As President Obama prepares to sign the stimulus package, designed to get the U.S. economy going, Marcus Mabry, international business editor at The New York Times, looks at the effects of the global recession in other countries.
Free markets should really mean and reflect that without wealth sequestration, everything in the market is basically free. Money doesnt grow on trees? Tell that to Warehauser or Motts! Can't have your cake and eat it too? ...( what does Entenmin's have to say about THAT ?)then why the heck did I BUY my cake if not to eat it?
Looking at the obesity in the USA I see Americans carrying around MONTHS worth of excess food on their midsections.... apparently THEY HAVE BEEN EATING THEIR CAKE! :P
This is off the cuff, so bear with me: How dumb can the US taxpayers be? first the airlines figured out that by going broke they could get rid of their pension plan responsibilities and now the 3 automakers from Detroit are doing the same, with the added benefit of a massive bailout from Uncle Sam, i.e., the taxpayer. Do we really need car factories up in the north when we have many car factories in the south? who drives a big 3 US brand car now a days anyways? (they seem to all be made somewhere else no mater what brand they are). Stop the madness! the execs from Grosse Pointe are laughing it up all the way to the bank.
I hate to admit it, but I think I really need to do a shout out to Republican Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham, who suggested we just take the Darned banks over last sunday (see this here: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com/2009/02/banks-nationalize-yes-says-publican.html
I agree and add that we ALSO need to nationalize the AUTO industries so that we can save the jobs in our manufacturing industry in this country.
KC talking about welfare states what about the billions blue donor states send to red welfare states http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Blog/ftsbs-large.jpg
Good, good points, Mike. I totally agree that it's farcical to insist on one hand that we're a purely capitalist society, and on the other, to urge people to spend indiscriminately. Those two ideas are in direct contradiction.
I would add, though, that many countries' populations have accepted that they now live in welfare states, be they extremely successful ones (Norway, Holland), not-quite-successful ones (Belgium), or failed Keynesian economies (England). Our insistence that the US isn't a welfare state is a convenient delusion for our ruling class; it lets us do crazy things, like give trillions of tax dollars to the failed heads of failed banks, so that they can buy out healthy banks and spread the failure around.
George if the guest doesn't answer u: if I understand correctly deflation is bad because people stop buying (as they wait for the price bottom) as people stop buying factories close and more people loose jobs, so it becomes a downward spiral. I don't know if I believe it. people buy what they want. (if they can get credit)
Listen to what is said here "if no one in the USA is buying then these companies surplus production causes them to suffer economically" The crisis of the free market system is the result of two things: the concentration of wealth in too few hands, and the increase in production and efficiency of production that results in the ultimate conclusion that ....the only REAL cost of everything is labor. With automation, and other advances in technology, food , shelter, and labor are available in excess. Modern economies have to figure a way towards an inevitable welfare state without letting people know that they have to move in that direction, while maintaining the economic edge (power) that the wealthy insist on having over the rest of us. The solution is a more equitable distribution of wealth and thus access to goods and services that we CAN provide on a global scale. Its not that the goods and services are not available, its just that the wealthy do not want to give up the illusions that preserve their privilege and class advantage. To do so would end their power. Japan's economy produces a surplus of items that it's shrinking and graying population has no use for... hence "economic slowdown" in a prosperous economy.
I read in the Guardian this morning that deflation was probably coming to the UK.
I don't understand what is wrong with deflation, or how it is not inevitable considering the huge rise of prices in the last few years. The truth is that things cost too much. One of the reasons that we are all in debt is because we can't keep up with the cost of living. Wouldn't it make sense for things to cost less so that we could afford them? Doesn't it make sense that if demand goes down, prices need to adjust? Could your guest please explain why deflation – as opposed to a deflationary spiral – is a bad thing? And how is it possible or desirable to try to stop deflation when that is a natural adjustment of the markets?
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Comments [13]
markBrown [10]:
"http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com/2009/02/banks-nationalize-yes-says-publican.html"
"Publican"? Sen. Graham owns a bar? (There's a business I hear is going up.)
Free markets should really mean and reflect that without wealth sequestration, everything in the market is basically free. Money doesnt grow on trees? Tell that to Warehauser or Motts! Can't have your cake and eat it too? ...( what does Entenmin's have to say about THAT ?)then why the heck did I BUY my cake if not to eat it?
Looking at the obesity in the USA I see Americans carrying around MONTHS worth of excess food on their midsections.... apparently THEY HAVE BEEN EATING THEIR CAKE! :P
This is off the cuff, so bear with me: How dumb can the US taxpayers be? first the airlines figured out that by going broke they could get rid of their pension plan responsibilities and now the 3 automakers from Detroit are doing the same, with the added benefit of a massive bailout from Uncle Sam, i.e., the taxpayer. Do we really need car factories up in the north when we have many car factories in the south? who drives a big 3 US brand car now a days anyways? (they seem to all be made somewhere else no mater what brand they are). Stop the madness! the execs from Grosse Pointe are laughing it up all the way to the bank.
I hate to admit it, but I think I really need to do a shout out to Republican Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham, who suggested we just take the Darned banks over last sunday (see this here:
http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com/2009/02/banks-nationalize-yes-says-publican.html
I agree and add that we ALSO need to nationalize the AUTO industries so that we can save the jobs in our manufacturing industry in this country.
cheers.
JHS:
Reminds me a Mad Magazine cartoon by Dave Berg back in the early 70s of a Southern family: "We hate Yankees, but we sure love them Yankee dollars!"
hjs: ha. ...and oh, the irony: those people "hate big government."
KC
talking about welfare states what about the billions blue donor states send to red welfare states
http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Blog/ftsbs-large.jpg
Good, good points, Mike. I totally agree that it's farcical to insist on one hand that we're a purely capitalist society, and on the other, to urge people to spend indiscriminately. Those two ideas are in direct contradiction.
I would add, though, that many countries' populations have accepted that they now live in welfare states, be they extremely successful ones (Norway, Holland), not-quite-successful ones (Belgium), or failed Keynesian economies (England). Our insistence that the US isn't a welfare state is a convenient delusion for our ruling class; it lets us do crazy things, like give trillions of tax dollars to the failed heads of failed banks, so that they can buy out healthy banks and spread the failure around.
George
if the guest doesn't answer u: if I understand correctly deflation is bad because people stop buying (as they wait for the price bottom) as people stop buying factories close and more people loose jobs, so it becomes a downward spiral.
I don't know if I believe it. people buy what they want. (if they can get credit)
Listen to what is said here "if no one in the USA is buying then these companies surplus production causes them to suffer economically"
The crisis of the free market system is the result of two things: the concentration of wealth in too few hands, and the increase in production and efficiency of production that results in the ultimate conclusion that ....the only REAL cost of everything is labor. With automation, and other advances in technology, food , shelter, and labor are available in excess. Modern economies have to figure a way towards an inevitable welfare state without letting people know that they have to move in that direction, while maintaining the economic edge (power) that the wealthy insist on having over the rest of us. The solution is a more equitable distribution of wealth and thus access to goods and services that we CAN provide on a global scale.
Its not that the goods and services are not available, its just that the wealthy do not want to give up the illusions that preserve their privilege and class advantage. To do so would end their power.
Japan's economy produces a surplus of items that it's shrinking and graying population has no use for... hence "economic slowdown" in a prosperous economy.
France's overseas territories are rioting.
Most of the time when someone substitutes for Brian, the show is ... well, I guess they are trying their best.
Jami is goooooood! Intelligent, smooth, informed. Since I don't watch car wreck TV, I actually never heard of her before this week.
Give her as much air time as you possibly can!
I read in the Guardian this morning that deflation was probably coming to the UK.
I don't understand what is wrong with deflation, or how it is not inevitable considering the huge rise of prices in the last few years. The truth is that things cost too much. One of the reasons that we are all in debt is because we can't keep up with the cost of living. Wouldn't it make sense for things to cost less so that we could afford them? Doesn't it make sense that if demand goes down, prices need to adjust? Could your guest please explain why deflation – as opposed to a deflationary spiral – is a bad thing? And how is it possible or desirable to try to stop deflation when that is a natural adjustment of the markets?
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