********online.wsj.com/article/SB125498941145272887.html
...it looks we will be ok...as long as we remain the US...(tr)

The dollar rose to session highs against the yen in mid-morning trade on Friday, extending a rally sparked by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the U.S. central bank will be ready to tighten monetary policy as a recovery takes hold.

dollar rose .5% today.. still down 15% against the basket of currencies from the March highs.

Congress has made little progress on the federal government’s budget for fiscal year (FY) 2009, which begins October 1, leaving federal funding for research and development (R&D) in limbo. Congress is preparing to leave Washington for the rest of the year after completing action on a bailout for the financial sector, postponing final budget decisions for most federal agencies until 2009.

Earlier in the year, congressional appropriators endorsed large increases for the three physical sciences agencies in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), increases for human spacecraft development, increases for biomedical research in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and increases in other parts of the federal research and development (R&D) portfolio. But instead, most federal programs will continue to operate at or below 2008 funding levels for several months into the new fiscal year. In real terms, the federal investment in basic and applied research has already declined since 2004, and under the CR federal funding of research would decline again in 2009 for the fifth year in a row.

***********.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy09.htm
this is 2009...strange $400 billion for research with our borrowed money when our economy is in terrible shape...and note that the congress has been democratic since 2006...all the appropriations were made by them...from 2000 to 2004 the overall funding for research had gone up 40% ...I guess some were hoping it was going to go up with at the same rate forever...

The article you referred to in your 22:25 post, was written in 2008, the title of this thread is: "Действия Обамы в качестве нового президента" - I'm having a difficulty following your train of thought.

nope, 400 bil was the total bill...150 bil - for R&D - still awefull lot - almost 7% increase in such terrible times...

Obama has played as much golf in 9 months than bush did in 2 years 10 months
***********.politico.com/click/stories/0910/obama_ties_bush_on_golf.html

what difference does it make how he spends his leisure time? just because he played more golf than bush, doesn't mean that Bush spent that time hard at work...