Exactly right, Anaracissie, in both of your last two posts.

Ryan, November 7 at 9:32 am:
‘I’m not seeing the hardships that many speak of.  No breadlines, no starvation. ...’

There are lots of breadlines in the U.S.  They’re usually called “community pantries” or by some other euphemism these days.  I’ve observed fights over food at free food distribution events—a lot of people are hungry.  I suggest you open your eyes and look around a bit.

Folktruther, November 7 at 7:39 am:
What can be done, Anarcissie is what the Chinese did.  they had a big stimulus used to build roads, airports, railways, cities, etc and he worked just fine.  They re back to double digit growth after a year. ...’

According to what I read, China actually produces a lot of industrial goods and invests in further production, unlike the U.S., where for the last several years the people in charge of the economy have been selling each other insurance and real estate with play money.  Presumably a stimulus in China consists of currency which can be converted into value, while much of the currency in the U.S. is hot air, so that if money is handed out, it will simply produce inflation.  You can’t run on empty forever.

Nice to know Obama has been drunk and partying hard this whole time.  But, its only now with the way this crisis is hurting lots of ordinary Americans, the kind who don’t work on Wall Street and who don’t make maximum $4000 contributions, its only now that he’s starting to sober up?

Just wonderful.  Of course, I’m sure Obama’s response to this rare sobering moment was to go off and have a beer with the Republicans.  Or maybe to go to a wine tasting with his wall street buddies.  Either way, its a certainty that this sober moment won’t lead to any government money or stimulus that helps get people employed.  That money has already gone to buy more booze for the ongoing party with the other rich bastards who are doing just fine through this mess.

What can be done, Anarcissie is what the Chinese did.  they had a big stimulus used to build roads, airports, railways, cities, etc and he worked just fine.  They re back to double digit growth after a year.

But the govenement owns the banks, the banks don’t own the governemt, and when the party who rules the governement says lend money to buisnesses, there is no back talk.  this is what neoloberalism calles tyranny, a planned-market economy.  kAnd since the people do not have sufficient power over the party, it IS coercive.  But it sure beats sthe hell out of neoliberal Democracy where the govenemrnt gives tax payer money to the banks who give it to the rich.

If the goverment officials were not owned by the banks, the govemrent could have given the money to the people losing their houses to repay the loans and keep their houses, as well as building infrastructue.  But this is not the Way of finance capital.
                  ***
The NYtimes, responding to the widespread distruxt of the media stats, just stated on the front page that the unemployment rate was 17.5%  And they are still lying.

geoffspear, November 6 at 4:03 pm #
An unemployment rate of 10.2% doesn’t mean that 10.2%
of Americans don’t have jobs;
===========================================
Yes, that’s true; but what’s your point?
But saying 10.2% of the “labor force” is unemployed
isn’t really correct either; it’s likely closer to 16%.

Many economists and Wall Street types are forecasting further “corrections” on the stock market. This is financial babble for great hardships yet to come.

Oh and Geoffspear the charge you make is unsupported by any such fact. The article is from the BBC in the first place and, in the second, if you bothered to read it you might have found:

The number of unemployed people rose by 558,000 to 15.7 million.

But thanks ever so much for playing.

Looks to me like spreading funny money around can’t generate employment.  No employment, no wages; no wages, no consumption; no consumption, no business. 

We may be reaching the end of the funny-money era, although it would not surprise me if our lords and masters and their tame geniuses gave it another shot or two regardless of the lack of positive results.  They probably don’t know what else to do.

An unemployment rate of 10.2% doesn’t mean that 10.2% of Americans don’t have jobs; you’d think the people at Truthdig would understand the numbers they’re reporting on a bit better.