Perspectives on the global economic meltdown (Jan 26 2010)

[Sanjay M]

[Singha]

seems vancouver is having a housing bubble - even now !

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/20/in-v ... ng-market/

and no lack of die hards in forums claiming the prices are worth it for the atmosphere/drama/art/shows whatever.

[Singha]

WSJ
http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/imag ... 193255.gif

Merkel Rejects Obama's Call to Spend
German chancellor rebuffs pressure to boost domestic demand, not exports; warns Europe's crisis is far from over

By MARCUS WALKER And MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG

BERLIN—Chancellor Angela Merkel roundly rebuffed U.S. President Barack Obama's call for Germans to aid the global recovery by spending more and relying less on exports, even as she warned that Europe's own financial crisis is far from over.


In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in her Berlin chancellery, an unapologetic Ms. Merkel said the nations that share the beleaguered euro have merely bought some time to fix the flaws in their monetary union. She called on the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations meeting in Toronto this weekend to send a signal that tougher financial-market regulation is on its way to dispel the impression that momentum is fading amid resistance by big banks.

She took aim at an idea voiced by France, the U.S. and others that Germany should help global producers by spurring its persistently weak consumer demand and ending its dependence on unsustainable spending elsewhere. The latest call came in a letter last Friday from Mr. Obama to the G-20, in which he asked big exporters—Germany, China and Japan—to rebalance global demand by boosting consumer spending.

Ms. Merkel countered that Germany's growth and employment are rising—and therefore the world's fourth-largest economy has no reason to rethink its dependence on its powerhouse industrial sector and large trade surplus. "German export successes reflect the high competitiveness and innovation strength of our companies," she said. "Artificially reducing Germany's competitiveness would be of no use to anyone."

The U.S. reiterated its stance Wednesday. "It is important for European growth in particular, and the world more generally, that advanced surplus economies in Europe strengthen the contribution of internal demand to growth," a senior administration official said.

Ms. Merkel's defense of Germany's export-heavy model marks Berlin's second rebuff to international demands in recent days. Early this week, Ms. Merkel rejected calls for Germany to prolong fiscal-stimulus measures in the short term.

Germany's position threatens to isolate it within the G-20, likely making it difficult for it to win support for tougher financial-market regulation and its other priorities.

The country is at the center of attention now that China, whose growth also depends largely on trade surpluses, has defused some of the U.S.-led pressure to rebalance its economy by announcing a more flexible exchange-rate policy.

A report published Wednesday as a "primer" for G-20 governments by the Center for Economic Policy Research, a European network of leading economists, accused Germany of doing less than China to redress global imbalances, which the report called a threat to global economic stability.

Ms. Merkel denied Germany is under pressure to change, predicting "a very relaxed discussion about this topic in Toronto." She suggested that the prevailing economic theory on stimulus—that increased deficit spending promotes growth— doesn't apply in Germany.

Continuing to run big deficits could backfire here, she said, because of Germans' angst over their aging society and rising public debt. Fear that the German welfare state could run out of money leads individuals to save their income as a precaution, she said. If Germany cuts its budget deficit instead, "then the citizen is more willing to spend money," she said, "because he knows that he can count on the pension, health and elderly-care systems."

However, acknowledging some of the criticism, the chancellor said Germany still needs more "structural reforms," especially to "improve the incentives to take up work and to strengthen the services sector." Many economists say German service industries are overregulated and underdeveloped compared with those in the U.S. and other advanced economies.

Berlin's emphasis on fiscal discipline received support from top European Union officials Wednesday in a letter to the G-20 that said the "global recovery is progressing better than anticipated," so that the time for stimulus is ending. Leading economies should agree to consolidate budgets "starting at the latest in 2011," EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso wrote in the letter.

Germany's anemic consumer spending, which could be further weakened as budget cuts kick in starting in 2011, is causing frustration in crisis-hit EU countries such as Spain and Greece, which need a boost from Germany as they take drastic measures to repair their public finances.

Many economists believe Berlin could stoke private demand by putting more money in Germans' pockets through measures such as tax cuts and by delaying planned austerity measures.

In the interview, Ms. Merkel said Germany has made "an important contribution to overcoming the global economic crisis in the last two years." She pointed to Germany's continuing fiscal-stimulus measures, which come to over 2% of gross domestic product in 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund.

"That's more than in many other countries," where stimulus policies are ending earlier, she said. But with Germany's economy expected to grow by close to 2% this year, she said the time has come to remove the stimulus "step by step" from 2011.

Ms. Merkel, a 55-year-old former physicist who grew up in Communist East Germany, has been chancellor since 2005 and won a decisive re-election victory last year as head of a conservative-led coalition. Since then, however, her own and her government's popularity have fallen amid internal squabbling between her cabinet allies.

Many German voters are also angry that Ms. Merkel agreed to the €110 billion ($135 billion) EU-IMF bailout of highly indebted Greece, and to the creation of a €750 billion rescue facility for other euro-zone countries that might hit financial trouble. Opinion polls suggest the euro-zone crisis has hardened Germans' negative view of the euro.

Ms. Merkel said her compatriots aren't turning euro-skeptic. "Germans know the value of all things European," she said. "All of the current discussion about the euro is taking place on the basis that we want to make the euro stronger, not to call it fundamentally into question."

Germans also complain frequently about the costs of German unification, but that doesn't mean that want to reverse it, Ms. Merkel pointed out.

However, Ms. Merkel warned that the euro zone hasn't ended the financial crisis that gripped Greece this spring and threatened to spread to other countries such as Spain and Portugal.

"We have calmed down the situation through the rescue facility," she said, adding: "We now have the possibility, and have won time, to remove structural weaknesses in the euro zone and its framework of rules."

She rejected the criticism, voiced in Paris, Brussels and other EU capitals, that Germany delayed the rescue of Greece for too long, allowing the crisis to escalate.

"It was right that we didn't go down the supposedly easy route of supporting Greece financially without clear conditions, without reflecting on what the underlying causes of this crisis are," she said. "Instead we are now tackling the causes, namely the lack of competitiveness" in Greece and other economies, she said.

[Singha]

I would think the US leverage over germany is weakened a lot from cold-war days. no big bad bear waiting to attack germany anymore. infact the bear is eager to sell natural resources. the US can put extra duties on germany exports but so can germany on US exports.

[Chinmayanand]

Housing Double-Dip to Slow Economic Recovery: Whitney

The US economy faces a perilous second half as a new set of problems hits real estate and thwarts any chance for a strong recovery, banking analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.
While stopping short of predicting a full-blown double dip in the broad economy, Whitney said one is certainly in store for the housing market.

"People doubt there's a double-dip in housing," she said. "It's amazing."

The primary reason she cited for another leg down in housing is that banks are getting more aggressive foreclosing on delinquent borrowers. That in turn will push more inventory into the market, pressuring prices and ensuring that economic growth will be tepid at best.

"Banks are actually accelerating their foreclosure programs, accelerating their short-sale programs. People who have been paying their mortgage now have to start paying rent," Whitney said. "You'll see a real leg down in supply displacement when you foreclose and you have to sell."

Consumer behavior has exhibited traits Whitney said she's never seen before.

Primary among the anomalies has been the trend of homeowners not paying their mortgages and instead paying down other bills and increasing their personal spending.

Elsewhere, problems from state and local governments also will weigh on the national economy, particularly in the way that they are "cutting jobs in a material way for the first time on record."

"They're squeezed from all sides and there's really nowhere to turn," she said.

Whitney also said financial regulation reform and policy-making that is not friendly to the middle class will hurt growth.

"The populist incumbents argue that we've got to get money to redistribute wealth," she said. "This squeezes the middle class further down the food chain. The unintended consequences of this are maddening."

[Neshant]

i wonder whether this money supply slowing statistic put up by the federal reserve is just a con. I'm sure they will use it to justify printing a load of money there by confiscating the increase in purchasing power dollar holders should be seeing in this great recession.

[RoyG]

Excellent Presentation delivered by MR Venkatesh on global economic crisis and what India can do to protect itself...

Part1: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... 9ai62lDE6s

Part2: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... RHyc3_qJ5M

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... eEGOawjT5E

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... lN4lN_fB5Q

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... n8fSjKQ-xI

Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramvenkatad ... wb3tonuFDA

[kshirin]

I read that even within US there is tremendous resistance to continuing with the stimulus, and that Congress is hobbling Pres Obama’s efforts to keep the economy reflated. Which means ALL major western economies are going for deflation, which means, China loses its export markets, and we all know where that can lead…

[RamaY]

WSJ
http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/imag ... 193255.gif

Merkel Rejects Obama's Call to Spend
German chancellor rebuffs pressure to boost domestic demand, not exports; warns Europe's crisis is far from over

Irony. Our own MMS asks the nation to SPEND SPEND and SPEND. Per today's news papers.

World economy needs more stimulus spending: Manmohan Singh

TORONTO: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the fragile world economy needs more stimulus spending and not cutbacks to ensure a sustained recovery.

"The purpose of G-20 should be to ensure that the momentum of recovery is sustained and enhanced in the years to come," the Prime Minister told the Toronto Star in an interview published today, shortly before his arrival for the G-20 summit in Toronto over the weekend.

He said that the Group of 20 major and emerging economies should not rein in budget deficits too fast but coordinate policy to ensure a sustained economic recovery.

[Neshant]

Counterfeiting money and giving it for free to banking & financing crooks is just an elaborate scam to confiscate gains that savers of fiat should have seen from the increasing value of cash as asset prices deflate. Its nothing more than handing over those gains to crooks. More proof that the fiat system is a racket.

The worthless middle man industry known as banking & financing needs to be done away with. Its a drain on the productive economy and a source of bad economics. People who made the right investment decision are being peanalized, people who are f-ed up are getting to confiscate the gains and transfer their losses onto the backs of the society.

[Singha]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/world ... tml?src=me

the scene in spain

[svinayak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opini ... ugman.html

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Third Depression
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 27, 2010

Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

In 2008 and 2009, it seemed as if we might have learned from history. Unlike their predecessors, who raised interest rates in the face of financial crisis, the current leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank slashed rates and moved to support credit markets. Unlike governments of the past, which tried to balance budgets in the face of a plunging economy, today’s governments allowed deficits to rise. And better policies helped the world avoid complete collapse: the recession brought on by the financial crisis arguably ended last summer.

But future historians will tell us that this wasn’t the end of the third depression, just as the business upturn that began in 1933 wasn’t the end of the Great Depression. After all, unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly. And both the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

In the face of this grim picture, you might have expected policy makers to realize that they haven’t yet done enough to promote recovery. But no: over the last few months there has been a stunning resurgence of hard-money and balanced-budget orthodoxy.

As far as rhetoric is concerned, the revival of the old-time religion is most evident in Europe, where officials seem to be getting their talking points from the collected speeches of Herbert Hoover, up to and including the claim that raising taxes and cutting spending will actually expand the economy, by improving business confidence. As a practical matter, however, America isn’t doing much better. The Fed seems aware of the deflationary risks — but what it proposes to do about these risks is, well, nothing. The Obama administration understands the dangers of premature fiscal austerity — but because Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress won’t authorize additional aid to state governments, that austerity is coming anyway, in the form of budget cuts at the state and local levels.

Why the wrong turn in policy? The hard-liners often invoke the troubles facing Greece and other nations around the edges of Europe to justify their actions. And it’s true that bond investors have turned on governments with intractable deficits. But there is no evidence that short-run fiscal austerity in the face of a depressed economy reassures investors. On the contrary: Greece has agreed to harsh austerity, only to find its risk spreads growing ever wider; Ireland has imposed savage cuts in public spending, only to be treated by the markets as a worse risk than Spain, which has been far more reluctant to take the hard-liners’ medicine.

It’s almost as if the financial markets understand what policy makers seemingly don’t: that while long-term fiscal responsibility is important, slashing spending in the midst of a depression, which deepens that depression and paves the way for deflation, is actually self-defeating.

So I don’t think this is really about Greece, or indeed about any realistic appreciation of the tradeoffs between deficits and jobs. It is, instead, the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.

And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.

[svinayak]

I read that even within US there is tremendous resistance to continuing with the stimulus, and that Congress is hobbling Pres Obama’s efforts to keep the economy reflated. Which means ALL major western economies are going for deflation, which means, China loses its export markets, and we all know where that can lead…

See my above post

[ramana]

One gets a snapshot of common people's thinking by looking at what is selling at the bookstores. In th elast deaced it was books by Kiyosaki on how to get rich in real estate. Now its how to live frugally and stretch the paycheck by not splurging on stuff at the stores. So the popular advice being given is cut down on spending which reduces consumption.

[ramana]

Joel Kotkin writes on the G-20

G20 Balance of Power is shifting- Mfg still matters

Joel Kotkin is a very keen observer and should be paid attention to.

[svinayak]

"The U.S. Is NOT Too Big To Fail!"
Warren Buffett... George Soros... even Barack Obama... rarely have so many big brains sounded such ominous warnings. If they're right, waiting for stocks to go up may not cut it anymore.
It doesn't make things any easier, of course, when we are bombarded daily with warnings from experts and luminaries you'd frankly expect to be more level-headed...

First, it's George Soros insisting on CNBC that, "The collapse of the financial system as we know it is real... we've just entered Act Two!"

Next, it's the President of the United States, discussing healthcare reform with Charles Gibson, raising the specter that the Federal government could "go bankrupt."

Finally, there's Warren Buffett, testifying before Congress, warning that "we could be standing on the brink of the next financial crisis."

The NEXT financial crisis? According to Money Magazine, "one-third of 401(k) participants still haven't made up the ground they lost during the last crash, despite nearly two years of additional contributions"...

[paramu]

perhaps the US should do what India is doing. imvho, if there is a double-dip, then I strongly suggest that US should follow India's strategy. US should protect and foster manufacturing like India does to its agriculture, so that the 100's of millions involved in it don't go bankrupt.

Welcome to United Sovereign Socialist Secular Republic of America

[Satya_anveshi]

As with earlier meetings of G7/G8/G20 and/or Gxyz, D&G will be full blown in the run up to those meetings. US administration and institutions have gained expertise and I daresay made it their modus operandi to scare the shit out of everyone to further their economic/diplo muscle in the international arena.

Not that the fundamentals are pathetic but IMO, the whole "meltdown of march 2009" event was a economic equivalent of 911. But unlike with 911, furrin govts didn't handover the keys of their vault to US and that experiment failed or should I say didn't succeed as well as expected. This is not to say that 911 was self inflicted but to say that the resulting diplomatic coup (in this case economic coup) didn't materialize.

Cost of that experiment, again IMO, is the Great Recession which we are in.

[Satya_anveshi]

No surprise G8 skipped currency talk?
Without central bankers, meetings often skirt some issues, says Treasury official

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Currency traders who wrongly anticipated the world's industrialized economies would move to support the weak U.S. dollar at last weekend's G8 meetings likely overlooked an important distinction, according to a senior U.S. Treasury Dept. official Thursday.

The dollar had rallied 2.5% against the euro last week as traders positioned themselves for word that the industrialized nations would use their foreign exchange reserves to buy the dollar and sell other currencies.

"G-8 ministers agree on everything but do nothing," summed up Carl Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics, after the meetings.

{look at this patli gali in the end of this report}

For the overall economy, "things are still better than they were a few months ago," said Lowery, who noted that the economy "still faces a number of headwinds, including in the credit markets

[Neshant]

Where went all the guys including warren buffet who were pushing the recovery angle? IMO its a waste of time listening to these folks. They are as clueless as everyone else about what is happening. I believe they now sense their bullsh&t does not match reality and they have begun to sing a different tune to cover all the bases. "there is recovery", "there is threat of collapse", "there is deflation", "there is inflation"... just shoot in all directions and then claim later you predicted the outcome.

Look at the facts and make your own decision. The fact is that there has not been a single new industry since 2000 which can create high paying jobs on a vast scale. Until you see such an industry emerge, there is no recovery. That's all you need to know.

Financing and banking crap is not an industry anymore than the psychic phone networks are an industry. Its just draining money from the real economy. The best thing that could happen to the economy is if this so called industry went bankrupt. That would at least eliminate these parasitical midlemen.

What needs to emerge is a real industry/invention which massively boost productivity & innovation.. like computers entering the workforce or the Internet. I don't see anything like that on the horizon. The only one that may have strong potential is genetics but some serious breakthroughs (replacable body parts, a gene that slows down the ageing process..etc) need to emerge before this industry takes off. That may be decades away.

Printing up a bunch of money and pushing it round and round with banking & financing conmen taking a cut of it at every turn is not going to do anything other than destroy wealth.

The next bright idea of these fools coming down the pike will surely be to destroy the value of the dollar to bring wages (and living standards) down. Instead of upgrading skills, Americans will be led to downgrade skills and take wages with less purchasing power. That will be called improving the employment situation.

[abhishek_sharma]

Just the beginning for financial reform

http://eurasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/ ... ial_reform

[Carl_T]

Do any of you guys work in finance/investment by any chance? Interested in doing an informational interview.

[Sanjay M]

[svinayak]

the whole day, Dow has been flickering around the previous close. but once again, in the last hour, shit is hitting the hypothetical fan. Dow is down 110.

been reading Zero Hedge. yesterday and today, analysis indicates that S&P has hit critical point which indicates a guaranteed downward momentum if it doesn't recover to an acceptable higher point within the next few days.

i'm officially betting on another March 2009 or September 2008 type crash happening in July 2010.

Do not discuss stock market here. Day to Day stock market does not come into economy discussion.
Please post it in the market thread or other thread

[Neshant]

Do not discuss stock market here. Day to Day stock market does not come into economy discussion.
Please post it in the market thread or other thread

This is the one time you should be paying attention to the stock market.

If the rally since March, 2009 is exposed as a fraud, all hell is going to break loose in the economy. That is unless you have swallowed the recovery theory hook, line & sinker.

[Neshant]

regardless of the technical mumbo jumbo, apparently, everyone's worried markets have run the course of the rally and there's no more steam left.

maybe one last shot at suckering in all the shorts and killing them with an unexpected rally.

[Neshant]

The Economic Propaganda Machine

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[Neshant]

GS BS

[youtube]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/c3CTrmIS4ds&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/c3CTrmIS4ds&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/youtube]

[svinayak]

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/ang ... _index.asp

What Does Angelina Jolie Stock Index Mean?
An index made up of a selection of stocks from companies associated with actress Angela Jolie. Seen as one of the world's most influential celebrities, some analysts believe that companies connected with Jolie will outperform their competition.

[Sanjay M]

New Data Show China's Rise Slowing

[darshan]

del'ed

[Carl_T]

time to print more money then.

[Sanjay M]

California Controller Chiang Pledges to Avert California Insolvency

[Sanjay M]

i'm waiting for another low point in the markets. waiting for deflation to pick up and depress Gold even more. there could be a major downtrend in Gold. once i feel Gold has lost enough of the baggage, i'm going all in on Gold. well, not all in, but significantly.

and once Bernanke realizes deflation is back in full steam, he'll print another $3 Trillion or so. and hopefully, i'll be able to capitalize on it this time. last time, i was too caught up and ignorant of the Fed's ways to do anything.

anyways, printing is coming though. FED will print like hell.

Well, a few things:

Obama obviously didn't get universal support for printing stimulus at G20 Summit - Merkel, Cameron, Japan among others are going for austerity.

US can't print for the whole world - they can't carry everybody, without suffering risk of catastrophic shift in US currency valuation, and its attendant inflationary effects.
So US govt is going to be naturally constrained on printing levels.

That being said, the same newfound austerity in Europe and abroad will lead to economic contraction there too, at least for near term. So US is the better bet for growth right now, since it has the less austere govt, and perhaps that's why Dow is not down as much as you expected.

That expectation of relatively higher US growth prospects (note - I said "relatively") and the lack of global consensus support for printing stimulus may be what's taking the steam out of this extended gold rally and siphoning it back to the Dow.

[ramana]

Some expert said in a book in Jan 2010

Indicator Dec 09 Dec 10 Delta
GDP $12,973B $12,714B -2%
Deficit $1433 B $1500B
Current Acct Deficit $432B $450B 10%
Unemployment 10% 11% 1%
CPI 1.8% 5% 3.2%
------------
Gold $1097 $1350 23%
10-Yr Treasury 3.83% 5.0% 1.2%
Fed Funds 0.12% 1.2% 1.1%
Oil $80 $92 15%
S&P 500 1115 1000 10%
Dollar Index 78 70 - 10%
Euro 1.43 1.25 - 12%
Case Schiller 156 145 -7%
------------
He didnt know about Greek or Spain crisis. He did say PRC is in trouble and will be seen later in the year.

[Carl_T]

I don't think Obama will be able to push through a fiscal stimulus, but Ben has vast powers, so maybe a monetary stimulus may be in order....but how will he do it with interest rates so low?

[Carl_T]

great so liquidity trap eh

[Neshant]

i'm waiting for another low point in the markets. waiting for deflation to pick up and depress Gold even more. there could be a major downtrend in Gold. once i feel Gold has lost enough of the baggage, i'm going all in on Gold. well, not all in, but significantly.

and once Bernanke realizes deflation is back in full steam, he'll print another $3 Trillion or so. and hopefully, i'll be able to capitalize on it this time. last time, i was too caught up and ignorant of the Fed's ways to do anything.

anyways, printing is coming though. FED will print like hell.

Agreed.

For now, too many bulls in gold and I've been sitting it out in cash although I bought a little at today's close. I don't doubt however that gold will be the only kind of money that remains in the end.

I'm not sure whether Bernanke can print another 3 trillion without crashing US govt bonds. But I'm sure he'll try under-the-table printing and stock market rigging in direct proportion to deflation even while wages and purchasing power go down hill.

[Satya_anveshi]

Here's another perspective:

The much touted Financial (hardly any) reform is (almost) behind us. July 4th is victory celebration and Obama has 3 things to show

a. Health care
b. Strong progress on Financial reform
c. McCrystal

He is going in for CIR and has already made a strong pitch today (just as expected). As many of you may have noted that we are firmly in the "Politics zone" now and perception management will be in full gear. IMO, we should be seeing more green shoots from here on (usual disclaimers apply). People exiting Gold at this time is clear indication towards that IMO again.

In another rumor, Jeb Bush is being named as potential repube candidate..Jeez..If true, US will firmly heading towards dynastic politics.

[Sanjay M]

A more humourous take on the debate: