Friendly Advice for Our Great Leaders, January 25 Edition

Dear President Obama,

I see that you are fearlessly fighting:

"We are fighting every single day to put Americans back to work, create good jobs, and strengthen our economy for the long term," Obama said in the statement.

"The additional steps laid out today focus on easing the burdens on middle-class families who are struggling in this economy, and providing the help they need to get ahead."

Specifically, Obama will push to increase the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit rate from 20 to 35 percent for families making under $85,000 a year. Families making from $85,000 to $115,000 also would see an increase in their tax credit, the statement said.

But, although you are a mighty warrior, and are aiming to use your pugilistic skills to do great things, success is proving elusive:

Sales of previously-owned US homes fell 16.7% in December, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has said.

Sales had risen from September to November as first-time buyers took advantage of tax credits.

The decline in December was expected as buyers rushed to complete deals before the original 30 November deadline.

The first-time buyer tax credit has since been extended until 30 April, and the NAR said there was likely to be another surge in sales in the spring.

For all that we supposedly-peaceloving Americans love fighting -- and that's quite a bit, by all available evidence -- I must tell you that I don't think most problems can be solved that way. And I'm highly skeptical that America's monumental economic ills can be cured, in the long term, by the artificial stimulation of demand, in the absence of any real way to finance the gratification of that demand. To put it a little differently: a prosperous nation whose people are uneducated, and whose principal exports are bombs, bullets, and mercantilism, thinly disguised as a nauseating moral pretension ... well, that's pretty much a contradiction in terms.



Yours very truly,

Free Advice Staff, The Chestnut Tree Cafe