Darker Days Ahead?

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.

I'd like to see a copy of George bush's IQ scores next to Bill Clinton's IQ scores.

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".

As long as Americans go in to debt to buy stuff they don't need then the economy will be fine.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.