BO: Time Man of The Year (plus a segueing to Sarkozy)

In this story, B.O. stands for Barack Obama. It does not stand for body order or boron oxide. Hope you liked the chemistry in that last comment. :) Back to the story, Barack is the 2008 Time Man of The Year. Other notable people in the running were Sarah Palin (Governor of Alaska), Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Chinese Filmmaker Zhang Yimou, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It is surprising to see Zhang Yimou and Sarkozy on this list, especially Sarkozy. Sarkozy is President of The European Union (EU), and he holds this post in addition to his presidential duties in France. In an 60 minutes story earlier this year, Lesley Stahl referred to Sarkozy as "Sarko The American." He has been given this moniker by other reporters as well. Nicolas is doing his best to institute a 40 hour work week in France, which Americans find to be the norm here in the US. This may mean more working hours, and less vacation for the laissez faire French people. He wants to improve relations between the US and France also. Sarkozy is putting France back on the map, and he is a bright face in Europe too!

The Harsh Reality from RSG

Well, can you believe that there are only 2 weeks left in 2008? What a year for the world economy? As many economists will state, the world is in a deepening global recession. This could be the worst crisis since the Great Depression. A few weeks ago, The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the US has been in a recession since December 2007. The unemployment rate sits at 6.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It seems each industry is being hit with layoffs, and it is challenging the consumer tremendously. For the consumer, confidence in the economy is quite low as well. Just look at the latest consumer confidence report which shows the index stands at 44.9. Finally, GDP in the 3rd quarter of 2008 was -0.5% and it will be probably negative for the 4th quarter. This is your classic definition (2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP) of a recession. So, how does the economy continue to avoid the road to economic perdition? I think the US consumer is looking for the right government people (Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, etc.) to lead them out of this recession. Let's hope that 2009 is a year of better economic times! Remember that January 20, 2009 is the end of an error, not an era!