[Vision2020] Mad Cow or House of Cards?

[Jim Meyer]

(It must be late--Here it is again with proper subject line)

Dick,
There is clearly top down pressure to avoid enforcement of any 
regulations that might have a negative impact on business. In the 
pharmaceutical business you can see this by comparing the number of 
letters sent to drug manufacturers for illegal/poor practices during the 
Clinton administration verses the Bush administration. It could hardly 
be more obvious. When you couple your observation with mine and couple 
what any person would read about other industries (for instance 
energy),  you'd have to be living under a rock not  to see  the truth.

A thoughtful, observant, but somewhat presumptive person might read into 
this and see signs of desperate attempts to avoid a meltdown of the U.S. 
economy. The European Union, China, and India are in increasingly strong 
competition with us. We can't afford our social programs and also an 
illegal war in Iraq. Our tax base isn't high enough, but increasing 
taxes might slow the economy. We have a huge trade imbalance. 
Competition for limited worldwide oil reserves guarantees stress on the 
economy. We have taken temporary actions to prop up the stock market, 
and are still trying the same vein by promoting privatization of social 
security. Although the general standard of living of normal people is 
going down, corporate welfare and trickle down have temporarily kept the 
economy perking along, at least on paper. Is it a house of cards? The 
desperation tells me that it might be. I hope I am wrong.

Jim Meyer