The NEW Austerity
( Obama's shoes captured by Time photographer Callie Shell) Last week, Obama critiqued Wall Street for keeping their engines lubricated with large year-end bonuses. The president wants to make sure that more transparency, accountability, and responsibility exist in corporate culture, before the next 350 billion of the economic stimulus plan is distributed. As the White House continually tries to illuminate hope on the current global recession, how will the NEW austerity affect 2009 and the years ahead? Austerity? In economics, austerity refers to when a "national government reduces its spending in order to pay back creditors." Today, the term seems applicable to the millions who struggle to keep up with mortgage and credit-card debt and consequentially resort to cutting back on retail purchases. Last year's photograph of Obama wearing seasoned shoes on the campaign trail reflects today's mindset of saving more and spending less (see image above) . Reward with