Featured Post for 02/13-02/19. As a nation of consumers, and not producers, with little to offer to the rest of the world except raw materials, food crops, military hardware and bad films (none of which industries employ many people), we are headed to a recovery that will not feel like a recovery at all. FULL ARTICLE
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20 comments ↓
Will we get this kind of honesty from the White House? Nope. We’ll get more rhetoric and platitudes letting us know how things will get better, and when they don’t how our freedom is to blame. Oh, and somehow how Bush believed in capitalism and free markets too!
It definitely isn’t. Especially when they try to borrow, spend, and inflate their way out of it. It’s just going to get far, far worse.
The author is correct…for a bunch of educated, supposedly smart and intelegent people we sure have been living a lie haven’t we ? But in reality…did anyone here really want that tossed in your face like a cream pie ? No we don’t..because we the boomers and the gen X<Y& Z still believe we can live the burger king way…as in have it all and like NOW…then we wonder why …have a great week end..i have ot help a guy who lost his job after 30 years pack and move…he lost his house…because he refused to do as his grand parents did…slow and steady…but he loved living the micro-wave life style…see where it got him …
You’re right Steve. People think they can have whatever they want and have it now. but if they haven’t learned yet, they will be soon, that this type of lifestyle is going to bring us to the brink.
Steve, many people are definitely going to be learning your point the hard way!
Too much spending and consumerism and too much borrowing and debt is what got us in this mess.
Buying more trinkets and taking on more debt isn’t going to get us out of it.
Caution!! You must see this video!!! Bush makes a satanic ritual!! (this is not a joke)
The video was not shown by the news at that time, and, it is worth it!! George W. Bush makes a satanic ritual with children, troublesome!!
And this, during the attacks of the world Trade Center on September 11, 2001!
http://911truth-sherbrooke.org/2009/02/06/caution-you-must-see-this-video-bush-makes-a-satanic-ritual-this-is-not-a-joke/
187 – what does that have to do with this article? Are you spamming this site? Not cool. Post a link that’s related, and I’d find it interesting, but this is totally off topic.
Moving forward – I think Lindorff makes a great point – we’re not going to get back to the wasteful levels that we had, and it’s important that our so-called leaders tell that truth. I hear all kinds of people telling me how things are going to be better soon. Living off that copyrighted “hope” thing is going to make things worse.
Ok, so I can see how things are going to get worse, much worse. But, what can we do about it? At least for our selves?
What’s going to happen when all that “hope” slips away? Oh right, they didn’t spend ENOUGH on propping up bad businesses!
Lou P – What’s more likely to happen when all that “hope” slips away is a rebellion. America was forged in the crucible of rebellion, it may end up having to be reforged in the same manner. Not that I like that idea any more then the next person, but history shows us that when a large group of people get screwed to a point of hopelessness, it is only a matter of time before things get ugly.
Kendrix, I think you make an important point here. I went to hear Chalmers Johnson give a speech here in Los Angeles a few years ago, and he put it like this – “Things that can’t go on forever……..don’t”
He went on to give his opinion that borrowing billions and billions from the Saudis and the Chinese couldn’t last forever, and that the American empire was entering its last days……out of a collapsed empire can rise a nasty dictator like was seen in 1930’s Germany, or – there’s potential for grassroots movements to start something from scratch.
I’m hoping for the latter.
Have you seen Bedtimes Stories? I still like a few Hollywood films. And they have a lot of credits, but they also employ people in catering, the hotel industry, the agencies, etc none of which get credited… it’s a lot of people.
Instead of building new roads and bridges, it’s a good idea to repair what exists.
I agree however that supporting the failing property speculation industry was pretty pointless. But it wasn’t all about people living in big lavicious homes, the big problem was that the price of tiny run down appartments shot up. Property speculation made worthless properties expensive.
It wasn’t just the USA either, here in Britain things are worse.
The property price crash is a good thing. Property, medical bills, and a few other expenses have been raising faster than inflation. Ordinary wages haven’t, they’ve actually been going down.
Cut business taxes (and get rid of silly tax exemptions that favor loser companies), cut the rent prices that businesses have to pay, and the economy can get moving again without a wage cut. And by all means, allow the property prices to continue their freefall.
I would like someone to tell me how many times during Bush’s term that he was warned about the trade deficit and chose to do nothing about it. I believe his exact words was it will work itself out. Great mess we are in now.
The root of the economic problem isn’t truly the banks lending to people who couldn’t afford it. It isn’t government spending. It isn’t social programs weighing down the budget. It’s the Federal Reserve.
There was mention of the US constantly borrowing money from China and Saudi. What about all of the money we borrow from the federal reserve? Every dollar we print, we have to pay the fed for, at interest. The only way to pay them back, is to print more money. The only place we can print more money is the fed. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to stop!
Our economic collapse is going to get much worse. The trick is trying to figure out what you should do as an individual to prepare yourself. Try not to spend money. I know, I know, it’s really hard to do, but Lintils and Rice stretch the food budget a long way.
Keep an emergency stash of food, water, and other items that might be hard to get when hyper-inflation sets in (toilet paper, soap, etc)
Keep up hope, and do what you can to help those around you. It’s times like these when a strong community, even if it’s just you and your neighbors, can really pay off.
Timmy – great point here. The Fed is the creation of the problem in a number of ways:
1. By artificially lowering interest rates, they create an environment of easy credit – and loads of debt.
2. They increase the money supply – by lowering rates, and by printing new money out of thin air. The result? The dollar will keep losing value until there’s none left. Mugabe did this on a massive scale.
No doubt that this is just the beginning. And with all the new money that’s being borrowed and printed to pay for bailouts and stimulus bills, it’s going to get bad in the coming years. Could be sooner, but who knows.
Rice is still 89 cents a pound at my local Whole Foods market. As this newly created money goes through the system, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it as high at $2.00/lb.
The question then, is what will the feds do next? At that point, they might institute price controls to make it “affordable” but this can only result in shortages, lines, and desperate times.
The trade deficit, while a problem, isn’t the CAUSE of the problems – it’s the RESULT, the natural outcome, of too much inflation, wage rates and prices that are kept too high domestically, and the like.
It’s not coming “back” that’s for sure. And if the dow (in terms of gold) keeps going as low as I think it will, it might be best to just get rid of as many US dollars as you can.
I am not that pessimistic and I don’t agree that the public is to blame as was stated in the article by Lindorff.
When Credit was low? What do you pay on your credit cards? I wrote an article about Capitol One where I noted that their CEO reported that their biggest return came from penalties and other charges-not the interest. I received mail from that article with the highest reported rate paid by a woman at 29.5% .
I see the problem that brought on this mess as coming from those who have the clout to stick it to you. Wages? When I worked for a company some time back they scoured the Asian market for families to make parts by furnishing labor only, everything else was furnished. They may have been getting 20 cents per hour. And all their children were working. When people start talking about foreign workers being a bargain because “wages” are too high here, that’s sheer baloney. Unless you want to spell it greed.
Nope, the problem is the redistribution of money. Something Obama took a lashing for uttering. And all the while those who were bellowing about redistribution of wealth, they were watching it, seeing it with their own two eyes – a redistribution from the poor to the rich and powerful.
Cliff, you make some interesting points about wages and outsourcing. But I’m left with a question – wages have ALWAYS been way way lower in developing countries than here, so why is this problem only a recent one?
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