Business Week: Double Digit Inflation in 2009 (bye bye more jobs)

[lowecur]

It's all hubris. Our people and our elected officials are like a bunch of stumbling drunks that will never admit to destructive behavior until we have reached rock bottom. The old expression, "I can handle it," keeps echoing down the halls of Congress.

Someone asked earlier why don't we raise interest rates right now? It's because the financial system is in such poor shape from the subprime mess, that the Fed is trying to give the banks breathing room so that they can stop the hemmhorging. The problem is when you plug one leak, another just pops open. What we need is for a recession to just unfold. Our expenses are so damn high, we keep artificially propping the financial system up, hoping to keep the dream alive for another year.

Why are the Russians being as bold as they are? Because they know they have Europe by the sac with oil. Most of Europe (NATO), would never dare be adversarial for fear of Russia closing the oil spickett. It also wouldn't surprise me if Russia just went into Georgia and annexed it back, for the sole purpose of controling the 2nd largest oil pipeline in the world. Also, they don't fear the US military as they have in the past. Our fighting machine is tired and too broken down to offer any longterm serious resistance in Georgia.

We are a paper tiger and it's going to take years and lots of eating of humble pie before we get it turned around. Will we do it? Yeah, we always do it.....but we are going to be living with lots of pain in the next 3- 7 years.

imp: ​

 

[Flying the Line]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0523-02.htm

 

[Mamma]

We are a paper tiger and it's going to take years and lots of eating of humble pie before we get it turned around. Will we do it? Yeah, we always do it.....but we are going to be living with lots of pain in the next 3- 7 years.

imp: ​

I agree with a lot of what you said but I am not so sure we are a paper tiger. Didn't we jump into WWII during a depression? The problem with the current war and why there is no draft, war bonds and rations is this is a divisive war and the politicians are walking a fine line to get it to a satisfactory conclusion. I am not saying we are in any shape for a major war but I don't think I am on board with calling the US a paper tiger.

 

[list2002]

Thank goodness Bush got us all squared away before the ******************** hit the fan.

 

[V-1]

Too bad nobody is funding the current wars...let alone the future ones.

If we were REALLY serious about this, as a country, there would be gasoline and metal rationing, war bonds, etc. Genuine shared sacrifice. Can't be having that though - God forbid we temporarily sacrifice our quality of living toward a common goal!

Collectively, as a country we're all too busy watching "The Soup" on E! to pay attention to what's actually going on...

Oh, somebody is funding the current wars, they're also hosting the Summer Olympics this year. The U.S.'s second biggest creditor is a Communist nation. Better hope they don't stop lending us money.

Asking personal sacrifice from your constituents requires leadership, of which there has been little. Allowing the value of the dollar to fall 35% in six years is a much more subtle way to require personal sacrifice of the masses.

As for the Democrat/Republican arguements here, I will be successful no matter who is elected.

I'll also be happy to have a president who can speak English. It's been some time since we've had one who meets that most basic of job requirements.

It'd also be nice to have a president who doesn't cater soley to the Christian extremists in this country.

 

[Minimaniac]

Maybe we just aren't hungry anymore.

The above statement is exactly what is wrong with our nation, and explains why we have lost control of our government. We Americans are so far detached from the basic needs of life. After all the economic woes that have hit our nation, and my socio-economic class, I still have food on the table AND in the pantry. I can afford to go buy more, and when I get to the store, more will be waiting to be bought. We are comfortable overall. Ever talk to your grandparents who lived through the depression? We are nowhere near that level.

Until our lives and those of our family truly hang in the balance of political decisions, we will never put the screws to our elected leaders in a way that asserts our fundamental role in this democracy. It is a shame we will have to fall so far to regain our control, but it can be done. We rule by popular vote. As long as the majority of us are fed, warm, and healthy, there will be no momentum for change.

So, until dung hits the rotating cooling device, we are stuck with our long-winded senators and impotent presidents. In the mean time, make sure you brush up on basic skills like raising a garden, practical woodworking, and cooking from basic ingredients. Know how to live when the luxuries of ready-made disappear along with your financial ability to contract out your basic home repairs. And never give up your second amendment rights...that may be the last chance we have one day for taking our government back.

 

[AA717driver]

Basic gardening? You mean without tons of petro-chemical fertilizer and genetically altered corn being force-fed to cattle (who were never designed to eat corn!), injected with massive amounts of anti-biotics to permit their digestive tracts to handle it?

ALL so ADM, Cargill, Monsanto, etc. can make billions of dollars? (And then distribute some of it to the Congress-whores who make the legislation that inhibits organic farmers from expanding and protects big agribusiness...)

What a concept...

Read "Omnivore's Dilemma". It will scare you worse than any Stephen King novel. TC

 

[BoilerUP]

Hey TC,

I can reload 30-06 for about $0.50 per shot...for $10 I can feed my wife and I venison for a year. You want some? If so, bring bourbon.

 

[AA717driver]

Boiler--I live across the street from Eagle Creek Park. You can't spit without hitting a deer.

However, since I'm staring at a sea of 'future corn mash' out my back door, I'll bring the booze.

My 10 year old wants to learn to deer hunt so he'll provide the meat for the family. TC

 

[KigAir]

Only in our spoiled modern society can a comment like that be made, and be made seriously.

Our country will be much better off when the economy isn't reliant on Joe Q. Citizen spending money he doesn't have, and going tens of thousands into debt, to maintain an inflated quality of living.

God help us if we REALLY get into a genuine "crisis" in this country...

+1

Only the people who over bought a lifestyle have a crisis.

 

[suupah]

Hah hahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahah!

Good one! Nothing like adding a trillion dollars of entitlements while simultaneously raising capital gains taxes to fight inflation!

Mind boggling, really. Congress has a 9% approval rating yet 1/2 of all Americans can't wait to fork over all their $$$ in return for more ********************ty government programs.

Show me where the republicans have not gotten us way over our head in debt every single year during their leadership since Ronald Reagan. The only years with decreasing deficits and surpluses were during the clinton administration. 8 of the last 28 years were the only ones where there seemed to be a turn in the tide. The numbers don't lie. The republican parties platform of lower taxes for increase revenue and fiscal responsibility is a hoax. It isn't the reality of their policies at all.

 

[suupah]

Thank goodness Bush got us all squared away before the ******************** hit the fan.

:laugh:

 

[Soverytired]

Show me where the republicans have not gotten us way over our head in debt every single year during their leadership since Ronald Reagan. The only years with decreasing deficits and surpluses were during the clinton administration. 8 of the last 28 years were the only ones where there seemed to be a turn in the tide. The numbers don't lie. The republican parties platform of lower taxes for increase revenue and fiscal responsibility is a hoax. It isn't the reality of their policies at all.

With the exception of the tax cuts of 8 years ago and non-stop "emergency" war funding, the Congress of the past 8 years has failed to pass any meaningful legislation. In 2004 GW made a huge push ("I have capital and I mean to spend it") to address one of the more pressing runaway entitlement scams . . social security.

Blocked at all times by dems (of course). Plenty of fingers to go around here, and both parties have been perfectly happy to run up deficits via entitlements with abandon.

Obama has proposed tax raises, true. But he has also proposed at least a TRILLION dollars in new entitlement spending, and there ain't no way some minor tax changes are going to cover it. He's gonna borrow til the US credit rating is junk and every child in America will have no future other than servicing the debt of his parents and granparents.

IMHO.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

+1

Only the people who over bought a lifestyle have a crisis.

That's a partial truth. No doubt there are some who lived high on the hog and outside their current means. I imagine these to be folks who have good college-educated careers and live a stable middle to upper-middle class lifestyle. The more you make the more you spend. They will slide, but not as much as the udnerclass and those just above it, like working class and pink collar workers.

But there are plenty who live hand to mouth and are exponentially affected by this spiralling economy. It's these folks who are REALLY hurt during times of crisis. those who don't have savings, rich families, etc. becasue they don't have a large salary. There is not much breathing room for these folks. The slip into poverty is quite quicker for these individuals than it is for the worrisome career couple who owns their own home and has stocks, assests, 2nd homes etc. Granted, their lifestyle will take an impact, but nothing like those who are much less fortunate in this country.

They are the ones who will be hit hardest during times of crisis. They're also the ones who were preyed upon by predatory lenders.

 

[007]

So the choice is higher taxes or have McCain go "full Cabotage all over our a$$e$".

I am no expert, but I think that's exactly what he is thinking. It's a quick fix to the airline problem and the passenger won't care until they realize that Air China is the dominant airline in the U.S.

 

[CopilotDoug]

Our fighting machine is tired and too broken down to offer any longterm serious resistance in Georgia.

It would also be opening a second front, which we couldn't support for any appreciable length of time.

 

[MECH]

It would also be opening a second front, which we couldn't support for any appreciable length of time.

Third front.

 

[CopilotDoug]

Third front.

My bad...overlooked Afghanistan

 

[Raskal]

It would also be opening a second front, which we couldn't support for any appreciable length of time.

Resistance in Georgia? To whom, the Georgians who caused this in the hopes of dragging us into yet another 500 year old land dispute? :laugh: Russia can do whatever it wants now, who's going to stop them, us? Right. Good for the Russians, who right now are cracking up at us replacing them in Afghanistan...the jokes on us.

 

[Indy319FA]

8 of the last 28 years were the only ones where there seemed to be a turn in the tide.

Last time I checked the Republicans controlled congress for 6 of those 8 years. People like John Kasich and Dick Armey kept Clinton's spending proclivities in check. When Kasich left, the Hastert-led Republicans went on their drunken spending binge which resulted in a well deserved debacle in 2006.

If spending is your main issue, then McCain has proven he will reduce spending, and get rid of earmarks. If you want more goverment benefits for people that don't pay taxes, more government regulation, more government programs, and more taxes then vote for Obama.