News

The election cycle in the U.S. has been in full swing for months and it is quickly drawing to a close. All of the candidates for public office are trying to make their election sure. What about your election? Are you making it sure?

Are you sometimes flummoxed by the news reports you see and read? Publicity-seekers abound, and the various media syndicates are hungry for stories to help them meet their deadlines and beat the competition. They eagerly fill each 24-hour news cycle with reports of the aberrant behavior of political leaders and the spectacular and often outrageous activities of the latest box office idols, rock stars, or superstar athletes. Amid the daily hullabaloo, news of real importance is often overlooked, even in the most trying of times.

As Hurricane Sandy clears the East Coast of the United States, storm damage is estimated at between $20 and $50 billion. Communities from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to the east end of Long Island, New York are still trying to cope with floodwaters from the most damaging storm to hit the northeastern U.S. in recent years. As of Wednesday evening, more than six million people were still without power. The New York City subway system will manage only “limited” service on Thursday. The New Jersey Transit system is in what one official called “disarray,” with much of its service still suspended.

I remember seeing my mother sew a pouch in my father’s long johns with their life’s savings in it, when news of bank failure came many years ago. My father went to work carrying a shotgun. Why was all of this necessary? Are we talking about the good old United States of America?

Recessions, unemployment, mortgage defaults, bankruptcies, debt and poverty: these negative, economically-related terms appear in today’s headlines across the globe. Why? What’s wrong with the world’s economies?