Greenspan Gloomy On Economy, Hates McCain Tax-Cut Plan
By Cernig Sunday Sep 14, 2008 8:45am
Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan was on Sunday's "This Week" and told George Stephanopoulos that the current financial crisis is a "once in a century" eventwhich he wouldn't bet on leading anywhere except to recession. Gloomily, Greenspan explained how US house prices, now in freefall, underlie the US government paper that permeates the world economy - and that consequently the rest of the world is suffering even more than America is from a home-grown US financial collapse.
And, on Saturday the Associated Press reported remarks by Greenspan that clearly indicate he doesn't think John McCain is the one to steer America and the world through that collapse.
"Unless we cut spending, no," the former Federal Reserve chairman said Friday when asked about McCain's proposed tax cuts, pegged in some estimates at $3.3 trillion.
"I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money," Greenspan said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. "I always have tied tax cuts to spending."
That McCain's "Bush-Plus" budget planning, which would make Bush's tax cuts permanent while introducing extra cuts benefiting mostly the very rich and corporations and would aim to offset those cuts by cutting earmark spending, comes up woefully short was pointed out by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.):
McCaskill said eliminating congressional earmark spending — estimated at $17 billion annually — cannot offset McCain's proposed tax cuts.
"That's a huge amount of money, but it's not even a drop in the bucket to pay for $3.5 trillion in tax cuts," she said. "So, every time he throws up earmarks and he's asked how he's going to pay for it, he knows he's being disingenuous, he knows he's not being forthcoming."
It'sa position that McCain's own chief economic advisor also holds - as divulged in a forthcoming book. Douglas Holtz-Eakin believes that "you’re going to have to raise taxes whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or a Martian" but the McCain campaign campaign isn't taking his advice and he isn't speaking out in public about that because "“It’s the brand and you don’t dilute the brand.”
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Sarah Palin Explains Why She’s Qualified to Handle the Nation’s Financial Crisis
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=3174
Aw....
damn.
Just keeps getting better and better. Next thing you know there'll be political decisions decided by private armies.
McCain obviously never had to balance a household budget. You can't keep spending while cutting your income. Sen. McCain, this does not work! No smoke and mirrors or branding will make it so! Paul O'Neill had the sense to get out of Bush's cabinet because he could not pretend this cut tax-and-spend idea of Bush's would work. The US in dire straits financially and we need someone with the courage of Obama to right this listing ship of state!
Republican Brand
Rich before poor.
Power before democracy.
Fascism before freedom
brand before nation.
What did Bush senior call it? Oh right, VOODOO ECONOMICS.
We're STILL paying for that.
Never mind.
Three minutes until the opening bell. My hunch is it will be a slaughterhouse.
McCain's top economic adviser "Quit Doling Out That Bad-Economy Line."
Oops. Bad timing for one of McCain's top economic advisers to be penning an op-ed in the Washington Post lecturing Americans to suck it up and stop exaggerating (rhymes with whining) about how bad the economy is. This guy looks like an idiot. And he makes McCain look like an idiot.
Actually, I'd like to hear the screams of bloody murder, murder most foul, from the GOPer electorate as a McCain President presided over the largest tax increases in the history of the nation, rasing taxes because doing so could no longer be avoided. I delicious irony.
Who cares what this nitwit thinks. Didn't he have a hand in setting the policy that led to this crisis?
“So, every time he throws up earmarks and he’s asked how he’s going to pay for it, he knows he’s being disingenuous, he knows he’s not being forthcoming.”
so, what is ir with journalists and pundits in this country?
why the extreme reticence with calling an out and out lie a lie or a liar the same?
they do it in the uk. why not here?
9 times palin announces in front of sheep-like reporters about how she "refused the bridge to nowhere" and not one called her a lying sack o' manure.
Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black? Greenspan and his buddies reapped gazillions from Bush's policies. Now Greenspan grows a conscience? Give me a break!
Does this explain why McSame is never seen without Cindy? Is he keeping her close to be near "his" money?
McCain a Crook and a Liar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3Y1KPzW9k
“It’s the brand and you don’t dilute the brand.”
Yet another example of how Republicans put their 'brand' before the interests of their country.
LOLOL...Greenspan...LOLOL...no...no...make him stop....hates....LOLOLOL..oooh...my sides hurt....hates the tax cut plan..NO NO....LOLOLOL...ROFLMFAO....oooh gawwd...ohhh LOLOLOL!
Here is an interesting Survey that my Wife and I conducted via E-mail over the last few weeks. We surveyed our friends and family (back in the USA).
96% of the respondents who said they were Republicans also believed in:
Astrology, Colon Cleansing, Aroma Therapy, Craniosacral Therapy, Psychic Practices (Astrology, Tarot, Palm Reading, Tarot, etc.) and were devout xtians.
Step back from the fan !
Anais @ 3:
Exactly! I seriously doubt that McCain has ever balanced a checkbook or even if he would know how. You have to live in the real world ot understand keeping a budget. Most households know that you have to live within your means. I have a feeling the Obama family is very familiar with what a budget means to the average household. Until his books began selling, they were working with debt and household expenses.
Alan Greenspan has supported the GOP mantra of cutting taxes, cutting taxes and expecting revenues to increase for over 20 years.
He signed off that these misguided policies for 2 decades and aided and abetted it by keeping interest rates artificially low and increasing the money supply at such an extreme rate that the Fed was forced to stop issuing statistics on M3.
He's a fraud and a liar.
If the republicans hadn't destroyed the educational system, people would be able to figure this stuff out for themselves!
Take any government spending amount, divide by 200 million, and that's your share. Multiply by the number in your family, and that's your family's share.
3.3 Trillion in tax cuts is $16,500 each. Somehow that just doesn't compute!
The 400 Billion federal deficit is $2000 per person. Certainly more than this family of 5 could ever pay in taxes!
Don't even think about the trade deficit - it's just too mind boggling!
pissed off patricia @ 17:
He has "peeps" who do that for him. He is close friends with bush senior, who never knew about scanners in supermarkets and also had no clue about the economy, remember ... "it's the Economy Stupid"?
Forgive me if I don't bother listening to what's-her-name's husband.
YourMom @ 19:
This will ruin the United States, mark my words. The only question is what will replace the United States, whether it is milder or darker.
pissed@17, Cindy and John have no clue what they are doing. Cindy's response after the 'The Veiw' was in essence "They were picking our bones clean." Please! The women on 'The View' were only having a debate, and MSM never called Mccain to the carpet about his lies. MSM has sheltered McCain so long, he seems suprised he actually has to answer to his smears. Now McCain alienated CNN. It is only a matter of time before all of MSM will bite back.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 20:
I doubt if McCain knows what his peeps do or if they do it correctly. He lives in a financial bubble thanks to Cindy and her bubble maker. What are the odds he has ever used an ATM?
Like McCain said: He doesn't really know anything about economics and what do economist's know anyway?
#24 wrote: "What are the odds he has ever used an ATM?"
Given his skills with computers, he'd likely transfer all of his money to a Nigerian 'businessman' if he tried.
Pissed@24, A ATM? Remember Bush senoir's infamous moment when he didn't even know what a supermarket scanner was? Or Guiliani couldn't tell you the price of what a gallon of milk was? These Repuge are so cluelss. It would be funny if it wasn't so important.
P.D. @ 23:
I think Sarah began a pissing match with the media when she made this comment in her speech:
“And I’ve learned quickly these past few days that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for those reporters and commentators. I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.”
With those words, she basically told the MSM to kiss her ass. Not probably the smartest move on her part.
The best thing about all of this is that it presents a new challenge to the spin-meisters in both the Administration and the McCain camp and the results ought to be hysterical. I am certain that it will be mostly Clinton's fault, that the economy is "fundamentally sound" (if you already have $100,000,000.00 in off-shore accounts), and that people shouldn't whine about losing their houses, pensions, and future.
Oh, and McCain-Palin with their herd of lobbyist friends should be trusted to graduate from "Reform" School with honors and will make everything just fine. Sarah has a plan to get lots of royalties from the oil companies and send us all a check!
YourMom, the GOP has been working for the last 50 years to unwind the New Deal.
They have never gotten over the fact that FDR essentially destroyed their party with populism, growth, winning a war, etc.
The policies of FDR and Truman set the tone for the creation of the entire social system that created the middle class. It was so popular that Republicans like Eisenhower and Nixon had to support it to maintain political viability.
The GOP doesn't respect the middle class. They HATE the middle class. They love the consumerism...but they do not want to share their institutions of higher learning with the great unwashed, they don't want to share restaurants, lavatories...ANYTHING...with the great unwashed.
This has ALWAYS been a class war. The problem is that the idiotic middle class fell for all the GOP bullshit about free markets and waving the flag, and NEVER understood what the policies of the GOP would do to them.
NOW, they are getting a taste. I hope they enjoy eating shit.
damn..."DESTRUCTION of the entire social system"...not creation of.
My apologies.
This responsibility falls on the Neanderthal lending institutions, the regulators who didn't step when they should have and the f*ing flippers who drove prices through the roof. But they got theirs and that's all that counts. Bastards.
SHIT...sorry...wrong again...I meant construction...I guess I'm just a bit too agitated today.
Both interesting and amusing that it is the greed of corporate America that is going to hand the election to the Dems. Corporate America has always been leery of the Religious Right. And now that the Religious Right's psychosis is on display for all to see, corporate America is pushing the Dems as the election of a Republican Administration is economic suicide for the U.S.
According to Phil Gramm's philosophy, the financial institutions and wall street are a bunch of whiners.
Pissed@28, I didn't know she said that! What balls! But then again, the Repugs ALWAYS blame the 'Liberal' MSM. I guess I shouldn't be suprised.
P.D. @ 36:
Yep, I heard her say it and you can read about it right here
Fuck Cindy McCain. She is another trust fund baby that got her millions simply by being shot out of the right cannon.
pissed@37, Remember when Hillary was running and the Repugs said she was too shrill? Listening to Palin talk is akin to hearing fingernails scraping a blackboard.
Never underestimate the stupidity of Americans. They will happily wave their flags as they lose their homes, pay outrageous gas prices and watch jobs go overseas.
"Please sir, may I have another".
Liberal@38, Makes me wonder why the Religious Righties are supporting McCain. McCain dumped his first wife for a decades younger rich trophy wife. Isn't that a sin or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFKIqun4pkU
P.D. @ 41:
Not to the GOP, that would be considered a smart financial maneuver.
If George Bush were a real man, he'd fly to NY and hang himself off of the statue of Washington on Federal Street.
Liberal AND Proud @ 44:
Wow! I'd Fly the 20 hour flight home for that one.
Liberal AND Proud @ 30:
FDR did all that to save capitalism. He gets himself killed, welcome to the Union of Soviet American Socialist Republics or to the Greater North American Empire. FDR did what he did to save the fat cats, not hurt them.
If I'd been in the 1930s, I'dve wanted Gov. Long of my state for President. He was a real Leftist Mensch. FDR was a borderline RW pussy.
Liberal AND Proud @ 18:
And looks NERVOUS. I wonder just how secure he is?
Calling Ed McMahon...
Bangkok@43, LOL! I guess it would be a shrewed business move. And Repugs do worship the Almighty Dollar.
28 years of GOP bullshit has led to this. Make no mistake, George Bush is only the latest in a long line of traitors...Reagan, Bush I, Gingrich, Hastert, Frist, Delay...that have undermined every facet of our economy system.
P.D. @ 41:
Insider trading.
Greenspan's ability to bullshit served him very well, right up to the point where his pronouncements started to look incredibly stupid.
General, we are indeed a capitalist country...and there is nothing inherently wrong with capitalism. It is a question of the TYPE of capitalism that we practice.
The GOP perverted capitalism in the same manner that it has perverted conservatism.
You can have growing capitalism, so long as it is tempered with proper regulation and in conjunction with the government to ensure that ALL citizens prosper.
What we see now is the result of unrestrained lassez faire capitalism, and it is not pretty. I for one...from a philosphical perspective am GLAD to see Lehman go under. It is what is supposed to happen. That is how the free market works. My problem is with the hypocrite free marketers who scream for government assistance when things go bad for them. My answer is...TOUGH SHIT.
They are all gung ho with the free market destroying American families, but when their turn comes...all of a sudden...they are too important to fail.
I call....BULLSHIT.
gg @ 26:
And then proclaim it shows his sympathy for the "poor Negro"...
Scy @ 34:
Methinks it's too late. The hole is too big. The shovel's too small.
Off-Topic, I have noticed that MSM is only showing a few select pictures of the disaster that Ike has wrought. The last I heard was that areas of Houston were under a curfew. Has there been any looting or other problems? Remember after the floods last summer? I heard there was looting but MSM didn't report it.
It's the economy, stupid.
Hammer it home. We stay on this message and we win the white house. Period.
Why don't we let the market correct all this? All we hear about is we don't need regulation the markets will regulate themselves. What a load of crap, I say let the market correct let the businesses that failed to maintain themselves fail. Let the dow crash they cap Wall street so that the market can't fall 3k points off the DOW, that's BS too. They took the risks let them pay the piper, fuck the shareholders, they want all the profit but none of the risk. If you are an idiot and you bankrupt yourself, you are on your own, but if you lose billions we are supposed to reward that behavior with bailouts and loans? This ideology is corrupt. If it's a free market, free the market. If you want to make sure that people don't take this kind of risk then we need more regulation not less. I have NO sympathy for any of these huge financials that prey on the weak, then when they are weak they need big brother to protect them from the harsh realities of the market. If we don't let the market correct itself , how can we have faith in future markets?
fastfeat @ 50:
LOL
The USA has led the world in matters of money. I suspect that trust will soon be gone based upon our republican experiment. If we don't lead we follow. Soooo who cares what the world thinks? We'll soon find out. Europe is slowing melting down....
The Bush motto...
Situation hopeless but not critical!
Liberal AND Proud @ 52:
Meh, we should have destroyed Capitalism in the 1930s, the first go-round of this. We failed.
Long live the Glorious People's Revolution! May Martha's Vineyard become a place for our Stakhanovites!
Sarcasm, people. If you see this, and think I seriously want Joe Dzughashivili methods of running the US, you are too stupid to be on the Internet.
The economy is tanking and yet you would never know if you followed this political campiagn. A terrible job by the Obama campaign failing to set the tone again and again. It is truly sad that this election as of now is currently John Bushs to lose.
So the Economy wont get better "until the price of American homes Stabilize"?
Wasn't the instability caused by the removal of the lending Caps and the De-Regulation of the lending practices that were in place before the GOP took over the Ship of State?
Bush had previously ruined 5 Companies that he controlled and one Baseball Team, so he had plenty of practice to make ruining the American Economy a Snap.
P.D. @ 55:
I want to give you a quick answer, since this is off-topic but important....
*There is a curfew in downtown and some zip codes from 9 pm to 6 am (I believe). This is due to safety reasons - no stoplights or street lights, plenty of broken glass and downed power lines. That is expected to be enforced through this week.
*No looting reported but that doesn't mean it isn't happening in small pockets. They're asking people to stay where they are until some areas can be cleared enough for people to come safely back.
*Plenty of businesses are open even with no electricity. The Galleria (huge upscale mall) was open already yesterday. Many stations are out of gas though.
I'm not in the Houston area but used to live there and still have colleagues in that area with access to email. What we're seeing in the MSM are mostly the worst parts of Galveston and small towns to the south of Houston. That's where they're working on rescuing people who did not heed the mandatory evacuation orders.
McCain obviously never had to balance a household budget. You can’t keep spending while cutting your income. Sen. McCain, this does not work! No smoke and mirrors or branding will make it so! Paul O’Neill had the sense to get out of Bush’s cabinet because he could not pretend this cut tax-and-spend idea of Bush’s would work. The US in dire straits financially and we need someone with the courage of Obama to right this listing ship of state!
You are right Anais! The major problem in America is the low content voter republicans that don't care about America they only care about what they have to pay in taxes. They don't want to pay any taxes but they want the benefits! They want the roads, they want the police and fire dept, but they don't want to pay for it. Of coarse they don't want to pay for education, health care, or any basic needs.
I guess they think it's great to be ignorant and sick?
Has the ape President shown his ugly face on tv yet.
Or is he too big a coward to face up to the problems he and his party created.
Now dubya is saying briefly that the markets are "resilient" and can handle it. Kinda understated for the scope of events I think. Total time spent commenting on this shiteous mess: less than 30 seconds.
That's one heckuva leader we have.
P.D. @ 55:
Decidedly scarce here in Miami area. I'd have expected more, given that we're often crippled similarly.
Doesn't the new season for American Idle or Prancing with the Star-struck start soon?
Let's start cutting the budget.
First, Bush has to fly commercial...out of his own pocket. Drop Dick Cheney's government medical coverage. He can pay for his own treatments.
George W. Bush...the Peter Principle President.
Where's Lieberman...is he on Wall Street ringing the bell?
No one making less than $200K per year should be voting Republican.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 62:
And wasn't Mr Greenjeans one of the chief supporters of the subprime mortgage fiasco, pushing home ownership for those who "wanted" to own homes but really couldn't afford them?
General, we are indeed a capitalist country…and there is nothing inherently wrong with capitalism. It is a question of the TYPE of capitalism that we practice.
The GOP perverted capitalism in the same manner that it has perverted conservatism.
You can have growing capitalism, so long as it is tempered with proper regulation and in conjunction with the government to ensure that ALL citizens prosper.
What we see now is the result of unrestrained lassez faire capitalism, and it is not pretty. I for one…from a philosphical perspective am GLAD to see Lehman go under. It is what is supposed to happen. That is how the free market works. My problem is with the hypocrite free marketers who scream for government assistance when things go bad for them. My answer is…TOUGH SHIT.
They are all gung ho with the free market destroying American families, but when their turn comes…all of a sudden…they are too important to fail.
I call….BULLSHIT.
yes you are right. The facts are that you cannot have free market, without government oversight to ensure it operates fairly and honestly, you get what we have now! Out of control steal it as quickly as possible damn the consequences.
The republicans have taken the fairness off the table and left everything to the wolves to fight over. The bigger and stronger wolf will take it all and everyone else is left with the scraps. The founding fathers understood that money = advantage and to much money = unfair advantage! That is why we had an estate tax to start with. To kind of level the playing field. Without it to few people have unfair advantage and no one at the bottom will be able to overcome that unfair advantage. That is where we stand today!
No trolls yet. I guess the talking points haven't been faxed.
OK...I'll do it for them.
"Anyone who doesn't support the bailout of the financial system, doesn't care about the potential damage to the American people."
"Tax cuts are needed now more than ever, to stimulate the economy and put more money in people's hands."
"We must not make a rush to judgement an instill willy nilly regulation which could cut off the present economic expansion."
Seems to me this is the view a lot of commentators outside the US have taken as well. I'm inclined to agree.
OTOH, with both sides making promises they probably can't keep, at least Obama isn't promising as much.
"Alexdem Says: Douglas Holtz-Eakin believes that “you’re going to have to raise taxes whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or a Martian”
Seems to me this is the view a lot of commentators outside the US have taken as well. I’m inclined to agree.
OTOH, with both sides making promises they probably can’t keep, at least Obama isn’t promising as much."
Fortunately we have all three in this campaign...McCain, Obama...Palin.
Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, the Automotive Industry...
What's next?
This morning McCain gave his reaction and it really troubles me that he keeps on saying that the fundamentals of our economy are strong. He uses this cynical line over and over again.
I don't mean to sound naive and I am trying to give this repulsive man a chance to convince the people that he knows what he is doing.
I heard Obama's statement. It made just a little more sense to me.
Can someone explain this "fundamentals of our economy are strong" thing to me when it's so apparent the last 8 years were a clear unraveling of what Bill Clinton worked so hard to create?
And please SPARE me "the Democrats were in rule the last 2 years" bullsh*t. These fat cat $22,000,000 bonus CEOs should be executed or thrown in jail for life.
Did we all so quickly forget Enron? Are the people in this country really that stupid?
The Wizz mumbles. I've been blogging the Wizz and predicting the Lehman crash for months. Stop by. http://twocanpete.blogspot.com/
It is Greenspan, and almost he alone, who is responsible for the majority of the breakdown we are experiencing now.
The Clenis bears some, too, both for not firing Greenspan in the first place, and then for his pride in the Glass-Steagal "modernization, signed in 1999...
There is plenty of blame to go around. The mindless, gutless, feckless, unprincipled DIMS of the DLC were ALL on board the free-mopney gravy train.
They sat by and let Greenspan replace rising wages (detested and abhorred by the CorpoRat Masters) with 'easy credit.'
The result you now see: We Are SOOOOOOOOOOOO Fucked...
@ 71, Liberal AND Proud Says:
No one making less than $200K per year should be voting Republican.
Gratuitous Edit: According to the oligarchs, no one earning under $200k/yr should be allowed to vote...
pacioccone @ 77:
I wouldn't say all, but rather a majority.... yes, most of the people in this country are *that* stupid...
Forget about Enron. The fact that most Americans had forgotten the economic clusterfuck that was Bush Sr's term, remember those stickers in the early 90s saying "please for fuck's shake buy anything preferably American, but just buy something pretty please!!!!" Well, they had forgotten enough to vote for his idiot son in droves.
This is a country of a few assholes with unmitigated greed and plenty of suckers.
Although I find it fascinating that for such a capitalistic society, the average American sure does know jack about economics...
Liberal AND Proud @ 74:
I was wondering the same, either that or it is too early for them nocturnal vermin...
Free trade, Free markets, Deregulation, Federal Reserves (and all other central banks), World Bank, IMF, WTO, etc. - all conceived and controlled by the elitist, right-leaning, sociopaths and their predecessors who have been at the helm in our country for a very long time.
They care not if any one of us suffers from the economic storms that are blowing. As they have clearly demonstrated in the recent past, they believe in privatizing the profits and socializing the debts - this is VooDoo economics at it's purist -perpetrated by the Conservative gods - Reagan, Bush I and II.
Greenspan says we're headed for a "recession" - who's he kidding?? At the rate of collapse we're seeing now in banking, housing, consumer spending, I'm not even sure if "depression" will be the appropriate term to describe the ensuing collapse.
I'm juts waiting for the Right-Wing Evangelical God (you know, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-controlling) - to reach out his mighty hand and "smote" all these elitist bastards once and for all.
I'd like to know if Gov. Palin thinks that economic devastation is part of God's plan.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 15:
Republicans believe in colon cleansing? You mean they actually realize how full of shit they are?
-Rastignac
McCain the Liar @ 40:
"Well, it is all worth it so long them fags can't marry. Imagine if them fags could marry and have abortions on demand, because that is what I heard about the homosexual agenda: They want to turn our precious white babies into fags, and the ones they can convert into homosexuals they are going to abort them!
And we could not have that, so losing our home is a small price to pay to save all those white babies, I am sure that for our sacrifice Jesus is going to give us a nice double-wide up there in heaven's trailer park. Full of commemorative dishes and spoons, and a big TeeVee with gun rack included. And it will be right next door to heaven's WallMart were I can get all the free piss light beer I want, and cops don't come knocking when I beat the crap