Dana Milbank: Economic Anxiety Disorder or One Nervous Bushie
By Logan Murphy Saturday Jul 05, 2008 8:30am
Think you're worried about the economy? Phillip Swagel is a wreck.
The assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy, Swagel came out for his monthly economic briefing yesterday, 90 minutes after the Labor Department reported that the country had shed jobs in June for the sixth straight month.
<!-- sphereit end -->
It was a hopeless spin assignment -- but Swagel, the administration's sacrificial lamb for the day, had to try. And so Swagel, bookish and bespectacled, entered the Treasury Department's briefing room with evident trepidation. He nodded and offered smiles every which way. His heavy breathing, picked up by the microphone, could be heard in the back of the room. Read on...
The first time I watched this video I honestly thought it was a spoof. I know public speaking isn't easy, and if I had to stand in front of reporters and tell them that the country lost 62,000 jobs last month and there's no end to the plummeting economy in sight, I might be a little nervous too. The fear and anxiety on Swagel's face and in his voice is difficult to watch. I wonder what Bill O'Reilly's body language expert would have to say about this performance? Swagel looked whipped and out of answers, just like his boss, George.
Login or Register to post comments.
The spinoff from the US recession has already hit Canada. Jobs are being lost weekly here. Oh, did I say recession? Hard to believe there would be a recession when the most important economic factor (oil and gas) has went from around $20/barrel to over $140 in less than 8 years. No way that would ever have any effect on the economy, now would it?
Be very afraid. Housing prices have a bottom yet to be reached, and that isn't going to happen this year, most likely.
Some hopeful signs for homeowners. Courts are finding against mortgagors in any case, http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2008/07/tangled-webs-unravelling.html
Ruth @ 2:
Good time to buy cheap real estate if you are one of the upper 1% income earners. Eventually the economy will turn around.
Having spent the last two years telling people that the US economy would be deliberately destroyed, this video signifies a watershed moment for me.
There is no longer any pretense. Where once there were hoots of derision there is now only the sound of throats swallowing dry air.
America has served its purpose for the real power brokers. She is now being dismantled as those brokers move elsewhere.
Valuables under the bed, Mr Milbank? They're coming for your bed, too.
Just wait till the next $500 billion in option ARM mortgages come due over the next year. These are all the homes bought at the top of the bubble. The party just started...
Would you please pass the cornbread?....I can't drink bio-fuel.
ConcernedCanuck @ 4:
Sales of existing homes have increased the last two months, yet new home sales are still dropping. I think the upper 1% are already swiping up deals (ie: foreclosed houses being sold dirt cheap).
I mistrust Pravda on the Potomac getting into the investigative TV biz a la TPM.
That said, it was a revealing and darkly amusing bit of video. But hey: John Stossel says, We are not in a depression. We are not even in recession. Get a grip, guys.
Macho bluster is all you need to haul America up by its bootstraps. What was that Treasury guy thinking?
If not for the seriousness of the ecconomy, housing, etc. I think this would be another edition of "America's Funniest Political Bloopers". But I think the party is definitely over and we're the ones having to clean up after the frat boys and the debutantes again.
From a human point of view, that was painful to watch. I began to feel sorry for the guy. He was so freakin' nervous in front of just a handful of reporters.
As to his message, he had no message and that was sad.
Why is it that I bet this is the same sort of answers that the officers aboard the Titanic gave to the passengers just before it went down.
A very sparse press corps was on hand to see this very nervous gentleman. The rest of them must be having donuts with gramps waiting for the next tall tale.
He is so nervous because the economy stinks and another pre-emptive war is coming.
Hell the guy probably missed the prayer breakfast about Jeezus saving us.
I did laugh out loud when he said that part about it being his "usual line".
Well, according to the lame-ass commercials that run before the clip - everything is fan-freakin'-tastic!
Press attendance was quite lame also. Guess that happens when you hold a press conference over the July 4th weekend.
Bill Moyers says...Bush attacked Iraq to steal Iraq's oil. When is the last time Bill Moyers told a lie? Never? hmmmm..when is the last time Bush told a lie? Always? hmmmm.
If only we could be encouraging this public servant to share insights — to find a place to capture dignity and restore his purpose. . .
nanderson @ 14:
John Bolton hinted last week that Israel might attack at the oh-so-convenient time of "between Election Day in November and Inauguration Day in January" (yes, those words exactly). He hinted that it was more likely to happen if Obama was elected.
The Bush admin wants to blow up the fucking world because they can no longer have the shiny red ball. I wish I was making this shit up.
I agree he seemed nervous and didn't say much, but:
1) The jerky camera movement made him seem a lot twitchier than he really was. It's like I was watching _The Blair Witch Project: U.S. Treasury_
2) The segment was heavily edited, with voice-overs replacing lots of Swagel's words.
henry wallace @ 18:
Too true!!!
Comrade Rou @ 15:
ROFL!!!
I was just surprised that he didn't put his fingers in his ears and rock himself back and forth while yelling "The economy is strong!". That's what King George does!
When they finally get around to calling it a recession, then you know we are in a depression. Better get out in the yard and learn how to identify which weeds you can eat.
Dana Milbank is sad story - because ever since the Bush Administration “exaggerated” (because the word lie, even if Bush was lying, wasn't allowed to be used” on those aluminum tubes – Bank was been relegated to lefties villa non-serious news and never given decent news assignment or treated respect ever again.
At the Washington Post – this is what happens to decent reports that step out line and actually insist on reporting the news.
Your corporate owned press hard at work protecting the criminal president and his VP who insist on torturing and wiretapping and the press to complacently act indifferent to every criminal act this administration does. Dana Priest has reported halfway decently - but it's got to be alot more active than that. In journalist really want to save their jobs - really even like their jobs or even believe in what the do - I be letting Bush and Republicans have it with both barrels before the members of the press have to close their doors permanently, BEFORE they are so completely bought up by corporate interest that insist on closing doors on them and injecting every one of them into the streets. YOU can't find quality people in TV media anymore because they simply are NOT standing up to their corporate owned control - and it's all be reduced to non-news rubbish.
this is what I think of John Stossel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SACE1tPEcbc
That was an attempt of putting lipstick on a diuretic turd.
There is also a national security twist to this economic situation which would not go over very well for the Republicans either. Especially with their multiple wars and massive defense spending. Recall what Obama Bin Laden stated back in 2004:
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.
He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration."
"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.
Taking Bin Laden and Al Qaeda at face value, have they been successful thus far in those goals? The current economic situation in the U.S. would suggest, yes.
c. atrox @ 23:
I've heard these make a great appetizer:
Ouch! let's try this again:
c. atrox @ 23:
I’ve heard these make a great appetizer:
Blue Buddha @ 20:
The combination of stupidity and arrogance has no limit with this adminstration!
Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing these batshit crazy, sadistic, evil mother f-er's would do could possibly surprise me anymore. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a turrrist flew a plane into a skyscraper the day before the election. Of course chimpy and grandpa would then be out telling us how Obama wouldn't be able to protect us during these "dangerous times!"
The timer is ticking.
Can the FEDS keep this economy going until McCain is elected?
How come noone interviews Mitt Romney anymore about the economy?
So much for that joke, my face is red. Quitting while I'm behind.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s @ 31:
They have it going in reverse.
that's the most honest presser by a bushie i've seen; i say they offer he stay on in the obama administration...
/snark
gempei @ 28:
Learning to garden is easy. Buy that shotgun, too or eventually someone is going to come along and steal your potatoes and lettuce.
Spoken like a true "Bushie."
After the last eight years, I am beginning to wonder if there are any incompetent, dim-witted people left in America who haven't worked in this administration?
Here's something else to add to the fire, Insurance companies are refusing to pay benefits to the insured and instead are just returning the premiums that were paid in the last year. AND this is backed by the SCOTUS and the Congress.
Here is the story: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080705/benefit_battles.html
Now where is the Outrage?
Funny, I told my boss 3 years ago the economy was going to take a swan dive. How did I know? Because what goes up must come down eventually. Besides, the info was out there all along, all one had to do is watch/read internet alternate news sites. My boss shut me down, of course, and blathered on about the stock market being so high and home sales rising. Really, there are none so blind as those who will not see.
When he talked about seeing the bottom in the housing market, I just couldn't help but to conjure up an image of a skydiver, as he looks out the door of the plane at 10,000 ft , saying "I can see the ground".
What the smarter foreign policy conservatives have long sensed in Obama is not a knee-jerk leftie, but a cool, cunning liberal strategist who could be a potent weapon for the West in the war on terror. Obama will inherit Bush’s war apparatus and it is not in his nature to dismiss all of it as useless until he has a grip on what’s working in a dynamic world. He is not going to surrender to Iran either, but he has a much better chance of wielding soft power as well as hard power in trying to avoid another conflict in the Middle East than McCain. He also has a chance to bring the American public with him – an attribute that Bush hasn’t had in his diplomatic arsenal for years.
None of this even faintly surprises me. The picture of Obama as a big-time leftist was always wrong – and more a function of the Clintons’ need to marginalise him than of any accurate portrayal of his record. His 2002 speech against the Iraq war aired a prescient worry about unintended consequences, not a deep reluctance to use military force in any circumstances.
Obama has long been a committed Christian, even of a more liberal, mainstream variety than the Republican leadership. His embrace of faith-based programmes is therefore utterly unsurprising to anyone who knows him. (The one key difference between Bush’s faith-based programmes and Obama’s is that Obama’s forbids religious charities from using public money to discriminate in hiring on the basis of faith.)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/arti...
This is just sad. It is far past time economists stood and pointed the finger at the shameful conservative economic policies responsible for this mess. The rebound of housing values is nearly pointless. The only thing greater housing values provide is more equity for consumers to borrow against. Without increases to real world wages and job expansion the economy will remain stagnant -- or depressed -- for the majority of Americans for some time.
Lots of empty seats in the press room.
I'm reading a book right now called "A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense" by Normand Baillargeon. He has a section titled "To Denote/To Connote," where he discusses the distinctions between words the refer to objects, facts, and properties, and the emotional reaction they elicit (p. 25). Carefully crafting vocabulary to elicit or avoid certain reactions is common in political spheres, but has taken on new meaning and robustness during the Bush (i.e., Orwellian) era. Two examples that stuck out for me in the above video are "housing correction" to reference the housing crises and "soft economy" to reference the continual lose of jobs. What a pleasant and completely privileged way to refer to people losing their homes, jobs, and livelihoods. I guess it's not that bad after all.
Here's a good way to stimulate the economy -- a Liberty Garden in every backyard (good for oils, rope, fertilizer, and making killer brownies.):
http://www.youthwork.com/images/marlvs.jpg
Amor Y Risa @38:
___________________________
This guy actually believes that the economy was up? WTF? Wall Stret was up, barely. WS is not the economy.
Joe O. @ 27:
Speaking of things bin Laden said: in 1998, he listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.
Bin Laden got what he wanted. The terrorists won.
DC @ 40:
Some minor corrections and emphasis for the general edification.
Obama has been called liberal by the msm and repugs, so let's be clear.
The Clintons are marginalized, let's be clear with that, too. End the war. Obama has personally forgiven them.
taochiapet @ 34:
Yeah, the first time an official from this administration is honest, and Milbank goes off and mocks him. Nice job, idiot. Our problem is not just the jerks in charge. It is us and our contempt for the truth.
I don't know how to react to this. Yes, the bushies are absolutely responsible for the state of the economy today. this is something that was foreseen maybe six years ago, but the apologists and radio pundits just made excuses. So here we are today. The guy presenting the video does so with a I told you so smirk. Problem is we all have to live with what this administration has wrought. so going light hearted in the video and pointing out the fallacies of this presentor and representative and chief architect of the economy does little good. we will have a new administration shortly and obama and his advisors will have to find ways to repair the damage. A stimulus package was a dumb idea then and it still it. about as dumb as a moratorium for a day on the gas tax. come on people wake up. we're going down the tubes.
stevek @ 41:
Conservatives taking responsibility? NEVAH! That's how they make their millions/billions!
To conservatives, the housing down-turn isn't a disaster for America and homeowners who are being foreclosed. They couldn't give two shits about that. The housing problem has begun to affect the "Ruling Elite!" That's the only problem they see. Bankers and Investment Firms (the so called Free-market disciple's) are taking a hit, and their isn't enough money in Ben's bag of tricks to save ALL their asses! That's how they view this mess.
garcia @ 44:
It is to trust-fund republican's! Remember, these people do NOT work for a living!
meritocracy @ 25:
While I despise Stossel, someone really needed to taze that roid-raging redneck.
Violent hicks need to be put down.
It's always ignored:
The government is as truthful about the facts and statistics pertaining to the economy as the polls have been about the boosh approval rating.
the CPI has been stripped of all information pertaining to the true and total cost of commodities
the COL index has been stripped of information pertaining to the most significant prices(home, car, etc)
now that the total damage is too widespread to ignore, the media puts a clamp on it and refuses to use the word 'recession'. that was three years ago when we passed that point.
the 60,000 lost jobs last months need to be added to the 230,000 jobs that should be created to keep up with the population.
employment numbers were strongly negative for the last 18-20 months. again, the governmant hides the numbers, or fudges them. the world actually depended on american spending to keep the global economy going and that gave strength to the dollar.
not any more. there's almost nothing else left to depend on the american economy for.
the american corporate paradigm under boosh has been the logical extreme of the fascists. kill wages and export jobs to create a population that is totally subjugated and dependent on an economy that barely offers subsistence living to all but the wealthiest. they don't want you to have a dime, not two nickels to rub together. they don't want you owning land to sustain yourself and if you still don't get it, please recall that the water company in a south american country made it illegal to gather rainwater.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that you're the exception in their objectives, that if you go along you'll have it better/it will be different. Not going to happen. even the good germans suffered.
boosh is sadistically grinning at this country with every disaster photo-op, like he's pulled another wing off a fly he has pinned to a board. he's sold your childrens' future to pay his friends and somehow, you managed to elect more of his friends, disguised as democrats, who want to use your war machine to set the middle-east on fire.
ultimately, it has always been about the money. the human suffering is what boosh considers entertainment.
BaScOmBe hearts Lara Logan @ 46:
Let's be clear about who we have nominated here. Obama is finally showing us the real man by triangulating his way into the general. He will neither "end" the "war" nor return the covertly codified executive excesses that Bush will reluctantly hand him in January. Why should he, after all, surrender the weapons he thinks will help him be the savior of US prestige, military supremacy and economic domination? He's a free trader, pro coal...pro corn...pro nuke, anti-single payer, position pirouetting public speaker.
Obama is simply a less experienced, less connected, less hated Hillary with a bigger (we can only assume) penis.
Joe O. @ 27:
Wherever the video of that statement is hiding, it needs to be put on YouTube and promoted. Sadder than the GOP falling into bin Ladin's trap, is the American sheeple following the Judas goats into the slaughterhouse.
Commentator @ 51:
sorry. I'm with the bleached blonde hick on this one.
Johnny2Bad @ 53:
too bad, johnny. McC*nt stands a snowball's chance in hell of winning.
get used to it.
I am quite certain this video shows the first honest statements by any official in the Bush administration.
Not to worry, they are praying at the pumps and now at the unemployment office.
We are screwed 08.
Obama's going on an Economics Tour this week, thank god. Enough with the faith and foreign policy defensive - stick it to Bush/McCain and their 6th straight month of job loss.
So long as we keep this on the Economy as it continues to sink no amount of racism, fearmongering, or Rovian dirty tricks will be able to steal McCain this election - and if Diebold gives him a hand well, count me in for the riots.
BaScOmBe hearts Lara Logan @ 56:
Yep. "too bad".
Too bad we nominated Hillarama.
Get used to that.
.
Phillip Swagel's answer on the economy was off course...
It should be "GO SHOPPING!!!"
... oh, that's how we're supposed to support the troops.
.
After posting the Milbank vedio last evening on another thread, it struck me as I'm sure it did others that we are standing on the edge of the financial abyss. It became noteworthy over the years that while governments role in financial matters may be to put the best face on a situation for the public good, at some point the masses realize that they have been had. Bernanke and Paulson have failed in policy or the lack there of becuase you cannot print your way out of this mess. Printing more dollars only adds gasolene to already existing inflationary fires
Almost all panics and crashes are preceded by sustained periods of artificial growth, not based on improvements in productivity, but by a false expansion in the money system, aided and abetted by speculators and financiers. Although they do not act in overt cooperation, yet there is an unmistakable collusion of purpose that occurs. It suggests that the impulse to benefit in this way is present in a portion of the people at all times, as there are impulses to do many other things for personal benefit without regard to the public good, but at certain times the prohibitions which normally hold this behaviour in check are weakened, sometimes through active invervention. nearly all panics and crashes involves relatively small groups of people who seem to be at the heart of the matter, and are closely interlinked into small cartels of corrupted self-dealing, involving the accumulation of enormous personal fortunes. If you wish a hell on earth, do nothing for the benefit of others, for the greater good or to inhibit those who act solely out of greed, fear, and hate. Soon enough you will have a society that is intensely self-interested, self-concerned, superficial, destructive and self-consuming.
A free and just society is not a prize to be won or a gift that can be bestowed; it is a recurring commitment, an enduring obligation.
Swagel was thrown to the wolves, but the handwriting is on the wall. The economy is imploding before our eyes and we have only just begun to catch whiffs of an ever expaning credit crisis which ultimatley will bering the entire system to its knees. As I have said before, this mess can be undone, but in order to move forward a return to constitutional banking must happen while the production of bogus money created by the Federal Reserve is stopped dead in it tracks.
Blue Buddha @ 45:
"We" showed them how to do it when "we" invited the Islamic Jihadists to wage war on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and the Jihadists successfully dragged the Soviets into a costly unwinnable war that eventually bankrupted the Soviets.
The NeoCons - one step ahead of the inevitable blowback - decided to let al-Qaeda "bring it on." For a full decade Cheney, Halliburton & the Bush Family of Corporations manipulated the hiring practices of the US military - stripping away all full time positions that could he contracted out in time of war - and waiting for the inevitable "terrorist attack" about which they did nothing.
Then THEY cashed in on - and exacerbated - the resulting destruction of the US economy, which was already so top-heavy with unsustainable levels of over consumption it was likely to crash anyway.
Had a more responsible crew been in charge of the Ship of State the US economy COULD have been brought down to earth much more gradually, with sustainable solutions. But NO the NeoCons chose to crash the economy and squeeze every $ they could from it.
The "good" news is that we now get to re-build our nation from the rubble, hopefully on a more sustainable basis.
Remember all those pictures from the 90's of Argentine former Middle Class living under bridges?
That's us in a year or two.
I'm surprised this Bush weenie didn't take Dana's suggestion more seriously and tell us all to go shopping -for shotguns.
Yeah, DICK, go ahead, make our day! :)
Johnny2Bad @ 60:
I'm pretty sure most of us here CAN'T WAIT to get used to that! :-)
November/January can't get here fast enough!
does this remind you of any other time in world history?...1929-1939 and that wasn't a pleasant time either
dont worry !while your liveing under that bridge, if your lucky obama could possibly throw some change at you , spend it wisely its likely to be the only change he gives us!
The funniest thing is that the administration is doing the dismantling all from overseas.
George will land in Parguay
Dick in Dubai
Halliburton in Dubai
KBR in Dubai
EXXON is offshore
Wal-Mart Cayman Islands.
Some scratching of the surface of corporate boooks is all that it takes to find out WHY a corporation HAS NOT moved offshore to protect shareholder investment. Just follow the money. The corporations HAVE TO MOVE offshore as part of their fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders.
THAT is the corporate mantra and the corporate WEAK point for believing ANY corporation will come the rescue of the American economy. It is a total FALLACY to think that corporations are to be anything execpt a threat to our very survival. Kill the corporate control of our country by changin the States's corporate laws. Make it a mandate to be a State and U.S. entity, have no corporation able to own stock or shre of another corporation, and have one vote per human sharholder, not one vote per share. This way we democratize the corporation, and reduce their corrosive effect over things they have no business in, namely elections. Since they do no vote, they would have no allowable control or sway, or voice on elections or candidates. Makes sense.
Think of it like convicted felons who have had the right to vote taken away. SHould they have the right to effect the election through their use of money to sway the candidate or election process....No! Well neither should corporations.
Dana had it wrong, they want us to "take a BOTTLE of Valium and call us on Jan 21, 2009"
RalphB. @ 65:
Be careful what you wish for. November to January gets kinda cold and last time I checked, my fuel oil supplier said that costs would be beyond $5 a gallon. At these prices a lot of people are going to freeze to death. If you manage to survive the winter, you hopefully won't suufer any more than a few burst water pipes. This isn't the first time that some have suggested yet another stimulus package, but again printing up more dollars with nothing to back them isn't the answer.
With people like this at the helm it's not surprising the US economy is tanking.
'hide the valuables under the mattress and buy a shotgun'......
Interesting. My God, this country is SOOOOOOO screwed. Getting a new President is not going to change a thing. See what happens when you allow a psychotic dry-drunk who lives in a fantasy-land to run the country? See what happens when place incompetent yes-men in places of power? The Bush Administration is cancerous miasma that has infected every level of the Government. Thanx George...Hekuva job. Why is he still in office???
Andrew @ 62:
I believe that's what Mr. Kennedy had in mind - even signed an executive order to take back the maney system from the Fed banks - and we know what happened to him. Who in the US Congress do you think will stand up to the international banking cabal that runs the world????
We are going into Depression...
The writing is on the wall.... I have been saying it for a few years now....
IT seems that many are still under the ether...
I've worked in manufacturing for the last 30 years. Ordinary Americans have a much more accurate sense of just how difficult the current economic climate is than any policy wonk in Washington. We live it daily, clear about the choices we make in an inflationary environment caused by a decade of Republican fiscal mismanagement.
as anyone that has been to china and soaked in that culture and its design, top down, the greater whole. They will be eating us alive with a system we thought we designed but as it turns out we neither understand nor have the capacity to comprehend.. good night mr neoliberal, good night, enjoy the cannibalism.
Brother can you spare a dime?
Amitola @ 72:
By extension it should be we the people who demand that the Federal reserve be closed down through our elected representatives. Ron Paul has been trying to accomplish this for years, but no one would listen. Now that the bottom is falling out, typical of government we're going into crisis management mode when the best time to plan for a crisis is before the perfect financial storm is knocking at the front door. People have to be pushed to the edge. We're there now, but if you don't write your Congressmen and Senators, then they will continue to look the other way believing that all is well with the world. don't forget that line from the opening of the Constitution. You know, the line that starts with...." When in the course of human events..... When government no longer serves the will of the people, the people have the right to change the government. They work for us. Not the other way around
I support Senator Obama, but have no illusions as to why many economists are looking at both McCain and Obama and saying, "it looks like either way its going to be Ronald Reagan's sixth term of office."
Obama's economic plans do add up fiscally, where McCain's even by the analysis done by the Wall Street Journal "experts" do not, but both speak incessantly about "free trade" and "free market forces" while these theories are very much at the heart of our current problems.
"The Bubble Economy" that Reagan and Freedman built is playing hell with the lives of millions all over the planet. While Americans are losing their homes (estimates on foreclosures are now going to 5 million) and we are dying from inadequate health care much of the world is dying from hunger... with food on the shelves.
You've got food riots in 33 countries and the UN is sending up flairs and warning of political unheavals, as commodities futures investing by hedge funds push the prices ever higher. Reports show that every Middle East country has signs that their governments are beginning to be destablized.
This just in from the G-8 Summit:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080706/germany_g_8_food_prices.html
It certainly seems that globally we are either at the tipping point or the turning point... but the Economic Darwinism that has been served up to us as "Free Trade" is threatening the entire planet.
It certainly looks as if the financial elites are not reigned in... all hell will break loose and more and more this is looking like a global "perfect storm."
c. atrox @ 23:
funny you said this. over the few weeks on my way to work i have watched a guy make a veggie garden out of his lawn, now normally this would have not meant anything to me except good for you sir how healthy is that, but each time i pass that garden so far i can't help but think one of 3 things 1. boy isn't that just a the sign of the times 2. good that it's unlikely he is near a monsanto owned agrofarm &/or 3. i am glad i have a yard but do i really have the energy to do the same.
yikes.
I got a sympathy sweat goin' and slipped out of my chair.
Heckuva job Swagelie...
How predictable... this guy went from the American Enterprise Institute (can you say corporate takeover?) to Treasury... no wonder we're in such a friggin mess.
Why don't we all take a stroll over to Swagel's web site - http://phillipswagel.com - or give him a call to wish him well during his sabbatical to get over his stage fright - http://phillipswagel.com/contactus.aspx
who in the hell would even want a job within this administration. it has got to be tough to come out and try and convince everyone that the sky is green and the oceans are red.
Well! That ought to give Gold and Silver a good boost Monday morning if that gets any national attention.
left of center @ 83:
they will be, when the air is filled with toxic clouds, and the waters drenched with blood!
Andrew @ 62:
The politicians in Washington will not dump this corporate fascist system until the revolution begins. But your thoughts are dead on!
Me, myself, and I - the repuke motto!
obama is miraculously going to clear up everything, he's got answers for them...what is he going to do about building new jobs...THAT'S THE ONE I want to hear....he's flipped, he's flopped, he's disappointed half his supporters with his "changing" postions lets see if he can make one and really really do it. CREATE JOBS...
This was a very disconcerting video. Looks like the terrorists won. They've plain and simply destroyed our economy. How about we bring our men and women in uniform home, and rebuild our country.
Heck of a job, bush!
stevek @ 41:
This is an absolutely brilliant comment.
People ought to read it about 3 times and then think about the implications.
Personally, I don't see the corporatist paradigm working for the future, at least not the way it is currently comprised. It was designed over time for extractive industries and externalizing costs in a world where the consequences of one's actions didn't seem to boomerang back very fast. That's no longer the case.
A resource poor world needs different economic models.
People took equity out of their homes because it was easy, quick, and seemed like a smart financial move. It was a mask for an economy with worrying fundamentals.
Bill now coming due.
Great, great comment. Thx for it.
(FWIW, I thought the Treasury guy was probably the most honest Bushie I've seen in memory. Now, if he had the balls to call bullshit on the tax cuts for the uber-rich, I might even respect him...)
rduke @ 73:
So have I!
Two years ago, people laughed at me like I was some kind of doom prophet with a sign on the street corner. Last year, they told me "while a recession was possible," we would never go into a depression, "government won't let it happen!"
Now, these same people are agreeing with me! They now know the have been "HAD" by the Bush family crime syndicate, but unfortunately for many of them, it's too f-ing late.
Richard Peterson Says: Joe O. @ 27:
There is also a national security twist to this economic situation which would not go over very well for the Republicans either. Especially with their multiple wars and massive defense spending. Recall what Obama Bin Laden stated back in 2004:
“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,” bin Laden said in the transcript.
He also said al Qaeda has found it “easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.”
“All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations,” bin Laden said.
Taking Bin Laden and Al Qaeda at face value, have they been successful thus far in those goals? The current economic situation in the U.S. would suggest, yes.
Wherever the video of that statement is hiding, it needs to be put on YouTube and promoted. Sadder than the GOP falling into bin Ladin’s trap, is the American sheeple following the Judas goats into the slaughterhouse.
Here y go Richard.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=of3uFj2U03w
And lookie here,
http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA431939&Location=U2&doc=Get...
Our U.S. guvmint hard at work, even made a report to oppose OBL statements about "bleeding the U.S. into bankruptcy." So they were listening, except they only attribute OBL's contribution to the national debt to be the budget of the GWOT, not the DOD increase or the other factors effecting the dollar's collapse that Dinkledoofus knowingly, fascistically, jumped into on purpose.
He has wanted to bring down this country since it took his grandpappy on back in the 40's when Prescott Bush I, the traitor, facilitated the Decshmarc's stability AFTER they declared war on the U.S. What a loving family...NOT!!!
Hang them all, GeorgeI, Babs (Make sure you got extra strong roe for that fat bitch), all the borthers, and kin, all the way down to PrescotII who they think they are going to put up for office somewhere...I think Florida.
HANG them all, and HANG them high.
Running up debt has consequences. I'm surprised the GOP hasn't fallen back on their old line and blamed Clinton somehow. Bush brought this nighmare upon us. He ignored the warnings about 9-11 and let it happen then spent too much money without paying for it. His economic policies are a disaster. Give to the rich and take from the poor.
Worst president ever. Next time don't vote for the AWOL coke-snorting fratboy drunk.
I've reduced my spending to prepare for hard times. The dumbasses who voted for Bush will just cry and lose their shirt.
Andrew @ 62:
Well stated.
Rasputin @ 78:
Ras Abides. Everybody is all cheery happy 'bout the next administration? If hope is your plan, if you think is going to save us from ruin, if you think employment/health/environment is going to get any better under HillBama's NAFTA/HMO/Coal loving care?
Think again.
i don't know if any of you read The Beast. Check it out. There's a great article called "Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven" which is brilliant.
http://buffalobeast.com/128/index.html
i guess it's time for me to go get a shotgun and become a gun-toting liberal.
This man was a willing tool for the free-market uber alles of the AEI (American Enterprise Institute) and now he has to admit to the Reality that free-market dogma is what caused the economic mess.
I too have been saying since around 2004 that this failed administration would bring us the Great Depression II. My job has been outsourced twice and I've been monitoring employment listings and salaries and over these past bush years have watched what used to be pages and pages of job ads dwindle down to just a page or two (if that) and the salaries have declined steadily and dramatically. I know many people, some of which are close friends and professionals who have families that have been forced to move in with their parents not because they held sub-prime loans but because they can't earn enough to keep up with skyrocketing prices (on everything) and/or health care. Because the bush regime refuses to invest in infrastructure and more states and localities are being forced to shell out more dollars for social services and needs that they can't get federal dollars for, the non-federal taxes such as property/local taxes have been rising dramatically as well. I see two more crisis's coming soon. Many have been living off of their credit cards as a "last resort" as they have no other means to keep their necessities. I see a huge crisis with the credit card defaults topping the news soon. It's already beginning to appear in the media occasionally. I also see a huge surge in crime as people become more desperate, some will resort to stealing to survive. One thing that I wonder is where all of these people go that are losing their homes. Surely they don't all have family that they can move in with. Are they living under bridges? In tents? Are there really tent cities being formed in the outskirts of town? You never hear about that.
Take Two Do Nothing Pills And Call It Debate
This country is in a terrible standing posture. We are in an illegal war, the price of gas has more then doubled in the course of 6 months, and we are watching our economy deteriorate before our eyes. Yet, the posture we are in yields nothing but debate.
We need to acknowledge our poor response to any and all our problems. What is happening? Can we do anything to correct our deteriorating posture? Could it be everyone is waiting for the other person to do something, so we are in a "pass the buck" loop? I feel like I am watching the end of America as I know it go away in slow motion.
There is a method to this madness that started when Bush got caught spying on Americans. I got all ready for impeachment hearings in which a long list of additional crimes would finally be addressed. It never happen. What happen is the right-wing media framed the issue as a difference of opinion. It was those who were patriots battling those who demand freedom to have a private life. Meanwhile, the fact this administration committed a crime was lost. In affect, we took our two do nothing pills and called it a debate.
You can see the media coming to the aide of this president every time he's did something questionable. Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, and now the Associated Press advance Bush's need to have questionable issues be a difference in opinion. The real question is not why would these media organization do this; it is why they would not do this. They are conservative advancing conservative causes in a dying conservative era. These bastards are facing extinction of their politics, of their 30 year manipulating influence, and of their hold on those who believe they have honest intentions.
In the conservative dying moments, they have stalemated everything. We can stop this stalemate by letting your congress and senate know we need to get pass the debate deception. Something illegal is illegal. Let the Lawyers debate the validity. We can force our representatives to act in our interest because we put them their.
Joseph
This embedded link is wigging out my IE. Don't use this WP crap!
[Funny, alicia, it works just swell with my IE-based browser. Now YouTube embeds are a different story. Maybe we should both think of switching over to firefox, eh? :D Site Monitor]
That's just pure anxiety, and it's not funny and it's not fun.
This administration is so scared to tell the truth. I think they fear people keeping their money at home. You know I had a feeling for a long time now that something isn't right but I can't put my finger on it. I have talked with some of my elderly friends and they said they feel it also. We are sad because we don't know what to do. We pray that the dems will pull us out of this mess we are in. Our only hope is stopping war and investing in our own country. Road projects. Fixing roads and buildings, and bridges. We need another new deal with the country. We need to start helping our own. Big business and the republican party has really hurt our country.
If that wasn't a spoof, then sell everything you own and move to another country. If that useless repig shit is speaking for the Treasury Department, it's time to learn some Spanish.
No fucking kidding, that kind of shit should NEVER happen in the USA. That is the kind of shit you see from the sacrificial lamb just before the extinction level comet hits Chicago.
Be afraid. Be very fucking afraid.
Watching an imbecile.
I love Dana. That was such a great piece. More please....sir.
rduke @ 73:
I agree totally. What makes this recession (oops did I say the forbidden "R" word?) different, is the incredibly high cost of fuel coupled with an incredibly weak dollar and high consumer debt.
This perfect storm of financial problems will quickly turn this recession into a DEPRESSION.
And unlike the 1930's there is no strong manufacturing sector to produce or export our way out of this. Our entitlement programs and overseas wars, along with lack of tax revenue from the rich, means not enough money to enact anything on the scale Roosevelt did, such as government work programs.
Bad times are ahead and you can thank the corporate turds and their allies in the government fot it.
I'm buying my shotgun soon.
Who would have thought it?
Invading a heart of oil-producing Arab land based on nothing but lies-- apparently contributing greatly to skyrocketing oil prices, and a housing free-fall after many markets expected a 20% or greater increase in value every year.
It would take a rare genius indeed to have seen it coming.
Dear Mr. Swagel:
My heart broke for you, watching this video. You seem to be an honest, earnest young man, dedicated to public service, who nonetheless has been hung out to dry. We have seen your story play out time after time over the years, with different protagonists, no matter who or what party occupied the White House. This is politics at its most delicate intersection with government, and you, apparently, have been thrust into the role of having to look your fellow citizens in the eye and tell us what is at best politically expedient. Your obvious discomfort in doing so speaks well of you, so well that I fear for your continued employment at the Treasury Department. For what it's worth, my advice to you is to find work elsewhere, out of government, where the values you appear to have -- like honesty and moral character -- are held in high esteem.
Charlie Reina
Every ex-president warned us about the real powers in charge in their farewell speech, EXCEPT GWB Sr. He said we should welcome, the soon to come, New World Order.
How do you like what the NWO has done so far?
They are continueing their exact plan of eliminating or eradicating billions unimpeeded, right on schedule, here and over there. They have already dismantled the jobs, food supplies, weakened the infrastructure, and financial systems of the United States. They have working info databases and massive concentration camps built already. They have all but eliminated any privacy and rights.
All in the name of the war on terror, which, through their efforts, has esculated FAR worse than it has ever been before, while they only allow us to watch American Idol, buy their lottery tickets, and spend our time in casinos.
They just love when their plan is comming together.
"Now, we can see a new world coming into view. A world in which there is the very real prospect of a new world order. In the words of Winston Churchill, a "world order" in which "the principles of justice and fair play ... protect the weak against the strong ..." A world where the United Nations, freed from cold war stalemate, is poised to fulfil the historic vision of its founders. A world in which freedom and respect for human rights find a home among all nations."
- GHWB Sr. - March 6, 1991
The weak are being slaughtered and human rights are being eliminated, the way I see it in REALITY.
Seeing that makes me want to ask him, "You seem ill at ease. Do you know something we don't?" and then watch him very closely. Best way to hide something is put a shit-scared sacrificial lamb out there.
Something's coming.
I do not envy this guy=may GOD have MERCY on us!!
Amor Y Risa @ 38:
Agreed. And, more simply, for those of us without MBA's (not that you need one-- just observe). if people and countries outspend what they earn, year after year, how long before the house of cards comes tumbling down.
My father always taught me, the best fiscal step ANYONE can take, is to STAY OUT OF DEBT. It already makes you richer than about 70% of the people.
dada @ 88:
The terorists have not destroyed your economy. You have. They may have baited you on, and prevailed in doing so, but bu$hCo. did the rest.
Agreed. And, more simply, for those of us without MBA's (not that you need one-- just observe). if people and countries outspend what they earn, year after year, how long before the house of cards comes tumbling down.
My father always taught me, the best fiscal step ANYONE can take, is to STAY OUT OF DEBT. It already makes you richer than about 70% of the people.
Note: Some debt might be inevitable, like a mortgage, but otherwise... Generally, owning and staying in your own home is wise, but not always.
It's actually worse than that. Some years ago I read that in order to make up for new workers entering the market (kids turning 18 and immigration) faster than old workers leaving (retirement and death) the U.S. had to grow 100k+ jobs every month. If we did that we were breaking even. So if we lose 60k jobs in a month, we're actually losing ground at a rate of 160k jobs.
My wife and I were thinkin' about finding a nice little retirement home in some little backwater in Louisanna or Arkansas. Maybe we'll re-think that, and buy a little spread in Ohio or Michigan. All we'll need is pocket change for the purchase of a house... and a trunk-full of gold bars for the gas it will take to get there.
After about minute too I couldn't stand to watch it anymore.
It became pretty damn clear to me that a rich brain dead jock is running the country and this poor little Jewish nerd is being forced to cover for him the way jocks forced people not to report assaults in High School.
jdp @ 116:
That figure varies from 100K to 150K jobs are needed each month just to stay where we are in terms of unemployment.
Even if you take a conservative figure of say 120K jobs lost each month and six months have shown negative job creation... that would be 720K to 1 million jobs last in this first six months of this year.
Mr. Swagel graduated from Princeton University with an AB in economics, and received his PhD in economics from Harvard University. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three children.
This poor fellow appears to be more of an empty suit than anything else. The eternal problem with the Bush administration has been their manufactured data - usually self-serving and always at the expense of the public (let's not even introduce high-minded truths).
In an age when computers are capable of real-time calculation of actual unemployment figures, actual national debt, actual fuel supply and demand metrics, and so on, Wall St., the media, and public officials pretend that no truthful, immediate economic barometers exist. CNN waits for monthly cooked government figures on their business shows - oh, the anticipation.
We are provided bureaucratic entertainers such as this who provide spin, sweat, lies, and poses instead of a modern set of up-to-date metrics that public experts can triangulate and make their determinations of.
There's no excuse for any of this vaudeville economic stuff at all.
Joe O. @ 12:
Exactly!!
Heck of a job Brownie.
I would say that Reaganonomics (or supply-side economics) sure doesn't work too well. No?
When did the speaker "nervously adjust" his glasses? I didn't see that and I watched it twice.
He really didn't say anything out of the ordinary. We all know the economy is "soft" - BUT the ecomony will turn around. Just not in my lifetime.
Mold @ 97:
Are you out of your mind? In what sense has anything this administration done related to the free-market? Invading other countries is something a GOVERNMENT has to do, setting the interest rates low and causing inflation is something the FEDERAL RESERVE A REGULATORY INSTITUTION does. Wastes of money like the dept of homeland security, BILLIONS given to foreign countries like Egypty, Israel, Saudi Arabia, is GOVERNMENT POLICY. It has been nothing but corporatist and facist dogma that has been running this country for decades- there has been absolutely nothing resembling a free-market in this country at all. Just take a look at all the regulations and barriers to entry created just to start various businesses in this country(which basically makes sure that only rich people have enough money to start a business on their own without getting a loan and going into debt).
The admininstrations we've had for decades have been interfering in the economy to detriment all the time- and for some reason its "free-market" dogma that's the enemy? Do you even know what the free market is?
Karike @ 124:
--------------
Oil is at 145. Demand side economics sure doesn't work too well. No?
All you have is demand side or supply side. People complain about both.
Demand side is inflationary and supply side is deflationary. Together, they complete a cycle.
We are at the deflationary phase of the long term cycle, with a credit bubble deflating.
yakfitguy @ 106:
This is what the administration is down to. Third and fourth string players. Not that the first team was so adept.
A perfect encore to this performance would have been to wait until this pinheaded jerk was done pissing his pants before we commenced to tarring and feathering him with molten tar. Just for telling us nothing and worse we don't already know or at least suspect! It's an insult to the National intelligence to be deemed stupid enough to be kept in the dark by this bunch of lobotomized knuckleheads.
C'mon! This is officially a recession that's approximately two 14-day weeks away from evolving into a full-blown DESPRESSION! Dumya-towns are already springing up to supplant Hoover-villes as the new flaming epitome of America circling the 9th ring of HELL in a Bush woven handbasket. Dumya no longer has enough pants-crapping, conniving media spin-sters at his eery disposal to flagrantly lie exceptionally badly about that reality to even begin to think about giving this madness even a hint of a positive spin! Three of every homeless four of us have been smelling that brimstone and treacle from the unemployment line since January. And, we're not all from burning California!
So, yes! Stir that boiling tar! America should for once enjoy the pleasure of hearing a BFEE surrogate scream in horror and excrutiation the same way we do every time these wearisome Bushites host a presser.
Shared anguish and anxiety from sea to polluted sea is the American way!
Login or Register to post comments.