I think Obama may be looking for a stimulus and jobs deal with Congress in the wrong places. While parts of the jobs bill may be passed, time is being lost and the continuing acrimony is making the economy weaker. The Tea Party is attempting to bring down both Obama and establishment Republicans with a no compromise strategy aimed at killing confidence and destroying the rest of an already weak economy. Obama's strategy to either get cooperation from Congress or run against a "do nothing" Congress may work, but it is not the best strategy.

The essence of the economic crisis is a banking crisis. The essence of the banking crisis is housing and mortgage finance. The answer to the economic crisis is to fix housing--both in terms of working through excess inventory and foreclosures, and to allow a broad spectrum of homeowners to refinance their current mortgages to lower rates. Geithner's policies have done little to address housing. Hamp and Harp have been ineffective because of bank resistance and self defeating regulations.

Normally I only watch CNBC with the sound turned off but this morning I forgot to turn the volume down and Nelson was being interviewed. I say "Nelson" because the little capitalists were "stroking" Nelson shamelessly, he warmly responded to their cues and as I do with T.V. characters like "Dexter" and "Roger Sterling" I began to think of "Nelson" as a friend. I felt so much at one with Nelson and his worship of capitalism that I overcooked my oatmeal and then spilled my skim milk.

About breakfast--Nelson is a noted investor in "food" and runs the Trian Fund. He has doubled and trebled his wealth by investing variously in Wendy's, Arby's, Snapple, Cadbury, and most notably in this morning's money-orgy discussion, the Kraft foods company. I must admit I felt a momentary lapse in my adoration for Nelson because all the food "brands" I just mentioned I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, and count part of my longevity to having avoided consuming such "brands". (Of course, that's just my opinion and not the opinion of the management of this site.)

There is the basic concept of human scale which asserts humans interact with their social and physical environments based on their dimensions, capabilities and limits. We generally encounter the concept in architecture and city planning.  But it is just as important in the political and social realm. 

The past few weeks said much about who we are, what kind of people we are and how we see our country and our mission.  It included, of course, the need to have our attention brought back to the day when we were attacked as a people and as a nation, and all of that caused many to both weep for what we lost that day, and for the mistakes and waste that followed.

These weeks also have encompassed, maybe illustrated better than ever, the vastly different views that many of us hold, from those of a large number of our fellow citizens.  In short order we have seen audiences applaud one presidential candidate for the large number of executions his state has undertaken since he became its Governor, and another suggest that a person without medical insurance who suddenly is in a coma, be allowed to die as a consequence.

We are told that liberals want a "mommy state" and that the government that does the least is the best government there can be.  We are all on our own.  Regulations should be curtailed.  If you want to eat food, you just have to be careful and take your chances.  If it is true that this view can elect a president and a Congress, then we are no longer the United States of America.  We are just random individuals sharing space. 

It is hard to believe we have sunk so low.

Maybe it’s because of what I see every morning from my kitchen window– the view over coffee of my former neighbor’s foreclosed and rapidly deteriorating home – that the Obama Administration’s housing policy so depresses me. Or maybe what depresses me is the housing policy itself. 

The house is visibly rotting before my eyes. The weeds are now growing through the middle of the air-conditioning units. The gutter no longer links directly to the downspout. The fascia boards are succumbing to the carpenter bees. Like any house unoccupied and unloved, what I see each morning is a rapidly deteriorating building that once physically embodied the hopes of everyone who lived inside it – owned now, no doubt, by a bank that is apparently too busy or too casual even to maintain its upkeep. What I see each morning stands as a daily reminder of the scale and character of the recession that still besets us. What I see each morning reminds me that we are currently suffering not just a jobs crisis but also a crisis of homes. People have lost more than paid work in this recession, though many of them have certainly lost that. They have also lost dreams.

My enthusiasm—yes, and excitement—over the possibilities of the Thiel Fellowships (for youth under 18 years-old) continues. I previously cited how Nick Cammarata and David Merfield, are developing ways to revolutionize schooling by changing the ways that teachers teach—giving their lectures online in the homes of their students, and using class time for exposition and application.