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Jan 16, 2008, 14:09 GMT
US leaders weigh steps to boost lagging economy
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Just euthenise it and get it over with. The US is going in the tank, where it belongs.
Bush says the economy is great - the big problem is trying to convince him otherwise.
Let's see. Politicians chided, kidded and cajoled the banks into making loans to people who could barely make their house notes. On the face of it, this is not such a terrible thing--so long as everything goes well. But it does create a situation wherein a large number of people exposed to disruptions in the economy. In this case, the prices of gasoline and groceries have shot through the roof, beyond that, the banks want to raise interest rates to offset the inflation no one wants to admit to. What happens then? Well, these poor schmucks cannot now make their house notes. It's not like they ran out and splurged on a bunch of useless crap. They have to drive to work. They have to buy groceries to feed themselves and the kids. Guess what they are going to do? They are going to abandon the gorramned house!
Where's the surprise you stupid politicians? If you are a banker, why are you raising interest rates when you know it will make matters worse?
Talk about idiocy of the first water! It's hard to find any better than this.
All this jackass knows is 'tax cuts', because all he can do is pander to his base, as though he's running for President again. Some of us have a 'top 10 list'; and Bush has an 'ONLY 10 list' in terms of solutions.
Take a GOOD HARD look at the 'Laffer Curve' theory which underlies this outdated thinking. When Laffer first drew the curve on a dinner napkin, taxes were too high, and the growth in revenue from increased economic activity would outpace lost revenue from tax cuts.
But it's a CURVE, and not we're on the other side of that curve. Laffer himself has noted that a tax cut, with current tax rates, would be a NET LOSS to the nation, and the borrowing DAILY of about $2 billion from foreign sources is required for us to function. Note the National Debt growth in the 'Bush Years', omitting the 'l l i t' that's included in my own named view of the period.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve#Incorrect_assumptions
'In 2005, the Congressional Budget Office released a paper called 'Analyzing the Economic and Budgetary Effects of a 10 Percent Cut in Income Tax Rates' that casts doubt on the idea that tax cuts ultimately improve the government's fiscal situation. Unlike earlier research, the CBO paper estimates the budgetary impact of possible macroeconomic effects of tax policies, i.e., it attempts to account for how reductions in individual income tax rates might affect the overall future growth of the economy, and therefore influence future government tax revenues; and ultimately, impact deficits or surpluses. The paper's author forecasts the effects using various assumptions (e.g., people's foresight, the mobility of capital, and the ways in which the federal government might make up for a lower percentage revenue). Even in the paper's most generous estimated growth scenario, only 28% of the projected lower tax revenue would be recouped over a 10-year period after a 10% across-the-board reduction in all individual income tax rates. The paper points out that these projected shortfalls in revenue would have to be made up by federal borrowing: the paper estimates that the federal government would pay an extra $200 billion in interest over the decade covered by his analysis.'
Under the Bush initiative we've achieved:
Record employment
Record job creation
low inflation
historic high household wealth
record trade numbers
record tax receipts
He has done this while:
Lowering taxes
fighting a war
The Bush economy is a record setter. The mortgage mess has nothing to do with Bush, it is the result of unscrupulous lenders and people who lie on their applications.
The dem nazi base must spread this around because like their vote to go into Iraq, if they do not throw crap at the other guy, you will see it on them.
Thanks to Greenspan's lowering of interest rates, consumers raised TRILLIONS from home refinancing. That also caused many of them to deplete their equity, and in some cases 'that chicken is coming home to roost'.
Compared to that, the Bush tax cuts were 'pissing in the ocean', as the top 5 percent of earners got the bulk of it, and the general public got next to nothing.
Oh, yeah - they got higher oil prices, and loss of well-paying jobs to overseas. And a National Debt that want from $5.7 trillion to the current $9.2 trillion.
It's jerks like SP4 that give intelligent conservatives a bad name. Here's a chart of the Bush Tax cuts, and who got the benefits:
www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm
For the period of 2001-2007, the total tax reduction was $734 billion. The next three years, alone, will be $589 billion. That's all lost revenue to the Treasury, allegedly offset by revenues from 'growth', all coming in at lower tax rates. Meanwhile, oil companies and others with influence will make sure that they give not a dime more.
Of the $734 billion, the top 5 percent got $270 billion, or 36.78 percent of the total. I.E., 5 percent took nearly 37 percent of the pot.
In terms of the AVERAGE tax cut, since there are a lot FEWER individuals in the top 5 percent ...
For the 7 years, the top ONE percent got an AVERAGE per-year tax cut of ($147419 / 7) = $21,059 per year.
For the 7 years, the bottom SIXTY percent got an average per-year tax cut of ($6007 / 7) = $858 per year.
SP4 = (S)tupid (P)eople
(This is what happens when an unneccessary war runs on and on, instead of terminating quickly as Bush's people had indicated. Due to the constant tensions in the Mideast, there's a built-in 'speculator markup' of about $20-30/bbl of oil that there's no way to remove. This, and lower home prices, and Citibank's writeoff of much of their mortgage holdings, is causing more and more bailouts from overseas. We are on our way to becoming a 'payday lender', taking what we can get. Meanwhile, the Fed realizes the problem, but is caught between inflation and a stagnating economy. Meanwhile, Bush is oblivious to the entire thing, and I only hope that voters who examine the parties in 2008 realize the mess that the GOP has left, including States like California suffering massive deficits due in part to lack of revenue-sharing from the Feds; as well as the budget-busting from 2001-2006 by the GOP, and not a veto from Bush)
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwHbki86OAoUhqDveb6JLDol_4-gD8U78C780
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retailers, home builders and many manufacturers should brace for even more rough times ahead, a somber Federal Reserve suggested Wednesday amid growing fears that the U.S. might be sliding into recession.
The Fed's snapshot of business conditions showed a national economy losing momentum heading into the new year and a future riddled with uncertainty. The persistent housing slump and harder-to-get credit are making people and businesses ever more cautious, it said.
Separately on Wednesday, more big banks reported losses and said people were having trouble making payments for everything from credit cards to cars. Stocks were mostly down for the day, the Dow Jones industrial average declining 34.95 points, or 0.28 percent.
(It's not about where the U.S. has BEEN, but where it's HEADED. Over $1.5 trillion spent in Iraq, including inevitable long term costs. Higher gas prices to come, despite Bush's inane jawboning in Saudi Arabia. On 12/31/08 you can measure the difference from 12/31/2000, and see what Bush has done, quantitatively. In terms of foreign relations and other 'intangibles', the record is far worse - including the impotence of the tripartite system, including Congress, that out Founding Fathers designed)
www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8U53LC80.htm
The unemployment rate leaps to a two-year high, record numbers of people are forced from their homes and Wall Street nose-dives again. Such is the fallout from a housing meltdown that threatens to slingshot the country into a recession.
The big economic question these days is whether the weakening economy will survive the strains or collapse under them.
The odds have grown that the economy will slip into a recession. At the beginning of last year, many economists put that chance at less than 1-in-3; now an increasing number says it has climbed to around 50-50. Goldman Sachs, the biggest investment bank on Wall Street even thinks a recession is inevitable this year.
'The recession gorilla is there. The question is can the Federal Reserve do enough to avert a recession?' asked Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight. 'We think the odds are close to 50 percent that there will be a recession. It is high -- no question about it.'
'All this jackass knows is 'tax cuts', because all he can do is pander to his base'
I guess you don't care because you don't pay taxes.
I pay taxes, and always have. The problem is the giveaway that Bush constructed for the top 5 percent of earners, who got FAR more out of the cuts than the middle and lower class ever saw.
The notion that we can have tax cuts, and pay the increasing bills, is absolute trash, and the American people are just dumb for believing it. U.S. citizens paid a price, in many ways, when we were funding WW II - Iraq been a 5-year war with many more to come, and someone has to pay for this financial mess. Look at the markets today, dumb-ass - the averages are down 9 percent in 2008, and Citibank wrote off nearly their entire loan portfolio:
www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/business/18fed.html?hp
WASHINGTON — The stock market plunged again on Thursday on bad economic news, taking little comfort from reassuring words by the chairman of the Federal Reserve or an emerging consensus about a stimulus plan that many worry could be too late.
Despite the rising prospect of a fiscal pump-priming effort from Washington, investors on Wall Street remained in a black mood as data showed that the housing debacle was getting worse and beginning to bring down the rest of the economy.
Adding to the pessimism, which drowned out the reassurances by Mr. Bernanke that a recession could be averted, were reports that manufacturing activity could be slowing even more than analysts had expected, and that housing starts dropped 14 percent last month and reached their lowest level in 16 years.
But James W. Paulsen, a strategist at Wells Capital Management, reflected the view of many investors that help from Washington would come too late. “By the time they actually pass anything, it will be past the time we need it,” Mr. Paulsen said.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011701406.ht ml?hpid=moreheadlines
Senior U.S. military officials projected yesterday that the Iraqi army and police will grow to an estimated 580,000 members by the end of the year but that shortages of key personnel, equipment, weaponry and logistical capabilities mean that Iraq's security forces will probably require U.S. military support for as long as a decade.
'The truth is that they simply cannot fix, supply, arm or fuel themselves completely enough at this point,' said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq.
Part of the rapid growth, however, has resulted not from additional recruits but because the Iraqi government has placed other existing security forces under the oversight of the ministries of defense and interior, Dubik said. In addition, the latest count is based on Iraqi government data rather than on U.S. military data, a change detailed in a Pentagon report released last month.
Dubik described Iraqi security forces as 'bigger and better' than ever before, but he said significant problems are keeping them dependent on U.S. military support.
Iraq 'remains reliant on the coalition' for critical gear, such as helicopters, mortars, artillery and intelligence-gathering equipment, he said. Moreover, Iraq's shortage of mid-grade leaders represents 'a very real and very tangible hole in proficiency that . . . will affect them for at least a decade.'
Rampant corruption and lingering sectarianism within the Iraqi security forces are also major hurdles that Iraqi defense and police leaders must overcome in order to take responsibility for Iraq's security, Dubik said.
U.S. commanders have agreed that some U.S. forces will probably have to remain in Iraq for as long as a decade -- albeit at a level far lower than the current 160,000 troops.
(Bush wanted to wait for the State of the Union speech to do anything - sort of his 'economic Katrina'. The market wants his rear in gear NOW; but Bush has nothing to offer in terms of a solution; since his brain is gridlocked into tax cuts, which will decrease revenues and put nothing quick in anyone's pocket. The Fed chairman wants a TEMPORARY rebate, and I say give it to people making less than $100,000, period. These people spend everything they make, while the wealthy just sock it away.
I think the situation is past fixing, with the overhang of Merrill and Citibank having surprisingly poor earnings, a general lack of funds for borrowing, high oil prices, a low dollar, and the usual turmoil overseas, including continued bombings in Iraq, and Pakistan not in great shape.
news.scotsman.com/world/Pakistan-troops-reported-to-have.3686911.jp
DOZENS of Pakistani troops are understood to have fled an outpost near the border with Afghanistan yesterday after receiving threats from Taleban militants who a day earlier overran a nearby fort. If reports are confirmed, it would raise questions about the central government's ability to control the border area, where Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters are responsible for rising attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
An intelligence official said the paramilitary troops fled the roadside post without a fight after the militants warned them to leave or face attack. Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a purported militant spokesman, said the troops surrendered after 500 fighters surrounded the post. 'We released them (the troops) under the spirit of Islam,' he said. 'The Taleban have now hoisted their white flag on the fort.'
=============
www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2008/db20080117_873508. htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5
Bernanke Backs Calls for Quick Action
The Fed chairman endorses 'substantive' rate cuts and congressional efforts for rapid economic stimulus. Critics say it's too little, too late.
'I think that the markets are in panic mode, and there is the risk that sentiment becomes so bad that we effectively talk ourselves into recession,' says Joseph LaVorgna, the chief U.S. economist for Global Markets Research.
If Congress wants to help the economy, Bernanke said, it needs to act quickly. He supported some proposals for investment tax credits or accelerated depreciation that will give an immediate boost to corporate or consumer spending without firing up inflation as the economy recovers. 'Stimulus that comes too late will not help support economic activity in the near term, and it could be economically destabilizing if it comes at a time when growth is already improving,' he testified.
Bernanke now admits falling home prices, higher-than-expected energy costs, and a weak stock performance are expected to drag down U.S. growth this year. Consumer spending is falling, and the unemployment rate edged up by a 'disappointing' 0.3 percentage points in December, to 5.0%, while new jobs declined. The Fed chairman acknowledged the central bank has 'consistently underestimated' the impact of rising oil prices and other commodities on the U.S. economy.
One problem Bernanke may not be able to overcome: He lacks the swagger and devout following of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan. Combined with worse-than-expected earnings and economic data, the markets are having a tough time taking Bernanke at his word.
What really matters in this situation are the banks. The Congresscritters and the Bushbaby know that. None of them want to be seen giving money to the cursed banks. All of this, all the noise, all of the grandstanding, all of the bickering, is just a smokescreen designed to hide what they are going to do about the banks. Oh, sure, they'll throw Bubba Jones and his old lady a bone or two, but even that's just pink smoke instead of purple smoke.
Get off your partisan high horses, boys and girls. This is a bipartisan mutually assured disaster. The boobs in DC are going to do what they can to patch things back together. They were hoping the Chinese would bail them out, but the Chinese are delighted to see us in trouble and were more than happy to say, 'Ah, is velly nice offa! So solly we must decrine it. We have enough Amelican debt, frock you velly, velly much.
What will come out of this? Inflation, the general purpose, universally effective sneak attack tax.
Further, deponents sayeth not!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rock
...that the good times were going on forever?
What nation do you live in? There was a recession in every decade back to the 19th century.
Study the cyclical nature of the US economy and get back to us.
Now, the dems are pimping a 'stimulus package' with Bush! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
If it were not going to hurt me so much I'd be laughing about it all. Just look at all the candidates we have running for the captaincy of a wrecked ship.
We are as badly off as the Brits in many ways and worse off in others. We have a half-baked dysfunctional health care system. Our education system is all but completely useless. We don't actually make very much of anything anymore. What little we do make we hire illegal aliens to do the work. We are in debt up to our eyebrows. We are giving tons and tons of money away everyday to people who despise us and we behave as though we have allies. We only have one ally in the world and that is Australia. I think they are going to take a hard look at us and say, 'G'day and g'luck, Mate!' and they'd be right to do so, because we will insist on electing pendejos grandes and used car salesmen for leaders.
I cannot recall a time when we had people in Washington DC who were this odious, this useless or this brainless. I suppose this is going to be like trying to get a traffic signal installed. There will have to be a truly awful wreck before anything will be done.
Among the truly stupid on the public payroll is this bald-headed dork:
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49817
Why is he still running the Department of Homeland Defense? Why haven't one of our illustrious congresscritters started impeachment proceedings against him? Is clear to anyone who listens to him a couple of times that he is nothing more than an asskissing incompetent.
And I do mean incompetent as in 'DUMPHUK'.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEKUJGT2xr4
..he's an apparatchick, in a department with less relevancy than a sewing circle. It was all a political construct. They do not control their own budget, they have no real juice, etc.
The government is full of them.
I am convinced that DHoS is a smoke screen to cover up shit like this:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3216737.ece
This goes back twelve years, of course, but the Bush Bunch and the Clinton Clan have been covering one another's backsides for a while now. Something is very badly wrong in DC and we need to oust the entrenched interests so that we can clean house.
I'm tempted to vote for Obama because he's green enough and idealistic enough to tackle something like this.
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