Category Archives: political perspectives

Senator Rand Paul and the State of the Union Address

This is an exciting time for forecasters!

That might evoke the Chinese, “May you live in interesting times” – actually a curse.

But the fact is that things are on a knife edge in the US, Europe, China and Japan, not to mention other countries around the world.

And the political season is coming up again. The Christmas season now starts just after Halloween, and the Presidential campaign season begins two years or more before the General Election in the US.

Well, I think Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is one of the most interesting prospective Presidential candidates, and I found his response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech yesterday super interesting (and I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says).

Senator Paul manages to at the one and the same time (1) call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, (2) call for an audit of the Pentagon, (3) suggest the US is too interventionist in the Middle East, where conflicts go back “1000 years,” (4) suggest that we may be in for a repeat of 2008, so better get our fiscal house in order, (5) mention Ferguson and other police problems, and (6) call for tax cuts and cuts in government spending.

Maybe it’s spending many years working in high tech and software on the West Coast – but I’ve got to say the Libertarian perspective is refreshing.

So reader responses to Senator Paul’s speech are welcome. Again, I am not advocating each and every point, Dr. Paul makes – I put it out there as food for thought, however.

Meanwhile, I am working on some deep analysis which I think you will enjoy. Can’t just be a talking head. Got to do the numbers.