CF,
Although we appear to be in an environment where sitting on cash by corporations appears to be king, it is interesting to note that some of the more astute and forward looking corporations are in the midst of making moves for the future. It is interesting to note that Google spent some of its large cash hoard on a purchase of part of Motorola earlier this week. When one looks at the fundamentals of the stock market right now, there is very little real justification for the situation that we find ourselves in as some reports state that corporations collectively in the United States are sitting on at least two trillion dollars of cash. We suppose that the political and regulatory environment in Washington and abroad have these same corporate decision makers on edge as to just where the future trends might lead. We know very little really. However, we do know this; If corporations think that they will get a better deal or environment out of a Republican administration that might replace the current one, they may be listening to the false sirens that lead to really bad outcomes. This world faces many challenges and not the least of them include the ever present situation with the environment. To unleash another wave of unregulated growth on the world could take us to the environental tipping point from which there may be no way of recovering from what may come as a result of that. We have been approaching the environmental precipice for some time now--decades really--and it will not be easy to reverse the trends that are currently in place, much less have any further escalation of them.
These things are tied into the concept of growth whether we like to admit that or not. Some of the more radical Republican candidates advocate abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States as they have totally bought into the idea that there is nothing really wrong with our environment. This is a position advocated by big oil and its use of bought and paid for data followed by a very small minority of scientists around the world. It is interesting to note that the media has been paying less and less attention to the environment in some ways as it has been forced to pay more and more attention to its consequences in others--Japan, tornadoes and floods in the U.S. and droughts and tidal waves in other parts of the world. A great deal of attention is now being increasingly paid to the drought in Somalia but an even more interesting phenomenon might be the drought and heat wave occurring in Texas that has spawned wild fires and other related events down there. We have also seen enormous andsorms in the southestern United states that are almost biblical in nature. One thing is for certain, there are becoming more and more extremes in temperature and events around the world than we have seen for some time. And, even more certain is the fact that although there have been events that are viewable from the past, we are seeing more and more of them lumped more and more closely together than we might have ever seen before.
Recent research and observation has concluded that there might be a mass extinction of ocean life not far across the horizon. Some of the canaries in the coal mine of that include the degradation of ocean reefs and coral around the world and the loss of fish in areas where they used to be far more plentiful than they are now. One source stated that an oil spill over on the coast of Africa that has been ongoing for many years might take as long as thirty years to clean up once they finally decide to begin.
It is a very complex world out there are we are very worried that the next president, particularly if they are a Republican such as Michelle Bachman or Rick Perry, may not even know the questions to ask much less be able to confront the situations that may decide all of our futures on this small and very interconnected planet.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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