Keller @ Large: Does This Presidential Race Make Economy Worse?
BOSTON (CBS) – I've been observing political campaigns for a long time, my entire life, and since I'm well over a hundred years old, that is a very long time indeed.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
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OK, I'm not over a hundred, sometimes it just feels that way.
But I have seen a lot of campaigns in my time, and I fully understand that they are all about detailing the differences between the major parties and one trying to seize power from the other.
In that sense, the current race for president – still over 13 months away from its climax – is not unusual.
The Republicans have been hammering away at President Obama since about five minutes after he took office, terming him a socialist, and worse.
And lately, the president's been returning the favor, touring the country making nakedly political speeches casting the GOP as the chief deterrent to economic recovery.
But there is something unusual about the context for all of this.
The global economy, in case you hadn't noticed, is in distress.
And among the key reasons for that downward spiral, as well as the failure to snap out of it, is an utter lack of confidence in the ability of the political class to set partisanship and ideology even somewhat aside and get their act together to make the right moves.
From the New York Times: "Companies…are holding back on spending even though they have built cash reserves to 6 percent of their total assets, the highest level since at least 1952.... The proportion of United States companies' cash flow being spent on new equipment and other investments has not rebounded since the financial crisis and is stuck at the lowest level since the late 1950s…. A survey...of 60 large American companies published Thursday found that two-fifths actually planned to cut spending in the next six months."
In other words, business confidence is at a low ebb, and spectacles like the all-out partisan warfare being wallowed in by both parties don't help the situation.
Putting country over party and political gain?
That concept seems so antique now, like something from my youth, a hundred or so years ago.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
