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OurView
Rome is burning

If the president and his economic advisers could play the fiddle, we think they would each be playing one right now.

The economy has passed the war as the top worry for Americans, according to a number of polls. Even the presidential candidates have started talking about the economy instead of taking swipes at each other. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton has a $70 billion plan and Sen. Barack Obama has a $75 billion plan to address the numerous crises inflicting pain across the nation.

You’d think the United States is a war ravaged country by the amount of reparations coming in from around the globe. And in a way its; the Iraq War is costing U.S. taxpayers $275 million per day, according to the National Priorities Project, a research organization.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp. is kicking in nearly $7 billion to help Citigroup, which last week was forced by bad loans to write down $18 billion of its portfolio after posting a $9.83 billion loss in the fourth quarter. Last month, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority kicked in $7.5 billion when Citigroup first announced its subprime mortgage missteps.

Merrill Lynch & Co. wrote down $20 billion for its fourth quarter, but got a monetary infusion from Korean Investment Corp., Kuwait Investment Authority and Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc.

The Government of Singapore also helped out UBS with a multibillion-dollar infusion when it went out with cup in hand seeking aid.

Will there be a downside to all this foreign money owning so much of Wall Street? Only time will tell.

But, in the mean time the Congress and the president need to stop fiddling around and invoke some economic stimuli. The Congressional Budget Office suggests tax rebates, extending unemployment benefits and a temporary increase in food stamps as cost-effective ways to jumpstart the economy.

The State of the Union address is due on Jan. 28 … let’s look at the TV viewership numbers the day after to see if the address gained a wider share of the audience than “American Idol.”

If more are watching people make fools of themselves, God save us all.

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