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Technorati"Why is this recession different from almost all other recessions?" asked Herbert Barchoff. The economist, a former president of the Council of Economic Advisers, answered his own question: "This is not only the usual cyclical recession, but also a structural recession."
Barchoff's dark assessment appeared in a letter to the editor of The New York Times -- in June 1992. Then, like now, Americans were suffering through a long, grinding recession following a boom (under Reagan) that had primarily benefited the wealthy. There were mass layoffs. The real estate market had collapsed. Foreclosures were rampant.
George H.W. Bush, who had expected to coast to reelection on the strength of his near 90 percent post-Gulf War approval ratings, projected a Herbert Hoover-like resolve to not lift a finger to alleviate the misery. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates, but it didn't help. Six months later, angry voters fired an out-of-touch president who seemed unwilling to fix an economy he didn't think was broken in favor of a guy who claimed to feel our pain.
Barchoff, it would turn out, was too pessimistic. "To reverse the excesses of the 1980's," he wrote, "restructuring has been going on in massive proportions at every level. It is a rare day that newspapers do not report layoffs, often in the thousands in the industrial sector." What Barchoff didn't know -- few people did -- was that the U.S. was about to begin the longest, broadest and biggest period of economic expansion experienced by any civilization in human history.
Downsizing continued in traditional sectors like manufacturing and newspapers. Even during the Clinton boom, millions of people were ruined, forced to declare bankruptcy. Midwestern cities were reduced to rusted-out shells. But none of that mattered to Wall Street. The Internet revolution prompted so much capital investment, and generated so many new jobs -- freshly minted college grads thought it perfectly normal to earn $85,000 moving around lines of HTML -- that otherwise sane people began talking about a "new paradigm" in which "the old rules no longer apply."
In other respects, however, Barchoff was prescient. "[The then-new European Community] will substantially hurt our ability to be competitive," he correctly predicted. "The drop in interest rates is no solution. During the Great Depression the prime rate went to one percent, with no cure. When you are out of work or afraid of losing your job, you do not take on debt. Nor will entrepreneurs borrow even very cheap money unless there is a market."
The Bush Sr. recession was a grim affair. When I graduated from Columbia in 1991, the university canceled its annual jobs fair due to employers' lack of interest. But it was a picnic compared to what we're facing now. Bush Jr. could finally realize Barchoff's nightmare of a structural recession -- the kind of no-way-out shock experienced by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"Normal" cyclical recessions feature increased unemployment, which puts downward pressure on prices. You rarely see high unemployment and high inflation at the same time. Conservative economists point to rising inflation during the late 1970s as an exception, but that wasn't even a downturn, much less a recession. Inflation was high but unemployment was low. Anyway, the inflation didn't hurt workers; during the Carter years mean wages rose faster than inflation. The opposite is true now. Real income is falling.
The economy has bled 3.1 million jobs since George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, the worst record since the Depression. The official unemployment rate, constantly re-jiggered to make the economy appear more robust, has risen to 5.1 percent. The long-term unemployment rate, which includes people who have had such bad luck looking for work that they've given up entirely, has doubled, to over 13 percent.
Meanwhile, inflation is approaching seven percent. Again, that's the official inflation rate. Your mileage as an average American -- who spends a third of your pay on housing and more and more on gas -- will vary. But let's not dwell on the irony of $4-a-gallon gas resulting from a war fought to steal oil.
But wait. There's even more bad news.
Two-thirds of economic activity is generated by consumer spending. Most people are broke. So much for that two-thirds. "In 2000," reports David Leonhardt in The Times, "at the end of the last economic expansion, the median family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau's inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less -- about $60,500."
This, says, Leonhardt, is a big deal. "This has never happened before, at least not for as long as the government has been keeping records." RBC Capital Markets reports that consumer confidence has fallen below 30 percent, an all-time record low. T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC, said: "What confidence? There is no confidence. It's like 1929."
If Barchoff had picked up a copy of the San Jose Mercury-News in 1992, he would have read about the birth of the Web revolution, then touted as the "information superhighway." But there's nothing like that coming down the pike today. To paraphrase the ever-quotable Donald Rumsfeld, we're going to have to make do with the economy we have, not the one we wish we had.
Liberal economists like Paul Krugman suggest a rerun of the 1930s, when FDR's New Deal employed millions to build new infrastructure like dams and bridges. But none of the three remaining presidential contenders is likely to undertake such a thing. "The worst-case scenario" about the 1991 war against Iraq, Barchoff said in 1992, would have been if it had lasted two years and cost an extra $200 billion. Iraq War II, now in its sixth year, is currently pegged at an estimated $3 trillion. Republican John McCain is committed to pouring more trillions into Iraq War II until victory is achieved, i.e., forever. As Democrats wary of being tarnished with the label of "big spender," both Obama and Clinton will likely place fiscal discipline ahead of expansive new government programs.
There is no short-term fix. In the long term, we must put more money into more people's pockets. That means higher wages and lower taxes for the poor and middle class. Some of what is needed is easy to see: a more progressive tax code, repealing laws that allow employers to harass and fire those who try to organize unions, nationalizing industries run by vampire capitalists -- health insurers, private hospitals, colleges and universities. Banks encourage predatory lending while stifling saving. They ought to be re-regulated. What madness permits them to charge 30 percent on credit cards while paying one percent on passbook savings accounts?
More -- much more -- is necessary to prevent the wholesale collapse of the U.S. economic system. A maximum wage should be imposed -- the highest paid American should earn no more than ten times the lowest paid. I know, I know -- none of this will happen. There will be nothing but Band-Aids and lazy rhetoric as we plummet into the abyss. It cannot be otherwise, for our politics are ossified, the media is corporatized, and we the people are dull and apathetic.
Ted Rall is the author of the new book "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?," an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America's next big foreign policy challenge.
© 2008 Ted Rall
65 Comments so far
Show AllPaul M, you hit the nail on the head there'
"Why not nationalize the oil industry?"
With an issue so vital to our national security, energy policy needs to be taken out of the hands of private industry, profit motive, and boards of directors intent on rewarding a very few at the expense of tens or hundreds of millions of our citizens. At very least it needs to be regulated in the same manner as other public utilities...very closely & very strictly.
Republican conservatives continually harp on reducing taxes, but have actually enabled the highest tax increase in history through a radical & speedy increase in fuel costs. One estimate I read a few years back now is the US military consumes 11% of the total world production of oil. 'Support the troops' is a two way street. If the troops prefer respect they need to realize the obviously illegal war in Iraq & Afghanistan is costing their fellow US citizens drastically, is a threat to the total US economy, must have goals leading to an exit strategy ASAP, and accountability all the way up the chain of command to discover & punish those who lied us into this Mid-East quagmire. Then the military will get deserved respect, but America refuses any longer to give demanded or coerced respect. I'm sure some radical right-wing warmonger chickenhawks would argue this point with me, but don't bother. You have no legal, moral, ethical, or even financial solid ground to stand on. Period
"Nationalizing industries run by vampire capitalists — health insurers, private hospitals, colleges and universities"
Why not nationalize the oil industry?
" Blather on about voting? Or start blocking the main streets? It's your country - and your choice."
Enough already . Every blog except this one is preaching-to-the-choir redundancy . When I read about mass American- emigrations , mass traffic-stopping rallies , mass refusals--to-pay-taxes , mass desertions-of-military-personelle then I'll know that American citizens mean business ; otherwise all the whining words are just so much feel-good hot air.
Hi Tree Frog -- Although "those days are history", the realm of fools seems limitless contrasted by wisdom, so hubris reigns and phantasmagorically drives other war whor'ses o'r the edge of destiny, into the dark pit of calamity.
Namaste
PaulMagillSmith -- de nada.
There's always so much more to learn about googling, katrining, or shurbifying. Rims I don't know much about, but Kem's caught today, in a quandary of his 'most of a century' thinking relatively good things about govt -- only now to be confronted with the most riveting and base realizations that shake the underlying core of his perceptions of reality.
See America's Whipping Boy For 9/11, which is almost up to 400 postings
I see his already well progressing transformation, piece by piece growing even larger, as prototypical of Americana - and it does fill me with hope what an open spirit is capable of becoming.
Namaste
namaste, thanks for clearing up the proportion & total weight of Mg in a 767, a point KEM & I have been curious about. I'd tried finding it and must have overlooked your reference link. I've also been trying to find the composition percent of magnesiun in what are commonly in slang terms referred to as 'mag' rims, but are in the auto industry now usually referred to as aluminum wheels even if they are a magnesium/aluminum composite. If you can find that it would be very helpful in discussions with our friend KEM to resolve the amount of magnesium available to form the pools of molten metal found below the debris of the WTC towers (the pools are usually referred to as molten steel, BTW).
I've seen photos of the conglomerates formed when the 'pools of molten steel' eventually cooled & solidified. Metal, concrete, and other debris are fused together. Does anyone know of an analysis on these that has been done? This would surely answer some of the questions posed on this thread.
Boy, this has been a great discussion!
Galen, there's one significant difference between the U.S. today and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union: Russia has huge natural gas resources, and it's now emerging as a global energy powerhouse. The U.S. has no similar natural energy wealth to rely on (unless we start covering the Mojave Desert with solar panels now).
Do you feel voting will make a difference. Or will Diebold do its job again.
When the dollar goes splat like a cracked egg, there is still currency. Seeds. Pots. Dirt. Water.
Getting out one a single day to vote (what a waste of time) isn't the same as filling the streets every single day with millions of people demanding the criminals be hung and the country restored. The Iraqis did nothing about their government - and look where they are now. The Germans did nothing about their criminal government, and I saw what was left when Hitler was finally dead. (Which is the only way fascists leave, by the way.) So what are you going to do? Blather on about voting? Or start blocking the main streets? It's your country - and your choice.
Merril Lynch just announced the loss of 2 BILLION dollars last QUARTER and that they would be laying off 4000 brokers and support staff.
I was researching income disparity and ran across this. Number of billionaires in the world ...499. On average if you have ten people standing in a room one of them gets $1,000 and the other 9 get $1 a piece. What's wrong with this picture?
Maybe its time to consider another country. Europe perhaps. Canada. Cuba's nice this time of year. America is getting what she has coming to her. Unfortunately, were all on this bus together and the people sitting in the back rows yelling at the suicidal driver who is heading for a cliff are going to be just as dead. Some of you may want to stay and bitch and moan for all the right reasons but "put a fork in USofA cause she's done folks!
collinsa April 17th, 2008 12:46 am:
"...and then am forced to watch CNBC. I saw that bit about the billionaires too. It was so disgusting that I put my fingers in my ears and immediately returned to my progressive website. What I can't figure out is why I (and so many others) have known that this this meltdown was going to occur (years before today, the how and the why in detail) - yet none of these so-called financial wizard authorities on television have a clue. It's a "surprise", they're all scrambling for "answers"...
Do you really think the idiot shills at CNBC don't know what the hell is going on? They do (or they should), but it's their job to talk "bullish" in any circumstance, to peddle the pablum to the small-time "investors" (read: yuppies who have a few thou to throw away) that watch their info-tainment garbage.
Nothing will change unless the way the USA Gov is run changes.
BILL BRG:
Night of the living dead, it has to cost money to turn humans into crackers. Why not just cut them up and sell it under a new name, much cheaper. 49 postings on this story time to move on
I have the unfortunate experience of working in the financial services industry monitoring trading. I get to stare at the neon tickers announcing daily the plunges in teh stock market (OK, so it's up today) and then am forced to watch CNBC. I saw that bit about the billionaires too. It was so disgusting that I put my fingers in my ears and immediately returned to my progressive website. What I can't figure out is why I (and so many others) have known that this this meltdown was going to occur (years before today, the how and the why in detail) - yet none of these so-called financial wizard authorities on television have a clue. It's a "surprise", they're all scrambling for "answers". I want to scream at the television - like my dad used to do when the Packers played badly. But all I can do is turn my back and go on writing my blog....
Namaste
Decision, I dream on that but I think not, those days are history.
We are going to drop a long way. The parasites may have money, but it might not be of much use, just becoming meaningless numbers in some dead computer. In a time of severe scarcity physical and intellectual strength may be more important. Money and obvious wealth may just make them targets. Sure, they can hire guards, but the guards may consider them scum and turn on them. If they have to come out of hiding into the population at large, then they will be at a severe disadvantage. In any case, if we are anywhere near peak oil, then our fate is sealed. An ignorant, stupid, lazy, violent population, combined with increasing resource scarcity, will ensure that the trend will only and forever be downward. I bet 2 - 3 years from now, we will not recognize this country. Whoever becomes president will be beside the point. He/she can not reverse the course or even slow it down. He/she can speed it up.
At this point, consider how best to protect yourself and family.
While I agree with a lot of the reforms Ted Rall lays out, we need to look at this problem from a deeper level, and change around the argument a bit.
The US is a relatively small percentage of humanity consuming a majority of its raw resources and labor. We live in a consumer society full of bigger, better, best, first, I win. captn72 had it right- it's a con game, and the goal is to make us afraid of the evil of recession.
Recession just means people have slowed their buying- a good thing for those who believe that over consumerism is killing the planet- I sure do!
Yet, when people slow their buying, maybe even try to live within their means, it is seen as a detriment to economics.
And it is, to the economics that matter to rich people. If the price of things go down to them because fewer people are buying, it cuts in to profits. But you will not find poor people compaining about lower prices.
Cutting back on overconsumerism will cause economic dislocations. If we truly want to lower our ecological footprint, it may well mean the loss of thousands of job categories in finance, mining, nuclear, weapons, energy, auto and other dirty industry.
This should be embraced as a goal, not feared.
There will be good jobs developing in mass transportation sector, renewable energy, environmental conservation and restoration, and the service sector, but overall, we should be considering how we will transition to a world less identified by competition in the market place- the Bohemian Club view- and more identified with making sure the non-workers of the world have enough to get by on before anybody gets richer.
Certain of our commons: housing, education, health care, food, water should be available and affordable to all, even if we need to make them off limits to profit motive.
Good jobs and a rising middle class will get us only so far. In the end, I believe we need to look after the most needy, first, even if the least needy (i.e. oil companies and munitions manufacturers making record profits) need to be assessed more to help out.
The Cavalry Isn't Coming - You got that right!
But Blackwater Is.
A maximum wage is great. Given an ultrarich, unemployed leisure class, a wealth cap is best. It can be achieved by popular referendum.
I am bitter.
One of the more definative statements of the nightmare that people are, at this point, still sleeping through.
If you simplify things by just thinking, 'the rich get richer and the poor get poorer', it makes a lot more sense. Again, the American people need to get their heads out of their a___s and realize what is going on.
Whatever happened to the concept of leaving the world a better place for our children?
captn72
Thank you! And thank you again! Everyone else here is right, of course. At least we got to laugh a bit out of this dire situation. We need that to be able to face another day, and another day, and try to do something, anything, and not get too depressed. They did get through the Depression, right? It may take that again to shut up the corporate pirates and illusionists, and allow some real change.
Yesss! Well I just want to ask what we are all really doing to stop this? I am just about to flip out at the gas station with all of the stoopid cows, myself included, standing around the gas pump- glazed eyes- pumping away our paychecks and thinking about who is going to win American Idol/"Decision 2008" this week, I don't go that far, I don't care. I want to scream why the hell are we doing this? Why do we work and work and go nowhere? I want to run anywhere, where the people aren't docile, where people get as angry as I am now. I am simmering, not down, but up, to the point of boiling. I want to yell all of the time now, but I don't. I pump my gas silently, and go home.
PS ... the last point I made above to me is the reason why Obama's speeches are so content free. Its all a big con. On one hand, Obama can't propose anything that would piss off his Wall St. backers. But, he also has to convince the voters to vote for him. The result is the speeches that sound good on the surface with all the repetition of 'hope' and 'change' in rythyms ripped off from MLK Jr. But, that's all that's there as he can't back up all that hot air with any specific proposals. His policies will favor Wall St, and he can't say that without puncturing the illusion created by his constant chanting of 'hope' and 'change'.
To Eric Barth .... are you dreaming about some other Democratic party than the one we have today? Because you sure ain't gonna see what you want to see.
Awhile back I went back and read FDR's speech to the Democratic Convention in 1932. He clearly laid out everything he wanted to do in the New Deal. He spelled it out clearly and plainly, and said why he thought it was needed.
This is very, very different from an Obama speech where he chants meaningless phrases about 'hope' and 'change', but says nothing about what he'll do. Or where he tries to score political points by claiming to 'feel the pain' (to steal a phrase tied to another worthless Dem president), but then gives absolutely no proposals on how to address it.
Why is this important? Because FDR clearly had a mandate for his New Deal when he was elected. He had clearly said to the nation what he wanted to do. He had taken his plan to the country. When the country overwhelmingly elected FDR President, FDR had a clear mandate to put that plan into place. That's what led to the Hundred Days. The Hundred Days could only happen because FDR said what he was going to do, then the voters gave him a clear mandate to go do it.
Obama won't have that because he won't say what he'll do. He's not laying out the details of a New Deal the way FDR did. In fact, Obama's speeches are very free of any specific content as to what he'll do. So, should Obama be elected, then he'll have absolutely no mandate to do anything. Obama won't be able to do anything like the Hundred Days because there will be no clear political mandate on a solution.
Of course, that assumes Obama would even propose it. When I look at his campaign being funded by millions of dollars in contributions from Wall St, I have little faith that he'll do anything other than trying to make sure Wall St makes money and doesn't get hurt in this deal.
Was just at a 'jobs fair' at the Univ of Colorado campus today representing the company I work for. Lots of companies there. So many that the main room was overflowed and some of us were stuck in alternate rooms around the building.
Tree Frog -- Surely you jest:"the calvary is coming (the same ole calvary)"
Perhaps you are right, and it'll be another C u s t e r __ D e c i s i o n ?
We are on the brink of a severe depression. I am finally beginning to believe the "conspiracy theory" nuts that claim The Bush Crime family and the powers that be are deliberately sabitoging America and trying to bring about Armageddon. They have us on the brink of complete financial collapse and WWIII. IS this the rapture Bush is waiting for......
Ah...the calvary is coming (the same ole calvary) just not to save anyone and not the way you might think.
Kivals, I like the term, but I also really like the one "vampire capitalists"
None of what Ted Rall suggests we do---and we should do these things---will happen under a Clinton, Obama, or McCain presidency.
Oh, give me a break!!! Here's yet another Puglican on C-Span (live) barking the admin talking point of trying to blame the Dems for the rise in oil prices. Have these people completely lost their grip on reality?
I have no great respect or love for Pelosi after she took impeachment 'off the table', but when I see a Rovian obviously scripted attack like the travesty right now occurring in the House I rise to her defense. Prices have risen because of speculation on the market by the darlings of this executive...WALL STREET FUTURES TRADERS...all while Bush is socking away 70,000 barrels of oil A DAY into the strategic petroleum reserve. Talk about market manipulation...reminds me of the Enron scam.
This is utter insanity. I'm looking at two Republican congresscritters berating/blaming the Democratic sixteen-month controlled congress for the increases in the price of crude. Get a grip, you f**king idiots, the problem started from YOUR a**hole policies, and the Commander-In Thief you keep carrying the water bucket for. Have you stooges ever asked yourself what oil prices would be by NOT invading Iraq? What about if we had diverted those wasted funds on renewable energy technologies instead of chasing seriously depleting fossil fuels? Kucinich is speaking right now in congress, and you're damned right I'm going to listen to an almost uncommon man in Congress who speaks truth!!!
Jacob,
That was great!
Moat of Fire. Good name for a rock band.
I think something similar has been mentioned before in these posts, but maybe not.
Maybe it's time for us to forget the totally corrupt federal government, and turn our attention to something close to home by hitching our wagons to the states we live in. Sounds like most of them are struggling to survive, and they'd appreciate our help. I'm sure there's a great deal we could do at the community, the town/city, and state government level.
If a nukular weapon detonated on your town, how big of a difference would it make even if the cavalry did come?
Insanity "....Oh hell, just "invest" that billion with my hedge fund and I'll turn it into nothing in no time, whoops there I go again, I mean I'll leverage that billion into a trillion take 20% off the top..."
Which ever way you look at it, that sounds like a good deal...I mean the average american punter should dive in and lose the rest of whats left over after their house got foreclosed....
Sadly, the title is a bit wrong. The cavalry is coming, and it's being led by General Custer.
GWB: "I'm in favor of a sound dollar."
In that case, buy Canadian!
Hi my name is insanity,
I work on Wall Street where I do things that no sane person would ever do based off of false hope and shoddy logic. By the way do you want to invest a billion in my elitist hedge fund that has never lost a single cent and made billions for all your yachting friends? You see I want to go gamble away, err, make a few more sound investments in the Ponzi, errr, financial sector before the next collapse (I.E. tomorrow morning), whoops did I just say "collapse", I meant before the next market adjustment on a temporary downward trend that, I assure you, will be extremely shallow and self-correcting to the upside (and besides, this tiny, shallow recession will really just the "cheap buying opportunity of a lifetime"!!!) just as soon as we find the bottom which I assure you is imminent with the overall outlook being bullish in the extreme which my friend, is a personal "you'll never get your money back" GUARAN-FUCKIN-TEE-MOTHER-F-ER! So buy in now before this market takes off to the upside like a bat out of hell!
In fact I'll give you the tip of your lifetime for free right here and now, all you need to do is just look for the next bad news is good news to come out shortly, preferably from one of our many fine financial institutions like well, you know, another insolvent bank announcing it ONLY lost $5 billion the last quarter instead of the $5.1 billion those silly analysis had "expected" and jump in with both feet, Bitch!
Oh hell, just "invest" that billion with my hedge fund and I'll turn it into nothing in no time, whoops there I go again, I mean I'll leverage that billion into a trillion take 20% off the top as commission for myself (of course) and then "temporarily" freeze any withdraws from my Ponzi…err Hedge Fund. So how about it my little preferred investor to my hedge fund? Please, pretty, pretty please? I don't want to have to go back to selling used cars, I mean that business is so deceptive and frankly immoral that it makes my stomach turn just thinking about it!
Hooray for propaganda and suckers (and today's close at $115 for a barrel of oil)
Sincerely,
Insanity, err, the powers that be on Wall Street
DOW
212.34
+1.72%
12,574.81
NASDAQ
59.71
+2.61%
2,345.75
S&P 500
25.32
+1.90%
1,359.75
OIL
1.21
+1.06%
$115.00
US $
0.0067
-0.0105%
1 EUR = $1.5954
To get my previous discussion into some perspective in 2001 when Bu$hCo criminal syndicate stole the presidency from Gore...
85 US cents would buy 1 EURO...
Demonstrating clearly how much damage has indicatively been willfully orchestrated by the FED influenced by the disturbing actions of argueably the worst administration in US History
I think the National Initiative ( www.vote.org ) might be our only solution. Unfortunately it only works online at this point, and I read that half the country doesn't have a computer. So for one thing. we might push for our young ones to all be computer users via the schools. This may be a long war.
kathyodat
"...that predicted a complete collapse of the US dollar by summer...."
I'm looking at $1.5943 US dollar buying
1 EURO... [as I type]...it broke through $1.59 and heading north or down in value FAST...
So the pizza economist might be right the US economy is quickly becoming a BANANA REPUBLIC
It is way past time to resurrect an oldie but goodie in political labeling -- Parasite. The hedge fund managers are parasites, the entire financial services sector is pretty much one big parasite, virtually all business lobbyists are parasites, most of the military contractors are parasites, most CEOs are parasites, virtually all Republican politicians are parasites (as well as most of the Democrats), and the great majority of the uber-wealthy are parasites.
The system must be cleansed before the host dies.
I think we can all take a lesson from Argentina in 1999. The economy there literally collapsed and millions of people took to the streets. If a Democrat makes it to the White House this time, there needs to be heavy on the President and Congress to undertake the crucial economic reforms needed. This has to looked at in the same way as Roosevelt's Hundred Days in 1933. The Depression this time is more subtle and will unfold over time and not be Black Tuesday. We can't wait for another Black Tuesday before taking drastic action. The Bush Administration used 9/11 to supercharge its program to roll back the New Deal and more. Maybe in the process we can get rid of the Joe Lieberman types and other turncoats who have betrayed the American people.
yes the sky is falling again.
yes, this time it may be the real thing... or not.
either way, clearly some heavy duty crap is going down, has been going down, will continue to go down for some time to come.
as the book, six degrees, indicates it is too late to stop some things. there will be some adverse climate change. the question is, do we do anything to stop it from getting even worse.
there are going to be resource shortages of fossil fuels, food, and eventually water, just to name a few off the top of my head. what are we going to do about that? more importantly, are we going to sit back and let the large organizations, governments and corporations, decide this for us, mostly likely in a very undemocratic (both little d and big d) fashion?
no matter who wins the next election in the corporate states of america (i like that. thanks. i'm going to start using it.), we have to continue some kind of grass roots effort to bring about change both there and in the rest of the world.
Oh, glory, it's the Master Servant of Corporate America Beauty Pageant. Time again!
At its highest level, the MS of CABP is staged once every four years in that mighty land of the Incorporated and Off-Shored - The Corporate States of America (CSA), formerly known as the USA.
Get ready people. Time to dial a vote, donate a dollar. And look! Here comes our first lovely contestant now, John McPain! Of the McBleed dynasty. Step right up John McPain and tell us what you plan to do with your four years of Master Servitude. ...
http://apragmaticpolicy.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/master-servant-of-corpo...
Fuck it, let it burn. Nothing will change unless there is a total meltdown.
But let's not dwell on the irony of $4-a-gallon gas resulting from a war fought to steal oil.
It is important to understand that the goal was to steal the oil, but NEVER to keep prices low for Joe Consumer. When Calvin Coolidge said The business of America is business, he was not speaking of a utopia of competitively low prices that helped the working and middle class, but profit for profit's sake.
"IOW - stop telling us we're standing in the middle of a fire and start telling us where the goddamn hoses are!"
We know where the hoses are; Ted lists several possible solutions (or at least emergency measures). The main problem now is getting enough people to recognize that there is a problem worth solving.
"I know, I know–none of this will happen."
Great, so what's your point, TR? How many more times do we need to be told the sky if f**king falling? Hell, at this point, we progressives are experts in skyisfallingology already!
As your friend Bill Maher would say:
"New Rule: no more Chicken Little screeds unless they contain at least one, proactive solution We The People can act upon."
IOW - stop telling us we're standing in the middle of a fire and start telling us where the goddamn hoses are!
As Harrison Ford/Han Solo said in "Star Wars" - "I got a bad, bad feeling about this."
Right on Keyinside - Go Greens! (got my card and proud to be a one percenter (now where'd I park the Harley?))
Keyinside- There is only the US MONEY PARTY, and it's two PR arms. Repub and Dem.
Dear liberal friends - when you read this, realize that the democratic party will not lead us out of this, even with a democratic president and majorities in the house and senate - they will still be drowning in special interest cash.
If you want real progressive change, vote Green Party, www.GP.org
There is a theory, going about and mentioned above, that the obvious way out of our economic dilema is to create good paying jobs, employ those willig to work, offer low interest fixed rate mortgages and then let the "American Dream" take over once again. Very simple and practical. But, I say again, until the lobbyists and special interest groups are severely restricted in payments and to whom the payments are made this can not happen. Currently we can only wish for an Administration that would have the inner strenght to accomplish "A government for the People". Two words cover the whole situation and I include the Senate and The House. PROFIT AND GREED. Where I come from it is called "Greasing the Skids".
Hi Daniel David: Those hedge fund firms are a bunch of thugs. They pat themselves on the back while they are destroying economies worldwide. Look what's happening to Iceland. These rogue hedge fund firms are destroying the Icelandic Krona and her economy for a few quick bucks. I am a small mom and pop cutrrency trader and I have no respect for these hedge fund firms. Good things take time, but all they want is the instant gratification of a few quick bucks at the expense of the US Dollar and many emerging market economies. JMHO.
"Downsizing continued in traditional sectors like manufacturing and newspapers. Even during the Clinton boom, millions of people were ruined, forced to declare bankruptcy. Midwestern cities were reduced to rusted-out shells. But none of that mattered to Wall Street."
Nor did it matter to the Clintons, who were on their way to becoming $100 millionaires.
"There will be nothing but Band-Aids and lazy rhetoric as we plummet into the abyss. It cannot be otherwise, for our politics are ossified, the media is corporatized, and we the people are dull and apathetic."
Nuff said.
I was reading a financial site the other day that predicted a complete collapse of the US dollar by summer.
Could it happen? I don't know.
It's possible is my best guess. Maybe even likely.
Oil hit $114/bbl for a bit this morning. Food prices for basic staples like rice, corn and what are rising at double digit percentage rates. There is talk in the Middle east of dumping the US dollar for oil trading. China holds TRILLIONS of dollars worth of US debt. Jobs are disappearing faster than a Vegas stripper's clothes. Hell, the CASINO jobs in Vegas are even disappearing!
The city of Youngstown , Ohio is planning to raze abandoned buildings, tear up the streets, and cut back on essential services and utilities. YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO people, is starting to look like DOWNTOWN BAGHDAD!
If you think there is going to be an economic turnaround...well, just remember Russia, the former USSR went through a similar melt down. And where are they?
Oh, yeah.
Locked in a government created civil war with the Chechins, their economy in ruins, and possible selling off their nukes to the highest Middle Eastern bidder...
We should not expect the dollar to bounce. More of a 'splat' as it hits the sidewalk outside one of those Wall Street banking towers.
Last night I consulted one of my favorite economic analysts: one of the guys at the pizza joint.
In the last 3 years natural gas for the pizza oven doubled. The price of pizza flour went from $11 to $30. The price of gas for deliveries has up from about $2.25 to close to $4 a gallon.
That sucking sound is the shop vac that corporate America has in our pockets and which has us by the short hairs.
Ted, you're right. The cavalry isn't coming.
They had to eat their horses. Next attraction, Soylent Green or Night of the Living Dead. Your choice.
Tancredo/Putin 2008!
For some of us, the choice between a sociopathic con man and a former First Housewife isn't stupid enough! We want a choice of candidates even stupider than the drooling, diapered American public! Embrace your inner imbecile! Vote Tancredo/Putin 2008!
For some of us, a mad dog barking for torture and a hundred years of war isn't crazy enough! We want a ticket even crazier than the rabid, rubber-room, root-hog-or-die American public! Embrace your inner maniac! Vote Tancredo-Putin 2008!
Some people object that the Constitution won't allow Vladimir Putin to be elected Vice-President because he wasn't born in America, but that's nothing that a quick trip across the Rio Grande and a phony ID won't fix, and it makes a perfect campaign video for Tancredo/Putin 2008!
Tancredo points at Putin and says "This guy sneaked into the United States and used a phony ID to get on the ballot, but after I build my gigantic MOAT OF FIRE across the Mexican border, it will never happen again!"
A couple more statistics: Lobbyists outnumber lawmakers at least 60 to one in Washington. On average for every dollar spent lobbying on behalf of an industry Congress doles out 1000 to that industry.
Allowing corporations permanent statis in the 1870s was without doubt by this writer the most tragic thing ever perpetrated upon humanity.
CNBC is on this morning celebrating the "best" of the hedge fund managers whose personal income merely from managing and putting on certain trades is measured in billions (with a "b")---not to mention the multiple billions accruing to the fund participants who pay managers such amounts.
This would all be like worshipping rock stars except for the fact that those fund gains actually come FROM somewhere specific as opposed to "out of thin air." Somebody or group of actual people was on the other side of those "trades."
While exclusive (by virtue of investment "minimums") clubs of the already-well-heeled making mega money off of other peoples' losses or missed opportunities may not be illegal, we as a society are immoral to the extent we do not do two things: 1) Continually scrutinize carefully and continually outlaw new emerging tactics that are predatory against individuals, and 2) tax heavily the activity of corporations which do nothing but "trade." Democrats might do some of both. Republicans, by their DNA are quite averse to doing any of either.
Remember, the whole subprime mess of packaging and selling poorly-underwritten mortgages was a corporate trading thing, as are all opaque "derivative" products and schemes. If the inventors and doers of these things had all been taxed at about 75%, there would be a lot less of the new financial "problems" that threaten all Americans and even our world neighbors.