such energy are hypocritical, self-serving charlatans. This type of leadership does not honestly promote challenging of the mind, or invigorating the spirit, or animating innovation, or even hard work, but instead seeks to covertly suppress them.

America holds a unique body of work that rests at its foundation, produced by an exceptional group of men, but it may be less commonly known in its classrooms than the sayings of Confucius. I refer to the ample documentation such as The Federalist Papers, and the letters and speeches provided for future generations by the sages who were principally responsible for the Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers.

I don’t infer that these men were the epitome of wisdom, since they were human after all, nevertheless they were wise enough to create the foundation for an environment the world admires and wishes to emigrate to, 222 years after the first adoption and ratification of its framework.

When John Adams wrote, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom,” he did not mean that the country’s youth should be instructed in ideology. As individual freedom remains a most aspired-to circumstance in any society, the thinking of those who produced its best configuration, should, as has been proposed by many for two centuries, become very common knowledge and should be intrinsically incorporated into the fabric of the educational system.

As teachers march out of the schools of Wisconsin, we are reminded of what has been gravely omitted from their place of work.

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• Obama’s Impossible Gordian Knot

Over 2300 years ago, birth was given to a myth which in time became a powerful metaphor that has served us well through the ages when addressing seemingly impossible or intricate challenges. Halfway through the current Obama Presidency we face a moment when reaching back for an ancient Greek analogy has become self evidently appropriate.

Legend tells us that Alexander The Great fulfilled a prophecy by bringing a creative solution to the Gordian Knot – he sliced the complex knot with his sword, thereby showing himself capable of thinking outside the box. Gordian, the mythological king of the Phrygians had tied his oxcart to a palace as an offering to Zeus, and an oracle had foretold that whoever untied the knot would conquer Asia. Although he died at the young age of 31, Alexander’s conquest of a continent started with a bold decision.

History has provided ample debate on the event of Alexander’s controversial “solution,” and whether it was actually any solution at all, however, Alexander’s omen, has remained a favorite metaphor.

The present moment in history finds a society struggling with overwhelming unemployment, as well as a worrisome personal and national level of debt. Productive employment is critical to sustenance of a vibrant society, and it is through that employment that the costs of all of society’s “structural and functioning” needs get paid. A majority of Americans also understand that it is business and industry, large and small, that create employment, and the basis for all other employment. Without such employment, government doesn’t get paid. While this should be abundantly obvious, the American taxpayer is being led by an Administration that seems not to understand.

America went to the poles during the midterm elections and emphatically voiced its displeasure with the way the Administration and Congress were treating its most serious and urgent concerns. America is looking for leadership capable of making bold decisions.

This week, Obama is facing his archetypal Gordian Knot, IMHO. The current debate over the maintenance of the Bush tax cut has been worthwhile, and pushes economic discussion to the fore, which serves to educate. The solution to America’s economic woes however, does not rest with an extension of the Bush tax cut. The solution rests in the aggressive stimulation of job creation, and leadership that will-not-sleep-until unemployment numbers have been halved.

On Wednesday we were treated to novel expressions from an American President such as this one uttered by Obama to 20 CEOs in a session held yesterday with the Administration, “I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success.”

The fact that his grammar is questionable matters less than the fact that he would have to say anything remotely close to an attempt at denying he has and will continue to “inhibit” the success of all businesses. His actions precede him, so his words appear to come from a distant corner of the twilight zone. It is not in his DNA to either stimulate economic growth, or care what the fat cats (his own rhetoric) of corporate America need to see from their government in Washington. He does not understand, and cannot understand.

The MSM is even posting articles about “détente” between this Administration and business. Détente? As in, “he’s at war?” Who would have thought this concept remotely possible in twenty first century America? In the middle of an extended recession, who would have expected a question posed to a sitting President such as the one asked by CNBC’s John Harwood, “Mr. President, can you repair your relationship with business?”

Pretend all he wants at “dispelling,” Obama is incapable of providing a solution to his Gordian Knot, because he does not comprehend the most significant problem facing the country over which he presides.

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• Another Misstep On Obama’s New Battle Front

There is little argument that the concluding G-20 meeting has been an international beat-up slugfest on America. Effective and substantial Strategic Planning is critical in the success of any significant endeavor. It should be ever-present when addressing the country’s economic long-term health.

Obama and his advisors fumbled once again on the international scene. Unfortunately, this time the fumble was on an economically critical battlefront.

The Fed continued its artificial manipulation of the economy by announcing that at the stroke of a pen filled with dollar printing ink called the Quantitative Easement Quill, a tidy $600 billion will be added to the float. While there is urgency in taking decisive action to stimulate hiring across the country, The Fed’s bond purchase program could have waited announcement another few days, particularly since it will be implemented over a very extended period. The Fed may in fact decide to scale back on the total amount depending on how the economic activity trend reacts.

Currency fluctuations have not been the source of the current economic crisis, but have been the outcome of such things as the overwhelming export of never to return jobs to inexpensive-labor-gives-us-cheap-products countries, AND we can artificially inflate national wealth by enforcing the financing of a home-for-each-citizen program.

Announcing the easement (read: circumlocutive euphemism for Inflative) just prior to G-20 gave China a major pass at the meeting, and in fact, pushed it to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America’s “friends” pounding on America. The G-20 meeting should have been more about China’s maintenance of a weak Renminbi, and protectionism, rather than about the U.S.’s wholesale weakening of King Dollar.

The Bernanke announcement resulted in a verbal assault on America by everyone from China to Germany. America’s defense was left to representation by a President not familiar with things economic. It isn’t even clear that China’s real relative exchange rate hasn’t appreciated recently given the rapidly rising prices within China. Just like The Fed, whose complete independence from Congressional control or real oversight enables it to go wherever it wishes to go, so too China will ignore all bended-knee implorations from Obama and Geithner.

Now to make matters doubly difficult, the Administration is shouting into the deaf ears of its trading partners and geopolitical friends. China will continue on its merry way, and it has firmly confirmed that it would completely ignore the Administration when it admonished Obama as he went out the door with a, “Don't make others take the medicine for your disease,” (Yu Jianhua, a director general of China's Ministry of Commerce). The opportunity presented by the G-20 meeting to coagulate forces to pressure China is now passed, and the situation has been made worse for America.

This Administration really must take some classes on Effective Negotiating.

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