Robert Reich warns a recession, or worse, could be coming.
Comment: Sacrifices will have to be made, and not just by one segment of society. We need a system that works at least moderately well for everyone. That's going to take a lot of finagling.
Comment: http://www.perfectse.com---Web2.0 search engine, let you decide which sites are good for you.
Comment: http://www.perfectse.com---Web2.0 search engine, let you decide which sites are good for you.
Comment: The Next Generations of Americans will have a much tougher time of it than Baby Boomers had. A life of Debt and low wages while strapped witht the cost of caring for an aging populace and an infrastructure that has had no real improvements for 30 years is what the real problem is. Tax cuts for the rich is not going to help this mess only a revolution or a truely inspired leadership will and I do not see that comming from anyone over 50.
Comment: Why not let house prices fall, it???s nothing that we can really do. So let???s stop kidding ourselves, we???re not in a recession we are on the heels of a depression. President Bush and his cronies and homeboys has rape this country financially, Bush had put all these dummy companies together like Homeland Security and so many more in order to channel huge sums of money from the national treasure to the sliver lining of his greedy buddies pockets. And the sad thing about it is that the government has become just like an ordinary big company that employee wake up to go to work for and find out when they get there that the company has shut down and the doors are lock, out of business and no job. The government is the biggest business in the country and they don???t have a financial forecaster to see four months down the road of the market and see that we are in a depression, be serious. Can someone have the guts to stand up and let America know that the country is head for a depression; like 1929 hard times? And if the congress and senate on capital hill is to scare to confront Bush and his bullies, then they need to call the police to arrest Bush and the energy boys and the rest of the bullies (911). This was what the war was all about; madness but organize madness, a divergent to distract us while thieves run away with billions of tax payer dollars, just think. Or are we to dumb to do that. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, look at Bush in Kuwait holding hands with his Arab buddy. They???ve laid the con down to perfection, the sting of all stings. His little victory dance shows his stupid arrogance.
Comment: There is no point in warning the Americans of the "Darker Days Ahead" because the government has led them to believe that everything is okay. Even the Katrina debacle has been accepted by the Americans as okay! So Mr. Robert Reich please don't waste your time and energy!
Comment: Regarding the comments "the markets rebounding and nobody knows anything" ,...
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/there-is-some-good-news.html
Regarding what HAD to be done:
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/rebounding-us-economy.html
Let's get the ideas to both the bottom of the financial food chain and to the top, was well as to Washington. Regardless, this recovery will begin on the ground floor.
Comment: Franky, I feel tired of hearing gloomy predictions. Whatever can & should be done, let's do it, then stop worrying about it.
Comment: "Ain't nobody happy unless Wall Street is happy" seems to be the Fed's guiding principle. Since its former
accommodative stance is bankrupt, and until it can put a newly contrived one in place, the only way it can please the bankers is to create "volatility," the ups and downs of which entice more lambs to the slaughter and enable the insiders to unload their overpriced merchandise. Mr. Reich is correct in one regard: The current American economy, both in its origins and in its likely outcome, can best be described in scatological terms.
Comment: As usual, a post mortem. He is like the NY Times that has not penned a warning since 2002, but now is explaining what went wrong. We live in a retrospective economic world because we are too lazy and ignorant to question the economic system. And that is why Americans continue to misunderstand the centrality of gold as money in a fiat currency world economy. It is not a matter of a stock market panic but a financial one. There is chaos just ahead.
Comment: I'd like to see a copy of George bush's IQ scores next to Bill Clinton's IQ scores.
Comment: Why does the media continue to drag all of these ex-clintonite's before us with their projections of doom? It's like they think these ex-clintionite's are the only experts or something? We already know what they are going to say before they speak. They all sound like a broken record...."The world is doomed, unless you vote for Democrats".
Comment: RR is a pretty confused guy, suffering from some sort of economic shizophrenia. He starts off arguing the economy, throws out the term Depression - while offering no economic evidence to justify any use of the word. Then - suddenly - all of his arguments are about the Stock Market - not the economy, then they morph into the same thing. He then proceeds to state diametrcally opposed arguments to support a single theory - that money in the pocket is the key, but then no - it really is people's future behavior! Then tops that off by vaguely discussing how the US market isn't fully decoupled from the rest of the world markets (instead of the other way around!). Whew! C'mon, Bob - even non-famous PhD's know that behavior is changed by expectations, and expectations are about what is likely to happen in the future - not money in the pocket today. And 'frittering away' money on breaks to 'investors' - rather than being wasted - actually DOES manage expectations on the future risk profile of the market. Which should be important to you, since you keep confusing the economy and the stock market. Fortunately for you the standards for economic diatribe have (apparently)ngone down at Berkeley of late! The only point he actually gets right (perhaps by accident) is the payroll tax, which is the biggest choking factor by far on our economic engine. Wow! This is all I can say.
Comment: Davis123's critique of RR is a bit off the mark--for instance the collapsing housing bubble has created a decline so deep that to find a parallel decline---O, let's see...we have to go back and back to the DEPRESSION to match such a decline. And the Bush Administration and our Federal watchdogs have been fiddling away in their religious belief in corporate socialisistic welfare and trickle down economics. The Bushian hidden theological belief that God is a Capitalist and Jesus saves by means of permanent tax cuts to the wealthy is heretical, totally bereft of logic, if not slightly mad.
Comment: As long as Americans go in to debt to buy stuff they don't need then the economy will be fine.
Comment: Once again Americans are stupid enough to buy into the Bush administrations lies. Everything is not alright and as long as this group of Bozos remains in office it won't be. They have succeeded in destroying the economy, the environment and any chance for world peace in the near future. I refuse to spend a dime on anything beyond necessities while Bush remains in office. I took all my funds out of the stock market immediately upon his election in 2000. I didn't trust he and Cheney then and they done nothing but destroy my confidence in government and the peoples ability to choose good leaders since.
Comment: Did you know there is a website, been up and running for over 5 years now...offering $5,000 to anyone that can document a single lie Bush has told. For 5 years, they haven't had a single person able to document a single lie......unlike Mr. Clinton, who had to go on national tv and try to redefine the word "is".
You should try pulling your head out of that donkey's butt and take a look around once in awhile!
Comment: Reminds me of the comment in the Movie "BLAZING SADDLES" when a cure for Anthrax was found by Pasteur and it was discussed in a saloon and the reply was: "Never mind that Sh.... , her comes Mongo". We are being sold a bill of goods. We are in a black hole situation and until all the trash is sucked into this black hole, we as a Nation, will not come out of it. Unfortunately for the Democrats, they will not be able to comprehende that the Republicans will squarely put "all" the blame on them and the gulpible public will fall for it...............the 6% fruitcakes that move elections!!!! (Like in Russia with Lenin). And then we will once again have Republicans rape the nation till there is nothing left to steal, and they will get on their space ship and leave with all the stolen treasures as surely they (the Republicans that is) believe not to be from this earth at any rate and certainly live in a vacuum. Or they would think more "us" and less "me". Ugggh, it is an ugly world out there Froderick !!!
Comment: I love it when some Democrat trys to compare Bush to Hitler and Republicans to a Russian regime...lol
Especially when it is Democrats openly moving us towards socialism.
Personally, I believe the biggest problem this country has is too many people walking around with their head stuck up either a donkey or elephants butt. They keep us divided between donkeys and elephants, while they live the lifestyle of the rich and famous and continue to steal us blind.....both parties! Yet somehow, you think one is better. Even though your justification for thinking that is based on a false premise. I love America!
Comment: I had my head up a donkey's butt for years and have permanent hearing damage now. Please be more courteous to us who have been in the night"mare".
Comment: By the way Nikita Kruchev once said "The communists will sell the capitalists enough rope to hang themselves with'" and that's exactly what the Chineese are doing. Who opened the door to China ? Richard Nixon another make the rich richer right winger.
Comment: P.T. Barnum once said that "you will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
Ronald Reagan and his right wing cronies fear mongered the american public into accepting his fiscal policies which have corroded the fabric of American life. Jimmy Carter would have been a better choice, because before Reagan we had a graduated tax system and a safe banking system which was tightly controlled. With a graduated tax system people like Ted Turner would not have been able to afford to buy up 100's of thousands of acres of land which now sit idol, while the population increases and there is no land available to build on except at exorbitant prices. CEO's that rake in lavish $400 million dollar paychecks, while their workers do not earn enough to get by on would have been taxed at a rate that would level the playing field somewhat. In addition Reagan changed the way inflation is calculated to make it look like he had tamed inflation but, in reality inflation surges ahead at 6-8% while the government reports inflation rates of 2-5% annually, and paychecks increase at about that same rate, while true purchasing power is declining. Ronald Reagan ran the largest budget deficits in history until George Bush, which has weakened our economy even more so he could cut taxes for the rich and pile up debts that are becoming financially unbearable. Ronald Reagan told us he had fixed Social Security once and for all, but now the right wing is trying to scare us into believing that it is insolvent again, so they can stay in office and continue the great transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the rich.
As for the "Great Orator" the man that ended the cold war, the last time I checked Russia still has 20,000 nuclear warheads pointed at us and personally I felt safer when our military kept a close eye on them.
Comment: Thank you. I don't think we all realized how evil Ronald Regan was and how stupid the American public was. Imagine the prosperity we could all be sharing if we had re-elected Jimmy Carter.
Comment: Incredible. I don't think we realized how evil Ronald Regan was and how stupid the rest of us were to be hoodwinked. Imagine the prosperity we would all be sharing if we had just re-elected Jimmy Carter.
Comment: We owe all of our financial woes on Ronald Reagan and reaganomics and the trickle down theory. All of the banking safeguards installed after the great depression were rolled back by Reagan and his cronies. Protections such as not allowing big banks to expand beyond state borders in order to prevent the problems we now have of having all our eggs in one basket , this has allowed the growth of mega banks which are now in trouble and will take out huge portions of our economy as they fail. Protections such as caps on interest rates that banks are able to charge which used to be capped at 12%, but now are capped at 30% or more, this encourages lendin speculation with the promise of huge returns, but in reality create much more risk to the system. Protections such as not allowing banks to dabble in risky ventures such as investing in the stock market or allowing them to sell stocks and bonds. Reagan's deregulation of the banking industry has brought us to the brink of the next great depression and we are teetering over the edge.
The only thing Reagonomics and his tax cutting hacks have accomplished has been the concentration of wealth ito the hands of the modern day robber barron's and not since the great depression has the concentration of wealth been so lopsided.
According to Ronald Reagan prosperity will trickle down from the rich to the poor under reaganomics, but the truth is the rich cannot devise enough ways to spend they're ill gotten gain and the trickle has stopped.
Ronald Reagan and his desciples have accomplished one thing only and that is the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the poor and middle-class to the rich. Ronald Reagan the great orator will go down in history as the architect of the second great depression and the world will finally realize that the tax cutting montra of the right wing has brought us the greatest banking collapse in history.
Comment: We owe all of our financial woes on Ronald Reagan and reaganomics and the trickle down theory. All of the banking safeguards installed after the great depression were rolled back by Reagan and his cronies. Protections such as not allowing big banks to expand beyond state borders in order to prevent the problems we now have of having all our eggs in one basket , this has allowed the growth of mega banks which are now in trouble and will take out huge portions of our economy as they fail. Protections such as caps on interest rates that banks are able to charge which used to be capped at 12%, but now are capped at 30% or more, this encourages lendin speculation with the promise of huge returns, but in reality create much more risk to the system. Protections such as not allowing banks to dabble in risky ventures such as investing in the stock market or allowing them to sell stocks and bonds. Reagan's deregulation of the banking industry has brought us to the brink of the next great depression and we are teetering over the edge.
The only thing Reagonomics and his tax cutting hacks have accomplished has been the concentration of wealth ito the hands of the modern day robber barron's and not since the great depression has the concentration of wealth been so lopsided.
According to Ronald Reagan prosperity will trickle down from the rich to the poor under reaganomics, but the truth is the rich cannot devise enough ways to spend they're ill gotten gain and the trickle has stopped.
Ronald Reagan and his desciples have accomplished one thing only and that is the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the poor and middle-class to the rich. Ronald Reagan the great orator will go down in history as the architect of the second great depression and the world will finally realize that the tax cutting montra of the right wing has brought us the greatest banking collapse in history.
Comment: Well I'm a 60 yr old and could not find work last year, so whats in it for me? Since I did not pay any tax and the rebate will leave me out what should I do now? Buy a pistol?
Comment: If they are really serious about a tax rebate, how about forgoing the check and just reduce the federal withholding by 3%. And make it permanent. This will help the middle class, the people who are the real economic engine of America, to achieve the American dream far better than some measly check.
Comment: This past weekend has shown that the decoupling theory may be valid to some extent, but does not yet stretch to cover the current US downturn. Hong Kong has dropped at about 3 times the Dow rate. This tells me the chance of a recession is zero. If the US falls into a recession the emerging markets will then have a major meltdown, and take the rest of the global economy with it. Ben Bernake had been behind the curve. A 1/2 point rate cut before Christmas would have had an effect multiplied by the season's sales. He is now making up time with a bigger rate cut. The good news is that he is a quick learner.
We can take advantage of the 6 month lag before rate cuts take effect. There are now 3 FOMC meetings in the next 3 months, including next week. That gives the Fed time to adjust for any overshoot. An overshoot on rates now can bring confidence to the market and yet can be compensated by lower cuts on March and April.
The US can also help confidence by re-regulating the finance industry. The problem occurred when investors and analysts couldn't see the risky investments made by the bank management. Increasing transparency so that investors buying the bank stocks can see the subprime exposure will keep that exposure in line. This will also lower the number of subprime mortgages made, because the lenders won't be able to sell them as freely.
And a note to the previous poster, we do have a vote of confidence in the Constiution, it's held at the start of November, every year. If we start hodling votes more often then not enogh of the general public would go to the polls, and a few people with a beef could vote out an official they don't like simply by showing up. Check the turnout for a school budget vote if you don't believe me.
Comment: I've got a hundred dollars that says the markets will recognize the stimulus package and actions by the Fed for exactly what they are: a hospice cocktail.
A Vote of Confidence Amendment will enable the American voting public to dismiss any elected official who fails in their obligation to serve the people of the United States.
VOCA, now
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