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"mumbo jumbo" or in other words, "i am ignorant to economic principals so i will just assume it is all random"
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.
Tell that to the current economy.
Bush did exactly what Reagan did, he increased military spending while reducing taxes for the rich. The result was a huge increase in the National Debt.
ReaganBushDebt.org
Reagan and Bush cutting taxes and increasing military spending is what created 90% of the National Debt. No need to for sock puppets on that one.
Reagan and Bush added 9 trillion dollars to the national debt. No amount of lying and bravado will change that.
ReaganBushDebt.org
Never worked, never will. Started with Reagan and continued under Bush.
Bubble up from 70% of the population will work. Get the middle class healthy and able to purchase again and it will do more than any small percent of rich trickle downing.
I'm tired of getting pissed on from above and the GOP tells me it's raining.
how did that debt occur then?Supply-side economics does not cause debt, it reduces it. You're thinking of increased government spending with no regard of paying for it. Again, you don't have a grasp of the concepts. Let me know when you do.
I think economics is mumbo jumbo. Its just not an exact science. Example, they say there is a shortage of IT professionals, so why isn't supply and demand driving up wages?
Or gas supply and demand. We never had a shortage of oil and speculation over ruled s&d.
Political Power and Economic Ignorance - Jeremie T.A. Rostan - Mises Institute
Georges Bush's recent speech in defense of his bailout plan was quite a tour de force. Indeed, it managed to explain the pending recession of the US economy by a previous situation of "easy credit" without mentioning the monstrously inflationist policy of the Federal Reserve which reached its climax in 2003 and 2004, when it lent dollars at a negative short-term interest rate, and resulted in the creation of more dollars in a seven-year period (20002007) than had been created cumulatively in the two centuries since the founding of the United States
According to the 43rd President, the fault rests entirely on "foreign investors" willing to profit from the competitiveness of the US economy. Logically, the lengthening of the structure of production brought by net investment should have resulted in aggregate profits and economic growth but not this time. For some reason (which the president deems useless to explain) low interest rates were a curse that somehow led all financial entrepreneurs to dissipate their capital in hopeless ventures and loans.
Because of fractional-reserves policies and the de facto international dollar standard, even the billions of units of the US currency spent abroad are duplicated and sent back to America, where they encourage credit. But George Bush did not mention that.
Finally, he concluded that
the Federal Reserve should have its powers extended far beyond their current scope, notably over all financial enterprises, not just banks, and
a massive bailout of taxed funds was necessary as an exceptional intervention and some sort of public investment which would help the economy recover and be paid afterwards..
And now we have the FED which is partly responsible for this mess by artificially holding down interest rates getting increased power and as a bonus we get a partial nationalization of the banking system.
There was an essence of greed hare as well, hell, negative short term interest rates have to fuel speculation and they did. The creation of more dollars just added to the inflationary cycle. If interest rates were allowed to rise a bit naturally, we would have seen a contraction of the housing market and an end to wild real estate speculation. In essence, peoples house values would have risen much more slowly and would have skipped the quick rise and roller coaster drop the was experienced.
There is a sad irony to economic ignorance on top of its disastrous effects. Let's call it the Iron Law of Economic Ignorance: the value of economic knowledge increases with its scarcity. That is, economic knowledge gets more valuable as the economy worsens; but the economy worsens according to the level of political intervention which is a function of economic ignorance.
I'll admit that I am unfamiliar with the more complex intricacies of modern economics (although I've started studying up some recently), but here's what I'm focusing on until I learn something that makes me think otherwise.
I have seen and heard and read a steady stream of economic "experts" since this mess began. There are relatively few times that they completely agree on either causes or solutions. You can have your expert, I can have my expert, and we can get absolutely nowhere. Until I feel like I can make an informed analysis of the situation, I have to decide which expert's advice to lend the most credibility to while keeping an ear open to all. For now, I am trusting Warren Buffet. Why? Simple. Greed is part of human nature. Competence requires knowledge and understanding. Competence in finance and economic matters results in monetary gains. Warren Buffet has made a LOT of money in finance. Ergo, based on limited current date, he must be fairly competent.
The Federal Reserve should be abolished. Why do private individuals have so much control over our monitary system? They can tank the stock market when they want and bail themselves out whenever they decide. Remember the Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns without asking? That was our money. Before the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, we controlled our own money.
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws." -
-- Mayer amschel rothschild
or
"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." -
-- Mayer amschel rothschild
And yet, you support the bail out? That is nothing but the government taking control of your money. Do you support the nationalization of the banks? Again that is the government controlling your money.
You seem to be holding contradictory positions.
Reagan and Bush cutting taxes and increasing military spending is what created 90% of the National Debt. No need to for sock puppets on that one.
Reagan and Bush added 9 trillion dollars to the national debt. No amount of lying and bravado will change that.
ReaganBushDebt.org
how did that debt occur then?
I warned you! Here goes:
When you try to post something you know nothing about, think of the sock puppet and don't post.
Of course it doesn't work. Our current economy is the perfect example. Cutting capital gains tax did not make companies hire more people, it only allowed them to shunt more money into their golden parachutes and executive salaries. AND it allowed the culture of greed on Wall Street to flourish--lending out bad money, turning around and selling your risk, and laughing all the way to the bank because of a lower tax rate.Never worked, never will. Started with Reagan and continued under Bush.
Bubble up from 70% of the population will work. Get the middle class healthy and able to purchase again and it will do more than any small percent of rich trickle downing.
I'm tired of getting pissed on from above and the GOP tells me it's raining.
