JUST WONDERING

I wonder what happened:

1. The massive and detailed information on the War in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. There is no longer a media tally on numbers killed or wounded; Terrible costs; or misdeeds by Americans during the prosecution of these efforts. We must now have corrected all the ills. Could it be that a change of managers (ala sports teams) really improved things?

2. The failing economy is now really improved; why, look at the massive improvement in the DOW, it is only down by about 3000 points from the previous highs under the last Administration.

3. The unemployment picture is really improving; it now stands that the number of new unemployed was only 266,000 more than the previous month. Wow! I wonder if the reduction in firings and layoffs is not a result of running out of people to get rid of rather than an improving economy. BTW the rosy unemployment figure is at 9.7%; still well below the disastrous 10% level. Under the previous Administration, unemployment was at a dismal 6%.

4. The various financial bailouts has shown to be a boon. Why, just the other day, the Government earned 4 Billion dollars already on their investment of our tax dollars. Lets see, 4/787*100 = 0.502 return on investment. This is a lot better than bank interest on my savings account.

5. Cash for clunkers which drained 3 billion dollars from the economy was supposedly a smashing success. Unfortunately, now that it is over, except for the fact that only about 20 percent of the dealers have received payment under the program. It now appears that some people are being dunned for repayment of the bonus money by the dealers because the Government rejected their claims. In addition, some of the states are starting to tax the bonus money for various reasons. BTW: I wonder if the apparent income from the bonuses are taxable as income according to IRS rules? I also wonder how many of these deals will result in repossessions as the people who participated in the program find out that they still can not afford the new payments ?