Margaret from Portland Oregon says of the privateering plutoligarchs (#117755), “....they help their own.”  She might’ve just as accurately added that they are today well on their way to also owning their “help”....slavery, in a word, and apparently not nearly so “unconstitutional” as most of the already-subject citizenry still like to think.

This old Indian would be happy to recommend a way out of their at least partly self-inflicted predicament that doesn’t demand considerable self-sacrifice and plenty of real pain….if there was one.  Fact is there’s not.  The tormentors’ tightening grip on the domesticated peoples’ short-hairs will not be broken at this late date except at the high cost of both hair and hide. 

There’s no way recovering their pissed-away natural Humanity, with its organically essential freedom, isn’t going to hurt like hell.  Only those who, like us free wild Natives, are willing and able to grin and bear it, will be around to tell this Story to their GreatGrandChildren. 

The good news is any number can play….paying only their precious attention.

HokaHey!

I’m just listening to his imperial hi-a**...Emperor BU*HIT talking on T.V.- HE SURE DOES RUN A LINE OF SH*T ON EVERYONE…..I didn’t even have to listen very close to KNOW THE MAN HAS NO CLUE…..Is It ANY WONDER THIS COUNTRY has lost all credibility in the eyes of the world???I’m sure the rest of the world LAUGHS at our “FRONT MAN”.....He cannot even pronounce NUCLEAR correctly[and I noticed “THE PRESS” went right along with the “program” and did the same so as NOT to draw attention to his STUPIDITY]........Nero WILL FIDDLE as Rome falls…..

A recession is usually defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.  (Inflation is factored out.)  We’ll likely have a recession before the housing mess finally gets sorted out.

Recession is when fewer dollars change hand in three, (I think)(or is it two?) consecutive quarters.

But when gas is $4 a gallon of milk is $6 and a one bedroom apartment rents for $2200, times will get pretty hard before that definition of a recession will ever be met. 

The hard times are already here.

P.T…

I really don’t think you were referring to ME in your moron statment. Just to be perfectly clear, I have never, or never will, support Reagonomics (AKA ‘trickle down’). What happens is money given to the rich just gets greedily shortstopped, never reaching the lower economic echelons where it is most needed.

Trickle ‘up’ seems a more viable system.

“Trickle down economics has proven itself a failure to most Americans”

That’s right.  So stop supporting trickle down theories, moron.

“Dubyah has turned us into a Third World banana republic. We’re Costa Rica to the rest of the world. With lousier snorkeling.”

Oh shut up! You aren’t funny. You are just overpaid and sadistic.

#117649 by SamSnedegar

“It isn’t funny, Will.”

I have been wanting to say that for years. I feel Will is as funny as an insult comic in a burn ward. Many times I skip the Daily Show for the same reason. You are spot on with the feeling of times, Sam.

RE: #117743 by P. T. on 12/03 at 1:37 pm
(353 comments total)

Of course it’s good for the bankers & bad for US citizens. Well I say screw the bankers, and the BS economists, who have dumped fictional financial models on the country’s citizens for far too long now. ‘Trickle down economics’ has proven itself a failure to most Amricans, yet numerous economists lauded it (and still do) as successful. STFU about your unwise predictions. We don’t want to hear it anymore. 

The FED must go: http://www.justiceplus.org/bankers.htm

We have the world where we want them. On the one hand, we can threaten to buy even bigger gas guzzlers, use more coal, build more coal-burning power plants, change the constitution to elect Bush to a third term, cause more mercury-ridden fish—that would mean a faster slow death for the planet. Or we could threaten to stop buying consumer goods (harder). That would bring a global depression until the euro becomes the standard and all jobs are exported.

Here is a good article, by economist Mark Weisbrot, explaining why the declining dollar is bad for bankers but good for workers.  Click http://www.cepr.net/content/view/1355/45

#117693 by Eric L. Prentis on 12/03 at 10:11 am

The national debt isn’t measured in raw dollars, it’s measured as a percentage of GDP and is about the same as it was in the 90s.  Not historically high.

“The American people, as a result of the actions of our government, has to live with a plunging U.S. dollar which is the cruelest tax increase of all.”

Exactly the opposite.  While bad for bankers, a declining dollar is good for workers.  It makes U.S. products cheaper on world markets.  That increases demand for U.S. labor and puts upward pressure on wages.  The massive trade deficits, as well as the decline of unions, have been devastating to U.S. workers.  It is largely why the rich have seen their incomes rise and workers haven’t, despite economic growth.

Hopefully, the dollar will fall more.  I don’t care about protecting the finanacial assets of rich bond holders.  The U.S. trade deficit is unsustainable, and the dollar eventually will fall further, thankfully.  Other countries, especially China, do everything they can to keep their own currencies weak in order to undercut U.S. competitiveness in international trade.

And we still have almost 30% of the voters who think this administration is doing a great job, what a joke.  I did get a chuckle from the article though…..

Much like the sky, the dollar is falling. At some point it may be on par with the Peso.

When that happens, all those 401k’s that people saved into, all the equity that people have in their houses, and social security and retirement will also diminish in value, especially when people are living on fixed incomes.

The elderly and those responsbile enought to save, will be hurt the most.

At some point, after a certain amount of chaos and social unrest, the government will tout a new currency the Amero, to help solve the dimena.

Along with irridiating all produce before it goes to the consumer, (last day to comment to the USDA/FDA is today), this has got to be one of the worst plans in the history of our country.

It’s all very confusing and not amusing.

Once upon a time, very long ago, the dollar was “backed” by gold, for which a large repository was maintained in Fort Knox, KY, but we threw that dinosaur away, knowing that our WEALTH backed the dollar far better than mere gold.

What has happened is that we have squandered our wealth, meaning that our natural resources cost more to mine or develop than they are worth and our labor costs are so much higher than global sources that at long last, we are essentially bankrupt, just as Ross Perot predicted. You can’t keep on paying out more than you are taking it for very long before you and the rest of the world realize that you are dead broke and just borrowing from China Peter to pay Ron Paul.

It is why we are in Iraq stealing oil, but of course we could steal all the oil in the world and couldn’t do better than about break even under our present mode or economic model. It isn’t funny, Will. It is what happened to Germany to make Hitler powerful enough to do all the evil he managed in ten years, and it was enough to cause George Bush’s manipulators to do all the evil they could manage in about the same length of time.

There is nowhere to go from here but down.

What is the good news? Well, we will have to start eating each other, and that will take care of the population explosion, and there will be more jobs in Mexico, and that will take care of the immigration situation, and NO ONE will be able to pay for health care of any kind, so another blood sucker will perish (the insurance companies, the drug companies, and the doctors doing hundreds of thousands of utterly unnecessary operations annually).

I won’t even mention the BAD news.

US trade deficit has been on the decline for some time now.  But I suppose that to Will Durst, a shrinking trade deficit is a bad thing when it happens under a Republican administration.

If you want to understand monetary policy and what is happening to the US dollar, you need to understand the Federal Reserve Banking System.

A good place to start is Google video: “FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution”

What export stimulation? Our manufacturing base is now located overseas. The only things we produce are hot air and speculative paper, and even the paper is now imported so we can export it to China for printing. See Costco’s catalogue. How is it that a country with so many forests has to import paper? Or food?

Will Durst, the falling dollar won’t give us a recession.  In fact, it stimulates U.S. production for export.  And by increasing the cost of imports, it causes U.S. consumers to buy American.

What is going to give us a recession is the housing bust—the so-called “wealth effect.”  When people’s house prices drop, they spend less as they see their wealth decline.  You can blame Alan Greenspan’s lousy leadership.

Somebody asked Will Durst to comment on the falling US$$, ha ha. Go snuff yer stuff….......!!!