WASHINGTON – It’s not sexy stuff, but it is certainly scary. You would have had to have been under a rock the entire last month not to have picked up on the talk about the economic turmoil – rate cuts, declining stock markets, economic stimulus proposals, etc.
Well, it isn’t time to whip up some shoe leather stew and play “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” according to University of South Alabama economics professor Dr. Semoon Chang, who runs a Web site, Semoonchang.com, that tracks economic data.
“Mobile’s housing market slowed a little but no decrease in price,” Chang said to Lagniappe. “All indications are that Mobile will not go through a recession – against the national trend.”
Unemployment in Alabama was only 4 percent in December, 14th lowest in the nation and much lower than the 5 percent national average.
Bonner Faces Bernanke During House Budget Committee Hearing
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Budget Committee earlier this month – a committee on which Rep. Jo Bonner sits.
Bonner led his questioning off with some interesting insight into his personal life.
“I have a 9-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter and I have a very difficult time, most times, convincing them what I have to say has merit and value, and they need to listen to me,” Bonner said. “And yet, as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the world is watching, certainly the people in this country – Wall Street and others and we’re hanging on every word you say, what color tie you wear and whether you feel good. And I think that’s a statement about where we are as a country and I guess also a statement I guess the important role you play in our country and as the economic leader in the world.”
Bernanke had a blue tie on that day, but who’d ever thought Mobile’s Congressman would have a hard time getting his kids to listen to him?
However, at least it wasn’t the disaster of Ohio Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s questioning.
“Seeing how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs,” Kaptur said to Bernanke.
The audience gasped, but Kaptur carried on. “I got the wrong firm?” she asked.
“No, you’re confusing me with the Treasury secretary,” said Bernanke, referring to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“Paulson?” she asked. “Yes,” said Bernanke.
“Oh, OK. Where were you, sir?” Kaptur asked.
“I was a CEO of the Princeton economics department,” Bernanke replied.
“I got you confused with the other one,” Kaptur said.
The Check Will Be in the Mail
Last week, leaders in Congress and the White House came together to agree on an economic stimulus package. So now most of us will get a check between $300 and $1,200 in the next few months. (Didn’t Jimmy Carter try something like this and how’d that work out?) Between March and June, Americans will have a little more disposable income for things like hookers and booze, so I’m sure that’ll bump the U.S. GDP up to 4 percent for the third quarter of 2008, just in time for the November election.
District 1 congressional candidate Ben Lodmell isn’t quite as thrilled as I am. He offered his insight on the matter in an e-mail last week.
“Now it seems that Bonner and the rest of the frantic Bush-Bonner gang has been scurrying about in Washington for the past couple of days cobbling together an agreement among Democrats and Republicans on a $150 billion plan to rescue the economy from its first recession since 2001,” Lodmell wrote. “The plan is simple: Two-thirds goes for tax rebates to spur consumer spending, with the balance earmarked for tax breaks aimed at jump-starting new business investment. Bear in mind that the people making this deal are the very same people who only yesterday couldn’t agree on the time of day. Well, we will soon see how much they really agree when the rescue bill goes to the floor of the House next week and after that to the Senate, where chances are good that partisan politics will re-rear its ugly head. The continuing irony, of course, is that some economists fear the Bush proposal may be too little too late – that the economy has already been flushed down the toilet.”
Romney’s Alabama Campaign Director Optimistic
Maybe you’re sitting in some bar in downtown Mobile and you’re half-in-the-bag, but you’ve managed to make it to this stanza of the “Beltway Beat.” Well, there’s more to be glad about for the upcoming Fat Tuesday – some lucky voters in Mobile and Baldwin Counties get to set the pace for the rest of the state in determining who gets Alabama’s 48 Republican delegates and 60 Democratic delegates according to Claire Austin, the state director of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
She told Lagniappe she thinks ultimately Florida will be the bellwether of what happens in Alabama.
“The polls change from day-to-day,” Austin said. “Nobody is really getting a bump from any of their [primary or caucus] wins.”
The Florida primary is set for Jan. 29 and since the Mobile and Pensacola share a television market, Romney’s ads are being seen in Mobile and Baldwin Counties, which she said works in the campaign’s favor with Mobile’s early primary.
She also told Lagniappe the Romney campaign got a bump from former Sen. Fred Thompson’s decision to drop out of the race.
Of note, Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine, State Treasurer Kay Ivey, Reps. Robert Aderholt and Mike Rogers are supporting Romney, according to Austin.
Sessions Takes Jab at McCain and Suggests He Learned His Lesson
Sen. Jeff Sessions spoke at the Heritage Foundation last week and keyed in on his pet issue, illegal immigration.
It’s no secret there’s some bad blood between Sessions and presidential candidate Sen. John McCain – who looks really strong in Alabama – after Sessions protested legislative efforts to “reform” immigration sponsored by McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy.
“Sen. McCain has stated – he gets it, that the Americans want enforcement first,” Sessions said in his Heritage appearance. “I think this would give him an opportunity to demonstrate some of things that he’s prepared to do. ... He has had a record of promoting legislation – that was the key legislation, McCain/Kennedy, there’s no doubt about that, that failed, that I spent a lot of time opposing – so I think it would give him the opportunity to say what he means with this change of heart, as it would for the other candidates.”
Our congressional delegation – particularly Sessions and Bonner – have to play it very carefully with this presidential election and whom they publicly support. McCain is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee – which has a lot of influence on the Air Force’s KC-X Refueling Tanker bid, a project that would come to Mobile if EADS/Northrop Grumman won over Boeing.
Contact Jeff Poor at jeffreypoor@yahoo.com.
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