Change?

President Obama promised he would bring change to Washington. What would be the agent of that change (other than himself)? Transparency.

Everyone knows that we're in a recession. While the president assures us that we've had the worst of it, the unemployment rate is holding at about ten percent. Many of my friends who graduated from college last year have found jobs, but not at all what they were looking for--nothing that requires a college degree. Technically my friends are counted in the labor force (employed one hour or more per week), but are they happy? Are they optimistic for the future? Perhaps not.

Though many people aren't optimistic about the US economy and the change that President Obama promised us, perhaps there is light. Today's Wall Street Journal got me to think that there may indeed being created the culture of transparency that the president promised us. One piece of news I thought was interesting was an article about Henry Paulson's new book, One the Brink. Paulson tells the account of what many people believed were back-room deals made by himself and bank executives, and makes things, well, a little more transparent. I think the book will show Americans a different side of the banking industry and its wizards--the human side. The WSJ article ends with a conversation Paulson had with his wife one night. He told her, "I'm really scared."