[jonKranked]

not really so much a point of view, as viewing reality.

Four months ago Joe Biden said that additional administration stimulus spending would add 500,000 jobs a month. But last week's unemployment claims are the highest in nearly a year. Is this additional administration stimulus working or is it just more out-of-control spending ???

just sayin'........

they're just trying to out-do the previous administration's out of control spending.

 

[ohio]

Obvious troll is obvious banned.

Awww, but we were just getting started. Natural selection woulda sorted him out.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Awww, but we were just getting started. Natural selection woulda sorted him out.

I think it just did. BV is the alpha predator of teh

Obvious troll is obvious banned.

you must spread some reputation around before giving it to binary visions again

 

[kidwoo]

Aw man.... This place needs more people who can't type out sentences correctly calling everyone else stupid.

 

[binary visions]

If there's one thing I've learned in this forum, it's that natural selection never actually kills off the idiots. It may injure, maim or wound them such that they will limp away to heal and return, but it never kills them.

Swiftly lopping off the head in one stroke is a much better way to deal with them

 

[jonKranked]

If there's one thing I've learned in this forum, it's that natural selection never actually kills off the idiots. It may injure, maim or wound them such that they will limp away to heal and return, but it never kills them.

Swiftly lopping off the head in one stroke is a much better way to deal with them

but its so much less fun!

 

[binary visions]

For you, maybe, but why would you begrudge me my own fun of watching the headless body stumble a few steps and then collapse into the mud?

 

[Pesqueeb]

they're just trying to out-do the previous administration's out of control spending.

Speaking of which, shall we steer back towards our original course?

Now That’s Rich
By PAUL KRUGMAN
We need to pinch pennies these days. Don’t you know we have a budget deficit? For months that has been the word from Republicans and conservative Democrats, who have rejected every suggestion that we do more to avoid deep cuts in public services and help the ailing economy.

But these same politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country.

What — you haven’t heard about this proposal? Actually, you have: I’m talking about demands that we make all of the Bush tax cuts, not just those for the middle class, permanent.

Some background: Back in 2001, when the first set of Bush tax cuts was rammed through Congress, the legislation was written with a peculiar provision — namely, that the whole thing would expire, with tax rates reverting to 2000 levels, on the last day of 2010.

Why the cutoff date? In part, it was used to disguise the fiscal irresponsibility of the tax cuts: lopping off that last year reduced the headline cost of the cuts, because such costs are normally calculated over a 10-year period. It also allowed the Bush administration to pass the tax cuts using reconciliation — yes, the same procedure that Republicans denounced when it was used to enact health reform — while sidestepping rules designed to prevent the use of that procedure to increase long-run budget deficits.

Obviously, the idea was to go back at a later date and make those tax cuts permanent. But things didn’t go according to plan. And now the witching hour is upon us.

So what’s the choice now? The Obama administration wants to preserve those parts of the original tax cuts that mainly benefit the middle class — which is an expensive proposition in its own right — but to let those provisions benefiting only people with very high incomes expire on schedule. Republicans, with support from some conservative Democrats, want to keep the whole thing.

And there’s a real chance that Republicans will get what they want. That’s a demonstration, if anyone needed one, that our political culture has become not just dysfunctional but deeply corrupt.

What’s at stake here? According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. For the sake of comparison, it took months of hard negotiations to get Congressional approval for a mere $26 billion in desperately needed aid to state and local governments.

And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But that’s the least of it: the policy center’s estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; he’s going to get the majority of that group’s tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few — the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year — would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.

How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty. In fact, my first suspicions that we were being misled into invading Iraq were based on the resemblance between the campaign for war and the campaign for tax cuts the previous year. And sure enough, that same trademark deception and dishonesty is being deployed on behalf of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

So, for example, we’re told that it’s all about helping small business; but only a tiny fraction of small-business owners would receive any tax break at all. And how many small-business owners do you know making several million a year?

Or we’re told that it’s about helping the economy recover. But it’s hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and aren’t likely to spend a windfall.

No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, it’s about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress won’t take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.

So far, the Obama administration is standing firm against this outrage. Let’s hope that it prevails in its fight. Otherwise, it will be hard not to lose all faith in America’s future.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/opinion/23krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

 

[dante]

Obvious troll is obvious banned.

I'd assume that when someone's first post on all of RM is in the P&WN forum, it's clever trolling blatantly obvious.

 

[X3pilot]

Speaking of which, shall we steer back towards our original course?

No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, it’s about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress won’t take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.

Because they are them.

Just fuzzy math, son. Nothing else to see there...

 

[Pesqueeb]

Because they are them.

Just fuzzy math, son. Nothing else to see there...

I don't know if anyone in government is making the kind of money were talking about here. Beholden to the people who are maybe, but not actually making that kind of money themselves.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Wow. Even the head-in-the-sand folks over @ CNBC are starting to get downright bearish.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average will lose about half of its value over the next couple of years as it follows a Nikkei-like pattern of several sharp rallies in an overall decline, according to Charles Nenner, founder and president of Charles Nenner research.

Stocks are currently in a bear-market rally, and looking at charts and past trends, unemployment and leading indicators suggest the Dow will drop to 5,000 in the next two to two-and-a-half years, Nenner told CNBC in an e-mail.

Deflation will arrive, along with a sharp double-dip recession, pushing the Dow lower, although, like the Japanese market, stocks will see several jumps of 30 percent to 40 percent, he said.

"Things look really bad for the next 10 years," Nenner said.

While most stocks will get caught in the downturn, the exception will be those with exposure to soft commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans, he added.

Last week, JPMorgan strategist David Kelly said there is still a lot of opportunity in stocks and that a double-dip scenario is "very unlikely."

Nenner is also bullish on gold and silver over the longer term and expects the precious metals to start a new leg higher by the end of the year.

Bond yields should go lower for the next three or four years and the Japanese yen should gain against the dollar, he said, adding that his target was 80 yen per dollar.

Nenner also said that there is a strong case to suggest that the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy further.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38826988

I know Silver, I know. I guess I just love a trainwreck, and this could be the second biggest train wreck of all time!