Obama says US has Stake in Indonesian Democracy, Prosperity

President Barack Obama said the U.S. has a stake in Indonesia’s continued growth as a market for American goods and as an ally in spreading democracy.

In a speech to an audience of about 6,000 people at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Obama said Indonesia’s “extraordinary democratic transformation” and its religious tolerance stand as examples to other emerging economies.

“America has a stake in an Indonesia that is growing, with prosperity that is broadly shared among the Indonesian people,” Obama said, “because a rising middle class here means new markets for our goods, just as America is a market for yours.”

Is this true proof that our economy has recovered that we are now showing higher production and export levels, and are even assisting in the growth of foreign markets?

Out of the Recession...Out of Debt??

The legalization of marijuana has become an increasingly popular subject of conversation nowadays, with pot use increasing in every single demographic. Our government has shown strong distaste for the small plant, but some have shown that pot could be our country's way out of not only our recession, but out of debt. The global war on "drugs" has taken the control of a substance no more harmless to one than alcohol, and given control of it to crime syndicates and drug lords across the world, increasing the number of those incarcerated (tax dollars spent) and doing everything to prevent the use of the now seemingly harmless drug.

"The racial disparities are appalling. As Michelle Alexander so eloquently shows in her new book, "The New Jim Crow," a drug conviction automatically makes a person a second-class citizen who can be legally discriminated against in housing and employment, denied school loans, and barred for life from serving on juries, accessing public benefits and even voting. While African Americans make up only about 13 percent of the U.S. population and about 15 percent of drug users, they make up about 38 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and a mind-boggling 59 percent of those convicted for drug law violations.

Like Prohibition did for alcohol, drug prohibition is also enriching organized crime. Instead of regulating marijuana to control who can access it, policymakers have ceded control of the $400-billion-a-year global drug market to crime syndicates and thugs.

In Mexico, where parts of the country are like Chicago under Al Capone on steroids, 28,000 people have died since President Calderón launched a war three years ago against well-armed, well-funded drug trafficking organizations. The U.S. government doesn't report its prohibition-related deaths, but law enforcement officers, drug offenders and civilians die every day in our country's war on drugs, too."

Is it finally time to really considering legalizing what was once thought to be the worst thing to come to our country? It seems that the tax revenue from the sales alone will help our country's economic growth in huge ways.

Home Prices Down Again

Prices fell again on homes in the US for the second straight month in July, as the mortgage loan companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw losses for the month. Being the second month that this has happened, are these signs of a double-dip recession with the overall "slow-but-steady" growth in domestic markets? Or just a continuation of the recession that has been going on for a couple years?

College Grads Expand Lead in Job Security

We are all aware that having a college degree provides better jobs with better wages, but recent statistics show that people with college degrees also have higher chances of keeping their job during tougher times.

According to the article, the unemployment rate for workers 25-and-older with a bachelor's degree or higher was 4.6% in August, compared with 10.3% for those with just high-school diploma. The article also states that laid-off college graduates find work faster than those without a college degree, as the median unemployment time as of August for college graduates was 18.4 weeks compared to 27.5 weeks for high-school graduates.

We learned in class how increase in Human Capital (H) increases Marginal Productivity of Labor (MPL), and that in return increases the average wage of the unskilled (L). Interestingly, the article also states that although a college grad on average earns 64% more than a high-school grad, the wage premium hasn't been climbing much since 2001. Given that the number of college graduates (Human Capital) has skyrocketed in the last decade, and the statistic provided above, we can infer that the increase in Human Capital actually increases the wage of the Labor (unskilled).

Warren Buffett: "No Double Dip Recession"

Speaking today by video to the Montana Economic Development Summit, the AP quotes him as telling those attending: "I am a huge bull on this country. We are not going to have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back across the board."

Bloomberg feels the same way, in that all businesses are making a slow comeback and we should not be faced with any deflationary period that the double-dip recession entails. It seems that the general feeling towards the economy through some of our top economic figures in this country have no real concern for our ailing economy and see it getting better in the foreseeable future.

Where the jobs are now, and where they'll be next

U.S. companies modestly added jobs in August, easing concerns that the nation might slip back into a recession. The latest jobs report released by the Labor Department today is better than expected. Employment in the private sector rose by 67,000 payrolls, after a revised 107,000 increase in July that was more than originally estimated. The report immediately sent stocks rallying, despite the fact that overall employment dropped and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.6% from 9.5%, as more people actively searched for jobs.

The report is neither good or bad news. It will certainly take a while before unemployment falls to pre-recession levels.

Strong Exports Lift Agriculture, A Bright spot in U.S Economy

Even during the time of recession, one sector that is boosting the U.S economy is the Agriculture. With countries like Canada, Mexico, and China on its top export list, U.S will have exported $107.5 billion in agricultural products by the end of the fiscal year. The major reason for the growth in the export has been the reduction of supply in the international agriculture market, which has also caused the prices of the agricultural goods to shoot up. Interestingly, the article also states that prices for agricultural goods will only increase moderately as the the farmer's value added is only a small amount compared to the final price of the goods produced.