Late 70's recession.

[rcajun90]

I heard people talk about gas lines. Wasn't that in 1974 during the oil embargo by OPEC and not part of the late 70's recession? I remember my father building a giant tank for gas in our back yard.

One poster mentioned the great depression and the stocking up on canned goods and other foods. That might not be such a bad idea. I think one reason we are not panicking is that we have had it to good for to long. We have no idea what it was like during the Great Depression. I fear the 1 trillion dollar stimulus package will only push us over the edge.

 

[editec]

The scariest thing about this one is we are seeking to borrow so much to pay for "stimulus" and bailouts. In 82-83 Reagan did NOTHING. Let it pretty much find it's own bottom. That meant we did not spend anything on "stimulus" although we did bail out Chrysler because they built tanks for the military and we needed that to continue.

But we have elected to spend money we don't have to pay for bailouts and stimulus. There is a REAL THREAT, China and Dubai and the Saudi's will NOT buy all the notes we will float to raise the money to pay for any of it.

Now that would likely be a good thing of sorts as the economy would then have to find its natural bottom, not an artificial one. We may hit 83 levels yet, don't know.

But yes, until the home crisis is bottomed out and recovering the economy will do nothing.

Carter/Reagan's economic woes and the ones we're facing now are significantly different.

Major banks weren't insolvent.

So Reagan didn't have to do anything.

The FED cranked up the interest rates thus ending the inflationary aspects of stagflation.

Comparing today's economy to the recession of the laste 70's and early 80s is a mistake.

 

[Annie]

....

Very well said. Jimmy Carter was viewed as a bumbling idiot. He still is. It appears that Obama is going to follow in his footsteps. Reagan came through and saved the day. It was bad, but we made it. I'm not so sure we'll make it this time with the Democrats in charge following a disasterous George W. Bush Presidency. There's just too much corruption and idiocy in office.

There is no overestimating the damage Carter did:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813077590&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer

Father of the Iranian revolution
Jun. 20, 2007
michael d. evans , THE JERUSALEM POST
We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini....

...WHEN CARTER entered the political fray in 1976, America was still riding the liberal wave of anti-Vietnam War emotion. Carter asked for an in-depth report on Iran even before he assumed the reins of government and was persuaded that the shah was not fit to rule Iran. 1976 was a banner year for pacifism: Carter was elected president, Bill Clinton became attorney-general of Arkansas, and Albert Gore won a place in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Najaf in Iraq from 1965-1978, was preparing Iran for revolution. Proclaiming "the West killed God and wants us to bury him," Khomeini's weapon of choice was not the sword but the media. Using tape cassettes smuggled by Iranian pilgrims returning from the holy city of Najaf, he fueled disdain for what he called gharbzadegi ("the plague of Western culture").

Carter pressured the shah to make what he termed human rights concessions by releasing political prisoners and relaxing press censorship. Khomeini could never have succeeded without Carter. The Islamic Revolution would have been stillborn....

 

[auditor0007]

In 1981, my father took a new job in Chicago. His pay went from $22,000 per year to $36,000 per year. Unfortunately, because of the interest rates, their house payment went from $200 per month to $1000 per month.