Kiner's Korner: I'm Sorry Gabby

 Have you looked at your 401(k) lately? Are you or someone you know still looking for work? Has the value of your home increased or decreased in value? Do you know someone that has been foreclosed on? Could we be headed back to recession? This is kind of a depressing way to start my column, but the answers to these question certainly constitute reality.

Economists are saying that if we are not in recession (and we don't know until we see two quarters of negative growth) then we are in what they are calling a "dead zone". With an estimated 16% of our population either unemployed or underemployed and with the downgrade of U.S. debt, this certainly feels like a "dead zone". After a recession, the U.S. economy is vulnerable to any economic shock, potentially leading us back into recession. I hope this is not the case, but it is an ugly truth.

So, what comes next? The Federal Reserve says that it will keep short term interest rates where they are now-at least until 2013. They have tried pumping money into the economy using something called quantitative easing. This has been referred to as QE1 and QE2, since the Fed has attempted this twice. QE1 in 2009 did improve the economy for a short time.

On Friday we are going to hear from Fed Chairman Ben Bernake about the possibility that QE 3 might be attempted. We'll have to wait and see.

"Printing money", as the Federal Reserve and other central banks have done is not considered a radical move. The theory of pumping more money into the economy is to make money cheaper so that businesses will borrow, invest, and then create jobs. Inflation, at least at this time, is not a fear. The Federal Reserve is looking into anything and everything that can get the economy moving once more.

In the meantime candidates for the Presidency need not stoke the fears and the anger of the American people. Our leaders have a tough enough job ahead of them without the threats of candidates who use this difficult time to serve their own agenda.

Enter Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas). Like Huey Long, "The Kingfish", the powerful politician from Louisiana during the Great Depression, Mr. Perry is using vitriol and condemnation to garner votes for his presidential quest.

Said Mr. Perry, "I know there's a lot of talk and what have you about if this guy (referring to the chairman of the Federal Bush who was appointed by George Bush and reappointed by Barack Obama) prints more money between now and the election. I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas."

Governor Perry also said that this action of the Federal Reserve would be "treasonous". Come on Mr. Perry. If the Federal Reserve believes that pumping more money into the economy might work, I think that we have to give it a chance. It almost appears that Mr. Perry is hoping to win the Republican nomination and even the Presidency because of a bad economy while his fellow American are suffering financial hardships.

Surely the Republican Party can do better than this. I know they can and so do many other Republican leaders.

Even Karl Rove, appearing on Fox News said that "you don't accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country and being guilty of treason and suggesting that we 'treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.'"

Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official who was part of the George Bush administration said that Perry's comments were "inappropriate and unpresidential".

This kind of rhetoric has no place in American politics. Dispensing of frontier justice (Texas style) is not in our best interests as a nation. The politics of anger, threat, and hate is something that all Americans should condemn. I want better for our children and for our children's' children. Haven't we learned anything from Representative Gabby Giffords' ordeal? Gabby, I am sorry.