mensaboy, I revisited an old thread to stress the issue of greed and what this did to "fuel" the world to where it is right now.
Obama won it, the economy will move ahead not just because of a new man in power in Washigton. No on will gain from this negative growth and the weaker links, being countries, companies, or individuals, will hit the hardest.
Easy said than done, but it will. It is much harder to rebuild what was destroyed by greedy so-called financiers. I wish they all go to jail (for life) for the stress and mess caused to all of us.
Just like they were the first ones to go down, the US of A will be also the first ones to stand back up.
The thread started a fuel hedging and drifted, as always does, into other issues. Hedging is speculation regardless what the (not) wise financiers said, say and will say.
Pure greed and selfishness drives company top management teams make very basic mistakes based on self-created assumptions of scenarios (for own bonuses) that end up not being true, instead of indulging themselves in recruiting professionals, managing and retraining them as required and keep them happy without paying astronomic packages.

I don't disagree with anything you said. I hope you are correct that the USA will be the FIRST to recover. I have some serious doubts though. Thankfully Obama is in power but can one man, who hopefully surrounds himself with capable individuals, actually do it? Goodness me, he didn't win by that much, yet the alternative, which so many Americans chose, was incomprehensible!

Education is the bottom line. And education for the majority of Americans has been sadly lacking in the past 20 years. Damn! Most Americans can't find Iraq on a map!!

Uneducated people are easily coercised into voting for the wrong politicians. Not only that, but they don't even recognise when they have elected Party's or individuals who do not have their best interests in mind. (in spite of overwhelming evidence)

Watch FOX news for a giggle sometime, but keep in mind that some people actually consider these viewpoints to be truthful. It isn't so funny when you consider that fact.

Once a nation sinks to a certain level, usually as a result of no longer supporting and promoting education, it is very difficult to return to past glory. Take the Romans and their moral decline for example. When a nation becomes too comfortable in their dominance ( say post Berlin wall falling?) they become complacent and they lose their edge.

History backs my viewpoint. I seriously doubt the USA will ever totally recover. One reason is that China basically controls the valuation of the USD, manufacturing, and possibly in the future (god i hope not) military supremacy.

Times are a changin' and the sooner everyone accepts that, then the sooner we can fix it for the better. I have said a million times.... in spite of the blatant and obvious faults of the leadership and the general population in the USA of late, I still prefer Democracy and Capitalism (provided it is based on a population with an education), as opposed to the tendencies of places like India, Russia or China.

Sorry to ramble, but aside from climate change, these issues are the biggest issues to face our generation.

I don't dislike Yanks at all. In fact I admire many things about them. They used to be innovative and intelligent... and damn it all, they had a vision of the world that was a good one. Unfortunately the politicians took advantage of this general attitude in the USA and now things have slid so far, it might not be recoverable.

My apologies for rambling and rambling and rambling, but I truly believe this is an incredibly important topic. It affects everything from JOBS to climate change to the general well being on many people on the planet.

Obama didn't win by much? I seem to remember it being pretty close to a landslide victory. The electoral college map was blue with a core of red states up the middle. It doesn't get much better than that!

or for a giggle sometime...
 

..you can watch CBC news or read the Manchester Guardian but keep in mind that some people actually consider these viewpoints to be truthful....

Dewey,

Obama won the 2008 election with only 52.9% of the popular vote. His way higher number of electoral votes only once again exposes the flaw in the system, imho. Just look at the 2000 election with Bush taking it with less popular vote than Gore.

I agree, this problem is bigger than one man and unless he is willing to start making some hard choices, he's not going to fix it anytime soon.

One thing the general public has to realize is these guys, all of them, their number one mandate is to get re-elected. Period. To get them to stray from that will be a difficult battle. And with only 53% of the vote, Obama is walking on eggshells a bit.

Back to the thread topic, but a different airline
 

Budget carrier Jazeera Airways posts 94% profits rise
Budget carrier Jazeera Airways posts 94% profits rise - The National Newspaper
The National newspaper article says on the 3rd paragraphCan this be really so right? If so, these guys must have been one of the few in the industry to get it right:eek:.

Yes Obama won a crushing victory wrt seats, but my point was that almost 50% of voters put a little tick besided McCains name. Sad but true.
I guess 'didn't win by much' was the wrong way for me to express it, sorry.