Upside of economic woes

Every morning when pouring my cereal and opening up my newspaper, or rather, my web browser, my mood is shattered by the doom and gloom of the American economic system. Just a few months ago hope and change reigned supreme. Not so much these days. It looks like housing meltdowns, credit crises, and our patriotic duty to spend willy-nilly have put a little bump on the yellow-brick road to prosperity. Let’s not drown ourselves in our bowl of generic, shredded wheat just yet though. We might actually get some of that sought after change— but don’t call it a comeback. It won’t be the type of change Presidential campaigns are won and lost on. It will be the kind of change you find under your couch cushions. Maybe it is just that the Bank of America “Keep the Change” savings marketing campaign is working, or more realistically, that the American people have been scared into saving. Because in the face of all chaos happening to the financial markets, layoffs, and pay cuts, Americans are actually saving more. In fact today, the Personal Savings Rate is the highest it has been in 14 years.

Call me old fashioned, but saving money seems like the best way to deal with stagnant credit markets and irresponsible financial institutions. I know, it is trendy, and “new school” to be pro bailout; pro spending; and pro borrowing (so that you are able to spend more), but I’m an old school kind of guy.

Here are a few simple things to consider. If the savings deposits in banks are higher, banks have more money to invest and loan out. And if banks, on average, are loaning to people with bigger savings accounts than they were previously, they must generally be in a safer position. But this must be too simple to be true. After all, both former President Bush and current President Obama would disagree with such analysis. After 9/11 Bush told the American people the best thing they could do to help their country was to go shopping! And Obama’s priority has been to get the credit markets back on track as quickly as possible! What is the underlying message from both the former and sitting Commander-in-Chief? Spend now, spend more, spend again (and again)! And we thought that Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on anything.

From our political leaders to our next door neighbors, we are proud to be a credit card nation. That is to say, not only are we addicted to spending, but if Americans aren’t spending, the whole world feels it. As we’ve recently found out, spending at unsustainable levels and living far beyond our means causes a few problems. And now that the credit fairy has run out of gold pixie dust—and we can’t take a 2nd mortgage on our houses or get an equity line of credit—we have to cut back on our $8 cups of coffee, our designer sunglasses, and our favorite restaurants.

Talking about savings isn’t very sexy, but it is essential to economic recovery and personal financial well being. China, a chief foreign investor in the United States, has cited the relative low savings levels of Americans coupled with our excessive spending habit as dangerous to long-term sustainability. That’s right. China is tutoring us in fiscal discipline. And it should be common knowledge by now that Americans are near the bottom of the list in personal savings levels compared to other developed nations. Bailouts and policies making it much easier to get credit look good at first glance; but it seems like what we are really talking about is giving the American people two new rights: the right to spend unabashedly, and the right to maintain an inflated, unaffordable quality of life. Not to mention the right of financial institutions to make poor decisions and still live to loan another day.

Our spend-a-lot policies are sending a clear message to our children, our adults, and our major companies: “spend as much as you want, and if you run out, don’t worry, the government has got you covered.”

Washingtonian wisdom these days seems to be that we are going to spend our way out of these dark economic times—but in actuality we are once again using credit cards. Don’t worry though, congress and the Administration won’t have to pay back these loans, our prosperous future generations will. As if economic growth and prosperity is guaranteed ad infinitum. But what do I know about all of this murky, economic mumbo jumbo? I am just a twenty-something year old kid. While I don’t know much, I am sure about one thing: my friends and I will be the people paying off this debt. So we had better save up now.

If the economic rollercoaster is causing Americans to save more, I say bring it on! Savings must become part of the plan to overhaul out-of-control government expenditures and excessive personal spending—so that we can actually protect the potential for prosperity of our next generation. We need to reopen a policy debate about effective and responsible savings policies that help ensure economic stability and opportunity for American people today and tomorrow.

And best of all, when you save for yourself, you get to keep the change.

Brian Calle is the President of the Young Executives of America (YEA), a member of Gen-Next, a Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and a Distinguished Speaker and the Milton Friedman Foundation School Choice Speakers Bureau.

Celebritizing of politics isn't good

Before leaving for a brief sojourn through South America, I noticed something troubling on the news. On one channel, hordes of photographers followed Britney Spears around snapping shots of her every move while she was out and about somewhere in LA or New York. Bored with the usual pop drivel, I flipped to Fox News and there was a very similar scene of flashing bulbs and a legion of paparazzi.

But Fox News was not covering Britney Spears, they were covering Alaska's Governor, Sarah Palin. The scenes were almost identical, both women were being swarmed by countless reporters--every move being photographed.

This type of celebritization of political identities is not just a problem for Palin though. Our soon-to-be President Barack Obama is widely treated like a celebrity and was even criticized about it by the McCain camp in a very successful campaign advertisement. At moments, Obama's campaign (and McCain's for that matter) seemed to craft Hollywood-esque scenarios to capture the attention of the audience...the voters.

When elections become nothing more than popularity contests and public persona is more important than policies and principles, democracy suffers.

Tech outreach wooed youth to BHO

What's the campaign doing to attract young voters, I asked a McCain official last month. The look on her face was all I needed to know, but her response made it worse. "The campaign has pretty much given up on reaching out young voters," she said. "They have all pretty much bought in to Obama’s message.” Imagine my shock when I heard this. By that logic, I was voting for Obama. Truly shocking! She went on to lament that young people really believed in the Democrat’s positions on global warming, health care, the war in Iraq, and even the economy. This devout McCain supporter was being very honest and sincere with what she said and what seemed to be the common wisdom within the McCain camp.

It took me a few days to really digest what exactly those sentiments meant and what implications they might have on American politics. If we are to believe that young voters have already “bought in” to the positions of the Democratic Party, the GOP is in much deeper trouble than ever imagined. If the Republicans can't win over the youth on at least one of the most important issues of our time, the future of the party is bleak—better yet—non existent. And the Conservative Movement would be done for too.

Fortunately, I don’t buy it and neither should you. Here is why.

What President-elect Obama’s campaign did (brilliantly, I might add) is talk to young voters in their language: technology. He bridged the digital divide with a vivid and robust campaign largely waged on the internet. He had advertisements on various websites, search engine ad words, blogs, facebook groups, and much more. His online campaign was so well organized that he even sent an email out to thank all of his supporters while he was on his way to make his acceptance speech.

Why does any of this matter? First off, if you are asking that question, you are part of the problem. But it matters because technology is a low cost way to get a targeted message out to a lot of people. His ability to do this not only allowed him to capture a lot of votes and volunteers for walking precincts and such, but it also allowed him to build an unparalleled donor base—made up mostly of small donors. Each one of his email messages went out asking for $5 or $10, an amount even a college student is willing to shell out if she believes in the cause.

Obama’s campaign online, made it very difficult for McCain to make up the difference on the ground because the internet support translated into real world volunteers and real money.

But we can’t blame John McCain or the RNC, there is no way they could have seen this coming. Ha! Howard Dean laid the framework for this type of campaign warfare in 2004 when he was running for President. His fortitude in online fundraising and campaigning is largely the reason he is the Chairman of the DNC. This was a well thought out, well implemented campaign strategy that paid dividends. And it will continue to pay dividends for some time.

For the GOP, the time is now to design, refine and implement. I would say it is catch up time, but catching up is no longer good enough—the party will need to find a way to get ahead of the curve. It is not too hard to do, so online marketing, video content, targeted messaging, and some interesting original content and they are off to a start.

More importantly though, don’t write off the youth. There was one Republican during the primary--dull, uncharismatic, and little quirky—that was able to make inroads with youth voters in droves: Ron Paul. At one point during the campaign season Ron Paul achieved the record for online fundraising (which I believe was later shattered by Barack Obama). Much of Ron Paul’s groundswell of support is easily attributed to a strong internet based campaign that was largely targeted towards youth voters.

And while Ron Paul is not by any stretch of the imagination “in line” with the orthodoxy of the Republican Party, many of his limited government, free market ideas resonated with young voters -- which should at least give a little hope into the willingness of my generation to listen to good arguments.

Southern Cal students 1, CNN 0

Apparently even media juggernauts make mistakes now and then, and it takes a bunch of college students to catch them in the act. CNN mistakenly used a faux College Republican from the University of Southern California (my alma mater) in a piece meant to show how Republican students are uninterested in John McCain's candidacy for President.

Needless to say, the College Republicans group took offense and fired back. You can view there response at the the California College Republican website.

Soon after, the LA Times picked up the story and CNN's apology. Here it is on their blog.

Now if the College Republicans could only get CNN to apologize for Larry King...

Paris for President

As everyone knows, celebrity heiress Paris Hilton recently made a video response to that McCain ad likening Obama's celebrity status to that of both Ms. Hilton and Britney Spears. (If you missed the McCain ad because you have been hiding under a rock, you can view it here.) McCain's commercial which calls into question Obama's glittering fame as a criteria for leadership has gained the McCain camp some serious publicity and a jump in fundraising. But Hilton's video response has also caused quite a stir. Not only is it mildly humorous and definitely entertaining. It also proposes an energy policy that combines the best elements of the rival presidential contenders.

Hilton's "hybrid" energy policy calls for offshore drilling just long enough to buy us time to begin creating alternative energy vehicles that could be produced in Detroit--thus helping to revive the one-time vibrant automobile industry there. See the video for yourself.

I never thought I would say this, but on energy policy, I vote Paris Hilton. Though to be fair, the policy she is outlining is closer to McCain's than Obama's plan--and my suspicion is that in coming months the Obama camp will move closer to the Hilton plan... who knows, they might even chose her for Veep.

I wonder what Britney Spears will have to say about this.