Ezra's Essays

Category: Economy

  • WILL THE NEWS EVER GET BETTER?

    These days I get my news via my ears. My wife reads the headlines and stories from The New York Times, as well as from the New Jersey Star Ledger and Newsweek. Then I listen to an audio version of the Times. Today is August 4, which marks a milestone in my lifetime, as it…

  • THE FOLLIES OF SECRETARY PAULSON

    Readers of this essay should be warned that the author is completely at sea when it comes to understanding what is taking place in Washington on the so-called bailout or now called the rescue package. I have no clue as to how the bailout package should work but there is consolation in the fact that…

  • THANKSGIVING, 2006

    In my longer than expected life, I have never looked forward to the year end celebrations. The long American Depression kept Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations from being joyous occasions. In our family, at best, they were subdued. In effect, I enjoyed the holidays knowing that they would soon be behind me. When Thanksgiving arrived this…

  • JOBLESS NOSTALGIA

    JOBLESS NOSTALGIA During this election year, the Bushies say that everything having to do with the economy and jobs are going honky-dory. The Democrats point to three million lost jobs since the Bush Administration took office. It might be supposed that the count of lost jobs perhaps ought to go up by one in view…

  • A CASE OF ELEMENTARY FAIRNESS

    In September of the current year, the Secretary of the Treasury came to believe that the American economy and its banking system were on the verge of complete failure. Secretary Paulson persuaded other members of the current administration and the Congress that indeed the sky was falling on the American economy. There are any number…

  • CANDIDATE EZRA’S FIRST DAY AS PRESIDENT OF THE US OF A

    The last time I ran for an office of any kind was in January of 1950. In that case, I ran to be the president of Local 6350 of the Communications Workers of America, which was located in my home town of St. Louis. As it turned out, my candidacy was successful but my tour…

  • “…THE LAST OF LIFE FOR WHICH THE FIRST WAS MADE”

    -ROBERT BROWNING (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) Those of you who have had the misfortune to hear me address several retirement banquets will know that the title of this essay is a lift from a poem by the English poet, Robert Browning. The first line is “Come grow old along with me /…

  • STAR SPANGLED PONDERINGS

    In this 232nd year of American independence, as I sit here on Independence Day 2008, I often wonder why we have given so little credit to the French for our freedom from the English. The French cheered George Washington’s efforts against George III, and in the final battles their fleet was anchored off the Virginia…

  • STUFF THAT IS HARD TO MAKE UP

    The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States testified last week, on July 17, that difficult times in terms of the American economy would be with us for a long time to come. In his play Richard III, William Shakespeare had a line that referred to the “winter of our discontent.” If…

  • “SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD”

    Well, boys, the news on every front is pretty grim these days. My $50,000 Hummer is covered by a tarpaulin because it tends to gulp great gobs of gasoline. When I took my 350 horsepower SUV to the dealer to trade it in on a smaller car, he laughed at me and told me to…