Life and Times of Alex Esguerra — Affordable Books
Preventing the Century's Great Depression - Obama's Legacy
Posted by Alexander Esguerra on
When our 44th President Barack H. Obama took office in 2008, I believe his legacy that will always be remembered is on how he prevented the second great depression. In the bookÂ
Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics by Jonathan Chait,  Chapter 2 touches broadly on the narrative case  on how the world's financial system was on the way to a disastrous plunge. As Chait was quoted that "Presidents get credit for responding to disasters such as the case of George W. Bush right after the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Obama is the first to prevent that kept them from happening".
One of the fast sweeping actions then of the Obama administration was the economic stimulus program an old idea dating back to the first great depression. An idea developed by British Economist John Maynard Keynes as stated in this book. As in any financial stress or bubble even through the housing crisis etc.., consumers technically respond to the markets to cut cost across the board. Hence, job cuts to the tune of loss income and each person's spending power is affected. Central banks would then reduce interest rates convincing people to borrow than save. Through Keynes theory, the government needs to inject money directly into the economy, either way by giving money to the people or spending money worthwhile in a mere showdown of simply spending. Hence in the first depression, government made massive expenditures during World War II which is known as the "Stimulus" ending the depression that time.
As Jonathan Chait explains further on his book, the fall of Lehman Brothers was so vast that monetary policy was not enough in addressing it. In spite of this, the Republic house was against Keynes theory. I guess for some the question was that if a stimulus was necessary then on Obama's actions. I remember reading reports in the last days of the Bush administration predicting the budget deficit in 2009 to be a trillion dollars which we know eventually cause the economic crisis right when Obama was sworned as President.
Chapter 2 of this book was lengthy on the facts as well as the political personalities on both parties as well as touching on the bank bail outs that President Bush signed earlier and so forth. The fact is that the economic stimulus enacted when Obama took office was a success that prevented the second worst depression in this era. Bill Clinton who was known for also a sluggish economy when he took office in 1993 had a $19 Billion stimulus versus $168 Billion in 2009. Even Franklin Roosevelt today would have been amazed on the gravity of this problem. As the book title mentions, How Obama Defied His Critics as with this massive undertaking Barack Obama had to deal with the political system, it's repercussions, it's various responses as he was the first American President to enact such an enormous too aggressive for some anti-depression program.
With Obama signing the enactment of the "Recovery Act" in February 2009 barely a month after being sworn in as President, Â this stimulus practically healed the financial distress, the stock market collapse and fixed the bad unemployment numbers then. A lot of discussions preceded on this action till today including the initial banking turmoils right after yet the program succeeded as the case may be.Â
General Motors was on the center of this as it added to the problem then over and above the financial and banking collapse. So in March 2009, government had to inject and infuse the final stimulus of the auto industry with the clause that the industry undertake sweeping reforms itself. Likewise, the small unheard parts of this stimulus which is easier to remember is during tax time. It has a tax credit for workers at the bottom of the income scale. The idea was derived on getting more cash back into the hands of the people who could spend it back to the economy.Â
Obama hence continuously worked on recovery throughout his administration while comparing it with past administrations like Reagan and Clinton whose administrations then also swift prosperity back to the imperil economic systems when they took office. History will write so many things about this as well as the political debates so forth as the legacy and history of the 45th President is now being studied, reviewed and written. Gauging whether Obama's measures and enactment was an enormous success will take time as it's always time until a President's legacy is fully understood in fact years after.
Alex Esguerra
ADLE International
A Glimpse on "The Making of Donald Trump" by David Cay Johnston
Posted by Alexander Esguerra on
A New York Times Bestseller in 2016 right before the US Presidential elections was "The Making of Donald Trump"Â by David Cay Johnston.
After months contemplating whether to finally read this book, I did so while awaiting Coretta King's new book. After all, it makes sense to more understand who Donald Trump was a person, his history and ascension to the highest political office in America. Quoting from David Cay Johnston who claimed to have amassed a storage unit to keep records about his long 3 decades of interactions with the 45th President Donald Trump. Hence, it is also surprising to note that sequential recollections of the author that indeed Trump has been eyeing for this highest position for a long time contrary to what's said that he did not have political aspirations in the past hence to rise to the presidency.
The book starts on stories on syndicated media news and by the author prior to the election asking a false question about a Casino. As what we see nowadays on Mr. Trump's tweets' he is very much in touch with current events through the main stream media and will ultimately react to the news regardless of content and context. This is very typical of us laymen as well as business people as current events does affect the economics affecting the world. If this inherent culture should be the same with he finally takes office as President, we'll leave this open for now.
Chapter 1 starts about the family history from Germany as immigrants raising the future question to the newly elected president about his deportation of illegal immigrants. Ending with his great grandfather Frederick's fortune was not able to buy him more time to live dying on the pandemic influenza outbreak. Â Donald Trump followed his father's footsteps, Fred Christ Trump which is typical of rich business families after the great depression of teaching their children the family business to prepare them to take the reign someday. In college, which is common of entrepreneurs and which whom like myself branded as young entrepreneur, Donald Trump started on his real estate business deals. In 1968, Mr. Trump earned his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. The author continues on a lawsuit that Mr. Trump filed about his net worth when asked about NPV (Net Present Value) and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) where he answered very irrelevant as a major in economics.
The book also touches about Taj Mahal in the spring of 1990 when Mr. Trump cannot pay contractors as it opens it's doors in April 5, 1990. With the thousands of lawyers, the DGE and liens that resulted still the Trump empire was saved as the government deem he was big to fail. Yet in 1991, the Taj Mahal entered into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy a story I finally remembered through this book. I remember this started the 1st of 4 bankruptcies.
Another recollection through this book was Adnan Khashoggi's "The Flying Saucer" massive boat renamed and bought by Donald Trump to "Trump Princess". In the early 1980's while reading a book called "Waltzing with the Dictator" about the then ill-gotten Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos affiliation with Khashoggi. I remember the boat was sold to Trump almost at auction when Khashoggi lost the boat seized by collectors. Hence in 1990 as the book recalled was a talked about a prank on both these two of whom was the cheapest rich person in New York.Â
As the book continues on Mr. Trumps engagements on being constantly being wealthy, inconsistencies on his claims on his net worth as billionaire etc., and his business dealings, Â we should note that typical businessmen after the Great Depression, World War II and after the Industrial Age have similar traits to Mr. Trump. There's a lot of fact findings deeper that will discredit someone who has just been elected to the highest office of the land. Whether, we like it or not and given the various facts written on this book, Mr. Trump still has a fresh new start to a new position as President of the United States.
Thus, it is still too early to tell if the history we have seen on the business person within Donald Trump will be the same as the 45th President of the United States. After all, it is President Barack Obama who said as a word of advice to the incoming President Trump what you'll learn the moment you take the oath of office. During my time way back as Young Entrepreneur paving my way to the APEC Youth Representative community then and today as a private small business owner, I have seen the phenomenal science of politics. Though personally I have personal reservations of the outcome of the 2016 elections, I also know that the science of politics does wonders you'll never  know happens by the time it comes. I do know that there are certain entrepreneurial qualities that Mr. Trump might possess that can turn things around in terms of jobs, economic growth and investment's. Hence, I leave my resevations to myself and go with the flow while being vigilant in watching theÂ
"The Making of Donald J. Trump as President".
May the force be with him and more success to the land of the free.
Alex Esguerra
Affordable Books on Line
ADLE International
Bestselling New Books, New York Times Bestsellers List and Notables a New Trend in Onlin
Posted by Alexander Esguerra on
As the internet continuously revolutionizes from Apps integration and mobile friendly website, a growing demand on the book selling business today are new, new and new release books. It is well noted and maybe also because of the high tech trend today, consumers buying books online and also in retail stores has grown tremendously in numbers for new release books. At our own ADLE's Affordable Books where our core main business is rare out print collectibles and used books, we have accept this fact especially due to the enormous wants and request we received from our loyal pool of buyers. So on top of what we carry together with our textbooks genre, our mission of affordability still goes with our new release fiction, non-fiction, novels, romance, memoirs, biographies, etc. In the world of sales and marketing, it is gearing towards market trends, demands and consumer needs. Thus, book selling totally is gearing towards that shift. The plain good news is that in spite of all the digital and eBooks, owning a hardbound or paperback copy is still the constant norm of a book buyer today. A long list of the New York Times bestseller list has proliferated the book market since the started of the year. Some notables are Spark joy, When Breath Comes in the Air, Dictator, How To Make Your Money Last, Brotherhood, black Presidency and many more.
Online Shopping Smart and Mobile Devices Seamless Integration
Posted by Alexander Esguerra on
From the computer websites we go to shop just a few years back comes now the integration of user friendly smart devices one click shopping experiences. Most of the things we have been continuously developing is our websites such as Affordable Books on line we have developed our loyal customers over the years has to be mobile device friendly and easily navigated. So were now on the series of API development integration on this as our sites that have that integration may not have that repeat customers base yet but the engagements and conversions back then when we were starting Affordable Books had been exceeded by this new sites with these API mobile platforms So what it means is simply when you want to search for something to buy or simply just check on prices, instead of looking for a computer when your on the move you just open your smart phone or tablet. With that in mind, you want to open a site if your not a computer or using an app that when it loads it is targeted to what your looking for, clean, not scattered with so much stuff. Hence with this user friendliness the amount of clicks, engagements and online purchases have already exceeded way back when everyone had to open an internet browser on a computer to do the same thing. With that said even with us having our original book selling site, this needs to accounted and transformed. So mobile platforms as to online shopping portals is the trend to go moving forward. Affordable DVD's Affordable Electronics Quality CD's
