Obamanomics

[ozzmdj]

REVISED: ECONOMY 2X WORSE .......Recession Worse Than Prior Estimates, Revisions Show (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

 

[ozzmdj]

Feds Hit With Biggest Tax Revenue Drop Since 1932... AP ENTERPRISE: Federal tax revenues plummeting - Yahoo! News

 

[ozzmdj]

Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1%...Las Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1 percent - Breaking News - ReviewJournal.com

 

[HUGGY]

Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1%...Las Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1 percent - Breaking News - ReviewJournal.com

Good. A town built on gambling should fold up and blow away like a house of cards.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Feds Hit With Biggest Tax Revenue Drop Since 1932... AP ENTERPRISE: Federal tax revenues plummeting - Yahoo! News

And unfortunately we have a President and Congress who know nothing about increasing economic activity so that the tax receipts will pick up. They only know confiscate and spend while calling it "investment".

Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1%...Las Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1 percent - Breaking News - ReviewJournal.com

Good. A town built on gambling should fold up and blow away like a house of cards.

I've been going to Vegas since I was a kid. My wife and I eventually want to buy a home there, maybe a condo. Vegas is like any other city, it has it's good areas and bad. But you definitely have to have self discipline to live there otherwise you'll be broke in no time.

 

[Paulie]

Am I the only one around here that notices that the media seems like it's intentionally fucking with us with economy news?

One day, they give us an article that says we're almost out of recession, and then the next day we get one that says it's worse than expected. And then the cycle continues.

Stop listenting to the MSM.

 

[ozzmdj]

What is $1.42 trillion? It's more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
My Way News - 2009 federal deficit surges to $1.42 trillion

 

[Neubarth]

What is $1.42 trillion? It's more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
My Way News - 2009 federal deficit surges to $1.42 trillion

Is it even possible to pay it off?

 

[Neubarth]

Am I the only one around here that notices that the media seems like it's intentionally fucking with us with economy news?

One day, they give us an article that says we're almost out of recession, and then the next day we get one that says it's worse than expected. And then the cycle continues.

Stop listenting to the MSM.

Even the MSM has optimists and pessimists. Look at the data and make up your own mind.

 

[Charles Stucker]

What is $1.42 trillion? It's more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
My Way News - 2009 federal deficit surges to $1.42 trillion

Is it even possible to pay it off?

Debt and Deficits

A Brief History
Jimmy Carter (D) held the office of president from1977 to 1980, at the end of which the debt stood ~$ 1 trillion. Ronald Reagan (R) and George Bush Sr. (R) inherited both the debt and a large suite of ‘sacred cow’ social programs, along with an economy which went up and down over the twelve years they spent breaking the Soviet Union. Like Carter their conditions were far from optimal. Carter faced an OPEC embargo which smashed the American economy, and Reagan and Bush labored in an attempt to defeat he Soviets without bloodshed by tempting them to bankruptcy with an arms race. Bill Clinton faced neither of these difficulties. He reaped a peace dividend, downsizing and economizing the military to an extent impossible for his two Republican predecessors. He also was blessed with the most vibrant economic boom ever seen anywhere in the globe. A boom caused, not by any policy, but by the internet revolution. George Bush Jr. (R) saw the economy crumble as he entered office; less than a year later the events of 9/11 pushed him into war and he carried the nation with him for seven more years. In his first year Barak Obama has seen the debt soar to ~$12 Trillion. The GDP for 2008 was, according to the IMF, slightly more than $14.4 trillion.

A Word of Warning
It does not matter if Clinton could have paid down the debt during the years of the internet boom. It does not matter if Reagan and Bush Senior’s bloodless victory over the Soviets was made Pyrrhic by the cost. It does not matter if Bush Jr. was an idiot or if Barak Obama is surrounding himself with ideologues hostile to the American way of life. The ONLY thing that matters at this juncture is reducing the debt before the IMF takes over and reduces the US to a second tier economy.

The Budget, Debt and What Might Be Done
Break the budget into several sections; Pork, Interest, General Operating Expenses, Social Security, Welfare and Other Entitlement Programs, Defense, NASA/Research, and the War on Drugs. Each section adds to the total budget and the current budget is too much, increasing the Debt faster than GDP growth, so each section must be examined for possible reduction. These divisions are not those typically used, but are chosen more for an eye to dividing how they might be reduced.
Pork could, in principle, be completely eliminated. If Obama is truly serving the interests of the USA he can, and should, refuse to sign a budget with a single identifiable bit of pork. Each congressman and senator should be willing to do the same, but Obama can simply demand an open vote of any override should he use such a veto. He might try the catchy slogan “The Pork Stops Here.” The voters should firmly indicate that they will toss anyone out who overrides a “No Pork” veto.
Interest on existing debt cannot be changed by any appreciable amount, it is what it is. Only by reducing the debt can future budgets have lower interest.
General Operating Expenses is a catchall for those costs not covered elsewhere. Like any company in trouble, the employees might get a pay cut. This is doubly true for Senators and Congressmen who should be first in line to volunteer, as part of their love and concern for this great republic.
Social Security is a tricky issue. The government has spent decades collecting a specific tax to fund Social Security; despite their raiding those funds to create the illusion of lower deficits, the money was supposed to be set aside for retirees. Retirees who are often too old or decrepit to easily get decent jobs. Leave it for a later examination. Phasing down Social Security may prove necessary, and reducing Medicare/Medicaid is vital.
Welfare and Other Entitlement Programs should be informed the teat has run dry. Potentially more damning, they don’t work; cancel them entirely.
Defense can be slashed to the bone. Mothball ships, demobilize troops, and pull all the remainder back to US territory.
NASA/Research is another tricky portion. In general any society which falls behind technologically suffers serious effects. The US, despite deficiencies in primary education, still leads the world in research to an extent that with only ~5% of the global population we have ~25% of the GDP, and, at $47,000, one of the higher GDP per capita. Fortunately the total NASA/Research budget is moderately small relative to these others, so it might be possible to save our future while still making the budget work.
War on Drugs expenditures represent another failed program and should be eliminated along with welfare.


Now look at just how much there was to save in the 2008 budget
Defense 613 Billion
Social Security 612 Billion
Medicare and Medicaid 682 Billion
“Other Mandatory” 303 Billion
Interest 249 Billion
Other Discretionary 520 Billion
Try cutting down to Saves
Defense 100 Billion 513 Billion
Social Security 612 Billion 0
Medicare and Medicaid 500 Billion 182 Billion
“Other Mandatory” 200 Billion 103 Billion
Interest 249 Billion 0
Other Discretionary 200 Billion 320 Billion
Total Saved 1.118 Trillion
Total Expenses 1.861 Trillion ~13% of GDP
Tax 2.861 trillion ~ 20% of GDP and reduce the debt to 13.4 trillion.
Failure to control the budget may also tempt some states into seceding in order to escape the onrushing economic meltdown. Attempting to defeat them would as surely bankrupt our nation as attempting to defeat the USA ruined the USSR. The above example was not meant as an outline, rather as an indication of how difficult paying the current best has become.

On Phasing Down Social Security
Stop all payments to Social Security, replace the current OASI with general tax (perhaps one which is not regressive). Freeze all benefits. Anyone who has not yet paid into Social Security will never receive benefits. Make the cost part of the general budget. This will prove a heavy burden on those retiring twenty years from now as they will receive severely curtailed benefits but will not have much chance to earn after the monkey of debt is off the public’s back, but that is the only option except;
Cut off social security now. Completely. Do the same with Medicare/Medicaid. The people who are retired and living on OASI checks are the ones who routinely allowed the politicians to spend from that fund. None put their foot down to stop them. Do that and the above sample could save an extra 1.12 trillion allowing the debt to be eliminated that much faster and ending the specter of “under supported future expenses.”
Before anyone cries “but what happens to all those old people?” let me remind everyone that long before there existed Social Security there were old people. They worked, lived with their children or lived off accumulated savings. Presumably that is what will happen to these old people. After all they asked for ti by reelecting politicians who routinely overspent.

 

[mascale]

$1.42 tril. is still only money.

Anyone can look at a currency and spot numbers on it, which are called denominations. In the United States, we have ones, fives, tens, and twenties, and so on. If you set up the income scale with accumulated, denominated, currency values, then raise each income a fixed percentage: Then it is probably not possible to pay off any debts whatsoever. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. The financial houses fail. The banks fail. The insurers fail. The large corporations fail. The little corporations and smaller-sized businesses fail. The street corner lemonade stands all fail.

The Bush Administration knew a thing or two about failure, and to the trillion dollar tune levels, even in Iraq: Not to mention in the United States.

All participants in Iraq failed all humanity, just like all participants in the described institutions failed all humanity, creating the need for the $1.42 tril.

These were an educated people. Therefore, they passed(?), or something.

If on the other hand, there are no failed families, engaged in military adventures in other people's nations, which cost trillions, and then there are incomes, from equal-amount adjusted pay: Then there is created a market, and a tax base.

No tax base exists when the economy fails--which is caused by failed families, who are the noted, educated people.

When the tax base exists, then the deficits can all be re-paid. Needless to acknowledge--the educated people have no such intentions, whatsoever. They run the schools.

When the schools are being run, then apparently there are even men, behaving like boys(?): And girls(?)!

Mainly, the Ivy League thinks it understands about that, which is about how things get run. Mainly they even make it that difficult to explain just how major. . . . .up, it really is(?)!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(When the Conservative Christians go to suffer, the little children: Then anyone has to admit that they have some skills, after all!)

 

[xÞx]

REVISED: ECONOMY 2X WORSE .......Recession Worse Than Prior Estimates, Revisions Show (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Wait...

who was president when this started?

When was the last sign of improvement in the economy?

Who advocates "free trade" and outsourcing for their big-business buddies?

 

[Zander]

Am I the only one around here that notices that the media seems like it's intentionally fucking with us with economy news?

One day, they give us an article that says we're almost out of recession, and then the next day we get one that says it's worse than expected. And then the cycle continues.

Stop listenting to the MSM.

I agree. The economy sucks. I don't need the media to tell me that. Just look at the raw data. Job losses continue month after month, the stimulus has created ZERO jobs, the deficit is at 1.5 TRILLION for just this year, foreclosures at record pace, lenders are still not lending, empty stores, empty warehouses, negative corporate earnings, the list goes on and on and on. There is no good news to report, none. The upside is very very limited. The downside is huge. Be defensive.

 

[Thinman]

I've been going to Vegas since I was a kid. My wife and I eventually want to buy a home there, maybe a condo. Vegas is like any other city, it has it's good areas and bad. But you definitely have to have self discipline to live there otherwise you'll be broke in no time.

I bought a home there, in April this year. If you really want to live there, now is the time to buy. You wouldn't believe what I got for 60k.