Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(December 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Different subject — the United States economy.
 Mr.
Harvey Pitt chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
(SEC), conveniently delayed his retirement announcement
until after the election results were in.
I believe that one of the duties of Mr. Pitt was to monitor
the devious, and in some cases as it turned out, fraudulent
transactions in the financial world.
Mr. Pitt has been accused of not aggressively pursuing
accounting abuses, which led to Corporate corruption.
At the other end of the spectrum Mr. Alan Greenspan,
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board conveniently announced,
the morning after the mid-term election, that the Federal
Reserve Board had agreed upon a further half point reduction
in the bank interest rate which brings the rate down to
a forty year, all time low of 1.75%.
If you have read my views of the effects of this unprecedented
reduction in interest rates in a previous issue of the
news letter you will be aware that I am of the opinion
that the only people to benefit from these reductions
are the banks and big business communities, and is certainly
detrimental to people on fixed incomes that need the interest
and dividends to bolster the lagging monetary value of
their pensions.
 The
Republican view of lowering interest rates to avoid inflation,
and cutting taxes to boost the sagging economy, pre-supposes
that the “Trickle Down” theory which promotes
a position that when the rich, (who benefit the most from
tax reductions), put their ill gotten monetary gains back
into the economy, this will provide job opportunities
for the people affected by rapid escalation of unemployment.
This didn’t work when Japan was in similar straights
and I cannot seeing a rapid recovery of the United States
economy which is now in a similar dilemma, by the utilization
of these so-called monetary enhancing tactics.
Two days after the election, President Bush stated that
the basic fundamental indications of the United States
economy were good. The question of course is, good for
whom?
Getting away from the economy and politics.
Americans abroad are mourning the loss of an
old friend, The International Herald Tribune, which I
believe has been taken over by a consortium of the New
York Times and the Washington Post.
This was a unique newspaper which served Americans abroad
for many, many years and was even adopted by many English
speaking people throughout Europe. The editorials and
commentary presented by the newspaper were of the highest
caliber and were viewed by its readers with credibility
and trust. High praise indeed, in this day and age of
sensationalistic journalism.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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