Lou Dobbs: The War On The Middle Class
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Jan 22, 2008 12:33pm
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Download | play (h/t Heather)
Lou Dobbs looks at how the Fed's stimulus plan ignores the larger deficits we face and is a little too little and a little too late.
The stimulus package that Ben Bernanke the Fed Chairman said that we should be buying those domestically-produced products, we’re in a world of hurt even in that area.
Well, exactly. Then Dobbs speaks to Robert Kuttner and Jeremy Siegel on exactly what that means to the middle class.
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KUTTNER: The problem is, (the 3/4 point drop) won't fix what's broken. You've got all of these structural problems with bank balance sheets because the bank sponsored this orgy of speculative spending. And they've lost tens of billions of dollars. You know a balance sheet is a balance sheet. The idea that Citigroup can have something that's off balance sheet. If you and I apply for a loan and we say to the creditor, well, some of my stuff is off balance sheets, I didn't tell you that, we'd go to hail. This smack of Enron and the damage of all this stuff is going to cascade on the rest of the economy.
DOBBS: Robert Kuttner is referring to the collateralized debt obligations, more securitized debt, the misapplication of which Professor Siegel we have seen the ramifications for just about 30 years in this country. Why in the world aren't the regulators in this marketplace, why aren't they regulating these institutions? And why in the world is this government, in both political parties, permitting this kind of unadulterated, unfettered capitalism to rape this country?
SPIEGEL: Well, certainly we had too much lending, mostly against housing. And a case can be made, that Greenspan sat back without saying anything, saying, oh, the markets will take care of it. The world markets will take care of it and ignoring it. And there can be a case made on that.
DOBBS: Where are the free marketeers now? Where are those faith-based economists who said let Mr. Market smile and everything will be fine?
KUTTNER: Well, they look like damn fools, as they ought to. And we've some had foxes in chicken coops for third years often under republicans and sometimes democrats. We've had regulators who didn't believe in protecting the consumer.
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If I get that 800 dollar refund it's just going to bills for all the other things I need to buy that I can't otherwise afford. Every one else I know is in the same situation. It's not going to make my buy more of anything.
Then Dobbs called for a 700-mile wall to keep out those who would misapply securitized debt.
Please proof read before posting.
thx...
well..... at least it's not immigration!
this topic IS lou's greatest strength. he should stick to it.
Yeah. but it's now even MORE critical we don't change the
tax code, so those hedge fund managers can STILL pay
only 15% income tax.....
After all, they did SUCH a great job trading in all those mortgage
futures after Bush gutted the oversight agencies....
Right, Chuck Shumer? Right, Hillary Clinton?
Tax fairness, my backside....
jeaton @ 3:
You mean proofread.
We’ve had regulators who didn’t believe in protecting the consumer.
That about sums up the Conservative approach to government. Government is bad and works best when it doesn't work.
"Why in the world aren’t the regulators in this marketplace, why aren’t they regulating these institutions? And why in the world is this government, in both political parties, permitting this kind of unadulterated, unfettered capitalism to rape this country?" - This is the true legacy of Ronald Reagan.
Bruce @ 7:
As long as they believe in the saviour, that's what counts.
Why do they call them "adjustable rate mortgages?" Do they ever get adjusted down? I don't think so... They should be called "escalating rate mortgages."
I hope people realize that any sort of bail-out for the people with high interest ARM's is actually going to benefit banks more than those individual home owners. If the banks don't want to hold onto a lot of empty houses, they need to adjust the interest rates on those "adjustable rate mortgages" down instead of up.
I thought Greenspan did say something. Didn't he say those ARMs are just peachy?
Isn't anyone going to mention corporate welfare?
queue: pablo OMG OMG OMG, what are we gonna do, OMG
They will bleed us dry as long as they are given a chance.
People pick on Lou Dobbs because of his immigration stance. He may have overstated a few things, but I really don't think he's racist. And I do believe he supports the middle class.
He's really not such a bad guy.
Tony @ 1:
I'll gladly contribute to the impending recession. Other than food and basic necessities, I don't buy anything I absolutely don't need. I love to read but I only read books I can check out at the library. If I want to listen to my favorite music, I just stream it over Internet radio or find it on youtube. And laugh if you want, but I buy most of my clothes at second hand places for cheap. The money I save goes into my nest egg and retirement funds. I will not use my $800 to help stimulate the economy by buying crap I don't need. Besides, can't we better use that $800 to fight the "war on terror" George??? Why not give it to the troops over there? Oh, that's right, you could give a rat's ass about them.
.
WHAT TREE DO CONGRESS THINK MONEY GROWS ON?
Their war and occupation is funded... HOW?
This fluffing up of the economy is being funded... HOW?
Well, we know SCHIP's elimination helps the funding... RIGHT?
But who else does that help?
Just one of several examples of misplaced priorities.
.
WashStateBlue @ 5:
Yeah, that's right, it's all Shumer and Clinton's fault ... sheesh.
Tony @ 1:
Oh, and that $800? Don't forget you're going to have to report that as income on next years 1040.
Dobbs:
Greed is God, and Friedman is his prophet?
gene214 @ 17:
They're not working it the same way they did last time? Just being a loan against your next year's refund, if you get a refund.
I actually hope we have a recession, but I don't think we are going to have one.
The proper term for the upcoming economic downturn is "global depression."
Some of the elderly alive today are certainly going to be saying a great big "I TOLD YOU SO!"
Funny how these guys come out of the woodwork to decry the lack of oversight after things turn to sh*t.
This is a dishonest report from Lou Dobbs. Does not mention that trade deficit has fallen from 7 to 5.5% in th past year. Still shameful but quite a turn around. This is also in the face of skyrocketing oil which accounts for a good deal of imports. This is agenda driven reporting to fit their point of view.
'free market' & Big Foot....have a lot in common
Can one of the free marketists out there point to one single country in the history of the world....that has been run sucessfully using that idealogy to govern its people?
And you're automatically disqualified if you say "the United States"...its not a 'free market' as long as taxes pay the courts & regulatory agencies of 'business' to protect the people
I'm shocked I tell you, simply shocked that the Regressive mantra that the "free market will take care of it" isn't panning out so well.
Joementum @ 21:
Or is it as simple as nobody wanting to listen to them when times were good?
The financial system needs a global sheriff.
http://www.economicsbriefing.com/2008/01/soros-this-is-not-normal-crisis...
Speaking of ENRON.... and the Supreme Court
Last week the Supreme Court ruled 01/15/08 against investors who sue
businesses that help manipulate stock prices of publicly traded companies.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080115/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_securities_fraud
THEN JUST TODAY...
Supreme Court refuses Enron shareholders case
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/01/supreme-court-refuses-enro...
--> What a Court.
Speaking of other wars....
Today Bush postponed an event on promoting an ad campaign aimed at preventing drug abuse.
I wonder how the War on Drugs is going?
Maybe the Supreme Court can help...
Whatever happened to the investigation into a Sept 2007 report that
a Plane that crashed in the Yucatan was carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine?
What have CIA rendition aircrafts been up to lately?
Whatever happened to the Iran-contra-era drug running networks?
Whatever happened to Porter Goss?
What the Hell is going on to our Country?
Try this THE IRAQ RECESSION
I can assure these talking heads are well protected from the pain most Americans are going to have to deal with.
I probably shouldn't reply without watching the clip but I can't bring myself to watch Lou Dobbs. The last time I tried, I thought he was obviously sauced...Anyway, what, exactly is $800 supposed to solve? This is an economic stimulus? Is that what they're planning on upping a tankful of gasoline to? Bullshit. Economic Pollution. The problems are clearly stated here, and nobody is going to touch them with a ten-foot pole. You can elect anybody you want for Ventriloquist-In-Chief and not a thing can or will change because "they" are all too entrenched in an irretrievably corrupt system.
Blue Lensman @ 26:
Exactly, no one wants to hear bad news until after the disaster occurs.
I believe Dobbs had said that none of the candidates are addressing the financial crisis affecting the middle class? I think the only one who has consistently sided with the peeps has been John Edwards. The major problem with our country is that we have allowed, and our govt., to outsource our work, services, goods, etc., to the rest of the world, and that descent into unfettered greed HAS allowed our country to be raped and pillaged by the very powerful and rich in this country. If it continues to slide downhill, I will predict that within the next ten years, that the people might become angry enough to overthrow this government and the Rich rats that swim along with it.
Just look at history, and what happens when the wealth becomes top heavy.
No regulation, no protection, no economy.
Got no time for Lou Dobbs.
FLASHBACK:
--> Economists Predicted That A Prolonged U.S. Presence In Iraq Could Lead To A Recession
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/23/iraq-recession/
Tony @ 1:
If many people are going to use refund checks to pay off bills (an understable use), then they are essentially saving the money by making their savings a bit less negative. In essence, the money would be transfered abroad since we are net debtors. Once the money is back in foreign hands -will they pump it back into the U.S. economy? Maybe not if they see a bad recession.
So this is the challenge of a stimulus package, how to pump money directly into the U.S. economy. Instead, both sides are taking advantage to talk about the same old tired reasons of why such and such group needs a tax break. The goal is to avert a recession, so pump the money where it will have the most bang per buck. I'm not holding my breath that Washington will chose the wisest and most productive course.
SFnomad @ 25:
Hey it works great for health care donca know.
Ya but did Lou blame those nasty immigrants like he does EVERY show.
I'm just comforted by the fact that despite six years of virtually unilateral Republican rule - from Congress to White House to SCOTUS - Dobbs and friends can still slip in "Democrats did it too" on every other word.
Reagenomics? Supply Side Free Market Bullshit? Deregulation for deregulation's sake? Yeah, that all sounds pretty bipartisan to me. Heaven forbid we give credit where credit is due. Just blame Washington carte blanc, and we can spend the rest of the hour talking about how our current economic slump is probably Bill Clinton's fault after the break.
*gag*
Elites Converge on Davos for The New World Order Economic Forum
http://tinyurl.com/2g8ahu
If anyone thinks the government should run anything, take a trip to your local DMV...the combo of attitude, mismanagement and customer stupidity will have anyone wanting privitazation of just about everything.
I'd love to buy products made in the United States. Someone please tell me when some start getting made.
SFnomad @ 16:
No, just commenting that Schumer and Clinton basically were behind
the scenes torpeoding any move to adjust that loop hole.
After all, it's a fact a lot of the new Hedge Fund Billionaires are NY
Democrats, and we wouldn't want that DLC money drying up....
The Smiths Have Had Enough @ 27:
We don't have a country anymore. It's owned and manipulated by the "free" marketers who have profited handsomely by manipulating markets and buying up the House and Senate -- and, since 2000 at least, (but probably all the way back to 1980) the White House. If you were one of the fortunate few to get a seat at the table, your place is secure regardless of the mess we're in. In fact, the worse the better for you. The rest of us can just try to hang on by our cracked and bleeding fingernails until things are allowed to settle back into a less chaotic norm.
ray @ 40:
I rather enjoy going to my local DMV - sorry to counter your example. How 'bout this one - hasn't the USPS been moving to a corporate/business model if not outright privatization? How's that been going?
The rebates are just little bribes with a hope there is a small (temporary) uptick in the economy.
This is an election year, after all.
The only way to change this tide is to completely change the way we run our government.
Change, and by that I mean FIX, the economy/fiscal policy, banking/credits laws, bankruptcy laws, the war, health care, rebuilding/fixing the infrastructure, open government, bad immigration policy, tax laws, bad management, bad foreign policy, poverty, energy policy, etc, etc.
(you can add to my list, let's see how long we can make it),
It is not the will of our politicians who are bought and paid for by huge corporations and the rich that run them.
I don't want the F**'n money if they don't/won't fix the most pressing problems we are facing.
That stimulus money will just run out of my pocket right to the rich, and maybe some more for China and Saudi Arabia.
Anyone notice Gas is up 75%, health care/pharma outta sight? It's only the beginning, folks. Wait until next year's food prices... (but hey, I can still buy a T-shirt at WallMart for $3).
It will not change until we take the money out of politics, and who makes the laws? Not me, not you.
This country will be looted until we are completely broke.
The economy is performing exactly as planned.
The elite will gourge on the middle class once again and Americans will lick up the crumbs.
http://herballure.com/MediaCenter/CreatureFromJekyllIsland.html
Did you know that the Fed is a private corporation?
Do you want to know what is really going on?
ray @ 40:
WTF does customer stupidity have to do with government incompetence???
Yep, some government employees are assholes. And so are some private sector employees as well. But most of the DMV employees I've dealt with have been just fine.
So you can complain about mismanagement all you want but what do you think the solution is? Do you really think that under a private company there wouldn't be mismanagement as well? Government isn't perfect, but at least we have just a little bit more oversight and control than we would under a private system.
The Smiths Have Had Enough @ 34:
Wars always harm a nation's economy.
World War II happened as energy growth was on the rise. So after the war, we were able to become a major exporter of goods, manufactured using oil pumped in the United States.
In 1971, Oil production peaked in the US and went into decline. Our source of wealth in natural resources went into decline and we went into debt, borrowing to buy foreign oil.
The 2001 tech and market crash came one full business quarter after Saudi Oil production peaked and went into decline. If you look at world oil production graphs, you'll see a dip in world oil production. The housing bubble picked up steam as world oil production began to rise in 2004.
Now world oil production has been flat since 2005.
Flat oil production means zero growth in goods and services.
As growth in goods and services has stalled, the money supply continues to increase. When the money supply increases and the supply of goods and services remain flat, you get inflation.
World oil production is very probably in decline now. If not now, then soon. Natural gas production is nearing decline in North America.
Unless the energy situation turns around we go back to ~3% growth, then no amount of economic stimulus can turn the economy around. It must decline in order to match energy availability.
You can wave all of the hundred dollar bills at your car that you want, but it still needs to burn gasoline to operate. And the price of gasoline doesn't change the potential BTUs in it.
pissedcanuck @ 46:
The Elites are better organized then the unorganized masses.
FACT
CoIntelPro @ 4:
I agree with you that Lou's fight against the outsourcing of American jobs and the disappearing of the middle class are his greatest strengths and that his fight against immigration is shameful, but I am sorry to say that if conditions of the standard of life decline in the US to the point of being unbearable, I think the Mexicans are going to be in for a rough ride here. Demagogues will jump on them. I want to stress that that is not what I want but only what I could foresee happening.
Lou Dobbs generally comes off as a racist douche-bag, but he and his guests made some really direct and accurate remarks.
Seems to me the govt is handling this economic situation the same way they handled Katrina. They waited until the damage was done before they paid attention to what was happening. They seem incapable of looking ahead to prevent all hell from breaking loose. They are in constant high alert over the possibilities of a terror attack but they can't seem to respond in advance to anything else.
pissed off patricia @ 52:
The worst part is we are seeing how easily people panic.
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
Nice to see Kissinger at Davos.
As a desciple of Friedman and the Chicago Boys, he did more than any other individual to pave the way for the capitalization of the planet and the economic destruction of the U.S.
L.A. Confidential @ 53:
Those that believe in retirement investments are watching their hard earned savings disappear. If I believed in 401Ks and had one, I'd be freaking too.
My grandparents believed in owning your home outright, and living debt free. I'm doing my best to catch that dream.
WashStateBlue @ 5:
I read on Huffington post that the same banks that are writing off all that bad credit are giving bonuses to those that made this mess not to mention those at the top that are getting golden parachutes for almost ruining the economy my god if any of us did such a piss poor job I don't think we'd get anything but a pink slip and a boot in the ass.
Just got my year end bonus for working weekends and nights and never guess what the government took half and then since we are so short handed I have to work overtime they're taking out 33 percent and I'm lower middle class the rich have been skating evere since reagon and the idea that the wealthy deserve to be wealthy because they are wealthy gut the tax code and stop this idea of corporations as individuals one final thing if a company goes offshore it should be no longer be able to get tax breaks or government contracts There are responsiblities that come with being an american as are there privilges you can't have one without the other.
Perhaps people panic easily because they realize their govt is incapable of managing serious situations. If the public had more confidence in their govt they wouldn't be so edgy right now. Lots of folks are waking up to a reality they had not noticed before. They have been flying and thinking there was a net below them. There isn't.
pissedcanuck @ 54:
Ever notice how guys like Kiss always end up looking like this?
http://tinyurl.com/2gy54o
L.A. Confidential @ 53:
Panic? The MSM has been hounding constantly about a recession for at least 3 years now. Eventually the brainwashed masses automatically start thinking that way. It was inevitable. Now, who is gaining from this? THAT my friend, is what everyone should be asking. Behind every smoking gun, somebody is pulling the trigger. That isn't conspiracy either, but reality.
pissed off patricia @ 57:
The American people are at fault also. Having been so easily bamboozled into many of the scams the Wall Street Whiz Kids cook up.
Weaseldog @ 55:
As of last year, my husband and I attained the goals your wise grandparents believed in. We do own our home outright and we are debt free. Sure, we did without stuff for a long time to get to this point, but we made it. :)
Weaseldog @ 55:
That's the smart strategy.
Pay down debt and limit spending.
The big guns are already ahead of you and they're just waiting to buy up all they can at reduced prices.
Protect what you have.
L.A. Confidential @ 60:
Like the idea that the Stock Market Casino is a good place to park investments?
pissed off patricia @ 61:
We still have to pay "Rent" known as property taxes though.
Weaseldog @ 63:
That and buying into the idea they could afford an ARM on a $500,000 clapboard "house" on a $50,000 a year while extracting "home equity" loans for toys and shopping.
Yeah, sure there is still insurance and property taxes, but that's a lot less painful to pay for than mortgage and credit card debt. I grew up in super duper poverty so I know how to do without. If I buy something I stop and think, is it worth giving them my money so I can have that? About seventy five percent of the time, I determine it isn't.
"This smack of Enron and the damage of all this stuff is going to cascade on the rest of the economy."
So why isn't anyone being prosecuted & going to jail? If little guys on a street corner somewhere in the USA had committed this kind of fraud, they'd be hauled-off to jail in a heartbeat. This was classic fraud to rack-up fees & commisions by bankers & wall street crooks who knew the people they were lending to could not afford those loans.
Only in a Republican Administration could these kinds of blatant fraud happen, with absolutely no consequences.
pissed off patricia @ 66:
Thats right.
L.A. Confidential @ 65:
An ex-stepdaughter of mine emailed me a while back. Her job at CountryWide was great! She was buying a new house and working on her third child. They were going the test tube baby route. I suggested that she wait, that things were about to turn. She replied that her bosses at CountryWide were saying that there was no better time to buy a home.
Now here email address at CountryWide no longer works and I haven't heard from her in a while.
Because they are COMPLICIT.
Guardian UK: The free-marketeers abhor the crutch of the state - until they start limping
So they RIP US OFF by creating bubble after bubble, pulling in all the SUCKERS. Then they PULL THE STRING and the bubble bursts (*shock*) AFTER they get their money out. And then leave the mess for the TAXPAYER to pick up.
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN ..
IT IS NO MISTAKE.
Merrill Lynch ripped off all their small investors when the dot-com-bubble burst.
Archer Daniels Midland acquired all their midwestern farmland when, complicit with the banking industry, they ripped off all the family farms during the Reagan years.
And then there was the Savings And Loan Scandal.
THESE ARE NOT "MISTAKES" ..
CriminalGeorgeW @ 67:
NO, sadly blatant fraud happens regardless of the government...it's just over time, people tend to forget and just remember the good ol' days. My dad before he died was always talking how great it was when bread was _ cents/loaf, and butter _....but he failed to realize is how much he had to work to afford that, even at that low price. Times haven't changed any. People still have selective memories when it comes to politics.
This information should be mandatory in every educational environment in America.
Once you know the rules to the game, you can play a lot more confidently.
A huge amount of capital is about to be transfered.
How much will you gain or lose?
http://herballure.com/MediaCenter/CreatureFromJekyllIsland.html
I personally have secured all of my assets and am poised to invest.
So many young families bought houses that they shouldn't have bought. Then they got in the new home and went into debt for furniture and all the other things everyone on their street seemed to have. They were mortgaged over their head and owed more on credit than they should have. Where are they now? They can't declare bankruptcy, their house is worth less than they paid for it, and if they were in any sort of business connected with new home construction they are out of a job. Sure they should have known better but they didn't. Now they are most likely living in a rental house as the they watch their dreams turn into endless hell. And the bank is stuck with yet another house they can't move.
pissed off patricia @ 73:
But now the bank has clear title on property, they bought by conjuring money from nothing.
Lou Dobbs is a fucking retard.
pissed off patricia @ 73:
Well some people are still profiting from the massive downturn:
Now the top five Wall Street banks -- three of which racked up record losses -- have announced that they are paying their employees a record $39 billion in year end bonuses. Hemorrhaging losses, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Bear Sterns had to increase the percentage of revenue they devote to employee pay to ladle out these bonuses. So much for pay for performance.
Bank spokesman were not exactly lining up to justify this but Jeanne Branthover, managing director of a global search firm, helpfully explained: "It's essential that pay is still there or you're going to lose really good people."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/keep-dancing-chuck_b_827...
ray @ 40:
Want to learn about privitazation?
Go to Iraq, open your cell phone, make a call, and say "Al Quieda".
What you will learn will NOT make you happy!
It has been my experience over the years, not just recently, that banks always tell you that you qualify for a larger mortgage than you really do. If you took the maximum a bank would loan you, you would be in a world of hurt. They just went a whole lot farther with these latest creative loans.
pissed off patricia @ 78:
You're right. When I bought a house in 1999, I was told I qualified for a home worth three times as much. We looked at some of those homes. They were the same size as the one we bought, but didn't have a yard.
pissed off patricia @ 78:
Why are these banks and bankers not held accountable for the blatant gouging they have been doing for decades? Why will politicians not stand up and say enough is enough?
ConcernedCanuck @ 80:
Politicians don't bite the hand that stuffs money in their pockets.
Steve @ 77:
mind elaborating?
Dobb's is sooooo phony. He made millions on Wall Street and shafted plenty of people in the process back in the 80's and early 90's. His attitude is "I've got mine--so screw you". I can't stand him.
He lives on a "gentleman's farm" in New Jersey with a stable full of horses and he's the voice of "middle America"? I'll bet his housekeeper is an "illegal" that he rails about night after night.
Go to hell Lou.
The amount of greed is staggering. Really, greed is the only reason this wasn't a successful scam. While the essence of the problem is portrayed by MSM as lenders giving loans to unqualified people, that was not a problem as far as the lenders were concerned because the object of the loan was to foreclose and get to the property and whatever equity the borrower may have had. Far more loans were made to people who could make the payments as they were sold. However, when hidden balloon clauses or drastic monthly increases forced borrowers into default, the Bank gets the property.
The volume of the scam, however, would be it's downfall. The sheer number of defaulted loans would severely affect the housing market nationwide if all the possible foreclosures were initiated. Catch 22. Cash in on the scam and you devalue your assets; cash in too late and much of your value disappears... tough decisions.... Unless, of course, a bail-out could be arranged.... We are in a class war, and we are losing.
Tony @ 1:
Even Bernake pointed this out in his speech before congresscritters last week. If the Bush appointed head of the FOMC knows the $800 check is bullshit, then it really must be bullshit.
The rules and regulations that were put in place after the last great depression have been so corrupted and softened as to be almost nonexistant. If you have laws and regulations that no one inforces, then you don't have laws and regulations. Our entire economy has been ruined by corporations who have received tax credits to send good paying jobs overseas, that have been replaced with Taco bell jobs and McDonalds jobs. Remember in the first year of his presidency George Bush wanted McDonalds jobs to be listed as production jobs!!!!! Where people used to be able to make a living working one job, now they are struggling to make ends meet with two or three jobs, that don't provide benefits. Corporations, through tremedous bribes, which they call lobbying, have received tremendous tax cuts, and they have had lending regulations cut, safety regulations cut, and still that wasn't enough. NOW they want US to pay for their stupidity and unfettered greed, and they demand it like a petulant teenager demanding a new car when he's wrecked the first one. They want no part of government regulations, but when they have broken the bank, they want government money and they want it NOW.
Cash give aways are not going to rescue this economy anymore that interest rate cuts. We need substantive and REAL solutions. For too long government and corporations have been counting on consumers (that is all we are to them) to keep them afloat, even as they cut our jobs, rasied our insurance premiums, and the price of food and gasoline skyrocketed. While standing on our backs they demanded that we keep supplying them. After 9/11 George Bush exhorted the American people to SPEND SPEND SPEND!!!! That should have been a wake up call to just how fragile this supply side economy is.
We've reached the point where the money has run out, the credit has run out and still all they can say is SPEND SPEND SPEND. We can't spend what we don't have. We need jobs that pay a living wage, we need schools to educate our children with facts and science and engineering and leave religious beliefs in church with the beads and rattles. We need a responsible single payer health system that gives everyone access to health care. We need a jobs program to fix our aging and crumbling infrastructure, electric grids, ancient pipe systems, new water collection plants, roads and bridges. Jobs that pay a wage good enough for a man or woman to raise a family on. We need a government that encourages individual SAVINGS. We need to get the corporations and K street out of OUR government. Shut down K street. We need publicly funded elections so that the peoples voices can be heard over the rattling of the filthy lucre of the corporate bribes. We need a government FOR the people again. Not for the corporations who behave as if they are drunken drugged out rock stars and America is a hotel room for them to trash.
This country has some real big problems and it is going to take some real sustantive changes to get us back on our feet. We are going to need another FDR after the disastrous years of George Bush's Herbert Hoover.
Raise taxes on the wealthy!!! It's not class warfare it's simple practicality. They are the ones with all the money and continue to rake it in, hand over fist. (Larry Beinhart, The Fraud of Bushenomics:They're Looting the Country!
The recession is planned. It's a controlled collapse designed to put control of the lions share of the wealth into the hands of a small percentage of the population. Then what? NAU (North American Union)? Good bye Dollar, hello Amero.
Anything to the rumour that gangs of animated colored people are on their way to Lob Dobbs house for a little conversation?
California Love Tupac and Dr. Dre ps, Justin Timberlake likes to California party, too.
ray @ 40:
My local DMV does just fine. Last time I had to renew my license I was in and out of there in ten minutes.
The last time I called my PRIVATE telephone service provider, it was a nightmare.
middle class is screwed; poor class is f*cked
Weaseldog @ 74:
Plus, the mortgage bankers got paid--and paid well while this was all going on. Then, these mortgages were bundled up and sold off as CDOs--big commissions for the brokers. They all made bank and have homes in the Hamptons. Meanwhile, when things start to unravel, they all yell, "RECESSION!! WE NEED A RATE CUT!!!" so the Fed will lower rates and they can borrow money from the government to cover their losses...and guess who pays in the end? We all do. Thanks!
Steve @ 77:
I continue to be amazed at how many ways people find to misspell these two short words...
WAnglais @ 91:
They knew all along that the taxpayers would cover their losses.
It would be fiscally irresponsible for them to use sound business practices when they could make more money by being irresponsible.
When you know the taxpayers will be forced to give you money, to keep you in the block, then you owe it to your stockholders to issue bad loans.
Domestically-produced products?!
Such as what exactly? We don't make anything here anymore. Democrats AND Republicans made that happen.
Bill Clinton especially made this happen opening up unfair trade relations with China that benefits China and hurts the US. What do you think Hillary is gonna do?
The middle class is being systematically exterminated.
Me too, but how many ways are there to spell it?
or Fallujia, or Ramadi.
Correct: Al Qa'ida
Substance, not syntax.
No, I do not wish to elaborate.
The fact that I am very concerned because I decided to leave a couple of comments here says so much about where are country has gone gone.
What has happened to us?
Hello, Milton Friedman
I hope you are happy now.
but...but...but...but...Dobbs hates Mexicans. He's not allowed any other context.
Max-1 @ 15:
They don't know what tree it grows on, but they know that the tree is located at the federal reserve.... and in China somewhere.
Max-1 @ 15:
Their war and occupation is funded... HOW?
This fluffing up of the economy is being funded... HOW?
Printing more money and borrowing the rest from the communist regime in China. This is what you get when you have play money.
BANKERS should have CUT UP THE BUSH CHENNEY credit cards
years ago.......................
Loud Obbs
I know I've mentioned it before, but it's pithy. So as a review of the republican party approach to economic matters:
[1] Privatize their profits
[2] Ration out to the rest of us their risks
'Chris @ # 99'
" ...the communist regime in China."
The Chinese that are making waves in China are not communist. They may be the sons and daughters or grand-sons and grand-daighters of communists but thats where it ends. The Chinese are astute and incredably hard working and they have 4000 years of history behind them.In the next 15 to 20 years a couple of hundred million Chinese will move from from the country side into the cities. This is the largest migration in human history.It dwarfs the Barbarian migrations into the Roman Empire and it will change our lives. So brace yourself . And Bush is an idiot ( I just had to say that.)
I never liked the "war" on shit but there is at least a well done fleecing on the middle class. Three years ago I was making $50k/yr while the ol' lady was makin' $30k. Now, through losing my job from a company bankrupcy, i'm making $40k and the ol' lady is still around $30k. So at 45 years old, $70k doesn't sound horrible. BUT... now instead of paying $104. on my family health insurance plan at work, I'm now paying $217./month. My fuel bill to travel to work has gone up while oil companies, (who receives gov't subsidies) are enjoying record profits. My daughter's college tuition has increased almost 30% so I can't see her moving out anytime soon. My other daughter is starting college next year so she'll be in the same situation soon enough. Now factor in the increases in food, cable TV, and all my utilities and wahlah!... pretty well broke now.
Meanwhile, If i were to simply leave the house and file for a separation after 25 years together, the kids would get a better deal on school, my wife would be qualified for free health care, and a break on the utility bills. If my daughter's would have a couple kids without marrying the father's, even better, more free stuff!
On the other end of the spectrum, the Bush administration is preparing a stimulus package that would allow tax deductions for businesses. Twice as much in allowable tax deductions on their investments in new equipment -- $250,000 instead of $125,000 -- and all businesses could write off investments more quickly.
So the poor and lazy get help, and the business owner get breaks, the middle class get's screwed.... AGAIN!
Dobbs and Kutner are friggin morons.
They simply refuse to blame the Fed, the body that created the bubble.
They are so wrong...
"The stimulus package that Ben Bernanke the Fed Chairman said that we should be buying those domestically-produced products, we’re in a world of hurt even in that area."
Damn straight, it's hard to buy what doesn't exist.
That money they are going to throw at us to shut us up until December?
It's going to China.
Robert Kuttner was also on Democracy Now! today:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/23/recession
Worth watching or reading at link.
Drew @ 105:
Read the Dem Now! interview. He very clearly blames the Fed, and the rightwing economic policies which got us here.
"A second regulatory failure was the failure to address the housing bubble. Even if interest rates were low, there was a lot of ability for especially Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan to pop the bubble before it reached the point that it got to. And this is not just a retrospective criticism. People at the time identified the housing bubble as taking place. And you had to believe that the rules of economy, as they have existed for the last hundred years, had been suspended to think that we didn’t have a housing bubble. But Greenspan let it go by." -- Kuttner
the home mortgage banker run this web site
www dot homeloanlearningcenter dot com
an it advises very conservative lending standards
f*ckin hypocrites - they cant plead ignorance and they know the
US govenment will bail them out.
When did these free-market asshats begin to implement that the system shouldn't be protected from flat-out white-collar crooks? I believe in the market too, but they're are some greedy, crooked SOB's out there ripping off everyone they can to horde as much money as they can, and frankly, the market can't sort out criminals, I believe regulation does that... As soon as you mention that it's automatically socialism, communism, and welfare to these goons.
As a Nobel prize winning would-be president said... an "Assault on Reason."
Rewarding the incompetents who screwed us all, and giving them free money for false plans for rebuilding too.
OK so they may recoup their loses, no consumer will be able to buy shiny new home, when existing ones are unsalable, and mortgages out of reach of the newly unemployed.
shame :O please please, give them the free money...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22808753/
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/bonu-j21.shtml
and of course the Bushco extra tax rebates will mainly be targeted at those who dont really need them, ie the families earning 40K plus
the people at the bottom who might benefit from $600 to buy gas or repair the family car to keep being able to get to work,
will get peanuts.
everything you need to know about hillary clinton:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9L50shyUoQU
This is for you Lou Dobbs bashers - Lou Dobb's makes a hell of alot of sense and has brought much needed attention to very important issues. He knows the facts and knows what he's talking about and can successfully back up those facts. This includes Illegal immigration. The perception that being a Democrat means that you're pro-illegal immigration is dead wrong. I know a hell of alot of Democrats and not one is pro-illegal immigration. Democrats stand for working AMERICANS, not working ILLEGAL ALIENS!
Simon White-Thatch Potentloins @ 41:
Try Filson outdoor products-Seattle. Or Danner boots ,most but not all made in Portland.
We're in trouble, because this alleged boom we've been in the last several years has been powered pretty much exclusively by consumer debt that has been accruing to the exclusive favor of greedy and predatory lenders. We're in this problem now, because our government has been financing itself with unprecedented levels of debt which it is telegraphing to the world that they never plan on paying it back with anything that has value. We're in this problem, because the effective entirety of our industrial manufacturing base that isn't involved with warfare has been shipped overseas; we are left with industries whose chief reason for existing is to support unsustainable policies and government practices. We are in this problem now, because our fiscal and monetary policies are rendering the dollar worthless against the world's currencies. We are in this problem, because the government is actively engaged in, and dedicated to, destroying the middle class and further impoverishing the already poor. We are in this mess, because the reins of the economy are firmly held in the hands of the organized crime-type criminal class. I can do this all day.
If this mess is going to be fixed, debt has to be retired, the war on the middle class and poor has to end, control of monitary policy needs to be returned to the government (the Federal Reserve ,a private cartel of private banks that is about as federal as Federal Express, needs to be abolished), anti-predatory lending laws need to be enforced, control of government needs to be stripped from the banks and corporations that now run it through their proxies......ad nauseaum.
A 150 Billion or so stimuluis package isn't going to do shit. By the time it is divied up, maybe it will help pay a portion of a month's electric bill. If it goes to business, they'll do what they always do and pocket it... it won't go toward creating jobs, because the expenses of the jobs will outlast the duration of the incentive. By the time it is all over, every penny of it will go towards enriching the very creators of this mess.
This place is looking more and more like ancient Rome every day.
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