dagblog - Comments for "It's the Economy Stupids"

Are you suggesting that the

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:22:40 +0000

Are you suggesting that the candidates throw up their hands and announce, "We're fucked"? It is bad, and there is no silver bullet, but that doesn't make the Federal government helpless.

Look guys, there are no

gary — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:12:09 +0000

In reply to It's the Economy Stupids

Look guys, there are no middle class jobs left other than govt payroll. All the major industries are gone... or on their back. Construction is down 60%... the last real manufacturing job. All the cash is gone. We owe $10T. Interest payments are 10% of the fed budget. The states are broke, especially here in California. Our export / import ratio is incredibly bad... especially for petrol.

We did not face this kind of total systemic breakdown 75 years ago.... there were different problems. All we can do is try to borrow some more money from the Chinese... which digs an even deeper hole for us.

There is no magic bullet to fix this mess. That's why it's not being addressed by either candidate... and will not be, IMHO.

And all the Wall Street sharks are sailing off to the Caymans on their 150' yachts and will soon be tapping into their Swiss bank accounts... and will live happily ever after.

There are certainly limits to

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:32:48 +0000

In reply to great points genghis. both

There are certainly limits to what we can spend, and I don't expect that we can make the recession disappear no matter what we spend, but now is not the time to focus on the deficit.

And I agree on income redistribution. I wasn't suggesting that it's not important, just that it's not a solution to the financial crisis.

great points genghis. both

Deadman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:56:00 +0000

In reply to It's the Economy Stupids

great points genghis. both candidates definitely avoided giving their opinion on the bailout plan, but the plan is still being worked out and discussed, so it would be tough to them to say whether or not they support a plan that doesn't yet exist.

(my girlfriend also got pissed that they didn't answer the 'what in your agenda would you give up to pay for the bailout plan?' but i didn't mind their non-answers on that one, not just cuz the plan isn't ready yet but also cuz that's a no-win question (kind of like the 'what's your biggest weakness' question in a job interview)).

to his credit, obama did repeat his framework for how a bailout plan should be set up. i still have very little idea what mccain wants or expects out of the plan. I think he wants generally the same things as Obama, but my guess is he's still trying to decide whether to throw another one of his political Hail Marys by opposing the publically unpopular plan.

btw, i like your answer as to what this economy needs, but also feel like the goal shouldn't be to avoid economic malaise by further wrecking the balance sheet of the U.S. government. We've done enough damage putting future generations in a deep, ugly hole by being myopically concerned with avoiding any short-term pain.

What we need is enough capital injection and liquidity to stave off a systemic financial collapse and subsequent decade-long depression. And we should do that by investing in long-term value-creating initiatives like education, infrastructure, alternative energy.

But economic cycles happen. The piper has to be paid.

(The real problem is that the spoils of the economic 'boom' of the past decade went mainly to a select, limited segment of the population, which isn't sustainable, and why Obama's fairly modest income redistribution policies are necessary.)