Due to the new digital TV divide and obligations that I had this morning, I only was able to watch Wall Street Week, Chris Matthews, and Meet the Press.

I thought there one segment of one interview on Wall Street was worth mentioning. I believe it was with one of her rich dude friends (of which there seems to be many) named Laurence, who was head of some kind of large money group called, if I remember, Black Rock. They had just merged with some kind of large money group named Barclay something, and he and the head of the Barclay thingy were on.

I believe it was Laurence who said that one of the big problems left with the economy was that housing prices hadn’t yet stabilized. That has all kinds of ramifications for the economy, but I do think he’s right. People just don’t want to admit that their houses and other buildings are worth a lot less than they used to be. So, they are keeping the prices high - but they aren’t selling. You can just drive around any town around here and you will see a myriad of “for sale” signs in front of houses. And, on the routes I drive regularly, they have been there a long time. Oh sure, some people may have reduced their prices a little, but they are still within reach of former market highs.

The odds that these houses are going to sell for former asking prices or even anywhere close is pretty slim. These houses are simply worth less money in today’s market. This Laurence dude said that previous housing downturns took from 7 - 10 years to stabilize. That means 10 or more in TV talk. That’s a long time for people to wait to sell their houses. Many won’t be able to wait.

And not only that, but property tax rates are based on assessments, and if values go down, then assessments will have to go down, and taxes will go down. That means governments at various levels will be doing with less. That means cuts in schools, roads, and other government functions. Don’t look to the feds to pick up the tab. They have their own revenue problems.

In fact, on the Chris Matthew show, which was his all female show, because of a book called “Womenomics,” written by frequent guest Katty Kay, from BBC, and Claire Shipman, from ABC News, who were panelists, along with Helene Cooper and Nora O’Donnell.

Matthews should have let a guest host take this show - a female one - because it seemed a bit awkward to me with Matthews the only male but the “head” of the panel. But, there were a couple interesting moments. Helene Cooper informed us that she was a native of Liberia, the country created once upon a time so that African-American slaves could have a place to go back to in Africa. But there’s been all kinds of political upheaval there, which has somewhat subsided with the election a couple years ago of a woman for president.

Cooper said, which was agreed with by the panelists, and which I agree with, that Obama, while so well liked by the public that the republicans have no answer to it, does have two lingering issues that could, in the long run, depending how events unfurl, hurt his badly. Those are “national security” and the “national debt.”

Of course, the big talk of the day is the elections in Iraq. David Gregory on Meet the Press had VP Biden on for the first half the show. He did not make any of the “gaffs” that he is known for, but he did comment on the Iran situation. The US, he said, was monitoring the situation in Iran and he didn’t have any other comments on that.

But to me, it’s so fascinating that the news coming out of Iraq could be news coming out of the US in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. A belligerant and arrogant leader that appears to have little public support and is driving their country into the ground is reelected in a disputed elections with lots of protests, which are put down violently. It sounds very eerily familiar doesn’t it?

The U.S. can jump up and down, and protest, and not recognize, and all of the above, but it’s not going to be able to change things. More importantly, the U.S. needs to make sure that it’s elections are completely honest and clean. Without that, we have no leg to stand on when criticizing other countries for how they handle their elections.

And by the way, isn’t it a little hypocritical for the U.S. to be so down on Iran for wanting to have nuclear weapons (although they claim they aren’t) when we have more than anyone else, and by all accounts, Israel has them with no accountability?