No, not the speech, although I will get to it later, perhaps.
The state of our country is not good. We are mired in a deep recession with high and growing unemployent, and only the huge institutions that were bailed out by the government are showing profits. Main Street still suffers.
We are in a situation caused by a huge expansion of credit wherein large financial institutions, both private and semi-public engaged in wild speculation, creating a bubble in real estate, and then the bubble popped.
This had the effect of destroying much of the capital of the financial institutions, but also the capital of the general public.
With the bubble gone, the US Government under George W. Bush stepped in to socialize the huge losses of the financial institutions, but not, of course, the huge losses that had been imposed upon the general public. (I call this the Golden Rule) In fact, the general public will end up paying for the financial institutions' losses as well as their own.
Hope and Change gets elected and promptly nationalizes General Motors and to some extent, Chrysler.
Relief for the general public? Hardly.
Next is a huge "stimulous" bill that goes primarily to large Democratic political constituencies, adds nearly a trillion to the deficit, and accomplishes nothing but add further burdens on the general public.
We then get a Cap and Trade Bill that is rushed through the House without being read. This bill would add hundreds of billions to the costs of energy....to be ultimately paid by whom? You got it. The general public.
With the first of these matters a movement began to form: The Tea Parties. The public was awakening. But the politicians ignored them or put them down as extremists. Who were the partiers? The general public.
After Cap and Trade passed the House, the Pelosi crowd began to attempt to socialize our country's medical care. Behind closed doors.
It was if the Iron Curtain was rebuilt right there in Washington, D.C. Everything was done behind closed doors. In secrecy. Few know what kind of deals were made to buy "support" for the bill, but what is known is that it was terribly unfair to.........the general public.
A similar bill is now pending in the Senate, where the majority party is still trying to push it through, in spite of the opposition of....the general public.
So here we are after one year of Hope and Change. We have no hope, and only a change for the worse.
Elections in Virginia and Massachusetts have given the general public a chance to be heard, but from the State of the Union speech last night, it is clear that the lessons have been lost by the politicians in our government.
Maybe they should all watch and listen to the ad that newly elected Senator Scott Brown ran during the campaign in Massachusetts. It is one of the very best I have heard in my over fifty years in politics.
You can find it here. If you do nothing else, go to this ad.
The public will get little, if any, relief from the policies spoken of by the President last night.
But we can get relief in November when we have the opportunity to throw all the rascals out. There is Hope, after all.
Who will lead the revolution?
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Thursday, July 9, 2009
China passes US auto market in first half sales
It was bound to happen sometime. Associated Press is reporting that the Chinese car market has surpassed the United States for the first half of this year.
No matter that we are in a severe recession, this is a big blow that has been coming on for a generation.
Poor fiscal management by our government and by the people for the last few decades is catching up with a vengenace.
Extremely poor management and greedy unions, along with government interference, has ruined our domestic auto industry. Now, much of it has been nationalized.
All of the above have driven a lot of our manufacturing capability overseas, with a goodly part to China.
Our economy was said to be fine, because we had the "services" industry, primarily meaning that the big financial institutions were thriving.
Well, now were are seeing the results of all of that.
We have spent trillions trying to cover the losses by the "service" industry, we are in a deep recession because of their excesses, and jobs are continuing to disappear at a frightening rate.
In spite of this, our politicians insist on trying to revive the same old economic paradigm that has led us to this situation.
Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible.
The ball is now in the Democrats' court and they are utterly failing to consider proper policies, instead wanting to borrow and spend our way out of a deep hole caused by borrowing and spending far too much.
They are still digging, and the hole is getting deeper by the day.
No matter that we are in a severe recession, this is a big blow that has been coming on for a generation.
Poor fiscal management by our government and by the people for the last few decades is catching up with a vengenace.
Extremely poor management and greedy unions, along with government interference, has ruined our domestic auto industry. Now, much of it has been nationalized.
All of the above have driven a lot of our manufacturing capability overseas, with a goodly part to China.
Our economy was said to be fine, because we had the "services" industry, primarily meaning that the big financial institutions were thriving.
Well, now were are seeing the results of all of that.
We have spent trillions trying to cover the losses by the "service" industry, we are in a deep recession because of their excesses, and jobs are continuing to disappear at a frightening rate.
In spite of this, our politicians insist on trying to revive the same old economic paradigm that has led us to this situation.
Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible.
The ball is now in the Democrats' court and they are utterly failing to consider proper policies, instead wanting to borrow and spend our way out of a deep hole caused by borrowing and spending far too much.
They are still digging, and the hole is getting deeper by the day.
Brown Manure, Not Green Shoots
That is the title of a column over at Forbes by Nouriel Roubini, the economics guru from New York University who has probably been the most right so far on the current financial crisis.
His comments are on the June unemployment report, which, of course, was pretty grim at 9.5% unemployment.
He says its not the end:
" With the current rate of job losses, it is very clear that the unemployment rate could reach 10% by later this summer--around August or September--and will be closer to 10.5%, if not 11%, by year-end. I expect the unemployment rate is going to peak at around 11% at some point in 2010, well above historical standards for even severe recessions."
He may well be too optimistic. This is by far the worst recession since the Great Depression, and if anything goes wrong....well, another Great Depression could occur.
And the jobs report is not all there is to it:
"The job market report is essentially the tip of the iceberg. It's a significant signal of the weaknesses in the economy. It affects consumer confidence. It affects labor income. It affects consumption. It affects the willingness of firms to start increasing production. It has significant consequences of the housing market. And it has significant consequences, of course, on the banking system."
Does this latter mean that the government is going to feel like it has to pour a lot more money into the bottomless pit that is our banking system? Just think that for every trillion dollars that goes to the banks every household of four could get $130,000 in cash. There has been several trillion, and much of it has been added to the national debt. So instead of getting the cash, each household has, in effect, given it to the banks.
Roubini does not have an optimistic outlook:
"....large budget deficits and their monetization are going to lead--toward the end of next year and in 2011--to an increase in expected inflation that may lead to a further increase in 10-year treasuries and other long-term government bond yields, and thus mortgage and private-market rates. Together with higher oil prices driven up by this wall of liquidity rather than fundamentals alone, this could be the double whammy that could push the economy into a double-dip or W-shaped recession by late 2010 or 2011. "
My take is that the outlook is grim for another year or two, and that the government is going to try another round of bank bailouts, along with having severe pressures put on to bail out profligate state and local governments. Don't look for anything for the people, though. This government is more interested in taking care of the politicians and the banks. I do suspect, however, that ACORN will get its "share."
His comments are on the June unemployment report, which, of course, was pretty grim at 9.5% unemployment.
He says its not the end:
" With the current rate of job losses, it is very clear that the unemployment rate could reach 10% by later this summer--around August or September--and will be closer to 10.5%, if not 11%, by year-end. I expect the unemployment rate is going to peak at around 11% at some point in 2010, well above historical standards for even severe recessions."
He may well be too optimistic. This is by far the worst recession since the Great Depression, and if anything goes wrong....well, another Great Depression could occur.
And the jobs report is not all there is to it:
"The job market report is essentially the tip of the iceberg. It's a significant signal of the weaknesses in the economy. It affects consumer confidence. It affects labor income. It affects consumption. It affects the willingness of firms to start increasing production. It has significant consequences of the housing market. And it has significant consequences, of course, on the banking system."
Does this latter mean that the government is going to feel like it has to pour a lot more money into the bottomless pit that is our banking system? Just think that for every trillion dollars that goes to the banks every household of four could get $130,000 in cash. There has been several trillion, and much of it has been added to the national debt. So instead of getting the cash, each household has, in effect, given it to the banks.
Roubini does not have an optimistic outlook:
"....large budget deficits and their monetization are going to lead--toward the end of next year and in 2011--to an increase in expected inflation that may lead to a further increase in 10-year treasuries and other long-term government bond yields, and thus mortgage and private-market rates. Together with higher oil prices driven up by this wall of liquidity rather than fundamentals alone, this could be the double whammy that could push the economy into a double-dip or W-shaped recession by late 2010 or 2011. "
My take is that the outlook is grim for another year or two, and that the government is going to try another round of bank bailouts, along with having severe pressures put on to bail out profligate state and local governments. Don't look for anything for the people, though. This government is more interested in taking care of the politicians and the banks. I do suspect, however, that ACORN will get its "share."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)