President Obama delivered the following remarks during his commencement speech at Arizona State University last week:

Now, some graduating classes have marched into this stadium in easy times – times of peace and stability when we call on our graduates to simply keep things going, and not screw it up. Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval, when the very foundations of our lives have been shaken, the old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is called on to remake the world.

It should be clear by now the category into which all of you fall. For we gather here tonight in times of extraordinary difficulty, for the nation and the world. The economy remains in the midst of a historic recession, the result, in part, of greed and irresponsibility that rippled out from Wall Street and Washington, as we spent beyond our means and failed to make hard choices. We are engaged in two wars and a struggle against terrorism. The threats of climate change, nuclear proliferation, and pandemic defy national boundaries and easy solutions.

Translation: No one else has ever been faced with trouble like that we have today – therefore we need to turn to extraordinary measures in order to succeed. We cannot let this crisis go to waste.

For many of you, these challenges are felt in more personal terms. Perhaps you’re still looking for a job – or struggling to figure out what career path makes sense in this economy. Maybe you’ve got student loans, or credit card debts, and are wondering how you’ll ever pay them off. Maybe you’ve got a family to raise, and are wondering how you’ll ensure that your kids have the same opportunities you’ve had to get an education and pursue their dreams.

In the face of these challenges, it may be tempting to fall back on the formulas for success that have dominated these recent years. Many of you have been taught to chase after the usual brass rings: being on this “who’s who” list or that top 100 list; how much money you make and how big your corner office is; whether you have a fancy enough title or a nice enough car.

Translation: Don’t look to yourself for help, you can’t do it. The pursuit of profit for yourself and your family only results in problems. This formula has only resulted in ruin for the United States of America. Don’t strive to be the best.

You can take that road – and it may work for some of you. But at this difficult time, let me suggest that such an approach won’t get you where you want to go; that in fact, the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end.

Translation: Every person who experiences financial success is a sham with no substance. They are greedy and only interested in outward appearance – except for myself, of course.

I want to highlight two main problems with that old approach. First, it distracts you from what is truly important, and may lead you to compromise your values, principles and commitments. Think about it. It’s in chasing titles and status – in worrying about the next election rather than the national interest and the interests of those they represent – that politicians so often lose their way in Washington. It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits, and the bonuses that come with them, that so many folks lost their way on Wall Street.

The leaders we revere, the businesses that last – they are not the result of narrow pursuit of popularity or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose – the preservation of the Union or the determination to lift a country out of depression; the creation of a quality product or a commitment to your customers, your workers, your shareholders and your community.

Translation: The producers of the products and services that you enjoy only desire your comfort. If they expect you to pay for said services and products, they are evil and greedy. You should go into the work force with no expectation to be paid. In fact, those of you who are going into the medical profession, will follow the model of the Cuba where doctors make less than cab drivers – but don’t worry, the doctors in Cuba are only interested in helping patients, not making a profit.

The trappings of success may be a by-product of this larger mission, but they can’t be the central thing. Just ask Bernie Madoff.

Translation: If you expect to make a profit, you are no better than Bernie Madoff.

The second problem with the old approach is that a relentless focus on the outward markers of success all too often leads to complacency. We too often let them serve as indications that we’re doing well, even though something inside us tells us that we’re not doing our best; that we are shrinking from, rather than rising to, the challenges of the age. And the thing is, in this new, hyper-competitive age, you cannot afford to be complacent.

That is true in whatever profession you choose. Professors might earn the distinction of tenure, but that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll keep putting in the long hours and late nights – and have the passion and drive – to be great educators. It’s true in your personal life as well. Being a parent isn’t just a matter of paying the bills and doing the bare minimum – it’s not bringing a child into the world that matters, but the acts of love and sacrifice it takes to raise that child. It can happen to presidents too: Abraham Lincoln and Millard Fillmore had the very same title, but their tenure in office – and their legacy – could not be more different.

Editorial Comment: What the . . . ? Do not try to be the best because that leads to complacency? Is is somehow Millard Fillmore’s fault that he did not have a Civil War crisis during his presidency?

And that’s not just true for individuals – it is also true for this nation. In recent years, in many ways, we’ve become enamored with our own success – lulled into complacency by our own achievements.

We’ve become accustomed to the title of “military super-power,” forgetting the qualities that earned us that title – not just a build-up of arms, or accumulation of victories, but the Marshall Plan, the Peace Corps, our commitment to working with other nations to pursue the ideals of opportunity, equality and freedom that have made us who we are.

Translation: The Marshall Plan and the Peace Corps defeated the German Nazis and Imperialist Japan and you really should have seen those Peace Corps volunteers kick Russia’s butt during the Cold War.

We’ve become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn’t reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us there; but hard work and smart ideas -quality products and wise investments. So we started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas and products that improve our lives.

All the while, the rest of the world has grown hungrier and more restless – in constant motion to build and discover – not content with where they are right now, determined to strive for more.

Translation: The rest of the world is so much better than us because they are striving to build and discover. Not for profit, of course, but out of the goodness of their hearts. Americans no longer care about building and discovering. Editorial Comment: But wait, I thought we were not supposed to try to be the best?

A willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame. A willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink the old dogmas. A lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige – and a commitment instead to doing what is meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world.

That’s the spirit that led a band of patriots not much older than you to take on an empire. It’s what drove young pioneers west, and young women to reach for the ballot; what inspired a 30 year-old escaped slave to run an underground railroad to freedom, and a 26 year-old preacher to lead a bus boycott for justice. It’s what led firefighters and police officers in the prime of their lives up the stairs of those burning towers; and young people across this country to drop what they were doing and come to the aid of a flooded New Orleans. It’s what led two guys in a garage – named Hewlett and Packard – to form a company that would change the way we live and work; and what led scientists in laboratories, and novelists in coffee shops to labor in obscurity until they finally succeeded in changing the way we see the world.

Translation: No one who ever did anything good was doing it for a profit. Hewlett and Packard were probably willing to give their products away. And the pioneers who went west, were doing it for the motherland. Their dream was to sacrifice in order to stretch this nation from sea to shining sea so that someday I could come along and give everyone free health care.

Just look to history. Thomas Paine was a failed corset maker, a failed teacher, and a failed tax collector before he made his mark on history with a little book called Common Sense that helped ignite a revolution. Julia Child didn’t publish her first cookbook until she was almost fifty, and Colonel Sanders didn’t open up his first Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was in his sixties. Winston Churchill was dismissed as little more than a has-been, who enjoyed scotch just a bit too much, before he took over as Prime Minister and saw Great Britain through its finest hour. And no one thought a former football player stocking shelves at the local supermarket would return to the game he loved, become a Super Bowl MVP, and then come here to Arizona and lead your Cardinals to their first Super Bowl.

Translation: Paine, Child, Sanders and Churchill all worked for free and as volunteers in non-profits. If they had been motivated by profit, they would have done nothing good. Please cheer because I just said something about the Arizona Cardinals.

And that’s not just how you’ll ensure that your own life is well-lived. It’s how you’ll make a difference in the life of this nation. I talked earlier about the selfishness and irresponsibility on Wall Street and Washington that rippled out and led to the problems we face today. I talked about the focus on outward markers of success that can lead us astray.

But here’s the thing, graduates: it works the other way around too. Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what’s in it for you – those also create ripple effects – ones that lift up families and communities; that spread opportunity and boost our economy; that reach folks in the forgotten corners of the world who, in committed young people like you, see the true face of America: our strength, our goodness, the enduring power of our ideals.

I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge. But it is also a privilege.

Translation: Everyone on Wall Street and in Washington is selfish, because even though I only gave 1% of my $1.7 million salary to charity last year, my intentions are good. None of you will make a profit in our current economy, but that doesn’t matter, just serve the motherland!

Because it is moments like these that force us to try harder, to dig deeper, to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor. Don’t ever stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort, as will this nation that we all love.

Congratulations on your graduation, and Godspeed on the road ahead.

Translation: Congratulations!

Text from Huffington Post.

Despite the passage of the  American Reinvestment Act, also known as the Obama stimulus package, tax and spend states still cannot balance the budget.

A recent Wall Street Journal article detailed how New York State continues to raise taxes – despite just having been handed $10 billion dollars via the American Reinvestment Act. The New York State Assembly used the federal dollars to increase spending by 9% and then hopes to close the deficit with new taxes. New York is raising taxes at a time when the rich who pay most of the taxes in the first place are fleeing the state in record numbers. Privately employed individuals are seeing pay cuts and unemployment, but public employees will find an 3% pay increase in their paychecks under the new budget. Politicians continue to spend other people’s money while the City of New York eyes bankruptcy.

The same scenario has been playing out in the state of Michigan over the past few years. Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm enacted huge tax increases after taking office and the Michigan economy has been tanking ever since.

Other states who are contemplating large tax increases include Oregon, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, Arizona and New Jersey.

What else do these states have in common?

All of these state received large amounts of money from the recent $875 billion dollar stimulus bill.

All of them still have huge budget deficits.

All of them feature liberal governments who continue to be elected because they bribe state citizens with public funds.

Businesses are leaving these states as fast as possible.

When will we learn that simple personal finance principle that we cannot spend more than we earn? When will states figure out that a good business climate equals a good tax base?

Do you think President Obama is paying attention?

Picture: Tomas Fano

The twists and turns of our financial crisis are numerous and complicated. The blame cannot be lay entirely at the feet of any one entity or individual. However, just for today, let us consider the role played by our new Secretary of the Treasury, one Timothy Geithner:

Mr. Geithner earned a B.A. in Asian Studies and a M.A. in international finance and Asian studies. Surprisingly, he does not possess an M.B.A. Mr. Geithner has had some well-documented tax issues, however, as Treasury Secretary, he hopes to track down international tax dodgers.

Takes one to know one.

In 1999, the Clinton administration embraced policies that encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to back sub-prime mortgages – with disastrous results. AIG and other financial institutions also invested heavily in that particular market. At this time, Mr. Geithner was overseeing the financial collapse of the Pacific Rim.

During the 1990′s, Tim Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund. Let me summarize the Sidney Morning Herald:

Tim Geithner is a gigantic fool, the IMF the gun that can’t shoot straight, Alan Greenspan a bungler. The big US banks were run by the greedy and the hopeless, the Australian banks by counter-hopping clerks. It’s a world of many villains.

I guess it is only fitting that he later cheated on the salary paid to him by the IMF.

So now we come to March 2009 and the Obama administration is outraged at the bonuses being handed out to AIG executives with TARP (bailout) money:

Noting that AIG has “received substantial sums” of federal aid from the federal government, Obama said he has asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner “to use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

The only problem is that President Obama didn’t realize that it was his very own Treasury Secretary who wrote the AIG bailout in the first place:

Behind the scenes, Mr. Geithner was the point person for weeks of sleep-deprived Bailout Weekends. It was Mr. Geithner, not Mr. Paulson, for example, who put together the original rescue plan for the American International Group.

So there you have it. The president wants Mr. Geithner to take taxpayer money away from taxpayers who were contractually obligated to receive certain compensations so that the government could then give the taxpayer money back to other taxpayers.

Of course the money doesn’t really exist anyway . . . but who’s keeping track?

The point is this: our government should have never encouraged financial institutions to lend money to sub-prime individuals and our government should have never bailed out failing bank and our government should not have any say in how a particular company compensates employees. Under the constitution of this country, as originally intended, Timothy Geithner would have never had the power to affect the lives of so many Americans.

Our founding fathers feared a corrupt government far more than they feared an unethical, greedy capitalist, so they limited the power of our federal government. They wanted to keep the federal government in a box. While it is true that people suffer from bad businesses, the reality is that far more people suffer from bad governments. We are far better off when we trust the citizens of this country to solve our problems.

Instead, it seems that we would rather trust a tax cheat.

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Recent update: Congress is trying to clean up this mess. Kind of like trying to clean up an oil spill with Crisco.

Cartoon Credit.

Our great country is about to take on another $800 billion to $1.2 trillion in debt. The United States of America is the most successful experiment in human governance. We took the radical ideas of England’s Magna Carta to a whole new level. For decades, we have led the world in compassion, innovation, creativity, hard work and a love of freedom.

Historically, this country rewarded those who took risks or worked hard. This country never promised a comfortable life for everyone – it only promised man the freedom to pursue happiness – equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. Millions of people have flocked to our shores to try their hand at fashioning a life for themselves. Each citizen was given more control over his destiny than at any other time or place in history. The entire free world – even much of the “un-free” world – has come to depend on us for protection. The world depends on us when disaster strikes – even our enemies. When an earthquake hits Iran or a tsunami occurs in the Indian ocean, Americans send health. The world depends on our free markets. Our standard of living supports the economies of almost every other country in the world and we still give billions of dollars away every year in Africa and other third world countries. Has the US of A made mistakes? Of course, show me a country who has not.

It is critical that we do not lose sight of what has made us great. There are many principles – religious freedom, freedom of speech, and more. The founding fathers sought to set up a nation that honored and promoted what was best in man. They sought to release his creativity and desire to do the best for his family with what he had. Capitalism and a belief in free markets, while not perfect, is also the best economic system devised by mankind. The evidence for this is all around us. I am not rich. I have no great plans for riches, however, I want to be the one making that decision, not a government bureaucrat.

I hope you have been following the news over the past months. If you are still wondering what is going on, I hope to share a few links to recent stories and quotations that will help to inform your thinking.

First a quotation from Henry Morgenthau, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest friend and treasury secretary. Here is what he said before Congress in 1939 after eight years of the New Deal:

“. . . And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!”

Government spending will not solve our economic problems. Read Five Myths about the Great Depression by Andrew Wilson. Our country has tried to spend its way out of trouble before. Which leads us to a quote (read the whole speech, it is inspiring!) from another great president, Ronald Reagan:

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

Now let us examine what has happened over the last two weeks in a little greater detail:

Breitbart: The new bill will put an average of $13 per week into the pocket of the average worker.

Wall Street Journal: The new bill will bring back welfare as we knew it before the Welfare Reform Act under President Clinton.

YouTube: Hundreds of economists oppose the new legislation.

Washington Times: Government contracts only go to companies with unionized employees.

Human Events: You and Republican Senators do not get to read the bill before it is passed. They should have at least let the people who voted for President Obama read it.

Bloomberg: The single worst provision in the entire bill. If you thought private health care was bad, just wait until you read what Tom Daschle, who was almost our Health and Human Services Director, and others like him have planned for our elderly and other people who are not valuable enough for advanced care.

So there you have it. Hopefully our children and grandchildren are not too angry with us for handing then over $1 trillion in debt when we panicked in the face of 7% unemployment. Unfortunately, they might be facing far worse problems because of our spendthrift ways.

If you believe this bill will revitalize our economy, I sure hope you are right. If you oppose this bill, even though it has already passed, be sure to let your voice be heard by contacting your elected officials or checking out nostimulus.com.