Soon Or Later We All Must Sit Down To The Obama Table Of Economic Consequence

[Just Win]

Below are various news stories from around the nation from a myriad of publishers, mostly liberal, that give an indication of the distress our nation is in economically.  This administration has many policy questions that they must answer from the Afghan war to soaring budget deficits but none are more salient to the republic in the short term than the incredibly high jobless numbers. I do not mean to minimize the other issues in importance. However, for the short term the administration better come up with some answers on lowering that incredibly prodigious jobless rate. This administration has been at the wheel now for over 18 months. It is time for answers not blaming others.

Jobless numbers skyrocket again, analyst say "unexpectedly" = http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Surprise-rise-in-jobless-rb-3752948140.html?x=0&.v=4  

Latest Unemployment Numbers = http://www.cnbc.com/id/38590746

May & June Jobless numbers revised upward= http://www.cnbc.com/id/38590746  

Obama economic job czar brainiac resigns in disgust and despair = http://wallstreetpit.com/39090-top-obama-adviser-romer-resigns  

Reuters economic news editors turn on president moving to Hillary = http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6752KD20100806  

Noonan: nation coming to a boil = http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703748904575411713335505250.html  

2010 Bankruptcy rates explode = http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-03-03-bankruptcy03_ST_N.htm    

Consumer confidence craters = http://finance.yahoo.com/news/In-an-uncertain-economy-apf-3631266616.html?x=0  

World food prices set to explode due to poor harvest and fuel costs =http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e7de20ca-a18a-11df-9656-00144feabdc0.html  

Food stamp useage explodes = http://fiateconomics.com/?p=2402  

Forclosure rates in Nashville explode = http://www.wsmv.com/houseandhome/24446115/detail.html  

Al Gore speech on the 1992 election campaign trail

The Obama unemployment numbers from his Department of Labor

 

[Flummoxed Lummox]

Just Scream,

Sooner or later you need to get a life.

[Jeremy Roenick]

AV, I'm sorry but you shouldn't have wated the electrons...  JW makes very VALID and LUCID observations.  There is an economic and social runaway train on the tracks and the good ole USA is standing right in the path of this barreling weapon of mass economic and social destruction.

Obama's hand in it is irrelevant.  Truth is this tsunami was started long ago, and only a "quickening" happened under BHO's watch.  To deny the truth is insanity at this point.  You had better be prepared for food shortages, power disruptions and civil unrest.  They're closer than you think.

[One Man Gang]

I'm starting to get a very "1856" feeling about this whole mess.

[One Man Gang]

Back on topic:

[Flummoxed Lummox]

I'm starting to get a very "1856" feeling about this whole mess.

Of course you are. But then again, you're a paranoid, delusional, warmongering, far right extremist. So, who is surprised?

[Just Win]

Back on topic:

OMG & JR,

Out of all those links I posted the most distressing one is not one dealing with the current economic scene but the one by Peggy Noonan in which she expounds on the balkinization of class envy between those that want government to be a demanding god that controls every aspect of our daily existence and those that want to live in freedom purchased by the blood sweat and tears of American patriots that have gone on before us. The contrast could not be more vivid. I am not a huge fan of Ms. Noonan but she makes some cogent observations in this piece and her writing style is simply sublime much like the late William Safire of the New York Times.

Noonan: nation coming to a boil = http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703748904575411713335505250.html

We are at a seminal moment in which we must decide if we truly believe in the founding documents of our republic or will we trade the tried and true wisdom of our founders for a postmodern brand of eurosociialism that demands total allegiance and obedience to the state (national government) at the extremely high cost of personal freedom, liberty and life. I am sure the casual liberal poster will provide us with the insult with the typical drive-by post on this thread. It is sad because this is a weighty issue and the left has been reduced to Axelrod/Rhambo talking point inanity. However, the November elections will tell the tale on the direction of the republic.

[NCVol]

It's interesting that the right wingers lament a loss of the prosperity we had during the post war period through about 1975, when wages for the middle class stagnated, and haven't returned to growth.  Well, what policies did we have during the heyday?  High and growing unions, a country that was the manufacturing platform for the world, which we encouraged and protected with tariffs and incentives for domestic manufacture, and high tax rates on the VERY rich - those making above about $3 million in today's dollars.  We also had rules we enforced on anti-trust, we busted up big monopolies, and we had stringent limits on banks that limited their ability to gamble with other people's money if they were able to get FDIC bailouts if/when they fail. 

And so we dismantled the economic system believing that if we deregulated, offshored our manufacturing and lowered taxes on the wealthy that it would trickle down to the rest of us.  And it failed.  We know that now, the record is clear. 

Well, the plans didn't actually fail if you count what happened to the wealth and income of the very top slivers, which have soared, and now are more unequal than at any time since the Great Depression.  Workers used to benefit when they became more productive - that's how you get higher wages, workers earning more per hour of their effort allows employers to pay them more and keep some for themselves.  Since the 1970s, those productivity gains have gone almost entirely to the owners, and the executives.  I've posted numerous graphs, which the right wingers ignore and won't bother addressing, but I can post again.

The fact is we HAD a booming economy where the gains were shared broadly and we traded that economy in for a booming bubble economy where almost all the gains accrued to a tiny slice that has benefited immensely from those policies.  But the RESULTS are seemingly irrelevant to the conservatives, who dismiss them, ignore them, pretend they don't matter since the ideology sounds good.  And so any mention of any return to the policies that guided this country for CENTURIES, namely believing that a thriving industrial base was good for the COUNTRY and having policies that encouraged such an outcome, is equated by the right wingers as socialism and wealth envy.

I just wonder, who is going to buy stuff when we all make in pay what Chinese workers make.  If anyone knows anything about the theory of free trade, it's that wages converge.  Well, does anyone think that wages in America are going to continue going up, and China will SURGE to meet our wage levels and beyond, or that wages here will trend towards wages in the developing world, the billions of workers who make a small fraction of what workers make here.

Of course, it's easier to post a stupid picture and repeat vapid talking points than discuss the issues, so I might as well be talking to a rock, but I really am sick and tired of the misinformation and ignorance out there that encourages us to not link policies - the Reagan belief in deregulation, lower taxes, free trade, and a monopolization of nearly every industry - to actual results.  And the result are horrible.  A broken, bubble economy where only the very wealthy are thriving. 

[NCVol]

BTW, there isn't anything partisan going on.  The "elites" that Noonan was talking about still control the agenda.  The missing fact is the elites represent the Fortune 500 and Wall Street, they're not academics or policy wonks in D.C.  Just as an example, Clinton signed NAFTA and GATT and ushered China into the WTO, deregulated the banks, appointed Rubin as his top economic guy, who represented quite well the interests of Goldman Sachs and his Wall Street friends, which allowed him to rake in literally hundreds of millions in pay.  Obama has Larry "Eight Million Man" Summers as the economic policy gatekeeper, who has effectively shut out the "liberals" like Paul Volcker and Romer and Goolesby, and Geithner, who failed as NY Fed Chief, so was promoted to the top Treasury position where he's done EXACTLY what the banks he failed in overseeing in his role at the Fed drew up.  They couldn't have gotten a better result if the entire top team was on loan from Wall Street, which they effectively are. 

Once we realize who the "elites" are, we can finally makes sense of the policies that have been enacted, the incredible benefit those policies have funneled to the groups those "elites" represent.  Follow the money.  Who benefited?  Who benefits from continuing those same policies.  The record is clear.  And after the public wakes up, maybe, finally, we can have an honest discussion about where to go from here. 

[Jeremy Roenick]

Well NC you can start with the financial institutions, big banks and the auto industry.  They were the first to get the mega-buck bailouts.  Then it was the beneficiaries of the Stimulus.  But who knows who got that.  The Feds, CBO and everyone else can't trace it, so how can we?

As the old saying goes "follow the money".  The elite are the ones bankrupting this nation at our expense and to their benefit.  Then they fly off somewhere with the money for the rest of their lives.  That's the playbook.

[Just Win]

Well NC you can start with the financial institutions, big banks and the auto industry. They were the first to get the mega-buck bailouts.  Then it was the beneficiaries of the Stimulus.  But who knows who got that.  The Feds, CBO and everyone else can't trace it, so how can we?

As the old saying goes "follow the money". The elite are the ones bankrupting this nation at our expense and to their benefit.  Then they fly off somewhere with the money for the rest of their lives.  That's the playbook.

Now JR, have you not heard? The liberals are for the small man. They are selfless and care only about the small guy having a chance. They are altruistic and simply want to help out.  

[Flummoxed Lummox]

Now JR, have you not heard? The liberals are for the small man. They are selfless and care only about the small guy having a chance. They are altruistic and simply want to help out.  

Now JR, have you not heard? The far right nutjobs are for the rich man. They are selfish and only care about the most wealthy 1% maintaining their gluttonous lifestyle. They are greedy and simply don't want to help anyone.