This is not a good time for parents trying to raise their kids in a sane environment. The number of American families struck by unemployment is growing with alarming rates (533,000 workers lost their jobs in November). More Americans, having lost faith in government, are turning to God, while many children whose prospects for a Merry Christmas are turning bleak, are sending letters to Santa asking for gifts they may not get from their parents this year, and most importantly for jobs their parents may not get from the government, before long. One kid wrote: "I am not getting any presents this year, not because I was bad--I was good, but because my parents are out of work and can't buy me things. So please Santa, help my parents get a job."
Heartbreaking!
More Here..
Dec 5, 2008
Bush's Tears
A battery of bad economic news today Friday:
-The number of people who lost their jobs in November hit 533,000 (most in 34 years).
-Retailers posted the worst decline in sales in thirty years.
- Late mortgage payments and the rate of home loans in foreclosure rose to record highs in the third quarter, and 2.2 million home mortgages are expected to start the foreclosure process this year, before the bailout effort takes effect.
-The Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit fell unexpectedly at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in October--the deepest cutback in borrowing since August.
Yet the US Stock Market went up, with the Dow gaining nearly 260 points-- a sign that Wall Street is growing numb to bad economic news. But unlike the oblivious Stock Market, Bush came out of his shell to finally say the country is in a recession! "I am concerned about the viability of the automobile companies," he told White House reporters. "I am concerned about those who work for the automobile companies and their families. And likewise, I am concerned about taxpayer money being provided to these companies that may not survive."
It's good to hear the President's concern about the country and the people. We are finally seeing the real Bush as his aides are busy helping him pack his personal belongings before he moves to his new $2 million mansion in Dallas, TX.
He said he'd miss Air Force One though! A week ago he told GMA Charlie Gibson he'd miss his Marine One Helicopter! Bush didn't say whether he feels any remorse for having led the country to the abyss.
This is the second recession under his watch. The first one took place in 2001 and ended after only 9 months. The current recession may continue much longer and may even turn into a depression.
Thanks to Bush's stubborn policies, we have here the perfect cause-and-effect case. The cause is summed up in this video that enumerates the 14 defining characteristics of a fascist regime (and guess who qualifies?).
As for the effect, we all know tidbits of the extent of the damage that was done to America in the last decade. But there is out there a lot more to be learned, and some of it is, to say the least, scary. I refer you to this article published by InflationData.com: "Is the US Bankrupt?"
Dec 3, 2008
Can Obama Survive a Depression?
The US is officially in a recession….since December 2007!!
It is a well-accepted fact that recessionary indicators cannot be determined with any certainty until the malady has already spread to all the vital sectors of the economy. It usually takes two quarters before, if determined, a recession is officially declared. But it took nearly four quarters this time around for the recession to be formally labeled.
Economists don’t agree on a single definition of recession, but there are two different gauges:
1. The GDP goes negative for two consecutive quarters.
2. The business activity, which includes employment, industrial production, real income and wholesale-retail sales, peaks and then begins to spiral downward.
This second definition is espoused by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the very organization that broke the belated recession news two days ago.
By the NBER yardstick, the average recession lasts about a year, which means that the US economy should be out of the woods before President-elect Obama is sworn in.
It’s still unclear, however, why it has taken a year for the NBER to put its label on a recession that was so palpable at least two quarters ago. It’s still unknown, and no one seems to care, whether this delay was the result of a genuine glitch, an excess of caution, or some intentional blockage.
The latter scenario is the most likely one as the holdup took place under an administration known for its law-bending inclinations.
What makes the wrongdoing theory even more plausible is Bush’s unusual and surprising conduct in his attempts to tackle the financial crisis. Many say that, perhaps to not thwart the chances of the GOP in an important election year, Bush departed from his party’s conservative approach to government spending and interventionism and stood behind the colossal $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
If the delay turns out to be a cover up, it should become evident that Bush’s gambit was less about helping the economy and more about gambling with taxpayers’ money to help his own party. The delay in itself is bad enough, as it jeopardizes corporate budgetary and business plans and causes unwarranted job and revenue losses.
Deliberately denying the public the right to be informed, especially with regard to the onset of an event as severe and consequential as a recession, warrants a formal investigation.
But those who expect the upcoming administration to introduce any suspects to justice for their possible lawlessness are in for some disappointments. Obama’s already evident eagerness to rule by consensus will preclude him from shaking up Washington. Many Americans rightly argue that, recession or not, Obama was not elected to appease the establishment. If he stays on his current course, Obama may end up losing the support of the bulk of those who have gone out of their way to vote for him. Worse, Obama runs the risk of becoming just another first-term Democrat President, and maybe the first and the last Black American to make it to the highest office in this century.
Judging from the team Obama has picked, there is little doubt that his policies won’t change much from the usual deceitful politicking that drove the country to the brink of bankruptcy.
Obama’s widely cheered promise of change, his famous saying “this is our time, this is our moment to turn the page from the past” may turn out to be just what many had suspected--empty words!
The country is in a recession. That much is now clear. The question is how long and deep this recession will turn out to be. Obama will have to face the impossible task of getting the country out of the recession before it becomes a depression. But time is not on his side. As of January 20th, he’ll have a little over two months to either announce the beginning of an expansionary period or to concede that a depression is in. If a depression becomes the hallmark of his first year in the White House, it would take a miracle to see him re-elected for a second term, as a depression usually drags on much longer than a recession and may continue to haunt his presidency until the end of 2012.
As a rule of thumb, a recession turns into a depression when the real GDP declines by more than 10 per cent. In the current housing and financial environment, such a decline in the GDP is not far off.
This gloomy specter explains why Obama insists that he wants to hit the ground running. His handpicked aides are on an extensive warm-up mode in the hope to grab the baton from the Bush Administration and run with it as fast as possible to beat the looming depression at the finish line. But it’s a white-hot baton that will need a lot of juggling.
It took almost a year to recognize a recession. It may take only a few months before it becomes evident that the US economy is in a depression. Some even say the depression is already here. We can feel it, but we just haven’t yet seen it written on newspapers’ front page.
Martin D. Weiss, in an article published by Money and Markets, is convinced “America is sinking into its Second Great Depression of modern times.” The place, he says, is every home, business, and community, and the time is now.
Other pundits are also beginning to utter the “D” word, and some predict the feared great one may become official right after Obama’s inaugural.
That’s the bad hand with which Obama will have to start his game. After the inaugural litter is swept away and the laser beams are turned off, Washington will likely be a very cold place indeed. The one thing going for Obama up until now is his eloquence--his ability to articulate the problems and his rhetorical prowess in prescribing remedies and giving the overused word “change” an overtone of hope. All that may come back and hurt his image as the ills of the nation become more and more intractable.
If he goes on listening to his discredited old friends in Congress and appeasing his old foes, Obama is more likely to fail than achieve anything of substance in the most urgent issues facing America, namely the collapsing economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the awful image of America overseas.
Economists don’t agree on a single definition of recession, but there are two different gauges:
1. The GDP goes negative for two consecutive quarters.
2. The business activity, which includes employment, industrial production, real income and wholesale-retail sales, peaks and then begins to spiral downward.
This second definition is espoused by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the very organization that broke the belated recession news two days ago.
By the NBER yardstick, the average recession lasts about a year, which means that the US economy should be out of the woods before President-elect Obama is sworn in.
It’s still unclear, however, why it has taken a year for the NBER to put its label on a recession that was so palpable at least two quarters ago. It’s still unknown, and no one seems to care, whether this delay was the result of a genuine glitch, an excess of caution, or some intentional blockage.
The latter scenario is the most likely one as the holdup took place under an administration known for its law-bending inclinations.
What makes the wrongdoing theory even more plausible is Bush’s unusual and surprising conduct in his attempts to tackle the financial crisis. Many say that, perhaps to not thwart the chances of the GOP in an important election year, Bush departed from his party’s conservative approach to government spending and interventionism and stood behind the colossal $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
If the delay turns out to be a cover up, it should become evident that Bush’s gambit was less about helping the economy and more about gambling with taxpayers’ money to help his own party. The delay in itself is bad enough, as it jeopardizes corporate budgetary and business plans and causes unwarranted job and revenue losses.
Deliberately denying the public the right to be informed, especially with regard to the onset of an event as severe and consequential as a recession, warrants a formal investigation.
But those who expect the upcoming administration to introduce any suspects to justice for their possible lawlessness are in for some disappointments. Obama’s already evident eagerness to rule by consensus will preclude him from shaking up Washington. Many Americans rightly argue that, recession or not, Obama was not elected to appease the establishment. If he stays on his current course, Obama may end up losing the support of the bulk of those who have gone out of their way to vote for him. Worse, Obama runs the risk of becoming just another first-term Democrat President, and maybe the first and the last Black American to make it to the highest office in this century.
Judging from the team Obama has picked, there is little doubt that his policies won’t change much from the usual deceitful politicking that drove the country to the brink of bankruptcy.
Obama’s widely cheered promise of change, his famous saying “this is our time, this is our moment to turn the page from the past” may turn out to be just what many had suspected--empty words!
The country is in a recession. That much is now clear. The question is how long and deep this recession will turn out to be. Obama will have to face the impossible task of getting the country out of the recession before it becomes a depression. But time is not on his side. As of January 20th, he’ll have a little over two months to either announce the beginning of an expansionary period or to concede that a depression is in. If a depression becomes the hallmark of his first year in the White House, it would take a miracle to see him re-elected for a second term, as a depression usually drags on much longer than a recession and may continue to haunt his presidency until the end of 2012.
As a rule of thumb, a recession turns into a depression when the real GDP declines by more than 10 per cent. In the current housing and financial environment, such a decline in the GDP is not far off.
This gloomy specter explains why Obama insists that he wants to hit the ground running. His handpicked aides are on an extensive warm-up mode in the hope to grab the baton from the Bush Administration and run with it as fast as possible to beat the looming depression at the finish line. But it’s a white-hot baton that will need a lot of juggling.
It took almost a year to recognize a recession. It may take only a few months before it becomes evident that the US economy is in a depression. Some even say the depression is already here. We can feel it, but we just haven’t yet seen it written on newspapers’ front page.
Martin D. Weiss, in an article published by Money and Markets, is convinced “America is sinking into its Second Great Depression of modern times.” The place, he says, is every home, business, and community, and the time is now.
Other pundits are also beginning to utter the “D” word, and some predict the feared great one may become official right after Obama’s inaugural.
That’s the bad hand with which Obama will have to start his game. After the inaugural litter is swept away and the laser beams are turned off, Washington will likely be a very cold place indeed. The one thing going for Obama up until now is his eloquence--his ability to articulate the problems and his rhetorical prowess in prescribing remedies and giving the overused word “change” an overtone of hope. All that may come back and hurt his image as the ills of the nation become more and more intractable.
If he goes on listening to his discredited old friends in Congress and appeasing his old foes, Obama is more likely to fail than achieve anything of substance in the most urgent issues facing America, namely the collapsing economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the awful image of America overseas.
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