What? Did you think Chief Comrade Pajama could just wave his mighty messiah hand and the entire world, much less the United States, would fall into place?Look, let's forget for a moment why Americans voted Pajama into office (the ultimate affirmative action project), and consider the well-concealed obvious: The Pajama Administration's socio-economic policies, as it stands now, are not conducive to the engine that drive American and indeed the world into financial prosperity. Governments are only the facilitator of the economic engine; industries are the true backbone of the world's economy. The world's industries are scared shitless with Pajama at this point in time. In the following paragraphs, I will present my case.

2007 wasn't exactly a banner year in the US; two cluster-fuck wars, at-the-pump gasoline prices was at an all time high, the real estate market was a joke, the Bush Administration's PR campaign was idiotic, I can go on and on. Even in the mist of all this, the US' Gross Domestic Product still eked out a decent 2.5 percent gain. And the major US equities indices were still trading in the upper 1/3 range.In fact, both the DOW and the S&P 500 traded at an all time high during the third quarter of 2007. The NASDAQ was trading at levels only seen during the tech-crazy late 1990's. I know full well that economies and markets are cyclical, however, there has to be a triggering event, or mechanism, or perhaps triggering men as it were. Yes, triggering men. I know this is starting to get convoluted, but stay with me.

Entering the first quarter of 2008, the markets carried much of the momentum from the previous year, despite a continuance of the same problems. If you recall, the presidential campaign was going hot and heavy at the beginning of 08. It was still neck to neck for the Dems but on the GOP side, candidates were starting to drop out in favor of McCain, with the exception of Romney and Huckabee. By early February of 08, Romney had dropped out and endorsed McCain. Huckabee was pretty much done. With McCain as the clear and undisputed choice for the GOP, the DOW dropped 800 points in one week. Other indices follow suit. Why? Because McCain, in terms of fiscal conservatism, is only slightly to the right of Pajama. I've often joked that McCain is my favorite Democrat. Trigger man #1.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Rodham and Pajama was neck to neck. The dream match-up for the GOP would've been McCain versus Hillary Rodham. And for awhile Hillary Rodham was actually leading in the polls among the Dems for about a month and a half. Hey, better to have the incarnation Jimmy Carter than Karl Marx. The markets responded; the Dow jumped about 2500 points and other indices follow suit. But Pajama's star power was too much for Hillary Rodham, especially in fund raising. Pajama out-spent Hillary Rodham into oblivion and that trend would continue with McCain as well. By early summer 08, Pajama was the Dems' clear front runner. His star-power proved too powerful. Sure Hillary was still around, but all she had left were the butch-lesbian-nazis. So it was going to be McCain versus the all-powerful, all-knowing, second messiah Offtherack Pajama. The GOP was nervous and so were the markets. The DOW dropped 3000 points in a month, think about it, 3000 points in one month. And this was BEFORE the panic-selling between October and November of 08. McCain versus Pajama is not even a fair fight (if there is such a thing), despite what the mass media and politicos would have you believe. McCain is a washed-up political never was and Pajama has the ability to make most people think that he's Jesus Christ. To be fair, I think that McCain is a decent enough man, but his time was in 2000. McCain would've been the perfect follow up to Bubba the Lewinsky Slayer, but as luck would have it, McCain got out-maneuver by W in the primary of that election cycle.

But Huy, why are the world's mightiest industries scared shitless of Pajama? Okay, I'll tell you why: Because when you're campaigning to be the President of the United States and you PROMISED to raise taxes on big bad corporations that hires people, provide a steady source of income for people, provide affordable health insurance for people, provide retirement benefits for people, provide the BIGGEST source of tax revenues for the local, state, and federal governments, and is the biggest source of revenues for charities; what do you expect corporations to do? They have to go on the defensive; they have to go into self-protect mode. That means: Cut back on everything. Capital expenditure? Cut back. Personnel? Cut back. Benefits? Cut back. The result of all this cut backs? Well, it's obvious. It's easy for Pajama to preach socialistic virtues when the DOW is at 13,000 points, but it's another thing to practice socialism when the economy is in the tanks. The US is the world's economic leader by default, everything trickle down from the US. The rest of the world might not like it, but this is how it is. The health of the world's economies is heavily dependent upon the health of the United States' economy. There are many economies in the world that have lived through socialism and they are more afraid of Pajama than we Americans are afraid of him. Trigger man #2.

And with Pajama, we're all getting a packaged deal. Pajama is the executive mouth-piece for the likes of Clueless Comrade Pelosi, Dingy Harry Reid, Affirmative-Action-Gone-Wrong Barbara Boxer, and Master-Mind Axelrod. To name but a few.

But you know what? It's not too late to correct this ship. In order to correct our economy, Pajama MUST act as his own man and ignore the fatally-flawed philosophy of his party. Pajama has such enormous popularity with the American people that he can get away from the usual party-line party-loyalty crap. Pajama is the rare politician that can be dislike by his own party and still be loved by the American people. All Pajama has to do is cut corporate taxes or at the very least maintain W's tax cuts. Pajama can still keep some of his social programs, but fundamentally, he must cut corporate taxes in order to trigger another up-cycle. The problem is that liberal Democrats would rather sacrifice their first born than appear pro-corporation. This is why it's essential for Pajama to break from the fringe of his party on this issue and take the middle road for the betterment of the US and indeed the world.
~Huy Nguyen

Happy new year everyone. Steve Jobs leaving Apple Inc is not that big of a deal. In fact, this could potentially help the company if the board manages to find a better replacement for him. I will concede that for 7 years during this decade, Jobs' management of Apple has been fruitful (get it? fruitful Apple?....oh nevermind). But 2008 has been stale for Apple Inc. Remember the massive advertisement campaign for the MacBook Air? No? Well, the Air didn't float. That's just one Jobs faux pas though.

The biggest problem with Apple is this: Too many expensive products. Apple's strategy now is to out-spend their competition on advertising and going after the "Green" crowd, vis-a-vis people who worship at the temple of The Al Gore (Macs are the world's first dolphin-safe computer).

Apple's current management reminds me a lot of the McCain presidential campaign; instead of selling your own ideas and products, you're just bashing your competition in the hopes that people will ignore your own deficiencies.

Check out my previous musing on Apple at my Wal-Mart page.

And finally, please allow me to propose a toast for the new year: Ladies and gentlemen, here's to Chief Comrade Pajama governing from the center, something we can all drink to. (I'm drinking dolphin-safe champagne.)
~Huy Nguyen