Discussion

So far, Obama has done nothing but cost me money. I am furious but hopeful that he will do something so bad that people will start to hold him accountable. Thus far everyone he has endorsed or hired has some kind of serious scandal to their name. He's worse than the status quo.

As an aside, I think that this administration marks my complete disengagement with our government. I have a small business that I have been bootstrapping for 5 years and was hoping that this year I would finally take out an SBA loan to get me over the hump, but am again not going to seek financing and maybe get a part time job to try to put it together. I really don't want any part of this administration, nor do I want to be beholden to it in any way.

I thank you for your books. They really changed the way I see poverty and wealth. I am especially excited about 8 Rules and looking forward to expanding my education.

Hello and thank you for sincerely following your empowering mission, Robert.

I am in Perth, Australia and as I write this, a current affairs program is running on my television, just following the news. They are discussing the US bank bailouts and your President's proposal to cap payouts and salaries for underperforming bank executives.

I find it telling that one of the stakeholders who are crying foul about the proposed caps, stated emphatically to the Australian news crew that the "Government should stay out of banking issues". Apparently it is ok to bail out the banks, and consequently protect the positions of their executives. However, it is not ok to place conditions on the use of your taxpayer's money by capping the unwarranted greed and lack of responsibility of those who caused the current mess, according to view of the Wall Street boffins.

There is no part of the world which has been unaffected by the greed, incompetence, and criminal irresponsibility of the relevant bank executives.

Obama is the same in terms of philosophy and thought. His actions are also one in the same with the previous administration. Obama only differs in the "packaging," because he is admittedly more charismatic than most.

A lot of stupid people bought into his idea of change. My definiton of stupid is they can not be educated compared to someone who is ignorant. They all want everything for free and not have to exert any energy for lives.
We are in change of the bad kind on the horizon. Obama ran on a platform of socialism which the people seemed to like. Over time, this form of government will transition into place slowly.
The economy was slowing down under the Bush admin., but the job losses started to sharpely increase once obama was elected. The reason for this increase in the loss of jobs was because obama has plans to increase taxes. Employers see an decrease in the amount of money they have to keep for themselves to take care of their families in the form of retained earnings/net income will look for ways to cut costs to compensate for their increase in expenses. The first area of high costs are employees. Keep only the key employees and trim the fat. That strategy started with the small to mid sized businesses has now expanded out in a continous spiral outward.
As a small business owner, I believe the job losses will continue until all of the excess fat is trimmed. Then, if obama really wants to screw up the economy permanently, he will raise taxes and the producers will scale back to the point they produce enough to cover their living costs and nothing more. Why work hard and take risks when the government will only penalize you by taking more of your money?

Has anyone read the 48 laws of power??? If not, it's a great book. It outlines all the tricks of deception and mis-direction used by those who would gain power.

Law 45: Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once.

-Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

I feel bad for the people who think Obama is the new sheriff in town. We have the Clinton administration all over again.

He has done the exact same thing Bush did for a solution to the economic crisis. Push through a stimulus package that should make it all better. The only change is Obamas package was much much larger. Thus causing more and bigger problems

It's more of the same disguised as change. Just like most politicians he comes in acting like he's going to change things and not accept any bill with pork... but first stimulous out and it's full of pork. Clearly just another hypocritical politician, despite the fact that he seems to be a better speaker and have more people following him because of it.

Whenever I heard "Yes we can" from Obama, I wondered who the "we" was. Because certainly it doesn't mean me and it doesn't mean you.

At this point i don't know if obama is more of the same, or if he will solve the world economic crisis, but what I really want to know is; Are we "more of the same"? will we solve our economic crisis?

Only time can trully tell who Obama is but whatever he does the one and only problem that is definate with him is the etremely high expectations of him. Its like waiting for another Harry Potter film having read the book you expect something fascinating but a film is a film it can never compare to a book and even though the film is fantastic you still feel discontent. Think of Roosevelt and his campaigns against the Depression-he did a lot but the problems remained until the WW2 and even the things that he did do suffered extreme criticism. He tried to charge a company that was behaving dishonestly with his new laws but the Congress or some other US institution (excuse me my innaccuracy im not American) dominated by Republicans blocked his measures. Obama may have good intentions but he cannot push them through quickly as there will be so much opposition to it from the elites. He may also require those who use to be with Clinton for propaganda techniques. On the other hand he could be a puppet for certain people just a spokesman for people aiming to achieve something or he could be innefective so that a revolution will occur or he could end up being another dictator because we don't really know anything about him Americans jusy voted with their emotions for change (which we might not trully accept) when really they wanted somebody to save them. Problem is there is a LOT of people to save and really the goverment is already over loaded trying to cater for everybody's special needs. Whatever the outcome one can only take responsibility to find ideas of how to solve their problems and help others don't give up for example if the real estate market is down-somebody thought of a lottery to cover for his house so as to get rid of his house that way and even make a capital gain.