Chicago Daily Observer

One of our recurring themes is that US monetary policy has been too loose for at least the last five years and that the rapid “emergency” interest rate cuts from September 2007 through April 2008 – implemented to address credit market turmoil – were a mistake.

Gold prices hovered around $665/ounce in the six months through late August 2007. By mid-March, gold had risen roughly 50% to above $1000/oz. and still stands at about $900/oz. today. In addition, oil, which had been at about $75/barrel last August, rose 85% to a peak of $139/bbl. earlier this month and is now at about $135/bbl.

The purchasing power of the US dollar had dropped not only against commodities but versus other major currencies that have not adopted as inflationary a monetary policy as the Federal Reserve. For example, while it took $1.36 to buy a Euro last August, it took $1.60 in ... Read More...

As an American Jew I find that the most deceitful, depraved and disgusting sub-campaign of the presidential season is the viral e-mail and blogging attack on Barack Obama that characterizes him as an enemy of Israel if not Judaism itself.

This campaign goes far beyond the false but persistent rumor that he is a Muslim—as if that in itself were a criminal position—but tries to put him in the political bed of every enemy of Israel and America of the past half century.

Some of the slime that enters my inbox makes Joseph McCarthy look like the chairman of the ACLU.

The most recent, well-circulated missive comes from one Leon A. Weinstein of California who offers as his bona fides the claim that he is a Russian immigrant who first lived in Israel before coming to the States, and elsewhere describes himself as a marketing expert who has pledged ... Read More...

“Tribune” editorials have moved…seemingly for the indefinite future…from the vague, on-one-hand basis that embodied their wishy-washyness for many years…to high caliber with verve, straight-from-the-shoulder opinionating based on unemotional and courageous analysis of the facts. The heightened quality of the editorials have marked the advent of the new ownership although assuredly on occasion they were on the way previously.

My favorite was the firm denunciation of the Daley effort to bull-con the people to believe that his transgression of the pristine nature of Grant Park to build an underground Children’s Museum was a humanitarian and even a racially progressive step. What ever happened to Lois Wille who used to be a defender of the open lakefront lands, I don’t know but she has been obviously beguiled and made servile by the little demagogue on the 5th floor who surveys his own greatness.

Daley’s flamboyant use of demagoguery to assume his opponents ... Read More...

Cook County voters could be forgiven for not remembering they’re supposed to elect a new top prosecutor this fall.

Since her solid win in the nasty, expensive Democratic primary for state’s attorney, career prosecutor Anita Alvarez has kept a pretty low public profile. That’s because she’s been playing it safe and smart, traveling the county to meet with party committeemen and raise money. After all, if she gets the Democratic organization behind her she’ll win handily, especially with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.