Apparently, Mortimer's unfamiliar with the common corporate party line that one should not complain unless one has suggestions on how to fix it. Had Mort embraced the notion of our crumbling structure based on Western Financialism, made a few salient suggestions, or even plead a cause it may have been excusable for an elitist purveyor of "Class A Properties" (from Boston Properties' website) to appeal to the masses in the manner undertaken, yet he did none. For the above reasons this writer must believe that the piece was constructed solely for the purpose of snuggling up to the incoming Republican Congress with hopes of getting into the negotiations on how commercial real estate can be saved.A year and a half ago Obama was walking on water. Today he is barely treading water. Then, his soaring rhetoric enraptured the nation. Today, his speeches cannot lift him past a 45 percent approval rating.There is a widespread feeling that the government doesn't work, that it is incapable of solving America's problems...They are outraged and feel that the system is not a level playing field, but is tilted against them. The millions of unemployed feel abandoned by the president, by the Democratic Congress, and by the Republicans.The American people wanted change, and who could blame them? But now there is no change they can believe in.The fundamental problem is starkly simple: jobs and the deepening fear among the public that the American dream is vanishing before their eyes...Some 6.8 million people have been unemployed in the last year for six months or longer. Their valuable skills are at risk, affecting their economic productivity for years to come. Add to this despairing army the large number of those only partially employed and those who have given up their search for work, and we have cumulative totals in the tens of millions.Millions cannot make minimum payments on their credit cards, or are in default or foreclosure on their mortgages, or are on food stamps. Well over 100,000 people file for bankruptcy every month.Some 25 million jobless or underemployed people now wish to work full time, but few companies are ready to hire. No speech is going to change that.The promise of economic health that might salvage industries and jobs, and provide a safety net, has proved illusory. The support for cutting spending and cutting the deficit reflects in part the fact that the American public feels the Obama-Congress spending program has not worked.
Populism for profit, nothing more.
