The Solyndra made an application for the loan in 2006 from the Energy Department.

G.W.Bush signed the final paperwork to kick that project off in 2007.

Solyindra

The company took $500,000,000 then fired 1,000 employees and filed bankruptcy. Thats about P0,000 per job lost.  You would be better off sending the money to Sonny Corleone, or perhaps J. Hoffa.

The Krugperson sees this as a requirement to force- feed trillions more into the pit in order to overcome these occasional mistakes. No one seems up to the task of recommending The Krugperson explore the possible benefits of Thorazine.

Paul Krugman

I see him from time to time on ABC Sunday news. The man presents as simply deranged.  At least he should get some botox injections so as not to frighten pets and small children.

blueokie:  if you’re writing that too much of the Stimulus was spent on the phonies (bogus projects) and cronies (big corps), you won’t get a rebuttal from me. 

http://open.salon.com/blog/oddsox/2011/10/10/too_big_to_fail_too_big_to_begin_with

At the same time, if you agree with Krugman that we need more of the same to make right the economy, I’ll ask to first see some return from the Stimulus I investment.

berniem, I’ll add one more prediction for this year
— just for you:
 
Bradley Manning will not be freed in 2012.

http://open.salon.com/blog/oddsox/2011/12/31/12_predictions_for_2012

Welcome to 2012 everybody, don’t forget to duck on Dec. 21st!

oddsox -

Given that 1/3 of the stimulus also went to the States for their budget problems, (and undoubtedly some local “Job Creator” tax breaks), and given that between Congress and the Fed the “Wall Street” stimulus was in excess of 2000% more than the “Main Street” stimulus, the result being that Wall Street has recovered completely, to the point of being richer and more powerful than before, while Main Street is in the gutter stuck with the total bill, I’d have to say yes, the stimulus was ridiculously and purposefully too small.  Or was it a rhetorical question?

These are the same economists who up until 4 or 5 years ago were advising everyone in ear shot that the safest, easiest way to financial security was buying as much house as you possibly could get.  How did that work out again?  Now the chorus is singing a song of austerity for all but dem dat gots.  Never underestimate a successful marketing campaign aimed at the American, white, middle class, bourgeoise

“We’ve lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam…”
President Obama, San Francisco 10/25/2011

Ok, so we had a 3/4 Trillion Dollar Stimulus.
And Krugman writes 1/3 of it “took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts.”
But another 1/3 was earmarked for grants and government contracts for public works.
So where’s our high-speed rail?
Where’s our dam?  Where’s our bridge?
(where’s the leadership, Mr. Prez?)

Does Krugman really believe $787B is a “half-hearted” effort?  That the Stimulus didn’t succeed because it was “much too small?”

Yes, he does.
But I’m not buying it.
Are you?

Happy New Year.

As Albert Einstein said:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I would amend that slightly to say “Insanity: Voting in the same people over and over again and expecting different results”.

Wake up sheeple - either get a third party going or stop complaining.

prisonersdilema: they already have laws on the book against organic farmers growing their crops, that also included average people growing their own gardens on their property. These bills were written by big agri lobbyists and our congress critters did the rest and this was passed a few years back and the idiots who allowed this don’t even know what they signed. SO as it is not it is illegal for me and you to grow our own gardens.

As to the stimulus that was really part 2 of Bush’s half assed bandage to the masses. I got a check and I am very energy conscience, cold and dark house in the middle of winter, good insulation no wasted energy. My great big move the economy forward check paid for 1 month to the electric company for lights, heat and tons of other added b.s.cost to jack the bills up and 1 month for the water bill and the money was gone.So much for helping out.

The MIC and mega corps own and run almost everything now. It’s getting depressing, but forget any antidepressants, they just make big pharma richer and I can’t afford them anyway.

prisnersdilema & D.R. Zing - I can’t add much to what you’ve both written….I’m in total agreement.

What so angers me is that whenever anyone questions the “religion of capitalism” in any context these days, it’s as if one is condemned and ostracized for speaking heresy. It’s truly bizarre. The truth is, we are being held hostage to an economic system that has become our controller, abuser and sadistic master AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE! As long as those cheap products and services keep pouring into our lives (via a userous banking system) Americans seem to be content to let “the job creators,” control the lion’s share of the wealth and power in this country (and indeed around the world).

Have to admit my thoughts were running parallel to prisnersdilema as I
read this article by Dr. Krugman. 

What’s going on in America and Europe is a battle between governments
and business.  Business is sick and tired of being regulated.  People
investing in the markets tend to side with business.

The gist of much of this austerity is:  Sell your assets, governments,
because business is more efficient (to which I reply: bullshit). The
indirect effect very much wanted by business is weak governments,
governments that cannot regulate financial markets, governments that
cannot regulate business, governments that must bend over backwards to
accommodate the whims of multinational corporations. 

The business perspective is something like this:  We fought and won the
Cold War, goddammit, so we could run the world as we see fit. We’re not
gonna let a bunch of pansy-ass government officials stop us from
pillaging and plundering the fruits of a thirty-some-odd-year war. 

The business perspective is, of course, bullshit.  Krugman has pointed
out in other articles that even the most astute businessmen frequently
don’t understand shit about economics (he didn’t say it quite like
that, however).  Businesses frequently make decisions that are bad for
the economy.  When businesses are allowed to act as a group unfettered,
they can cripple the entire economy. 

But here’s the rub:  The rich don’t care.  They don’t care because they
don’t understand how their actions screw up the economy. They don’t
care because they don’t feel the economic pain in the way that we do
(hmm. honey, the economy is bad, let’s go with the fifty dollar bottle
of champagne tonight).

And above all they don’t care because businesses are not responsible
for helping people after natural disasters, so business can strut
around saying cut government, cut government, cut government, but
you don’t want your government broke after a natural disaster. Ask New
Orleans. 

Big business’s disdain for the ecosystem is well documented. I won’t go
into it here.

Big business “we are more efficient” bullshit is just that:  total,
unadulterated bullshit.  Has anyone in Congress ever worked at a large
corporation?  Companies that buy companies that buy companies that buy
companies are like a fucking rat’s maze of midmanagement. People have
to work their asses off all hours of the day to get anything done
because they’re constantly in meetings, meetings, meetings, with people
all over the fucking world because there is so much to coordinate. 
There is no efficiency in big business. There are huge inefficiencies.
It’s why the big old dinosaur airlines all suck.  All the money is
paying managers and executives and loans that were taken out to buy
more companies.  There’s no money to pay people who actually work with
customers.  All the people in customer service are miserable, broke and
hate your guts. 

The reality is governments worldwide need to be regulating businesses
much more rigorously. Governments needs to curtail mergers and
acquisitions.  Developing nations should give preference, expertise and
money to small businesses and they should do their best to keep
multinational corporations out.       

But you can’t do that if you’re walking around cupping your nuts and
bumming for a smoke.  And that’s what going on right now.  Business is
trying to bankrupt governments so businesses can continue their
unadulterated buggering of the world’s assets.

So, yeah, austerity doesn’t work. Regulation does.

Dig peace. Don’t bury it.

Zing

People,
Time for a reality check,
It a combination of the ‘vulture’ capitalism that is rife today and *the people in the west* we don’t care who else pays the price of our obsession with consumerism and things we want rather than need.
There is no such thing as a free lunch….you want cheap luxuries like wall size TVs etc. then some one has to pay for the ‘cheapness’. the hierarchy is first Jobs in America (because) labor is comparatively too expensive. And the desperate third world who have no choice but to work for exploitative pitiful wages and conditions or starve in shanties on tips of the 1% rich.
Next time you are about to buy a want rather than a bona fide need consider is it you and your job ultimately the price? Every cheap O/S priced purchase is another straw on the back of the economy and your security.

I find myself becoming angry reading Krugman…not because he’s wrong but because
the underlying premise is false.

What happened to the economy was not an accident. Was not a miscalculaiton based
on a foollish economic theory of some sort. No it wasn’t it was done with full awareness
of what would happen, to achieve desired results, that were achieved.

Watching CNN, you will see it still on display…. They talk about the economy, and
unemployment, and they say ti’s been improving for the last 4 years. Yet in the same
breath they talk about globalization, and it’s inevitability for this country…

But they never will ever, identify Globalization, as what destroyed this country
economically…This is what the corporations and the bankers who run them want, the
end of America as a free country.. To do it they had to destroy our military in mindless
wars wasting our resources, they had to eliminate financial security for all Americans.
And they will have to destroy American’s access to healthy food, not contaminated by
chemicals, or grown over seas, and they have to string us all out on lethal or debilitating
medicines, and drugs. . They will also try to prevent American’s from growing their own
non poisoned food. They want to create a totalizarian government that controls
everyone’s life from the cradle to the grave, so they will use the phony terror war, as a
justification.

The Demo-Repuplican party, is just a diversion, as is the election. Because no matter
who is elected from this party, they will advance the agenda of the corporate criminals
who run things….

No the economy was not an accident it was done on purporse, as was 911. 911 was the
justification to turn American into a totalitarian state, where people have no rights and no
freedom, except to be a serf, and a debt slave…The economy, will be an excuse to
impose, strict finanical controls on everyone, and shift wealth permanently to the top. .

America is under attack, but its not by the military of a foreign power, but by the 1%
er’s….They are the greatest threat to our freedoms, this country has ever faced.

Our political leaders are mostly all slick liars, their job is to continue the hoax…of
representative Democracy….while their owners continue to grow in power.

Yes, austerity doesn’t work. Never has. Never will. Next question.

If people try to get signatures for a third party candidate so they can get them on the ballot, this will give the two headed monster a run for their money.  Right now they think the election is sewn up - you have one or the other (both serving corporate interests first) to volley from - remember how hard the Dems tried and succeeded in keeping Nader out of the debates and off the ballots - show them it’s not sewn up and that you’re not stupid.  If you don’t try anything new, you will have the exact same results with the same people running the show - then you can’t complain anymore.

I’m sure that even though everyone complains about Obama - that he continued Bush’s bailouts, tax breaks for the wealthy, endless foreign wars, eroding civil rights etc. - they will no doubt vote for him anyway so why complain?  Either bring on someone else (better hurry with a third party) or be quiet. That’s your choice. Nobody believes the lesser of two evils argument anymore as Dems and Repubs are just two heads of the same monster.

Rest assured that Obama will ramp up the ‘08 progressive mantra during the upcoming year as a means of convincing us that he’s learned his lesson and this time the gloves are off and ....Don’t believe a word of it! Obama is the only republican not running in Iowa! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!