Political Equinox

Well, I’d like to say this is official from the McCain campaign, but it’s not. In fact, nobody has even mentioned the fact that Mike Huckabee is obviously off the VP List of about 20 names, but Huckabee certainly knows it. Of course, I’m making the assumption that the former Arkansas Governor was even on the list.

So how do I know he’s off the list? Typically, when you find out you are no longer a candidate for your desired job you go searching for other opportunities.

Huckabee is moving forward with all due speed on setting up a television show on the Fox News Channel. Why would a man who could be accepting a VP nomination be setting up a TV show that he would host? All that marketing dollars would go to waste if they decided to set up the new show.

In addition to discussing a show with Fox News, “The Huckster” filled in for Paul Harvey twice last week.

He seems to be keeping himself busy with the Huck PAC and I don’t see McCain selecting him as the VP choice.

Who do you see as the Republican VP choice?

John McCain wrote an op-ed piece that apparently defended his stance on the Iraq War and attempted to lay out his plan for Iraq. The editorial was rejected by the New York Times. At first, I was ticked that the NY Times would play bias and print only an editorial by one side, but then I discovered the real problem. After reading the editorial released by the McCain campaign, it is apparent why it was rejected in that it contains little regarding McCain’s plan.

I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

Only one statement in the editoral seems to lay out a concrete plan for Iraq. The presumptive Republican nomineee writes that “I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.” But other than that he offers little in terms of his real plan for Iraq. Instead McCain decided to bash Obama’s plan - now that’s fine if you are going to offer up real solutions, but he didn’t.

McCain editoral was not a proposal, but instead it was an attack on Barack Obama’s plan for the Iraq war. Apparently, someone sent the piece to the Opinion section instead of the graphic designer for touchups before running a full page ad. Shame on the McCain campaign for attempting to use the Opinion section of the Times to launch an attack ad against Obama - hopefully, the campaign will revise the poorly written piece and submit a real plan for Iraq (and maybe he should go after a plan on economics while he’s at it).

Mayor Tom Henry, along with Councilman Mitch Harper & Councilwoman Karen Goldner, were present today at a press conference introducing some new additions to downtown Fort Wayne. I drove past the press conference on my way back from lunch and wondered what was going on (You can’t exactly just stop on Calhoun Street though.). Thanks to WANE TV for finally filling us in.

These additions to Fort Wayne are an interesting and creative asset, but they are just the start to improving our downtown and bringing the people back. The city should consider selling advertising on the chairs. Much to the disappointment of many Journal Gazette letter to the editor writers these are not named “Harrison Chairs.”

As the world continues to creep closer and closer to ultimate globalization, international finance continues to become a chief concern among those interested in preserving the economic independence present in the current world.

Currently, hedge funds are regarded by many Americans as the largest investment vehicle that has the power to overwhelm markets with large trades. Nevertheless, these hedge funds will soon look like child’s play when the world catches a grasp of the new financial holding vehicle, the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). SWF’s are like hedge funds on steroids, rolling in at nearly twice the size in equity value.

These funds haven’t made much news in the US other than a couple of articles in the financial news and few hearings in the Senate Banking Committee last fall (who are now concerned with ensuring their re-elections, so they are focusing on the problems nagging at the US economy instead looking ahead). However, as of late 2008 the 28 countries with SWF’s total up at a balmy $2.1 trillion and some experts say the values could easily be within the $7-10 trillion range by 2012.

With current world equity estimated at some $150 trillion, SWF’s with $2-3 trillion can be a little scary considering that rising star, China, has some $200 billion in a SWF. (That China fund is the likely home of some of your stimulus check.) Last June, China’s SWF sank $3 billion into Wall Street Investment Bank, Blackstone Group, LP and the stock price quickly fell from $31 to $22. This is just one example of the potential effects of SWF’s.

The SWF’s are likely to be poorly managed due to government inefficiency, but even a poorly managed fund could generate returns of 8% which is almost unspeakable considering the alternative of low-yielding Treasury Bills.

Despite the fact that the funds have yet to makes waves in the United States, the International Monetary Fund recently rounded up the first rounds of round table discussion on the subject. And the IMF hopes to put in place some sort of “best practices” for SWF’s including making the funds more transparent. The transparency requests is something a few countries, notably a few in the Middle East, have balked at.

While some take the view of just more capital to invest in global markets, with the United States not having much of a playing field in this department it is difficult to assume that this situation provides for much other than a few countries with trillions of dollars managing the other economies of the worth.

In a sense, the United States could become what Warren Buffet calls a “sharecropper economy,” where Americans work for firms that are under foreign control. This means that hypothetically, communist China could operate capitalist America, sound like a problem waiting to explode?

Therefore, after we get through with this sub-prime mortgage crisis and regulation reform, it would be nice to see the Senate Banking Committee spend just a little more time hearing about SWF’s because the consensus on the funds is just too mixed.

I know things have been awful quiet around these parts lately, but that’s because we’ve been hard at work on our new design for Political Equinox. We’ll be tweaking things over the next few weeks and there are probably quite a few parts that aren’t exactly working correctly at the moment. Be sure to let us know if you notice anything wrong and we’ll be sure to fix it right away.